#The background is directly from the reference and I just covered stuff up because I'm lazy...

[i-hope-you-step-on-legos-and-die]

Kawoshin...💗💗💗 I started this a few days ago during break time in school after 3rd period lol

I think it looks cool (⁠◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠) !!!

[seasononesam]

I'd love some resources, thank you! Especially if you have anything on making gifs from videos. I'm in a smaller fandom that doesn't have nearly as many clips to sift through as Supernatural that I'd really love to make gifs for. Thanks again! ❤️

yeah of course! although I'm not sure what you mean by gifs from videos, do you mean like using youtube videos rather than full episodes or video tutorials or something else? but I will list some general stuff below and if you have any more questions feel free to send another ask or DM me on tumblr or I'm also on discord @ wewriteletters if you prefer that :)

read more because I'm going to divide these up by subject

photoshop- this is the program most tumblr gif makers including myself use. for a bit of background there's basically two different ways to make a gif in photoshop: using screencaps you get from a video or importing the video directly into photoshop. I have always used the latter because it's the way I first learned (I literally just learned the screencapping method a couple days ago because I heard it produces better quality gifs but I'm probably not changing my method any time soon just because it's what I'm used to). that being said, I'm going to link a few tutorials, some that use screencapping and some that use importing videos so you can see the difference (I would check out the first tutorial listed regardless, even if you end up using importing videos, it is SUPER comprehensive and includes information about getting photoshop and videos, ect). I will also list if it's a tutorial written out in text on tumblr, or a video tutorial on youtube.

gifmaking for beginners (screencapping method, tumblr tutorial)

how i make a simple gif (screencapping method, tumblr tutorial)

callie’s gif tutorial (importing videos method, tumblr tutorial)

basic gif tutorial (importing videos method, tumblr tutorial)

bru's how-to: giffing and coloring (screencapping method, youtube tutorial)

how to make HD GIFs for Tumblr (importing videos method, youtube tutorial)

also just note that some of these tutorials are older and include the old tumblr gif dimensions/size limit. first part of this post includes a great visual reference for what the current gif dimensions are. all you need to know about the size limit is it used to be 3 mb maximum, then it went up to 5mb, and it is currently at 10 mb. so no matter what, make sure your gif is no bigger than that, otherwise tumblr won't even let you upload it as a draft let alone post it smh. I'll end this section with some tumblr blogs that focusing specifically on gif making and have a ton of tutorials covering all different kinds of stuff: completeresources, allresources, gifmakerresource, clubgif. and never be afraid to just google "[thing you want to know about gif making] + tumblr tutorial" that's how I learned 99% of this stuff lol.

photoshop alternatives- photoshop is definitely the gold standard in terms of quality and the kind of effects you can use, but there's also a lot of alternatives if you don't want to deal with photoshop for whatever reason.

photopea- probably second best to photoshop. it is really similar, but free and on a website, which means you don't have to deal with either buying a photoshop subscription or finding a d*wnload and it's not going to take up a bunch of space on your computer because it's all online AND it can be run on computers that otherwise don't support photoshop. I've only used this once and it was to see how similar I could make a gif made there look to one I made in photoshop (I only uploaded it as a private post to my prodigal son sideblog bc I was helping a friend gif that show but it's here if you want to see how it looks! photoshop version is on top and photopea version is on the bottom and follow that blog while you're there). here are two photopea tutorials: one for windows and one for mac. also check out photopeablr for more tutorials, resources, and examples of gifs made using the site.

goodgifswithfreetoolschallenge- not a method but a blog dedicated to a bunch of different ways to make gifs using free programs. I haven't looked through most of it but there is a TON of resources and information in the pinned post.

and finally I will do some self promo of my own tutorials from my main blog. first one is for photoshop, second two are for alternatives (instagiffer and ezgif). just keep in mind they're all over three years old and I only use photoshop now so idk how up to date they all are, but the photoshop one at the very least shows how I still MAKE the gif, although my coloring process has changed since then (maybe I'll update it with a focus on giffing supernatural next time lmao). anyway, hope this can help you or anyone else who is curious :) feel free to reach out with questions or anything else!

[t-5secondsart]

my thought process for my clowns0up-felix coh link design, as requested by @clowns0up-felix himself

so, first things first: the designs i used as reference!

i took notes on these! which i will now share

Heights very variable

Bright colours

Tends to at least resemble canon palette/design

Lots of facial scars/acne/freckles/etc

Clothing borders/patterns semi-common

Lots of green tunics

Pants are often patterned or otherwise funky (riding pants common)

No hat most common. Bananas almost as common as hats

A lot of turtlenecks

...and then i took notes on how i should interpret that for the coh link design.

Give him freckles

Green bandana? That might make him too similar to Rift (and Sailor)

Turtleneck

Darken skin?

here's the design i ended up with:

as you can see: i did end up slightly darkening his skin and giving him freckles and a turtleneck. ended up ditching the bandana, since other designs already had one

stuff that was not covered in the notes! i gave him flowly sleeves because i thought that would be fun with the dance-fighting he does. i based his hair on Lupine's, i thought that spiky style fit him well. based the baggy pants on Mural's pants.

had an internal debate over whether or not to add the lining to the tunic- on one hand, almost ALL of clowns0up-felix's link designs have either a pattern or a solid border on the tunic. on the other hand, Mage already has a very similar green tunic/gold border thing going on. ended up deciding to keep the border. if two of clowns0up-felix's designs can have green bandana's, two of them can have green tunics with simple gold borders.

gave him the boots of speed. i didn't put this in the notes but most of the reference designs have unique shoes, so i didn't want to just use the basic ones. adhered mostly to their canon design, but i ditched the golden... whatever it is... between the wings. clowns0up-felix's designs have a delicate balance of complex and simplified, and i figured slightly simplifying the already complex boots of speed would work best.

i mostly used the standard coh palette. blue eyes. blond hair. green tunic with brown undershirt. white pants. as with all the coh designs i did, i initially coloured this directly colourpicked from coh link's official art, and then colourpicked from my reference designs and used saturation and brightness layers to adjust them until they looked right.

when i was done with all that, i decided it still didn't look quite right- the pants were too basic. riding pants didn't feel right here as horses do not exist in coh, so i gave them a pattern based on... well, really it's based on the roc's cape, but coh doesn't have on of those. he has the rito feather. but it looks a lot like a roc's feather anyway, so it's fine. close enough

finally, the background! in the original post, i put all the links together on a gradient background, and then had their separate images under the cut, with individual backgrounds for all of them. probably the most accurate way to do it would be a plain white background, as that's how clowns0up-felix shows his link designs, but that's boring, so i put a coloured rectangle in the background, like how ravio and the four swords boys have

and that's how i made this design! i think i was pretty accurate, but he does still look a bit simple compared to clowns0up-felix's other designs, so i don't think i was quite spot on

things i like about this design:

i'm a big fan of the freckles. my personal coh link design has freckles too though so i may be biased.

i really like how the hair came out.

the sleeves are fun.

[idrellegames]

Hi! I'm so curious about your writing process! I was wondering, do you have like, drafts of random scenes that will come up later, or do you keep everything entirely in your mind until its time to put it in the game? I personally always write drafts for the scenes i like even before its time for them in the plot but then i get so distracted by these 😅 Anyway, you are incredible and I hope you're having a nice day!

Hiya! 💗

My writing process for Wayfarer is pretty different from how I usually write. I typically prefer writing in chronological order, but on small(er?), contained projects I sometimes jump around depending on what I want to write on a given day. I have a two-act play where I wrote the first act and then the third act and left the second act for last because it was the hardest. 😅

But because Wayfarer is as much a game as it is a web novel, the scope makes it impossible for me to skip around. The number of variations and the way they compound to create unique results and outcomes makes it necessary for me to write in chronological order. I can't start working on scenes from later chapters because I'm not sure where exactly the emotional throughline of the characters is going to land before I've written the material that precedes a specific scene, and I'm also not exactly sure which variables I need to track because I haven't created them yet.

For a project as large as this one, I rely heavily on a rigorous outlining process. I have a master beat chart that gives the rough overview of the major events in each chapter and the most important plot points of each act. I don't go into the nitty-gritty details here, the master chart is specifically for the overall plot of the game.

I have smaller beat charts that go into greater detail for each Act so I can have a clear sense of the pacing (plans for romance/friendship scenes and main character side quests go here). And then when I start working on a chapter, I create a full chapter outline and smaller separate, detailed outlines for each major section and the branches within that section. These are usually done in a way so as I'm writing each branch, I can quickly check off all the things I need to account for as I complete them.

When I'm actually writing new material for the game, I work in sections leading up to a bottleneck (a bottleneck is when all relevant paths/choices lead back to the same scene).

So, for example, right now I'm working on a large endgame sequence in Route B where Aeran and the MC have to return to the Count (returning to the Count is a bottleneck, it's a plot event that will always happen). This sequence is divided into three sections, depending on the player's previous choices. Each of those three sections are further subdivided into branches that split again depending on skill checks before they bottleneck back onto the same path.

The game's mechanics often mean I'm dealing with 4 outcomes per choice. Even though the player only sees 2 choices (like a Strength choice and an Agility choice), the passage actually leads to 4 possible outcomes (i.e. 1 for passing Strength, 1 for failing Strength, 1 for passing Agility and 1 for failing Agility) or more if there are alternative, non-skill based choices.

It becomes a lot to keep track of, so I colour-code everything in my Word document. I also make a list at the start of each major section or branch that covers all of the possible results so I don't miss anything. It basically turns into a game of "Did I do all the orange choices? OK, yes, we can move on now." 😂

Once I've finished all the material for a branch, I'll put an X next to it so I know I've written it and move on to the next branch. I also include notes about any approval changes or variables I need to flag here so I don't forget them when I start coding. I don't like coding directly in Word, it just makes things more difficult to read and keep track of when I start putting new game content into Twine.

I keep an Excel file that tracks all the variables (their names and whether they're a boolean, a string, an array or an integer), what choice they track, what sequence/area they first appeared in, and whether or not they will continue to be used after the end of the chapter. I unset variables when I'm done with them to help keep the game's memory size down (Wayfarer is going to be huge, so any excess stuff in the background needs to be trimmed).

When I'm writing a scene, I try my best to stay in that scene and not worry about anything outside of it. Otherwise, I would get easily overwhelmed by the amount of content I have to create to stay true to the game's vision.

When I have really specific ideas for a scene that occurs much later in the game, I usually jot them down alongside some rough dialogue for later reference (I have a few Mel, Ren and Calla romance scenes that currently exist in this form). I also keep a journal or a stack of paper next to me while I'm writing so I can write down any ideas that may spring up for later incorporation. Writing them down right away and moving on helps me keep my focus where it needs to be.

I also keep a separate sheet for any edits/changes to code/lore changes for existing material I may think of as I write. When I work on a patch for the game, I always tackle the things on that list first before I move on to bug reports.

And that's about it. 😅

[agarthanguide]

i'm obsessed with klimt!jester and byzantine!molly, my gosh. what wonderful ideas you had for all of them! how long did it take you to settle on each inspiration, and what other ideas did you almost go with?

This is a fun question.  Here’s how it went (behind the cut because this got so very long)-

Caleb happened first, and without any intention of doing a whole set. I wanted to try to do Van Gogh’s coloring thing, and Caleb seemed like a really good target.  It was deeply fun.

Beau- Hey, I like this Caleb piece!  What if I do art stuff for all of the M9? I wanna try those long inky LIchtenstein lines!  And what could go wrong?  Surely this won’t extend to two months of extensive research and work!

Molly- As soon as I decided to draw Beau, I knew I wanted Molly to be some highly iconographic thing with glorioles and gold leaf and things.  I have a longstanding fascination with Catholic and Orthodox iconography and gosh do I love messing with gold leaf.  Early concepts included some Fra Angelico action (he does this thing where you texture the gold leaf to create patterns in the frame, which i find absolutely stunning.  This is also a Big Look in 17th Century Spanish polychrome sculpture, which I obviously couldn’t pastiche directly, but wanted to reference, if the opportunity came up)-

I also considered going a bit Russian.  Russian iconography has probably the most opportunities for adding layers of symbolism (it just occurred to me that I probably would have needed to find someone who understood cyrillic to make it work)-

In the end, I was paging through a book of decorative motifs and was reminded of the Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, which are probably the most iconic of the form outside of the Hagia Sophia. I decided that I’d probably have lots of other opportunities to paint, and I wanted to try my hand at a realistic tile look.

Caduceus- I thought of Mucha straight away, but I really didn’t want to do it, because I had already seen it done several times, and I thought those other artists had done really well, and that the concept was a closed book.  The other big concept was Picasso’s Old Guitarist-

It’s got the lankiness and the stylization and I love the pose, but in the end I just really thought that Caduceus was more Art Nouveau than expressionist.  Also my brother was really voting against any pose that included a profile, because I had never drawn Cad in anything other than profile.  So that cinched it.

Jester- I never considered anything else but Klimt. I tried hard to think of something else, because my last two brain cells have just enough self awareness to know that Klimt is way, way above me in terms of pattern and texture and motif, and I was pretty sure it was gonna be too difficult for me.  It was, by the way.  I stopped long before I wanted to and didn’t include a lot of what I had dreamed of adding.

Matt- Following my fascination with iconography, I still wanted to do the heavily painted, loaded with symbolism and rich color portrait that Molly wasn’t.  I looked at artists like Ghirlandaio, Castagno, and Jan van Eyck (I never considered Da Vinci, his sensitivity is way outside my orbit), but in the end I kept coming back to Holbein, who really raises the bar on color choice and symbolism. I love that all his portraits seem to be set in plain or dark spaces, but are somehow glowing and mysterious. I didn’t have the guts to put in a deep, perspective-y background, but omg I wish- 

I mean I’m not a fucking wizard.  But holy shit look at that.  The notes and crap hanging off the wall all look like clues.  Like Sherlock Holmes would be able to write the whole life story of this guy.  It’s almost trompe l’oeil.

Yasha- First concept for Yasha was a Minoan fresco from Knossos-

If I was designing Yasha’s tribe, I think I’d go for a melange of Mongolian and Minoan, throwing in some Tibetan textile patterns.  I just think this looks so much like her, and also some other Minoan frescoes include insane levels of ritualized badassery, like Bull Leaping and young girls offering saffron to incarnate goddesses.  I just love it. In the end, I was worried that the relative clean-ness and simplicity of the lines in the Minoan style would make it look like I was giving Yasha short shrift.  This feels a little ridiculous to me now, but I had just come off three in a row that took more than ten hours. My next thought was the Book of Hours of Joanna of Castile.  The thought here was that some of the pages actually look like Yasha’s book of pressed flowers-

This felt like a totally winning direction to me.  As I researched illuminated books more, though, my concept started to broaden and get more stylized, and I just went with it.  I think it turned out okay.

Fjord- Fjord is handsome and iconic, so the ideas flowed easily for him.  The first and most obvious was a Fabio-era (read- 80s to early 90s) romance novel cover-

I didn’t go with it because the Tusk Love thing meant that a lot of other artists had tried it already, and many of them had done a damn fine job, and I didn’t think that I had anything to add. The next concept was David’s Napoleon-

Very solid concept, but two issues- 1. Most portraits of Napoleon are pretty standard, in the mold of, say, Holbein, which I had already done.  2. The horse portrait is awesome, but I think Fjord had only been on horses circumstantially.  I couldn’t picture him on a horse. He’s not iconically horsey, he’s iconically sailor-y.  I can’t confirm whether or not he had a moorbounde when I painted this, but I know I hadn’t seen any of those episodes, yet.  So. All of this dithering kept going until the DAY I STARTED PAINTING.  And suddenly pulp cover fell out. I love pulp art.  This is the second fandom I’ve done pulp art covers for.

Nott- Full credit to @essayofthoughts, who came up with the playing card thing right at the get go.  I wasn’t sold, though, and floated two other concepts. First was a Mughal Miniature-

The thing about these is that they are very often like little comics.  On one side of the painting, you can have the main character at a lake, picking daisies or being drowned or whatever, and then on the other side that same character can be picking pockets in a crowded bar.  There’s loads of opportunity for detail and symbols and fun stuff like that.  On the other hand- I’m not a goddam genius.  I could not have taken in the style and substance of Mughal storytelling and then just spit it out in a few short weeks and done it any justice. Nope, that concept was just too difficult and too far above me.My other concept was Millais’ Ophelia-

This one might have been amazing, but the second half of the 19th century was getting very crowded indeed, with Caleb, Caduceus, and Jester all having concepts from that era.  That and I wanted something more graphic artsy than painty to round out the series.  Beau was starting to feel like an outlier and I wanted to loop her in closer to the bunch, if you know what I mean.

Okay that was a lot, but I apparently had a lot to share.  I hope you found the unused concepts interesting, at least.  What would you have done, were you me? I would love to hear outtakes from alternative universes.

[macgregorhoughton]

First off, thanks for sharing your headcanons, I love them! I'm really hoping theres gonna be ride references too, from the clips we're getting the puns at least. I'm gonna be watching the backgrounds for any sneaky references to the Society but I bet you're right, its going to be in there somewhere. I’m the same with the Native issue, I’m a bit worried how they’ll deal with it but hope they might have a bit of awareness and address how messed up some of the stereotypes the ride had were- cont

Response under the cut! (following asks copied there too for reference)

First of all before I respond to anything, you do not have to apologise. This is quite literally my dream way to spend my time- talking to someone about a thing I like at length. The fact that you checked all the posts I made and took time to respond to them with your thoughts means the world to me.

2- I’m also really hoping we get a lot for McGregor (wtf is with that alternate spelling Disney?? But I do want the other two to call him Mac, I’d love that), learning to relax and find his place. I LOVE that Lily gets to do physical comedy, you’re right female characters often only get to be funny so long as that means they can still be sexy while doing it. Lily looks like she just goes “nope” to that and dives headfirst into a bit of slapstick and I love her already- cont

3- I really like Dwayne, hes got a warmth to him that comes across in Frank, even if hes trying not to show it to the siblings at first. I really want proper sibling moments too and I love that little one we got in the clip. Like, “you don’t get to laugh at my sister, now excuse me while I go give her a hand while laughing at her��. Like thats a great example of having siblings, I’ll help you out, but I’m totally going to mock you while doing it, but no one else can. BTS have me hopeful too- cont

4- I love your idea for the coming out scene. I think they’d be walking a very fine line in order to get it right, but if they did it could be wonderful. I really really hope we get that scene, no skirting around it or making vague illusions, I want McGregor to say “I’m gay” outright. Like, we’ll all know he is even if they don’t let him say it but for once I want Disney to live up to what they promised and let an actual main character be actually gay.- cont

5- I love the connection with the lights for our trio in the posters, I didn't put that together. I really want them to be a proper Trio, I’m really hoping this is a success so we can get sequels. Even if they’re terrible I still want them to see these three together. FRANK IS HUGGING MCGREGOR, I’VE GOT A GOOD FEELING ABOUT THIS ALREADY. I don’t really have many thoughts on our three villains, other than I'm getting evil musketeer, smug plantation owner & WWII in that order- cont

6- I LOVE THAT GIF SET OF THE PUNS SO MUCH!! McGregor’s little smile and his laugh, hes loving it, Frank is loving getting a reaction, Lily is going to eventually find it funny how unfunny they are. I can’t get over how much I love McGregor’s little face in this, I can’t want for this scene, I’m gonna join you in imploding. Also, in your protective brother gifset, is he wearing a little tartan/ plaid suit? Love it. And on that note, I adore Lily’s costumes- practical and realistic but flattering

7- ok so thats me taken up far too much of your ask box, I haven't even property looked at the press tour things yet, but I do have one more thing, I have a theory about how Jack ends up in the middle of Emily and Dwayne's kiss if you'd like to hear it. Thanks for kickstarting this fandom and the wonderful gif sets, we're so close now! - Skip

So on to my very long response!

I've watched SO much about the ride just so I'm prepared to catch any reference. They just released Behind the Attraction on Disney+ and ep 1 is about the Jungle Cruise ride (Dwayne Johnson is in it too!). He talks about how much he loved the ride as a kid and used to imagine himself as a skipper which is SO cute and I'm so happy his dreams came true (and I find it very relatable as someone who dreams about being a raptor handler at Universal).

I'm genuinely a lil mad that the spelling changed. Because if you google it really everyone thought it was McGregor, they must've at some point released something on the movie for the press with that spelling and then changed their mind. Now everyone has it wrong because I suspect these featurettes are also gonna be the DVD/Bluray extras so I'm confident this is the final spelling. However I will continue to live in denial until I see the other spelling ON SCREEN.

"I really like Dwayne, hes got a warmth to him that comes across in Frank, even if hes trying not to show it to the siblings at first." Yes! I love that every character is a trope that I ADORE. Frank is the cynic who thinks everyone just wants to cheat you anyway and miracles don't exist who eventually cracks and warms up to people and shows that there is a soft, warm person in there after all. Lily is wildly optimistic and aggressively individualistic, not trying to fit in or caring about what anyone thinks and will probably have a moment of losing that optimism and doubting herself after all. And McGregor is the person who appears to think he's better than everyone, who's pampered and refuses to sacrifice any of the luxuries he's used to until he reveals he's gay and you realise most of it was just a show to cover up how hurt he really is. Three PEAK character tropes we're working with here and COMBINED with a reluctant-allies to lovers and a siblings trope.

"Like, “you don’t get to laugh at my sister, now excuse me while I go give her a hand while laughing at her”. Like thats a great example of having siblings, I’ll help you out, but I’m totally going to mock you while doing it, but no one else can" I have a gifset for that queued already, I love that you also focused on that rightaway bc I really went "Siblings! peak sibling energy!!" and gifed it immediately.

Based on the reports (that I cannot stress enough I have no idea how accurate they are) he doesn't say "gay" but it's unambiguous what he's talking about. Let's hope that's true! I'm imaginging some sort of "relationships with men" or "no interest in women but rather men" or sth like that. I hadn't really considered that it might be ambiguous to someone who doesn't know he's supposed to be gay so that's a new fear unlocked lmao

I'm going to be so sad if we don't get sequels cause so many franchises with several movies don't have a core group of actors that are just friends and get along as well naturally as these three. Or if we get more movies and Jack isn't in them or sth like that. Like any future where these three aren't the leading trio in more movies is a nightmare.

"I'm getting evil musketeer, smug plantation owner & WWII in that order" this sent me I swear. I'm most interested in Edgar Ramirez bc I'm curious abt the whole "conquistador alive "today"" thing. also what's up with the snakes lmao.

McGregor laughing at Frank's puns alone could sustain me another year if I had to wait that long for the movie. Luckily I don't have to. It is so wholesome tho, like the fact that they're gonna get along and also get closer and McGregor won't end up sidelined for being a bitch until the last minute or sth is so wonderful.

And yes! It's tartan! We've seen p little of the beginning of the movie in London and since that's gonna be focused on just Lily and McGregor I'm so excited bc we got so little content so there's gonna be SO much in the movie to look forward to that I can barely even piece together!!! (All we know is lily will steal the arrowhead before falling out of the window which mcgregor sees and he immediately follows her so I assume he knew to come there and that there's a scene where she asks him in one of their bedrooms about wanting to go on an adventure. So I'm assuming the bedroom scene comes first and she'll tell him about the arrowhead, he'll refuse to help her but decide to come last minute because he's worried about her (and the worry is immediately proven right as she falls out of a window lol). But we know so little that it's a really loose theory.

And yes!! Lily's costumes are so good. Frank calls her Pants so they will absolutely address that she's dressed very unusual for a woman of her status in 1916/17 and I hope they explore that a little and address where she even gets her clothes and everything. I mean Emily Blunt looks good in everything but the costume department really made something gorgeous with this. She is, for the time the movie is set in, very gender nonconforming which I love in a female lead. And Emily described Lily's fighting style as very Indiana Jones and brutal without much tactic or thinking and just brute force and I really would die for this characterisation. Like when I compare this to similar female leads like in The Mummy for example they're usually highly feminine, aggressive only in their attittude and witty banter but always emphasised to be beautiful and wearing dresses and lots of (usually historically inaccurate) makeup and they get like one scene where they smack the bad guy with sth heavy or sth so noone can say they're a damsel in distress even though they are. But Lily feels very much like a coherent person to me. She's very unusual for a woman at her time, her desire for adventure is in line with how she fights and dresses but she doesn't seem to have the "uwu I'm not like other girls" thing going on, she's just exactly who she is and wants to be.

and of COURSE I wanna hear your theory are you kidding! Cause I still haven't figured it out at all lmao. I just settled on "she probably meant he was off screen but right next to them while they filmed it" or sth bc I couldn't make sense of it otherwise.

also I haven't posted everything new directly here I think, but you probably know where to look for the new stuff. like there's some clips on their instagrams and most stuff is on youtube.

[barberwitch]

I'm new to witchcraft and was wondering if you had any resources that I could dig into? There's just so much available online, and I'm afraid of getting it wrong.

First off, everyone’s path is different, so getting it wrong isn’t something you need to worry about. If it resonates with you then awesome! That’s your path. I can understand finding something that does resonate with you can be overwhelming when there’s so much out there now, but starting is half the battle.*

To be perfectly honest, a lot of my path is based on folklore, traditions I’ve read up on and reference books on matters that aren’t directly witchy! An important part of witchcraft is realizing you will always be learning.

One book that’s big, but covers numerous topics is The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, by Judika Illes.It covers pretty much every topic in witchcraft in one way or another and can give you enough information on even random topics to let you decide if you want to do additional research.

Plants of the Devil by Corrine BoyerAnother wonderful book that is has sources listed on every page and pretty neat artwork at the beginning of each chapter. It covers herbs and plants that are “dark” in nature either by being associated with witches, demons or creatures of the night. It, again, gives you enough information to see what you want to further research and look up. References plants and their stories of either invoking aforementioned creatures, or protecting against. It’s small and relatively cheap.

Grimoire for the Green Witch, by Ann MouraAlthough it leaves a…distinctly Wiccan aftertaste, it is another great book. It lays out pagan holidays, symbols, tarot meanings, runes and orgham alphabets, rituals and spells that you can adapt, correspondences for common herbs, planetary symbols and signifiers, and plenty of other stuff. Take what you like, and leave the rest.

Aside from that, since my path is pretty specific, I have a ton of other books that aren’t witchy in purpose. I’ve got books on death and forms of burial in different cultures, mythology from different places, scientific books, chemistry, diy and craft books, gardening and woodworking etc etc.

Read reference guides on plant identification and field guides especially if you’re interested in wild crafting or harvesting stuff in nature.Read up on the laws in your area to make sure if you decide to use vulture culture you aren’t collecting something illegal (for example, in the US, it’s illegal to collect anything from wild birds as part of the migratory bird act. It’s also illegal to own parts of any raptor birds unless you have a license as a scientific research center, or First Nation people as specifically related to on reservation traditions.)

Become familiar with the local flora and fauna and see if anything pops out to you, see if anything connects.

Look up local folklore and legends in your area for Information, and read up on your own culture. If you’re of Italian background, read up stregheria, Hispanic, curanderismo, theres Appalachian folk magic, hoodoo and voodoo, Jewish mysticism, Christian witches, German American Pow-wow, hundreds of cultures have something magical about them.*just make sure you are being respectful when asking about the cultures and practicing them. If it is a closed culture or practice and you aren’t a part of that group, then respect it, learn about it if they allow you, and move on. With so many different cultures and backgrounds, there’s a tradition you can lean on whatever or wherever you’re from so don’t feel like your missing out because you can’t participate in one specific path.You do a disservice to yourself if you box yourself in like that and assume that each branch of the magical tree doesn’t have merit.

🦇cheers, Barberwitch

SPECIAL NOTE: I understand books can get expensive, I want to credit the authors and give them my money for their work, but I’ll be honest, I do have a few PDF’s that I didn’t buy off the kindle website. I’m not condoning the stealing of PDFs or books…that’s why I can’t post links to online resources of the above books. If I download something, if I make it through the first 4 chapters, I buy the physical book. If I buy a physical book and it’s huge, and i don’t want to lug around 30 lbs of books, I see if there’s a pdf of the book I can read on the go….morally ambiguous witch here…Please send me a DM Anonymous, if I know more about what sounds more you, I can direct you to good researched books, and online sources, or even witches of that background that are more qualified!

[mare-moment]

In regards to the BL things, I'm not at all familiar with that culture but I'm just wondering, why are all the trainers shipping away their horses for slaughter? Can't they continue showing them but without the pads, since all horses will be without pads eventually so it will be "fair"? (Well...) so it's a big lick class but no pads or soring? Sort of like when dressage banned top hats but we still show in the same classes just without top hats? Or does that not work?

I'm really glad that you asked this question because I knew off the bat that I didn't explain this aspect too deeply. There's a lot I want to address but first, I want to provide some perspective on how Big Lick classes relate to other classes approved by the TWHBEA."Big Lick" refers specifically to TWH who have been stacked up to the previously allowed 4", often chemically sored although not always (unless you want to win). The term came about because in rural America where TWH are the most popular, it's common to refer to a horse's gait as a "lick". You'll hear people comment on how a gaited horse lifts their front legs in gait with phrases like "she's got a lick, don't she?" The higher the horse lifts their legs, the better "lick" they've got. "Big Lick" horses are the horses shown with the highest allowed padding, and they do a specific gait because of the padding that isn't a running walk but they all say it is. The proper term for Big Lick is "padded performance."So with the background out of the way - TWH classes in a rated show are/were separated based on speed and front leg lift. They all are /supposed/ to be doing a running walk, that is the only gait approved by the TWHBEA to be performed in show. The standard classes were Flat Shod, Lite Shod, Plantation, Park, and Padded Performance. (Guess which class gives out the most prize money). Each class has different requirements and allowances for shoeing, more padding is allowed as you go up and of course, people are going to use the maximum allowed because you just can't compete in the same class with someone whose horse is more padded and win. The shoeing directly influences the gait and the classes are based around this.The only class still allowed under the new rule is flat shod. So yes, they could just remove the pads, rehab the horses, and show flat shod. But the question isn't can they, its will they? Removing the pads isn't like "man I have to wear a helmet now that's lame," it's "I'm not going to make $10 grand in backdoor money at Celebration this year." If the Big Lick trainers were interested in showing without padding, they'd already be doing it. There's been a lot of heat on Big Lick since 1970 and anyone who gave a damn about the horse or knew enough to changed what they were doing long ago. I know that my post doesn't specify but I do not anticipate ALL Big Lick horse owners to abandon their horses. When I made the big post, I was very focused on the trainers that are only in the sport for money and could give a flying shit about the horse, because there are PLENTY of those trainers. The people you see winning at Celebration are those kinds of people. However, I know that there are a lot of people who have padded horses, they do not chemically sore, they're just choosing to be blind to how damaging the pads themselves are because their trainer/parent said it's fine and they made sense and the horse looks fine from the outside to them so there's no issues. There is very, very heavy influence from the "this is how it's always been done" crowd. Just to clarify, I do expect a lot of Big Lick horses from major show barns to be dumped. I don't expect every last Big Lick horse owner to do that to their animal. However, I also find it unlikely that someone who has been showing padded will want to show flat shod. The mentality in this group is that padded Walkers are the superior Walkers. Because they're the "fanciest." Talking sense to padded horse people is really like talking to a brick wall, I do not recommend. Anyway, I think that even the people that won't send their horses off for meat will consider selling and getting into a different discipline. Here's the thing though! I actually just considered this. It's still technically not illegal to have padded horses on property that you own. You just can't sell, show, or transport them. I've seen some discussion about how the BL trainers are going to find a loophole and this is it. As far as I know, they can still train at home the same way they've been doing, they just have to remove the pads and hide the soring evidence (as they've already been doing for decades) before they leave home. SO I also anticipate some trainers going this route and continuing to "show flat shod" while still doing their barbaric training at home. It's fucked up but we are making progress at least.I know I went off on some tangents but I hope I covered everything you were asking about. I like to explain things on 70 different levels lol Please feel free to ask me anything else you're not sure about! I like answering questions about Big Lick because it's fun to share all the stuff I've been keeping up with for years :)

[topicprinter]

NOTE: I will look over literally anybody's funnel here online and provide you feedback - FREESo here's some quick and dirty background for you.I'm 31 now and I've been a full-time freelance writer for over seven years. In just the last three years or so I've started commanding very good pricing (I make at lest $10,000 a month and I charge at least $10,000 per project for most of the big projects I do - I have some examples of that later in this post).I'm a high school dropout with no college education (although I DO have a Good Enough Diploma - GED).I've been traveling around the world the last two years, primarily throughout Southeast Asia. I live in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now.I first got published when I was 19 years old in Savannah, GA. I lied about my age (had a fake ID saying I was 21) and got a job as a bar/lifestyle reporter for a regional magazine around at the time called The South Magazine covering bars and restaurants and that sort of thing.Here's a 2006 scanned article with my name in print from that time (William McCanless): LINKOf course, they eventually found out that I was a 19 year old writing about drinking in their magazine and - for some strange reason - their lawyer thought I was a "liability" so they fired me. But I came away from it with three contributor copies and my name in print.Then I started doing music writing for a music magazine in Atlanta...stuff like this: LINKBut of course I wasn't getting paid much. Eventually I moved online and started using (at the time) sites like Elance (now Upwork), freelancer, and more.I was doing SEO, web content, batch blog writing.Eventually I started doing ghostwriting, which made me a little more money (and also crushed my soul as I was writing insane amounts of content every week...I would write 60,000 words in a week).Then, i started learning about Direct Response Copywriting. I started studying the Great Masters like David Ogilvy, Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, and Gary Halbert. I learned, for example, that many of the great copywriters over the last 100 years could routinely make more money for a single sales page than a best-selling novelist makes for an entire year of book sales.I saw how people like Dan Kennedy don't even start negotiations until $30,000 is on the table for him to start writing a promotion.Eventually I got good and I started getting paid. And now I make at least $10,000 a month and charge at least $10,000 + 3% - 5% royalties on sales my promotions generate.Some examples of what different types of writing looks like based on payHere's a promotion that's not live yet, in fact this version is for the Legal Department to review (you must rigorously backup all claims and have this type of copy reviewed by a legal department). This is for a financial advisory (for natural resource investors). This advisory is SEC-regulated. You have to be REALLY careful with these because ad networks like Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Google, Revcontent, tabloo, Outbrain, and more are very leery of financial copy (LOTS of scams) so it takes a lot of research to write one of these, lots of revisions - goes through Editorial, Legal, Ad compliance. This is an example of a $10,000 project with 5% royalties - LINKHere's another promotion, but rather than online, this is Direct Mail. This type of promotion is called a "Magalog" which is a combination of the words "Magazine" and "Catalog." One truth in Direct Response Marketing that was learned over the last 100 years of just...MILLIONS of various campaigns...that is that advertising that looks more like an editorial always does better. That's why - for example - Facebook has timeline ads (they look like a post). It's why Google Adwords has their ads look like actual search results. And, of course, it's why sending something that is perceived as a magazine is less likely to be rejected outright than a blatant "THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT" type of ad would. This is an example of a project that costs $10,000, but because it's to generate qualified leads and not immediate sales, there is no royalty other than a $5,000 bonus if it becomes a "control": LINKI don't JUST do $10,000 jobs and stuff like that. I would say I do about 6 promotions a year of these (one every two months).There's also many jobs I take on from online marketing clients who have online businesses for...$3,000 to $6,000 and they can be done very quickly because they don't require as much research or back-and-forth.For example a 45-minute VSL (video sales letter) script is something that I could pound out in about three days. So I will do one or two of those a month.Finally, the third type of project is just VERY small - absolutely no research required - things that I can pound out in literally a couple of hours in the afternoon.Here's an example of a script I wrote along those lines for $500: LINKHere's some of my favorite sales pages of all timeThis ad for Rolls-Royce by David OgilvyThis subscription direct-mail sales page for the Wall Street Journal, which is the most successful single piece of advertising in advertising history and brought in over nearly $3 BILLION in subscription sales for the nearly 30 years it ran (imagine being the copywriter who got 5% of THOSE sales, eh?)This sales letter for International Living written in the early 1970s by Bill Bonner, which launched a billion-dollar international publishing company called Agora (which is one of my clients). It returned $3 for every $1 in advertising costs.HERE'S A VIDEO I DID FOR THIS AMAWARNING NSFW: I cuss like a sailor, drink like a fish, and smoke like a chimney in this video. At least I'm a stereotype for writing...Video: https://youtu.be/P0Hdud6bd74Time Stamps:0:01 - 1:06Rambling introduction. I'm in Koh Phangan. I'm on vacation. It's Sangkron, Thai New Year. People throwing water on each other. Ridiculously transparent attempt to use Sangkron as an excuse to drink and smoke excessively on camera.1:07 - 5:17Why am I doing this AMA. No, it's not purely selfless - I was using previous AMAs to gauge audience response and see if people were hungry for a copywriting course. I was doing market research, essentially. r/writing had a bigger response than r/entrepreneur and r/marketing.I've been heavily considering teaching for some time and this was my attempt to see if anybody even wanted to learn what I had to teach.Got invited to a copywriting conference (big one) flaked out, was scared to teach, thought it was pointless. It bothered me - I felt like I had failed myself. A little bit about why I was scared. This is my attempt to get out of my comfortable seclusion and contribute.5:18 - 7:16Why would people in r/writing be interested in copywriting? Why I chose copywriting as a money-maker (versus novels, screenplays...etc).Quick background on me - ADHD (clinically), authority issues, bad around people, introvert, anti-social, writing for a living was really the only thing I could do.If I didn't make money writing - as a living - I'd be dead.7:21 - 9:47How and why I ended up in direct response copywriting after starting as an aspiring novelist and screenplay writer.9:48 - 11:04Does being a direct response copywriter make you a pathetic fucking sellout?11:05 - 17:25How and why doing Direct Response Copywriting for a living, helped me be a better, more disciplined writer in general (including the number one most important thing I learned about the writing process).Putting words down on paper - and writing FORWARD - no matter what, even if you don't feel like it.Crafting your writing with a "marketing mindset."17:28 - 23:53What the fuck is Direct Response Copywriting?23:54 - 29:10Is Direct Response Copywriting used to sell scam products (like penis pills and and get-rich-quick schemes).Some products you know that were marketed direct-response style (and written by copywriters). The George Foreman Grill, P90x, Nutribullet, real estate, car dealerships.29:11 - 33:43How can I charge so much money for this type of writing, and why are companies so willing to pay $10,000, $20,0000, $30,000 (or more) PLUS royalties on sales?33:45 - ENDConcluding thoughts on why I think direct response copywriting is a good option for people who love writing in general and who want to live a more location and time independent lifestyle.DISCLAIMER - At no point during this AMA, on any of my replies, nor any of the PMs I get will I reference you to an affiliate link, try to pitch a course that I've created, or essentially try to sell you anything unless I'm directly approached for it via PM - that's it.I'm only here to give the best answers, help, and advice I can for whoever wants it.For Those That Want Me To Show Bank StatementsI've been asked this before then when I refused there was an "ah-hah! Liar!" accusation. First of all, I don't feel comfortable sharing bank statements or account screen shots on the Internet. I'm scared there's going to be some telling information on there that gets me hacked or....identity stolen or something (by people who are a lot smarter than me).But here's my constellation. This is a recorded Skype call between me and a man named Joe Schrieffer who heads-up Agora Financial, in this 30 minute call I land a $10,000 job from him