#actually my reason is simpler and more objective than that

[id-element0]

More Ramblings on the Infinite Saving Bug

Alright folks, this is, hopefully, my last post regarding the 'saving bug' and I have some news. I've been dealing with this issue for the last three weeks with two weeks of it spent in testing hell. Let me say this: It doesn't get any simpler as I look into it more and more.

Still, I've concluded that the saving-bug is a form of save corruption. Once your save is affected, my condolences, it's practically game-over. The save still can be played safely, though, as long as you don't go into Buy/Build Mode - which is practically impossible. This is the really bad news, especially for builders like myself. But there is more to it! So go ahead, if you're curious. *Long Post Warning* Scroll to this part for a possible fix! -> 'here's my desperate move'

There are many threads on the internet (e.g. 1, 2, 3) regarding the issue but none of them gives a reason or a meaningful solution. What is this bug then? From the links I provided, my understanding is that it has started around Seasons release, most likely after an update and, not surprisingly never been solved. I really wanted to believe that it's CC related but even vanilla players claim to have it; so CC is not the reason. My tests also came up with the same result so that's a bummer.

It seems to be triggered by going into Buy/Build Mode on certain lots; but my experiences also showed that it can spread to other lots. That's why I think it's a save/world corruption. But it also appears on different saves in the same Sims 3 folder. I have found a way to uncorrupt the building to be used in other worlds but the empty lot even after the building is bulldozed remains corrupt.

Meaning, you cannot build anything on that lot without triggering the bug. The so-called saving bug also affects the process of saving the lots to your library. So once you start getting it you can't even send the building into your library. There is a way to do it using Nraas Debug Enabler but it only worked for me once.

To save you the trouble, I have a list of things I've tried and now know that don't work at all against the saving bug.

Resetting everything via Nraas MC.

Resetting lot via Nraas MC.

Bulldozing the building and resetting the lot; using hammer tool to delete every visible or invisible object on the lot.

Saving lot to the bin; adding it to another world or a clean save of the same world and editing it there.

Starting a clean save of the world and build something in a lot seems to be fine at first; but saving bug returns eventually as stated in the threads I linked.

Creating a new Sims 3 folder doesn't work, either, as long as you use the same save.

So, what does work? Well, this is where the mystery lies. My conclusion is that it's a save corruption affecting the Sims 3 folder, as a whole, which doesn't make sense; and can be spread by installing corrupt buildings. I'll summarise my testing process:

I had a separate Sims 3 folder that I use to test stuff. This folder had a slightly different mods setup and any save I have in this folder could be saved successfully no matter how long I have stayed in the Buy/Build.

Then I moved the fresh save that eventually got the saving bug (mentioned in the 5th point above), into this bug-free Sims 3 folder and guess what? I could save without a problem. That made me think this is actually a CC thing. So I carried the ingredients of my Mods folder one by one and continue testing and each time I could save, like, in 2 seconds.

The world is a small world with no population and no buildings other than my test building, an empty house and the corrupt bar that started this all. And each time it saved until I finished with the building and moved everything from my Mods folder. I was really tired and confused at that moment. If it's not CC or the save folder, then what is it?

Then I entered the corrupt bar and bam! The saving bug returns. What I did after that was a desperate move. As I stated earlier, once the saving bug begins you cannot even save the building to your library. But one can click on any venue/house map tag, Door, Window, Wall, Ground > Nraas > Debug Enabler > DEBUG: Move Lot To Game Bin. The building will disappear. Then you need to switch to Edit Town Mode wait for a minute or so. The lot will appear at upper left corner of the screen (as evicted families do) from there you can save it to your library.

Unfortunately, this method only worked once for me. If it doesn't work at first try, quit the game, restart and do this first upon loading your world. This is how I moved my corrupt building to another save and initiate the saving bug there. But I also found a way to uncorrupt the said building.

And here's my desperate move: In game select the corrupt building in your library and choose pack as a Sims3pack or whatever the option is. You wouldn't miss it, it's there. I believe you can also do it with the building still in your world, so you may not even need it in your library. Game packs it successfully and tells you so, even if the lot/building is corrupt. Because this is EA and you should share your corruption.

Ahem. Quit your game. Go to your Exports folder. Move the file to some work folder, it doesn't matter where. You need to extract it. Since Sims3pack files are nothing but containers like zip files that can hold multiple package files, they are nothing special and should be avoided normally. To unpack/extract you need either s3ce or Delphy's Sims 3 Pack multi-extractor. Or any other tool that you know of except the Launcher.

After that you will open your newly extracted package file in s3pe and delete resources that normally belong to objets. Best way to be sure is to open another lot package in your library and examine the contents. But let me help you here: Delete EVERYTHING BUT 2ARY, COMP, ICON, LDES, RFES, TXTC, TXTF, UNKN. These are the lot resources. Be patient and carefully delete everything else.

Well, this was the good news! Now you can rescue your beloved building and use it in a new save. I don't know why it works, it just does. The really bad news is like I said, your world is most likely corrupt and not only the buildings in problem lots but the empty lots themselves are corrupt. You get the saving bug again when you place your cleaned-up building in the same lot in your affected save.

OK. I think I've managed to clean the empty lot itself as well. So, it's all good. I don't know if it's a fluke but I did this and my game saved without an issue after editing the problem building:

Bulldoze the building and reset the lot via MC. Go to Edit Town and change lot type to Residential>Regular (or vice versa if it's a Residential Lot). Return to Game reset lot via MC again. Save & Quit to Desktop. Not to Main Menu.

Go to The Sims 3/WorldCaches Folder and delete the cache files belonging to your world.

Start the game & load your save. Go to Edit Town and change lot type to Community>Whatever you like or whatever the lot type was before. Go back to game and reset lot via MC again. Save and Quit to Desktop.

Go to WorldCaches and delete your world's cache files again.

Start the game & load your save. Put the building that you've cleaned up as described above in this wall of text. Go into Build Mode, do something, stay there for a while. Go back to Live mode and try to save. If it works do this with every corrupt lot in combination with uncorrupting buildings method. And you're good.

Some steps may be unnecessary like constant resetting or deleting world caches but I exactly did this so take it as you like. If nothing works, your other options are:

Use Nraas Porter and move your town to a new save. Use the method above to make sure your buildings are safe from corruption. And use a newly created Sims 3 folder.

Bulldoze both the building and the empty lot. Do this to every problem lot. Then maybe you can save your game after wandering in Buy/Build Mode. But I wouldn't hold my breath for this one. Another issue with this method is that you will most likely not be able put another lot in place of the one you bulldozed. Because Sims 3.

Or make a copy of your save and enter Buy/Build Mode on every community lot one by one. Try to save once on each lot. If it saves, the lot is safe; if it doesn't lot is corrupt. Quit, load your game and do this for every lot one by one. Make a list of every corrupt building. Either bulldoze them all or never go into Build Mode on them. This way, in theory, you can play your save until another bug hits you in the face! 👍🏻 That's my plan. 👌🏼

I tried to be as clear as possible, keeping it simple, omitting some details but the issue is very complex and confusing. Also heartbreaking 💔 and rage inducing. 🤬 Well, this is it. Wish me luck and good luck to you all trying to play this cursed, borked bugfest of a game.

@pis3update

[yeehawpim]

HI UM i really admire you and your art and i was wondering --

so i really love the way you format your comics, its really straight-forward and lets the reader process every word with ease (which i think adds to the impact of the writing), and that one rue comic with the split colors for the parentheses... how do you do it without making it look so messy?? to bring up another example, the hide-and-seek comic- i love how subtle and genius the call back to hiding behind the door was, it blew my mind... i take a lot of inspiration from the way you format and lay out your comics but for some reason i cant wrap my head around how you do so much with so little (in reality this might just be the result of me wanting to add so many little details for others to find , while being conflicted on keeping it simple, and,,, AGH...) for context : im trying to make a comic about isolation, but i keep filling up the page because i want to add things - when really i know i should be keeping it simple... but other than removing unnecessary details, i want to know what else you do to make your comics so clean and simple yet it rips out the emotions from your heart and has you stare at it as it beats. like... i want that type of impact!! i want to affect others on such an intense level!! i want to induce emotions!!! but how?

(sorry this was long, HAHAHA i just want to drive my point home- again with the 'wanting to add a lot of stuff to prove a point' thing but i digress)

ok first of all that is a huge compliment and it means v much to me, thank you 😭🙏❤️❤️

tbh for me the answer of keeping things uncluttered is paying attention to spacing and eye direction. Spacing depends on timing, if you want an action to happen slowly for instance you can make the space between panels longer, or take more panels for someone to complete an action. There's tricks for directing your eye, if you ever read anyth about focal points (eg biggest contrast, triangular shapes pointing towards what's important), but really with comics I keep in mind you're reading left to right and top to bottom.

The ruehob comic is actually simpler than you think 😅 I already knew which text had to be on the left and right with august's text post. And after that the "lanes" were so narrow there weren't a lot of complicated things I could do, just make sure you still read left to right and saunter vaguely downwards.

when you talk about putting little details, that doesn't necessarily have to distract people. Like I honestly applaud you having the drive to do detailing. You just have to make sure your compositions allow for it. Like if you think about ghibli backgrounds, they're elaborate and beautiful af.

For smth about isolation, my first thought was that you can draw a person in a setting alone among a bunch of objects, for instance. If you keep the person small but surround them with a bunch of detailed objects, it could feel very lonely. Just make sure the person still stands out b/c they're what's important, so for example the background stuff is a less saturated colour, or the person is the least detailed thing on the page. I think that's the main thing, you just have to make sure the things important to what you're saying stand out. Clarity is rlly half the battle when I'm laying things out haha

In school our teacher called this "killing your babies" because it sucks when you work hard on a cool drawing and it just doesn't work out😂This also still happens to me, it's actually partly why I keep things simple so I can work fast and throw out less

Here is a timestamp from supereyepatchwolf's video about Chainsaw Man, which has some of the coolest fuckin layouts

He's got other stuff that talks about manga and how eye direction can work and what cool stuff has been done. Off the top of my head his vid about one piece and his vid about gantz have helped me understand how to cause Emotions. Also I think he has one about Junji Ito that specifically talks about how details can make you scared, if you're into that 😂

hope this helps!

[yamameta-inc]

thinking about true robot/AI characters again. if 'personality' or 'identity' can be loosely thought of as what makes a being uniquely themselves, a robot's personality would lie in what differentiates them from other robots of the same make and program. but by design, programs shouldn't differ from each other--inconsistency is the exact opposite of what you want. what differentiates a robot then would lie in deviations from the norm, i.e. glitches. but programs will frequently have "known glitches" where the same type of error will occur semi-regularly. this wouldn't differentiate one instance of a program from another. lived experience would help in shaping others' perceptions but not really the crux of the matter, because no one thinks of "my excel" versus their co-worker's excel, even if those two excels are used to do totally different things. maybe then what creates more unique glitches is a physical defect in the hardware. a form of the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, maybe. the 'personality' of the robot wouldn't be their general affect or behaviour, because those would be dictated by their programming and i have no interest in sentient robots, but rather in that tiny little kernel of deviation. well, at least internally. at the end of a day a robot is an object, and what makes objects meaningful is quite literally just what the person on the other end feels. a plushie can be just a mass-produced toy to everyone on earth except one person, to whom it's a companion they've shared years of adventures with. and it wouldn't correct to say that that plushie is the latter to someone who's seeing it for the first time, but it would also be silly to act like the plushie's "objective" (!) characteristic as a mass-produced toy somehow interferes with that one person's view of it.

there's loads to analyze and question about our relationships to objects and how they change depending on context, but i think what i'm most interested in is how robot characters by and large are not thought of as objects at all, but as people. this is for obvious reasons, but i think it's also rather boring. i like fantasy and sci-fi that explore different types of subjectivities altogether, including ones that maybe aren't "subjectivities" in the way we usually mean it. an AI program is inherently a "personality" that you can only experience from a second person perspective. that person is "just" a chinese room. but just like the plushie example, why should that prevent others from creating a unique bond and perception of the AI, as an object rather than as a person? a robot like that would essentially be a different thing/person to different characters, in a way different from how people are different people to different people. i think it would be really fun and interesting to explore the interplay between an entity's "soul" (for the lack of a better term) being in the eyes of the beholder, a soul that literally takes shape outside of the body, without agency. a robot's personality can only be experienced from the second person perspective, but by experiencing it you are also literally hosting it, in both senses.

honestly you could go in so many different directions with this, depending on what kind of story you're trying to tell. whether it's you, or you're it, or it's itself and you're you, or both but only in one direction. there simply needs to be more "speculative fiction" that actually speculates about things other than, what if there was something that was exactly like real life. but with a different name and simpler

[momentsbeforemass]

Christmas Eve

Think back to your favorite thing about Christmas.

No matter what it is, nobody remembers all of the efforts (big and small) that went into that golden Christmas memory.

Or that it wasn’t exactly perfect at the time. Even though that’s how we remember it now.

That is the problem with those golden Christmas memories. The ones that we’ve endlessly polished in our minds. The way we remember them, we’ve smoothed off all the rough spots. We’ve made them perfect.

And nothing we do now, even if it’s literally the same thing. Even if it’s actually a little bit better. Nothing we do now can never quite measure up.

The reason that happens? The reason we do that? It’s a symptom, it’s a sign of something else that’s going on. Inside us.

When that happens, it means that we’ve turned in on ourselves. That we’ve become our own standard for what’s right and what’s best.

How can I say that about your favorite Christmas memories?

First of all, this isn’t something that you and I do intentionally. This is something that we drift into, without thinking.

And second, part of why we do it is because our favorite Christmas memories actually were something wonderful. If we could look at them objectively for a moment, we would still say, “that really was great.”

So where does it go wrong for you and me? It goes wrong once we tastefully embalm our favorite Christmas memories, or anything else for that matter, until we think of them as perfect.

Once they become perfect? When we compare other things to them, even though we think we’re trying to determine whether they’re objectively the same. That’s not what we’re really doing.

What we’re really trying to do is trying to recreate the way that they made us feel. 

The problem comes once we start down that road. Because it turns us into critics. Of feelings, of things, and eventually of people. As we focus on trying to recreate feelings that grow ever better and ever more elusive as we keep remembering them.

And when that impulse to be a critic starts to boil over into comparison and complaints – as it always does in the end? It will push us away from other people. And from God.

Think about it – how much time do you want to spend around someone who’s critical of everything? Right. As little as possible. People won’t want to be around us.

And it works in the other direction as well. We won’t want to be around them. Because we’re trying to recapture something that’s better in our memory than it was when it actually happened. And nothing they say or do will ever be good enough.

The longer we let that go, the more self-isolating it becomes. And that isolation doesn’t involve not being around people. It involves walling off our hearts. Slowly. Subtly. One brick at a time. Which is worse than a sudden break with God and everyone, because we’ll never see it coming.

So what do we do about it? The answer is simpler than you think.

We see it modeled by Joseph in today’s Gospel. Where Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant. And it’s not by him.

Joseph knew how things were supposed to go. And what was happening with Mary, that was not it. That was not how it was supposed to be.

But instead of setting himself and his feelings up as the standard that everything had to meet. Instead of setting himself up to be angry, to be hurt, to be disappointed? Joseph turned to God about it. Joseph opened his heart to God.

Which is why Joseph was able to hear the message of the angel. And why Joseph was able to receive God’s best, even though it was different from how he knew things were supposed to go.

And you’re thinking, well that sounds great. But I don’t know if I could handle that. I’m no Joseph. I don’t know that my heart’s really open to God. I mean, I don’t pray much. Half the time, I don’t even think about God.

Alright, if you want to change things. If you don’t like where comparison against an unattainable standard is taking you. If you don’t like how the voice of the critic sounds, especially when it’s your voice.

If you want to break out of that. If you want a heart that’s open to God, then here’s where it starts.

With an intentional switch, to gratitude. By following the example of the angels. By intentionally being grateful to God for all that he has done for you.

Start small, with the smallest things you can think of. The things you and I take for granted.

Then look at everything that’s happened in our lives. Those moments where we had right opportunity, the right job, the right house, the right friend, the right person.

All of the things that, if you and I are honest, we could never do on our own.

Be thankful for them. And not in some general sense. Make it real by making it specific. Make the list. Then thank every day God for everything on your list. One thing at a time. 

God is the one who brought you this far. God loves you too much to leave you. And God is the one who will keep you going. Make that your focus.

Do it by thanking God every day for everything that’s He’s done for you. From the things that you and I take for granted, to our personal moments of deliverance. From all the ways that God provides, to the greatest gift that you and I will ever receive - the gift of salvation, given to you, by name, on that first Christmas.

Know this, that if everyone else here, and everyone else in the history of ever, was without sin. And you or I were the only one who needed to be saved?

Christmas, and all that flows from it, still would have happened. That’s how much God loves you.

Make that your center. Open your heart to receive the peace that can only come from God. By making time every day for gratitude to God.

May God heal you where it hurts the most, make whole what was broken, and bless you as only He can, this Christmas and always.

Readings for Christmas Eve

[sovaghoul]

🔮 Tarot Tips for Beginners 🔮

🔮🕯🔮🕯🔮

🪄 Choosing Your Cards 🪄

You might encounter different opinions on where your first deck should come from. Some say it should be a gift. Others disagree. I'm of the opinion that it should resonate with you in some way, whether that's the art, or the theme, etc., and the method of obtaining it (gift vs. purchase) is secondary. However, I do recommend starting with a Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) based deck, as that's the most common set of symbolism for Tarot. If you like the original RWS deck, great! Use it! Most commercial beginner Tarot kits come with this deck. If you want art that's more detailed but uses the same symbolism, try the Morgan-Greer deck. The "Radiant" or "Universal" versions of the RWS deck are other decent choices.

I also recommend a deck with a full book, rather than a booklet (or Little White Book, LWB), as there are going to be more in-depth meanings. LWBs generally only have a brief list of keywords. Full sets with actual books cost more, but in my opinion and experience, are worth it.

The simpler the deck, the easier it'll be to learn from. The original RWS deck has simplistic art, but every part of the picture was intentionally used to convery meaning, from objects to colors. Once you have a basic understanding of what meaning those symbols impart, it's easier to translate that to decks with more detailed and/or aesthetic art, where that art may or may not be as intentional.

In recent years, many artists and deck creators have begun offering "expanded" decks, with additional cards, usually in the Major Arcana, that add to the theme and/or aesthetic of the deck. For your first deck, though, I recommend sticking with the standard 78 cards; 22 Major Arcana, and 56 Minor Arcana.

🔮🕯🔮🕯🔮

🍷Prepping Your Cards🍷

One thing I was taught, was before using a new deck (even before opening it, if you like), is to sleep with it under your pillow (or at least near to you) for three nights, to let it absorb your energy. This is of course optional, but I've found it to be effective in attuning and aligning with the cards. Then, you may want to look through them in order, taking time to admire the art, and see if any symbols jump out at you. You can write these down if you like. Then you can shuffle them, with focused intent, adding more of your energies.

After all that, another thing I was taught was to wrap the deck in silk. The reason for this, is that silk doesn't "breathe," it doesn't easily let air through, as opposed to a material like cotton (if you've ever worn silk, you know what I mean!). It is an old belief that your spirit is carried on your breath, so if the deck can't "breathe" because of the silk, your energies will stay safely within it. This is also, of course, totally optional, but then the silk can easily double as a reading cloth. Fabric and crafting/hobby supply stores may have a bin of scraps, and that can be a good place to find cloths, whatever material you decide to use.

If I trust a person, I'm more than willing to let them handle and look through my decks. Some people advise only letting someone handle the deck if they're shuffling before a reading. Go with whatever feels better to you. You may start with not wanting anyone else to touch them, but relax about it later as you get more comfortable. It's completely your choice. But, with others' decks, it's of course, polite to ask first.

🔮🕯🔮🕯🔮

🗡 Learning Your Cards 🗡

If you have a full book with your deck, read through it, especially any introductory sections apart from the card meanings. Usually, the deck creator/artist will give a feel for how the theme of the deck conveys the traditional Tarot meanings, and this can help you understand their cards better.

You may want to keep a Tarot journal at first. One recommendation is to look through the entire deck, book in hand, and write down keywords, the meanings in your own words, and anything else that you feel can help you remember the meaning of that card (symbols that stand out to you, etc.). Some people do one card a day, or make sure they dedicate a whole page to each card, however long that takes. Others meditate on each card, and write down those results, whether in addition to other notes or not. Whatever works best for you is the right thing to do. There are commercial Tarot journals available online and in some stores, but if you don't want one or can't afford one, a regular notebook is more than adequate.

In general, the Major Arcana (or Trumps) represent forces out of your control, the Will of the Universe, forces acting upon you. The Minors then are things you can control, your own Will, how your choices can change the situation around you. Court cards can represent a specific person in your life or the situation, or an attitude or perspective you're holding in the situation. Each numbered card (or Pip) has a generalized meaning as well, such as Aces being beginnings and Tens representing completion.

Several places online have handy correspondance charts for quick card meanings, what the numbers of the Pips mean, and what the Suits represent, so you can easily discern general meanings if you know those two pieces of information. For example, a 2 can represent a choice, and the suits of Cups deals with emotion. So the Two of Cups could indicate an emotional choice. If such correspondances help you, keep that kind of chart handy as you learn.

Some decks also include reverse meanings. Personally, I don't read reversals, because I don't view the meanings of the symbols and colors in a card as changing just because it's upside-down from the reader's vantage point (because it's likely right-side-up from the other person's point of view! The orientation is relative, but the inherent meaning is not). If you want to read reversals, I suggest putting off learning them until after you feel more comfortable with their upright/standard meaning, just so you don't confuse yourself.

There are Kabbalistic (Hebrew mysticism) and Astrological associations with Tarot also, but they aren't necessary for learning and interpreting the cards. If, once you feel you have the basics down, and you want to go deeper, look into those associations then. But for now, especially if you aren't already familiar with Kabbalah or Astrology, don't let yourself get bogged down in the esotericism of those aspects.

🔮🕯🔮🕯🔮

🌟 Using Your Cards 🌟

Some people recommend reading for yourself first. I personally have trouble reading for myself, ever after 30+ years of reading Tarot. I'm too close to my own situations. But others find it the easiest thing in the world. Try it out. Neither result is "wrong" or "bad."

When you prep for a reading, you can do any number of things to set the mood, from an elaborate ritual-opening type routine, with candlelight and incense and music, to just sitting down and doing it. Whatever makes you feel most at ease. Whomever the reading is for should shuffle the cards, and concentrate on the question or situation they want insight into. This can go on for as long as they/you feel is necessary, until the cards "feel ready." This is an intuitive thing and doesn't have a time limit. If you're reading for someone else and don't want them to touch your cards, just ask them to concentrate on their question/situation while you shuffle.

The easiest spreads are the one-card pull (one card for something like, "How will my day go?"), and a three-card spread. The three cards can be past-present-future, or mind-body-spirit, pretty much any three factors to the situation. If something is unclear with the one card for a given position, pull out more cards, usually 2 or 3, to expand on it. At the end of a reading, I'll also look at the card on the bottom of the deck, and read that as "What it's not," something entirely unrelated to the situation that you can put out of your mind.

I usually lay out all the cards in a spread face down first, stating the position, and then revealing them as the spread progresses. I take note of which Suits show up multiple times, how many Minors, Majors, Court cards, and if there are repeating numbers. Sometimes you can find patterns to these things that help to reveal more information. I also make note of any cards that may fall out while shuffling; sometimes it's significant, and sometimes it's just because I have small hands.

Some readers use a Significator, a card to represent the person asking the question. Usually, this is a Court card and is chosen based on the description (either physically or personality). For example, if the reading was for a young man with dark hair and eyes, and say, the Page of Pentacles in your deck looks like that, you'd place that card first. Or if the reading is for an intelligent and analytical woman, you might choose Queen of Swords. For me, though, this particular practice is unnecessary. I view the card that represents the Querant (the person asking the question) as giving insight into their current feelings regarding the situation at hand. Since that's a fluid factor, the card that represents them in a spread can and should change as well.

Never hesitate to look at the book or your own notes during a reading. You're under no obligation to memorize the meanings of every card. Also, don't try to force every keyword and bit of the meaning to apply. Read them over, and see what stands out to you, what connects to a previous card, what makes sense. This is an intuitive approach to reading the cards, and it can take time to cultivate. But in general, trust your gut. When someone shuffles the cards, they put the energy of the question/situation into them. So what comes out, is only what got put in.

Tarot in general usually isn't the best for yes-or-no questions. Asking how/what/why questions are better, so if the question can be rephrased, try that. Also, Tarot isn't "fortune telling," per se. You can ask about the future, but the answer may be vague or confusing, because the future depends on the choices you make between then and now. You can remember the advice or the idea the cards have, but don't expect it to be set in stone; even asking the question changes the situation!

Lastly, when I clean up my cards, I like to disperse the ones drawn for the reading through the deck, one at a time, in random places, and then shuffle. For me, it disperses the information from that reading throughout the deck, and so helps both the deck and me, the reader, continue to learn and grow in our understanding of each other.

🔮🕯🔮🕯🔮

If there's anything you feel I haven't covered, or something you want me to clarify, feel free to comment or message me privately. Happy reading!

[rararazaquato]

Valentine, you're a

horse

(rain code pony au. design notes under the cut!)

just as a note, i haven't seen my little pony since i was like. 11. and also i don't think i watched beyond twilight becoming an alicorn. my knowledge of later seasons mostly comes from horsecomix. so if i say anything that contradicts the Horse Lore, sorry about that.

ok now for individual designs.

yuma is a unicorn, mostly because mystery labyrinths require him to be able to hold a sword and talk at the same time. in addition to his memories, he lost his cutie mark in the pact, so everyone who sees him is like "damn you're an amnesiac AND a blank flank? pick a struggle". he doesn't have any accessories by default, but he probably gets a little hat in the rain + his cape in the mystery labyrinth. he was the first pony i drew, so his face looks a little janky. i struggled with drawing the ponies from any angle other than a perfect sideview, and the snouts/mouths were the hardest parts by far. the front view i did for yuma was a bit easier than the 3/4 view i did for most of the cast, but it was still tougher than i expected. pony artists who mimic the style of the show have all of my respect.

shinigami's spirit form was changed a little bit, although it was already so abstracted compared to a real human that i didn't feel i needed to change much in order to make her fit into the pony universe. i just swapped her horns out for wings and gave her a horn. i also removed her thumbs and made her colors closer to her human (er, pony) form. she's no longer a "death god" in the traditional sense, now being the "princess of death" in the same way twilight is the princess of friendship or cadence is the princess of love. she was sealed away because she was shit at her job (just killed a fuckton of people for no reason) but anypony who stumbled across the book she was sealed in can make a contract w her just like in rain code canon. obvi this is a little dark for the actual mlp universe, they wouldn't be putting a trigger-happy murder princess in their rated y cartoon, but this is the same fanbase that made fuckin. cupcakes and rainbow factory and a whole slew of others that make the main characters of mlp infinitely more fucked up than canon shinigami ever was. so i feel like we can have a little suspension of disbelief here.

shinigami's true form is an alicorn, obvi. she's a god princess, she's gonna be an alicorn. i tried to refrain from giving the characters too many accessories to better mimic the simpler mane 6 designs, but shinigami looked so naked with just the crown. so she also got her flower and little necklace. i didn't even attempt to put her hair in braids, since drawing her face at that angle was such a challenge already. upon posting this, i also realize i forgot to give her a tail. just imagine any tail you want on her. pin the tail on the shinigami. her cutie mark has the same dark void effect as nightmare moon's, although i can't remember if luna also has it as well. regardless, it's a visual tie-in to nightmare moon, who has a similar "princess banished to an inanimate object" thing going on. the actual cutie mark itself is two bones, representing death in a cutesy cartoony fashion. i was gonna do a skull and crossbones but then i realized. no one knows what a human skull looks like. there's no people. and i am NOT about to draw a fucking horse skull. so, bones it is.

yakou is probably the one i'm proudest of! i feel like i really captured the essence of the background pony in him. i feel like i could see him hanging out with lyra heartstrings and dr. whooves and i wouldn't bat an eyelash. his hair is a little longer than in the original design but i think it looks cute so it's fine. his cutie mark is an umbrella because his calling as a detective leads him to protect others like an umbrella protects you from the rain, plus kanai ward has its whole Thing. and he can be kind of a gloomy person at times, very pessimistic. he's an earth pony because he's just a normal guy, no forte in canon and stuff like that.

makoto was probably the trickiest to actually design. the element of mystery is super important in the original character design, but he was able to still have some skin exposed since almost all of the character designs in that game have a skintone of "homestuck white". in mlp, where coat colors can be any color of the rainbow (and the colors outside of the rainbow), makoto would lose that element of mystery. so, while i generally try to avoid putting the ponies in clothes, makoto kind of needed them. he's got his full suit and a set of gloves and white shoes for his hooves. instead of being a sort of "paper plate" mask, he's got a rubber halloween mask that extends past his neck instead. don't ask how the mane comes out of the mask. we don't ask how canon makoto's mask stays on with no straps, so don't ask about this one. the mask goes over his horn, so it blocks out most powerful magic, but basic spells like levitation are still possible with a bit of effort. the pants of his suit hide his cutie mark, and when asked about what it is, he gives a different answer each time.

kurumi isn't a super complicated or in-depth design. just a cute lil earth pony with a cutie mark of a speech bubble, since she does a lot of information gathering via talking to others. in hindsight, i should've given her freckles in the same color as her body outline. imagine she has freckles please. thank you.

fubuki is the design where i actually got the courage to attempt a braid. no idea if it looks good, i didn't use a reference and my hair is too short to braid it myself. i wanted an earth pony in the core group of nda members, and i was sort of torn between her and desuhiko. however, i'm a personal believer in the "all ponies can use magic on some level" theory, and that theory posits that earth ponies have a tendency to be able to use the intrinsic magic of their planet in subtle ways. applejack can enhance her physical strength without really doing anything consciously, and most importantly, pinkie pie can bend the laws of reality for The Bit. i think time travel is kinda like bending the laws of reality for The Bit. plus, desuhiko's disguise ability is kinda like an illusion, which feels like more of a unicorn ability. her cutie mark is a clock. because. uh. you know.

desuhiko is a unicorn for reasons i mentioned in fubuki's notes. his backpack is worn like a saddle, but he can still use it to disguise himself like in rain code canon. his cutie mark is the bag with a star on it, hinting that there's a superstar (him) in the bag. not much to say about him other than that.

vivia is a pegasus. since his forte allows him to fly, it makes sense for him to be able to fly in his base form as well - he'd get used to the flight powers inherent to his ability a lot quicker if he could already do it. he's definitely more of a fluttershy than a rainbow dash in terms of how he uses his ability to fly. he prefers to walk, but if his legs get tired, he'll switch to flying for a little bit. but then both his legs and his wings get tired and he takes a little nap. that's what the pose is meant to be, altho it does look a bit like he's flying. his cutie mark is a disappearing flash shape, as his spirit form is invisible and he tends to disappear into the background in general. someone in the rain coat server told me he looks like stoney pony and i haven't been able to get that out of my mind.

halara was the last pony i drew, because i love them and wanted to get as much pony-drawing experience as i could before turning them into an equine. can't have my pookie bear looking like shit! they are also a pegasus, but not for forte reasons like vivia. rather, they just do impressive feats of athleticism on the reg, and i feel like they would be a great flyer as a result. imagine the scene where yuma calls for help while being detained by seth and the peacekeepers. a blue and purple bursts onto the scene from the fucking clouds and halara is divebombing the peacekeepers. that'd be sick as fuck. their cutie mark is an eye, because postcognition is all about sight.

erm ok thats everyone!!! i'm bad at pony names so if anyone has any ideas leave them in the comments or the tags ☺️

[whinlatter]

Hello, I was hoping you could provide some of your brilliant insight to this ask: How many people knew about the horcruxes in the end? Dumbledore told Harry not to tell anyone, but Harry kind of announced it during his battle with Voldemort, and everyone knew he sacrificed himself. Hagrid witnessed it, and so did the DE. I’m sure this started rumours about how the Potter boy cannot be killed by the AK curse. Hagrid must have wanted answers too, because watching Harry sacrifice himself and then come back alive after he watched the AK curse kill him would have been detrimental. So besides Ron and Hermione, who else knew about the Horcruxes and the reason Harry sacrificed himself? Did the Order know? Did he tell the DA? Did he tell Ginny?

Damn, I wish I had brilliant insight - alas, all I have is a pathological inability to stop running my mouth and a crippling hyperfixation. To that end... loved this question, so thoughts about whether or not Harry ran his mouth about the Horcruxes after the war (and to whom) below the cut!

This is such an interesting question and one I think about alllll the time and am desperate to have a stab at writing about at some point (like everyone, lol). On Horcruxes - I think Harry (and the trio, to a lesser extent) would feel less beholden to Dumbledore's instruction not to tell anyone after Voldemort has gone. I think it would be more a case of the trio trying to decide how much is safe for the public at large to know, in case they embolden lesser, weaker copycats. (There's that great conversation between Harry and Hermione in chapter one of Castles by @pebblysand about the Harry/Voldemort showdown honestly makes me laugh every time - Hermione basically being like, why did you have to publicly confirm the existence of an Elder Wand? Just how dumb are you? Harry like sorry it was obviously improv???)

I imagine Harry will tell the public a small amount (a much simpler story that does broad outline, light on detail, the focus of which is exonerating Snape and rehabilitating Dumbledore). I think he tells the Order and the DA - so all of those loyal to him who both deserve information and who witnessed the Harry/Voldemort conversation - a much fuller but still incomplete story in a private address at the Burrow where the trio share it between them and their comrades can ask questions. I think this version would cover Dumbledore's plan, the Horcruxes, details about the Horcrux hunt, the context of the Elder Wand, the Snape story, the Regulus arc, etc. I like to think Ron would choose to tell his family what really happened that last Christmas during this session (though Harry and Hermione would insist he doesn't need to), and talks about how and why he messed up in a way that shows how far he's come (and also lets Bill off the hook for snubbing his mother's Christmas in the middle of a war lmao). I think this conversation wouldn't cover the Hallows and that Harry would decline to talk in to much detail about what happened in the Forest, which I think all three of the trio would agree was both too personal and too dangerous (given the Stone) to share, especially to a room of grief-stricken friends and family who may well be drawn to an object that allows them to reach out to the dead.

I do think, though, that he tells Ginny everything. I don't think he'd ask permission from Ron and Hermione, per se, but he'd give them the heads up that he intends to let one more person in on this secret between them and Dumbledore. I think Ginny gets the whole truth: Horcruxes, Hallows, what happened in the Forest - and I think he tells her over the course of that summer. Canonically, that's his intent and priority at the end of the series: she deserves to know, and he needs her to know. The would he tell her question for me is less tricky to think about than the how. These would be very difficult conversations: I actually think they'd be unbearable for Ginny to hear, in many many different ways: what happened in the Forest, of course, but also just how horrific it would be for her to discover a part of Riddle's soul, the same thing that was in the Diary, was living inside the person she loves the whole time. (I think a lot about that OotP 'lucky you' scene. What's crazy about that scene in retrospect is that Harry comes out of it reassured by Ginny that he isn't being possessed - but of course, the truth is neither of them should be reassured. Harry feels better thinking this is different to what happened to Ginny, but actually their experiences have more in common than they realise (though are still ofc distinct): Harry's got a bit of Voldemort's soul in him, the same thing that controlled and terrorised little Gin. It's a classic example of the series' many ironies: characters coming so close to the truth but getting it (understandably but terribly) wrong. Even the thought of living alongside the locket at Grimmauld in the OotP summer - I think Ginny would find the thought of that, in retrospect, absolutely sickening).

All this is to say: I think the trio deliberately cultivate public silence over certain very volatile aspects of the Horcrux/Hallows story (in ways that probably does incur a certain degree of public speculation and resentment). But I think Gin gets the whole picture. I can't imagine Harry ever wanting to keep it from her (or even managing to - the man let slip their plan at the dinner table in DH. He's not keeping secrets from that girl. Man canonically sees those big brown eyes and starts running his damn mouth)

PS. Obsessed with the idea of rumours that AK can't kill Harry. I'm sure it would be in his professional interest when hunting the last of the Death Eaters to keep that particular myth going lol. Avada Kedavra? Can't kill me, mate. Good luck to ya

[lu-is-not-ok]

do you ever thought of making a comparison between spicebush yi sang and k corp hong lu since both of them have the same sin affinities (and also in the same mirror world)(no this is not the hongsang brainworm speaking what are you talking abou-

You know what, that is a fun thing to talk about, because you're right. They have the exact same Sin Affinities, however not a single one shares a spot on their skills lists.

K Corp Hong Lu's order of Sins is Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, while Spicebush Yi Sang's is Gluttony, Sloth, Pride. How interesting!

Now, I won't be doing a full analysis on Bushsang (...yet), but I might as well talk about how I think these Sins differ between the two, using what I discussed in my K Corp Hong Lu Identity Analysis as base for this brief look.

So let's start from Bushsang's first skill - Gluttony. For Yi Sang, this presents the shallow reading of him, his hunger for the destruction of technology, and for the world that would follow that. It's a goal without a clear destination in mind, and it is only a surface level understand of his actions.

Beyond the contrast that is K Corp Hong Lu's Gluttony representing hunger for survival rather than hunger for progress, it is important to note it's a notably deeper motivation for him. The Prideful actions he takes as his Skill 1 are deeper motivated by his need to survive in this environment, and to survive by not disobeying his family. You could theoretically also read into Gluttony being a representation of his position as well - he's endlessly healing, endlessly regenerating, endlessly surviving. That's the purpose he's given as a Class 3 K Corp Staff, to survive through everything.

When it comes to Bushsang's Sloth, I think it's interesting how it can be read in a similar way to K Hong Lu's Gluttony - in that it has a both deeper meaning and an alternate, more surface meaning. On the surface, this Sloth could represent Bushsang's atittude to leading - he's apathetic, not actually invested in the TLA's own goal and not willing to correct them, and seemingly more of a figurehead type leader that stands back rather than the one actively commanding people during missions.

The deeper interpretation of this Sloth is it being being a deeper motivation for his Gluttonous actions. He's apathetic to the current state of the world, resigned to the past he feels nostalgia for, seeing technology as an oppressive force yet hypocritically wishes for them to be created again in the future and repeat this cycle. I think that's the main reason why he's Sloth instead of Wrath, as the change he wishes to see in the world isn't to abolish the status quo, it's to turn back to a time that he preferred without actually changing anything.

It's an interesting comparison to K Hong Lu's Core Sloth, as for him that resignation is much more overwhelming. It's towards his entire circumstances. His family, his position, his fate. He's stuck being an object, a tool, a weapon, without any say for himself, and thus resigns himself to that role. Again, in stark contrast to Bushsang, who while full of resignation, is actually trying to change things because of it.

And this is where we get to Pride. I'm going to mention K Hong Lu's first, since it is a bit simpler. It's the shallow interpretation of his motivations and actions. He ignores the boredom he has to go through, the harm he has to inflict, and his grandma's true intentions for the sake of the benefit of "new experiences". Though, as we learn from his other Sins, this goes much deeper than just that.

As for Bushsang, Pride is his Core Sin, and I think it really shows. The main reason he's doing everything he does, it's for this one goal, this one desire - for the world to return to a time before technology, so people can experience the joy of inventing it all over again. And it doesn't matter to him what he has to do to get there. It doesn't matter to him if he has to destroy all technology in the process, taking away something that, while oppressive, is also beneficial to many people in the City. It doesn't matter to him if he has to lie about his true motivation to those he works with, as long as it gets him closer to his goal. And it doesn't matter if the means to this end could be considered terrorism by the Wings, he will return the world to the state he's nostalgic for at all cost.

Hope that was fun to read! Felt like doing this little mini-sin analysis in-between my bigger posts to cleanse my pallate a little bit~

[pomrania]

Here's my rendition of the mlekragg, from @maniculum's Bestiaryposting. My progress thread for this piece can be found here.

I have seen fantasy artwork that perfectly matched the given description; I didn't want to replicate that, therefore I had to get Creative. Here, I did that by interpreting the verb "to have" in an unorthodox manner for the context; the creature "has" a man's face and a lion's body, in the sense of possessing those objects.

It has the appearance of grey eyes, because its head is grey in the location where the eye holes would open onto. It has three horns poking through the mouth hole, not three rows of teeth. The lion skin and "face" would likely be soaked in blood, but I didn't feel like drawing that, so assume this is a mlekragg which hasn't yet gotten around to it.

Now, the creature features I came up with on my own volition. The horribly long and folded legs can be traced to my original vision, of some nasty stick-like creature, and I just took it further and in a fun direction; there's so much POTENTIAL with a creature who looks like it's one size, then it stretches and oh no it's actually MUCH larger; the bittern is a real-life example of such a thing. A relatively large chest combined with a thin body can lead to the appearance of emaciation, ESPECIALLY when you add in protruding vertebrae; bit of advice, "spine spikes" on their own also work well for that. I didn't have any real reason to give it a set of nasty little arms, other than to make it even more horrible.

In my first attempt at doodling out this creature idea, I had the "face" be very obviously a torn-off face that it was wearing as a mask; I looked at it and went "no" and then deleted the image. (Not before adding it to my progress thread, of course, but the first post has a read-more for a reason; I did NOT want to keep looking at that thing.) I then had to find a way to use that concept WITHOUT wanting to shut down my computer every time I looked at it, which would have been counter-productive to my goal of drawing something; conveniently, what I settled on was also just plain simpler to draw.

[sophieinwonderland]

trying to make sense of a little phenomenon me and my headmate have, but we need to elaborate some background first. i attribute my "self" to the right side of the body, and the left side of the body is their "self". when we're awake we're pretty blended, but it's easier to differentiate when we're about to fall asleep.

we almost exclusively sleep on our sides & tummy. when we're lying down on our left, it's a lot easier to feel my sense of self & presence (since we assume left side of brain has control of the right side's motor functions, and blood pools down to that side), and it's a lot easier for them to be in front when we lie down on our right. is there any sort of science or ideas you could extrapolate from this, or is it probably just something that we have the cause-and-effect of backwards?

Honestly, it's hard to know.

Personally, I would love to speculate that some headmates may be located more in one side of the brain than others. That would be really cool. Especially if we could study this and find correlation between where a headmate feels like they're located and different traits. For example, the left side of the brain is more associated with verbal working memory while the right is more associated with spatial working memory. Could we extrapolate this and say headmates that feel like they're based more in one region of the brain might be associated with those traits?

Like, if someone is better connected to the right side of the body and thus the left hemisphere of the brain, does that mean they might do better with verbal working memory while having a deficiency in spatial?

That would really cool if true, and a fascinating look at how headmates work and...

I'm probably getting ahead of myself.

Because the much simpler explanation for this phenomena is that this is just purely psychological with you attributing yourselves to each side. I've heard the term "partive" used to describe a headmate that feels like a body part. And this could be something similar, with you each just feeling connected to half the body for one reason or another, and then laying on one side just acts as a placebo trigger because you expect it to.

I am fascinated by split brain syndrome and its implications on plurality. But I'm also aware of the power of suggestion, and how different headmates may feel connected to different parts of the brain and body, or even external physical objects.

I would LOVE for the theory to be true and learn some headmates can be connected to one side of the brain, and that this could affect their functionality. I firmly believe it's something that could be possible.

But sadly, we just don't know yet if the psychological feelings of being based in one part of the brain or one side of the body actually corresponds to any sort of neurological reality.

Which, I'll confess, kind of sucks as someone who is interested in this sort of thing. I hate the not knowing. I hate that we may never get the answers we want in our lifetimes because psychology doesn't deem them important enough, and because worthwhile brain scans are too expensive.

Thanks for sharing though. It is something really fun to ponder even if we can't give you any answers. And we'll never be able to answer questions if we don't start asking them first. So keep asking and stay inquisitive! 😁

[rustyvanburace]

you know I gotta suggest Navarre for the character ask! and asahi if you’re feeling up to it :^D

Thank you so much!

favorite thing about them: I love how much PIZZAZ he adds to the early game! How can I not like a character with such a flamboyant, demanding personality whose very presence is enough to make everyone react with shock, contempt, laughter, and awe? Navarre is an ass, but a necessary ass to carry the early narrative and add so much excitement to it. I cannot help but giggle to myself everytime he appears. AND THEN, all that character growth in IVA towards becoming a better, more self-aware ghostie. Ohhh I love he so muuuch~

least favorite thing about them: Definitely the unnecessary perversion in IVA. Enough said.

favorite line: The "dawdling Casualries" line will always hold a special place in my heart, but I am also really fond of the stuff he says when you speak with him during the training drills in one of the rest spots,

"O-Oh, it's you… I thought you to be a demon. Don't start me so… I've never carried a blade any heavier than a knife before. If Mother were to see me dashing about with such a weapon in hand, I think that she would faint…"

And

"I landed a critical blow when I accidentally tripped… The next quest was much simpler, since as you might expect, money is no object to me. 'Twas actually easier than the first. But the final challenge all depends on one's strength, and that's a field I'm particularly lacking in… S-Someone else may have first place, I care not whom. Merely let this debacle of a training exercise be done with!"

brOTP: Nanashi and Navarre are best BROS!

Bad edit aside, can't forget the actual bros, Navarre and Gaston lmao. I really enjoyed their sibling relationship and it opened up so much insight into their familial life and personal struggles. I'm so so happy they got to rekindle at the enddd, it was so sweet

OTP: Everyone knows that I am the sole resident of the Issachar x Navarre Crack Ship Kingdom!! Idgaf that they've never canonically met nor even know of each other's existence, the POTENTIAL between them is enough to keep me content and well fed! We support random rarepairs in this house!

I also really like Flynn x Navarre too and they're my second fave Navarre ship, for much the same reasons!

nOTP: Needless to say, my NOtps would be pairing Navarre with his brother or any of the IVA kids. Eeeugh. Enough said.

random headcanon: It's something I've been wanting to analyze in more depth, and IDK how much of this is actually canon or headcanon considering, but I very much fancy the idea of Navarre always having close connections with the Samurai seniors and keeping close tabs on the Rite and new inductions. He's very astute with the going-ons in Samurai business and likely has been anxiously watching them for quite some time.

unpopular opinion: I understand that Navarre is a very unlikeable character, and he's supposed to be! But it honestly does get really bothersome seeing how much dismissal, if not outright hate, he gets in the fandom. Navarre IS an important character within the early game! It is his very antics that adds the necessary tension and tone needed to carry the early narrative and worldbuilding. It does admittedly make it hard for me to approach other SMTIV fans because I like this bean so much.

But that is okay. I am perfectly content with those who seek out, stick by, and enjoy my bean musings. :)

song i associate with them: Tbh I'm pretty bad at that sort of question, lol. I don't really have one for him right now, so pass? (Open to suggestions though! I want more tunes to listen to.)

favorite picture of them: SO MANY panels of him from the Prayers manga FOR REAL. He's SO expressive in that and has TONS of good moments!! But I am especially fond of the mini bonus chapter that features Navarre~

Masataka Miura can agree: Navarre can have a little moment in the spotlight as a treat~

Thank you again so much for the ask! I think I've written quite at length here, lmao. I'm a bit tired now and I don't think I can fit Asahi here, but I could post hers later on!

[libraford]

I *love* the motif deck; the composition, the flexibility, your watercolors are wonderfully done, and while I'm hoping to be able to buy it eventually, I'm desperately poor and can't rn (if I can sell some earrings I maybe can though lol) but every time you post a sample reading it's... also dragging me to filth, and strangely tiding me over, so thank you and also wtf how do you do this

I'll be honest, I don't know how I do anything. I'm just trying to make it to Friday.

The Motif Deck was born from an idea I had a couple years ago, which was an oracle deck with no words attached to the cards so that the reader was encouraged to free-associate. But when I was sketching out the thumbnails I only had four colors in my pen set and I was working on it while at a laundromat so I couldn't get more because someone might steal my laundry. But I ended up really enjoying the simplicity of the color scheme so that got stuck in my head for a bit.

The drive to do an oracle deck with no standard meaning came from doing tarot for like six years (at that point, it's more like 10 now). I've always been a really talented reader and I picked up on the concept right away, but the symbols in tarot seemed a little hard to connect with (which lead me to make @thesweeneytarot ). So I started reading based on vibes. Like... what colors do I see most of in this spread, where are the cards facing, what seems out of place, how do we create a story based on what we have in front of us.

Proved effective! I was doing really well on tarot readings. It felt less like divination this way and more like a puzzle, like a story, like a game.

So what if there was a deck that was made for this style of reading? How do you even start that? What would it look like? Could I make something like that? Where do I start?

Then my friend introduced me to a game called Dixit, and it's sister game Mysterium, which uses untitled surreal art cards to tell a story. And I noticed that sometimes the art cards would have similar objects in them, like red ribbons or gold keys or blue fish. And it was interesting to me how the person in the storytelling position would make different associations than I did and I considered this a feature, not a bug.

I toyed a bit with doing divination with Dixit cards, but I found them a bit too obtuse for my liking and there were too many details to get caught up in.

So I was like... okay, I like this. What do I like about this? Let's do this but make it simpler.

...then covid.

So the idea sat on the backburner for awhile.

Then i got back into doing tarot readings and got the itch to try something new, started thinking about That oracle deck again, but now I'm thinking about those primary colors and how I tried like four different color combinations in my thumbnails and couldn't remember what they were meant to mean between them.

Then thinking about color theory. Like actual color theory but also the meme. And how the red ribbons in Dixit could be the strings of fate or they could be streaks of blood, or the red design on the hospital floor could be 'energetic and positive' or they could be... streaks of blood...

Like... sure, colors might have set meanings... to some people. But they also have meanings in their context. The color of a thing tells a story just like the thing itself.

So this is how I came up with the idea of repeating the images in different colorways.

So now we have my elements: no words, no inherent meaning, simple images, repeating objects interacting with each other, and cards repeating in different colorways.

And then the hard part, which was making it. I do actually have an art degree, so making the paintings wasn't difficult for me, but the logistics was hard. Because I had to decide which objects were common enough to be understood by everyone, and I had to pare the number down to something reasonable because this deck was bound to be massive.

Which took another year.

And now it's done! The slow parts go slow and the fast parts go fast.

I'm the kind of person who like... if I get into my head that I want to make something, I'll find a way to make it. And like... my philosophy for making things has always been that I intend to sell one, and that's to myself. But if I like it, someone else might, so I make it available for other people.

But I'm really glad that other people like it or are even just curious. Like, when you're making a 'product' (which almost feels rude to call something that I did for myself) the hardest part is getting people interested in it. So the fact that so many people think it's cool makes me so happy. (Am I cool now???)

Thank you!! And sorry for the overshare. I just got really excited.

[mdhwrites]

What are your core problems with The Owl House?

I'm feeling sick so I'm doing one that's weirdly a little simpler. Not simple but simpler. (It did not stay simple. Shocking, I know.) So if I were to be objective, I think the core problem with TOH is ego. I've been saying it a LOT recently on my Discord that "Ego is the death of art." Eventually, once you get your head shoved so far up your ass, you just stop being able to produce something good because you can't even make the statements you're wanting to make. That's the real death knell for TOH. It is so focused on being special and being meaningful that it forgets to be fun but it's also so self satisfied and convinced that its elements are sacrosanct that they don't question how they're using those elements or what they're actually saying. There's a reason why I'm personally happy as an author that I normally figure out themes within my works post figuring out what they're going to be like because my first goal is just making sure the story is COHERENT. And TOH doesn't give a FUUUUUUU- But subjectively... It's the characters for me that are the core of what lost me with TOH and what attracted me at first. S1 doesn't have the greatest cast. I literally brought in a two off antagonist in Boscha to have a third main character in my stories and focused WAY more on the Blights than literally ever including King in Power of Love. But... That is also is fine because just Amity and Luz in S1 by themselves has an incredible amount of potential as well just being incredibly likable. In fact, for all the shit I gave Eda and King a literal day ago, S1 of them are... enjoyable enough. King's joke is well and truly played out by then so I literally could not care about him but he is the best comic relief in S1. Not a high bar but he does clear it. Meanwhile, Eda has enough interesting going on with the curse to make her flaws not as apparent. Lilith is a compelling antagonist and the possibility of her bringing her more interpersonal comedy style into the main cast was exciting. Gus and Willow are barely characters but they're written likably and don't ever do anything truly wrong which could be said about them for the whole show.

And that also just kind of brings up the awkward element of S1. You have Amity and the curse but otherwise... It all feels like setup. Like we're seeing the first traces of these characters but we still haven't gotten a good, deeper impression of any of them yet. Including the world quite frankly. For fanfiction this was AMAZING. Everything was setup to go in a billion different ways, especially with Amity and Luz (individually or together) and it was exciting to theorize about. I tempered my expectations of course, I doubted I'd ever get the true nuance of my own version of Odalia and Alador but... I expected something a little smarter. The show seemed like it trended that way after all. That a bit more care and realism was put into the characters of the show. And then S2A is... more setup. Or just entirely changing characters to new forms of themselves that we still don't really know. All we do know is that they're less compelling. Amity becomes literally nothing more than Luz's girlfriend and how easy her change becomes more and more apparent with each passing episode. We get Momma Eda in one of her like... Two, maybe three appearances as any sort of criminal in S2 and they're ALWAYS motivated by someone else's scheme. I guess maybe not with Reaching Out but I'd have to check. The point is that the firebrand version of Eda is FIRMLY dead. Lilith becomes a total joke who's hard to even give credit to for the curse because Affearances is making her nothing more than a pathetic woman with unresolved mommy issues because... Sure. That's what the ex-coven head is just like now. Willow has ALL traces of either her morality or really any personality just gone for half a season, in part because she has no part in this season. She even insults Gus for his illusions in Escaping Expulsion in a scene where I SWEAR they swapped Amity and Willow's lines. Not that either should be pushing for bum rushing the door but it makes more sense coming out of plant goddess Willow than theoretically smart girl Amity.

And then you have Luz who is acting even more indignant this half season? Like not a lot has changed but the shifting tone is catching up to how they write Luz. How she can so quickly get annoyed at things not going her way or people not treating her like she's special. How she'll use her friends for personal gain. How she needs to be better than everyone else, both in her eyes and the writer's eyes. All while this isn't getting properly getting interrogated by the characters or even a bit of snark from Eda like it would in S1. It frankly reminds me of something I would say about bad porn: It's Barbie dolls being mashed together. They may have a little flair, like this one is wearing a skull hat or this one is non-binary, but as far as real personality goes... It didn't matter. You could swap out anyone and the writers would force it to work regardless. What personality was there was becoming increasingly cookie cutter or accidentally mean and cruel, just like toxic beauty standards. It's not Barbie's fault that sticks on a torso is the beauty standard to America but it also has no interest in being smart enough to make an appealing doll while avoiding reinforcing the worst parts of it.

And like bad porn, the reason this is done is similar. Rather than actually dealing with the emotions and complexities present in the topics and actions that are desired for the story, they make it so the characters just do it anyways. In porn, you get fucking. In The Owl House, you get... Subversion and representation I guess. But like sex with no setup or emotion, you need to only want the face value elements of these things or else you're just going to feel like you're watching other people having a MUCH better time than you while you're wondering why you're there. Also, yes, this is a weird metaphor. It's mostly done I believe. I do want to mention though that this is why my erotica series struggled to have a lot of sex scenes because those books took themselves and their characters and concepts pretty seriously so I couldn't just ignore the characters if they just weren't in the mood.

The fact that the main payoffs are emotional and metatextual statements that are poorly setup is a REAL problem. It has the feeling of a highschooler who's spent too much time on Twitter seeing their seven year old baby sister playing with her dolls and stopping her from doing that to then put the Barbie on a soapbox and lecture their sister about how dolls are oppressing her and having fun like this is awful. It's not just boring, it's literally anti-fun. Worse yet, it's not smart enough about the topics not to feel mean spirited and somewhat misguided in how its doing it. As an example, they wanted good queer rep. Unfortunately, Amity turned into an incredibly bland trophy for Luz, as boring a pointless as any straight female love interest frankly, and Raine is criticized by much of the fandom for obviously existing only for Eda. They're not just turned into a sexy lamp: That's almost their point from go with how little time they AREN'T just about Eda. This all culminates in the real turning point of the series. Now yes, I've said the point of no return is Escaping Expulsion but that episode is more the objective core issue's turning point. It's the show going "We're not as smart as we think we are and so are going to murder some of the elements that are stopping us from doing whatever we want to... But that doesn't mean we're gonna have fun with it either. Instead, we're going to act lazy, bitter and make the laziness and forced aspects of this episode way too apparent as we move on to what makes us feel special like Lumity." For the characters, Yesterday's Lie is the final nail in the coffin. I've talked before about how Vee's callout of Luz not only makes the problems of S2A being awkward with Luz's character more questionable, it throws her entire CONCEPT into question. Whether she ever was made an outcast because of others or because she told other outcasts to go fuck themselves. Why didn't she know anyone like Mascha after all? They clearly exist in Gravesfield. Why was she trying to be a cheerleader when she clearly isn't interested in sports or athletics. At least most of the time. S1 seems really fucking confused about whether or not she's a nerd or a truly basic bitch school kid who likes everything at least a little bit. But you didn't question it until the new statement that wanted to be made with Luz was "We have a dramatic, changing protagonist who is not just a ball of sunshine but also capable of extreme levels angst and change. She's not just another cartoon main character."

Boy that statement is reeking of ego though, isn't it? Especially when the point Luz isn't going to become "Reality matters over fantasy, others are more important than me," but instead her character finish is "I literally need everyone to recognize that I'm the most special person on the planet and I will only properly listen to anyone who is like me since I blatantly ignored everything my mom said until she earned my attention by being a closet nerd." Luz's character finish is REEEEEALLY BAD.

And no, I don't blame this on the shortening. Just look at fucking Amphibia. It has a VERY vivid cast that mostly keep to their own roles that are dictated by their personalities and despite the lack of time characters like Sasha get, the show knows how to sell their personalities, their relationships, what they're doing, etc. like that almost instantly and part of that's because it's having fun. It's willing to take things to the extreme from go. Sasha's INTRODUCTION is convincing someone to turn themselves into a CLOWN and leave their entire life behind so as to make it so she's no longer guarded. You are sold IMMEDIATELY on this being some master manipulator... But then she also saves Grime and her manipulations are through kindness rather than cruelty like most others which reinforces the loose threads we already had on Anne and her's relationship. You can see she's such a close friend... But why she's not a GOOD friend. And you know all of this by the end of S1 where she gets ONE AND A HALF EPISODES. That is frankly more than I can say about, especially firmly, the majority of TOH's cast by the end of S1. MAYBE Luz and definitely Amity clear the bar but that's the main character and her love interest. Not King. Not Eda. Not even Belos, the main fucking antagonist. I could have speculated on him but I could have told you more about Grime through the toads, Sasha and effectively his ONE episode than I can about the leader of the ENTIRE ISLES.

It really does continue to make me wonder why I'm not compelled to write Sashannarcy instead of Lumischa, the two share a lot of similarities after all, when even S1 has Sasha and Anne as so much more dynamic than Luz and Amity. I guess I liked the playground though. There was more empty space for me to play in with my own writing and I definitely will admit that the fandom, for both TOH and Amphibia, have made me feel far more connected to the shows than the actual products. I'm just weird that way I guess and it's probably why I keep ending up here. Where the show has gone fallow on me and I no longer see the characters as fun people with potential but instead just mean spirited Barbie Dolls.

It happened to me with MLP and it happened to me with TOH. *sigh*

============

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[daryfromthefuture]

Marty McFly: A character analysis

I might make this a new series. I'm really into analyzing them rn (only because a youtube video said that Marty McFly is a flawless character, which I have. Objection against) (I watched this video just before writing this and now I'm committing myself to writing about the characters).

ANYWAY here we go

So. Marty, am I right?

The protagonist of the back to the future franchise. Which is funny, because I read that the movies aren't about Marty at all: The first film is about George, the second about Biff and the third about Doc. And that kinda makes sense. That's exactly what causes people to see Marty as just a flawless, "hero" type character, only there to solve problems with his confidence.

If people are saying that Marty is flawless, what is his role then? (Also, what confidence???)

Let's break Marty up into his good traits and his flaws for this.

Good traits:

I'd say that Marty's most important, good trait is his loyalty. Be it to Doc or his family, during the trilogy, we see him putting the people he cares about over himself - he goes to save Doc in Part III even though Doc told him not to come back, he burns the almanac even though he could have very well kept it for himself and made money off it but didn't want to risk it after what he's seen. He does solve the problems by looking at his loved ones and finding the determination to actually do it. Even though he could have died in the process, or become stuck, or whatever. We see himself willing to sacrifice the entire universe just so Doc survives the shooting at the mall. He stands up for his young mom in 1955 even though that could mean that he worsens the situation with the whole "lorraine has the hots for him" thing. If that isn't loyalty, I don't know what is. And it helps him get through all the insane shit that he experiences, and always pays off at the end. Except when Doc leaves him at the end of part III, but that's on Doc. Booo. Not nice.

Marty is also brave. You might think, "Ah, but Dary! He literally was too chicken to send his recording tapes in. This is not something that makes a character brave." Maybe. But in my opinion, him being brave is partly linked to his loyalty. Which may be me cheating a little, because I have the loyalty thing covered already and now I'm bringing it up again lmao. But hear me out. The situations that require him being brave are the ones he gets into because he's loyal. For example, the rooftop of Biff's casino in Part II. The only reason he's up there is because he needs to know more details about how Biff got the damn almanac just to set the timeline straight. Not for himself, no. For George. For Lorraine. For Doc. Because they met worse fates in that timeline than he did, and that's his priority. The first thing he does after burning the book is check the newspaper about his father. And Marty would jump off a building to make sure his dad's alive in the right timeline. Another, simpler example is him jumping in front of Sam's car in Part I. Why does he do it? To get George out of harm's way. And it was brave. I would have never done that. BUT (here it comes, the actual point of him being brave being a good trait for himself!) he also is brave outside of standing up for or protecting somebody. In the skateboard chase scene in part I, he's protecting himself from being crushed between a 46' Ford and a manure truck, so he performs the arguably coolest stunt in film history and walks over Biff's car. Just like that. He also does the whole hoverboard chase thing in Part II to protect himself from Griff, even through Griff crashing into the courthouse mall wasn't part of his plan at all. Marty is a brave boy and, despite his insecurities, proves that over and over again.

Being inventive and creative is also part of his personality. From the basics like playing his guitar with passion, being the one to jump in when Marvin was unavailable and playing a rendition of the "Greatest 80s Hits"-CD on the school dance stage from basically scratch to coming up with bizzare plans to achieve his goals. Making out with his own mom so George can play hero? Yes. Throwing a literal pie plate at an old west outlaw to save Doc's life? Also yes. Writing Doc a letter when the dude refuses to listen to Marty's warnings? Absolutely. Saving Doc and Clara with his hoverboard, stealing some kids' skateboards/hoverboards to help him out (which is. morally questionable but inventive and helpful for him), all of these things prove that he's capable of thinking on his feet and has the drive and creativity to get him out of every situation.

Alright, to counter that, let's have a look at his rather bad traits.

Flaws

Everyone who has seen the trilogy at least once is familiar with Marty's chicken complex. Strangely, that only appears from part II and onward, which is. Weird. But I can see where that came from - not wanting to stand in George's shadow, being able to prove that he isn't a chicken or a wimp now that his dad isn't. He wants to show everyone that he's not like the original George, not like the family line of his that "never amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley". Not only is that a flaw in itself, it also gets him into dangerous and even potentially life-threatening situations (e.g. the duel with Buford). I don't know if there's a word for that, but this is his major problem in the sequels.

Connected to that and the root of the chicken thing is Marty's insecurity in himself. And that definitely starts out in Part I. He's scared of rejection, which is why he doesn't even consider sending the tape with his music the record company. This hasn't anything to do with being brave, this is about how Marty perceives himself. And as we see, he doesn't have very. High views. And here's the thing - he actually learns to be less insecure in himself in Part I, by teaching George to be more confident because his literal existence depends on it and he's basically forced to teach George the things he was never taught (well, unless maybe by Doc) and never believed in. After seeing that this has saved himself and his parents' romance, Marty sees that "hm, maybe I should try this for myself" and actually grabs the tape on his way to the dining room to eventually send it later. Then, we dive into Part II and someone - Griff - directly insults his newfound confidence. Boom, cue the chicken complex (which is, by the way, the reason for the entirety of BTTF III lmao).

Marty is also reckless as hell. Not saying that's it's a bad thing to want to keep your loved ones alive, but there is so much that could go wrong and Marty could potentially destroy the world. Well, now he knows how Doc must have felt since 1945 (Yes, this reference was necessary. Forshadowing for my Doc character analysis post <3). He also tends to get in danger because of unfortunate results of a spur-of-the-moment decision, again bringing up the skateboard chase here. He could have died in this and it's not talked about enough. Marty also offended Mad Dog which led to him almost being hanged. Same movie, Marty could have been shot in a duel. Buford could have gone for the head, you know? Marty didn't have a helmet. I wonder how Doc hasn't lost his mind with that boy yet. He's awfully calm throughout all of this. Maybe I should thank Clara for some of that.

Back to the question: What role does Marty play in BTTF?

Well, there's two things: He creates the problems but then also solves them for everyone around him. He learns things for himself. The first movie focuses on George's character arc, leaving Marty's seemingly nonexistent arc in the shadow. But he did get inspiration to get his tapes listened to. Part II, about Biff. Marty learns that being successful easily doesn't mean you've done things for yourself and your own growth, and that it can harm those around you if you're careless, all while the asshole Biff is in the forefront and we see how cruel he can be. Third movie, about Doc. Marty is the one seeing things through Doc's usual angle and he has to make sure Doc gets home (I'm still sad Doc didn't come back with Marty. Like what the fuck :( ) all while dealing with his own problems, and without Doc being here to get him out of that he finally realizes that dying because someone called you yellow isn't worth it. Marty is the protagonist in the "shadow", the hot dude that has the most screentime but is also important to the plot because of his imperfections - which allows us to explore other characters' arcs and personalities. Thanks, Marty.

Marty isn't a flawless character. His flaws are the reason for the damn threequel and 70% of Part II. He's your average, reckless teenage boy who values his friends and family and would do everything for them.

I love that guy.

PHEW. I truly hope all of this makes sense lol I'm writing this at 11:30 PM because, again, this one video pissed me off by saying that Marty is just a flawless, "perfect" hero character.

JOIN ME SOMETIME THIS OR NEXT WEEK FOR DOC HEHE

these are surprisingly fun to write

[mehiwilldoitlater]

Kyojuro and foreigner (purchased) reader

Some drabbles that had come to my mind in the recents days about that au of mine  (still thanks to @viridwns for the insirations)

The first time Kyojuro saw you, he decided that he wanted to help you. Not only because the concept of selling a human being to him was an atrocious act, but mostly because that was something that he knew his mother would have approved of.

What he couldn't predict was that you still had some fight in you. By the looks on your face, the bruises, the cuts, and what he believed was a broken hand, your "seller" must have used a hard hand on you for some specific reason. He realized after having left that rancid market why! No matter how many times he tried to reassure you and make you believe that he wasn't doing you any harm, you never stopped trying to free yourself from him. He was able to evade a few bites and scratches, but for almost all the road, you kept ulling the rope on your wrist. Only when you both reached his family estate did you finally give up, mostly from exhaustion.

Senjuro almost had a heart attack seeing you. You were like a walking corpse! How could someone have treated a human life like that? Maybe it was his calmer voice or the fact that he was just a child, but you gave him more compliance than Kyojuro. Still, trying to bathe and clean you was the biggest fight that the two brothers ever faced. You allowed Senjuro only on the condition of keeping some robes on your shoulder. Trying to clean your hair, which was a muddling mess, with a broken hand wasn't exactly a great idea.

Kyojuro was well aware of your western origins; the sellers were proud to have caught such an exotic creature that could be used for the most despicable thing, but he never guessed that even just eating for you was difficult. Your injuries aside, you had problems eating with chopsticks, speaking, or understanding the normal use of objects. You were, by all means, just like a baby who took the first step in the world.

This didn't stop the two from helping you learn the basic fundamentals of living in their country. Senjuro was an angel, always showing you how to do certain things, teaching you about simpler words, how to dress up, and how to eat. Kyojuro was more interested in helping you learn the language; after all, his loud voice was a help since he used to pronounce every word with his loud voice.

It wasn't planned, but neither of them were able to speak about their father or about you. Because his confinement in his room and his almost constant addiction to alcohol made it simple to keep you hidden from Shinjuro for the next few weeks, He never suspected a thing; after all, he actually never even left his room, so even if you were able to roam the estate, he couldn't catch you. To Kyojuro, it was almost like lying to his own father, but deeply, he was scared of what he could have done to you once he found out about your presence. You were a stranger in his house; yes, Kyojuro and Senjuro deeply cared for you, but Shinjuro? He was another story.

You know that those two weren't alone. You caught a glimpse of that man and guessed that he was an older relative of the two brothers, but you never dared to cross paths with him. You loaded him deep. He used to scream at poor Senjuro and always say some strange words to Kyojuro, words that you were sure weren't anything nice. And the stench of alcohol—you hated them so much. But the two brothers never tried to present you to their father, so you guessed that something was up there.

You never knew why Kyojuro used to carry that sword around. To be honest, you believed he was some sort of police officer, but one day you saw them at the market with Senjuro, and their robes were quite different from his own. At some point, Senjuro tried to explain to you his brother's work, but the idea that monsters roam the night and prey on humans was so unreal. He was lying, so you could never know his brother's real work? You decided to keep your mouth shut.

Even so, Kyojuro started to get the strange habit of checking on you and Snejuro at night, the ones that he could spend with you two. It was like...guarding both of you? ... Maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you.

[duckprintspress]

How to Write a Great Query Letter

Part 2 of a 2-part series of guest posts by Alec J. Marsh. Part 1, “Why Query Letters are Good, Actually,” came out last week; you can read it here!

Alec is also the author of Duck Prints Press’s forthcoming novella To Drive the Hundred Miles, about a young man coming home for the holidays and finding more than he expected. It’s coming out December 21st, 2022. They know what they’re talking about, as an author and about a writer-writing-about-writing, so read on and learn!

Now that you’ve read the first post in this series, and had a week to reflect on it… are you convinced yet? Are you ready to acquire the most important marketing skill of your career? Great! 

If you’re primarily interested in how to pitch to Duck Prints Press specifically, there will be a full post about that coming out in the near future. But I promise, these skills will help you whatever your writing aspirations are. 

1. The Really Boring Part

Most queries open with a paragraph called “metadata.” This is all the marketing stuff that you need to get out of the way so your agent/editor knows what kind of book it is. This includes 

Title: Self-explanatory 

Length: This is vitally important for traditional publishing. If you are a debut author and your story isn’t within the accepted range, you’ll get automatically rejected by most agents. There are very good industry reasons for that, but discussing that’s a different article. If you want to look at the averages, check out this link.

Genre and age range: This is practical for marketing and readership purposes, and it also puts the summary in context. 

Comparative (or Comp) Titles: This is a tricky one, and a full discussion on selecting appropriate comparative titles could easily be its own separate blog post, but the short version is that you should pick titles that your book can be compared to. That can be descriptive—"Supernatural but set in Eastern Europe"—or genre—"For fans of Tamora Pierce"—or even trope based—"Sunshine/Grumpy romance set in a world of danger and magic." There are a ton of options, but the main point is to position your story in the market and make it easy to pick up quickly. 

Logline: This serves a similar purpose as the comp titles do and is meant to sum up one cool part of your story. It doesn’t have to sum up the entire story. For example, Gideon the Ninth sounds wild if you try to summarize the plot, but I’ve been able to convince all my friends to read it by saying simply, “it’s about lesbian necromancers in space.” That’s all you need! In casual conversation, this is often called your “elevator pitch.” Imagine you’re at a convention and you get into the elevator with your dream agent, and you have only the length of the elevator ride to sell them your novel. What do you say? That’s your logline.

***Both comp titles and logline are technically optional, and you don’t need both of them. It’s better to write something unique than to waste the space putting something in just because you think you need it. 

2. The Biography

This usually goes at the end of the query. Don’t overthink it. If you have any credentials, put those in; relevant credentials can include past publications, editing jobs, or a creative writing degree. Then write one to two sentences that make you sound interesting. For example, I say that I like long walks in the fog (because I write moody fantasy) and have a history degree (because it inspires my fantasy world building). 

3. The Body

I left this until the last because it’s the hardest and most important part. A killer summary will make up for dull metadata and a lackluster bio. But if the body of your query letter is weak, no MFA in the world will save you. This section should be 300 words maximum.  

Your simplest formula for including what needs to be in this paragraph is four sentences: LEAD, OBJECTIVE, CONFLICT, TWIST. It’s simpler than you think to write the first draft. I promise. Let it be terrible, get it down, then edit it to a fine shine (much like you’ve already done with that novel!). 

Lead: This is your main character. Name them and describe them by including their profession, skills, or other plot-relevant details. 

Objective: What does your main character want? Try to make this as specific as possible. “Longs for  acceptance” is vague and generic. “Wants to be accepted into the Book Guild” is specific and gives a reader clues about their personality and the setting. You can put in some information about motivation here too. Maybe her father was also a bookbinder and she needs to redeem the family name. 

Conflict: Now we’re getting to the meat of it! Why can’t your main character get what they want? Again, try to be specific and don’t leave it to platitudes. If the bookbinders just don’t like her, that’s generic. If they don’t like her because they think she’s as corrupt as her father was and will bring ruin to them, that’s something a reader can really dig into. We have themes implied now! We understand this is a story about family ties, redemption, and preconceived notions, and you didn’t even need to spell that out. 

Twist: This is the most nebulous part of the query. The twist can be a real plot twist, like her discovering that the bookbinding guild also sells occult books. It can be a cool thing about the setting, like the bookstore being on an airship. It can be the romantic subplot, if she falls in love with her rival apprentice. It can be the historical inspiration, if the book is set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Renaissance Italy. In short, what makes your book special? What’s going to prompt people to shove it in their friend’s faces? It’s similar to the logline in that way. 

You can also put the twist at the beginning of the body paragraph, if it’s really cool. You can weave it throughout. You can put it at the end in a mic drop moment. Just make your book sound cool. That’s literally all this is! 

And those three sections…are basically it! Doesn’t sound so scary now, right? Oh wait, it still does? Okay, then, here’s some more tips to help you!

Write down everything you need in a query in whatever order works for you. I do it like a sad, clunky mad libs just so it’s all on the page. It’s a lot of pressure to include all this important information AND make it pretty in one go. 

Ask your beta readers to help! It’s hard to summarize your own stories when you’ve been living inside them for months. I’ve helped so many friends with their queries because they wrote something perfectly serviceable and technically correct that somehow still made their story sound frightfully boring. (This is not a condemnation of their skill as writers. The skills needed to write queries are completely different.) 

Don’t use rhetorical questions. This is mostly personal taste, but I think they’re a waste of space. “Will she follow her heart?” is sort of useless when 99% of stories are about people following their heart. “She must choose between her ambition and the chance at true love” is so much more clear and includes more conflict. 

The body of your query letter actually only needs to include the first 30-50% of the story in most cases—enough to leave the reader/agent/editor eager to know what happens next, and no more. This isn’t true if the twist is necessary to understanding why the story is exciting. Can you imagine trying to sell Gone Girl without including the twist that it was all a set up? That twist took the story from generic true crime to something truly original. So to some extent, you’ll need to use your judgment, but there’s rarely any need to try to fit the whole plot into that 300-word paragraph.

Above all, be specific. 

Do not shy away from giving spoilers (again: BE SPECIFIC). “She finds information that may change everything,” are seven words that tell you nothing. If you say what the information is (“she finds a note from her father that makes it clear he was framed”), you’ll leave the reader desperate to know what the outcome will be, begging for the rest of the story. 

Get the query competent and coherent, and then leave it for at least a week. This is good editing advice for any story, but it’s absolutely vital for a query. Because they’re so short and so much rides on them, every single word you write in the query has to be useful, and every sentence has to be clear, concise, and intriguing. Don’t rush this; it’s better to go slow and get it right then hurry along and face a pile of rejections. 

Have a query beta reader who hasn’t read your story. Make sure it makes sense with no context. Revise it again. Leave it for another week. (I’m sorry. But I’m not really.)

I know this sounds like a lot. Query letters are hard, and the pressure makes it harder. Writing culture loves to hate on them, for good reason. But you learned to write a novel, something that takes years to master! You can learn to write a query letter too. I won’t pretend it’s easy, but it is a skill you can learn, and it’s worth it! With a single page, you can convince people to buy your book, and that’s magical! 

-

You can learn more about Alec here; you can learn more about To Drive the Hundred Miles here, and read a teaser here. And, you can check out Alec’s two already-published erotica works Heart’s Scaffolding and Study Hall.

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

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