#also its harder to write an description in english

[joifee]

"xB", M.C. Joifee, 2023, Digital Drawing with Medibang Paint Pro, 30.2 x 19.9cm, uploaded on the artists tumblr-blog

This artpiece was drawn during @shepscapades hermit character-design event all through june. The artist M.C. Joifee was inspired by the painting "Ophelia" by the british artist Sir John Everett Millais, drawn 1851-1852.

The imagine depicts xBcrafted lying inside a shallow river in a similar pose to Ophelia in the original painting. Other than Ophelia his eyes are closed, making him appear more peaceful than Ophelia. He is surrounded by floating cherry-blossom, choosen by the artist due to the current 1.20 update of minecraft, which introduced the cherry-grove biome.

The river is surrounded by minecraft-typical fauna. On the shore of xB's right side is an azalea tree is growing from the ground. On the left side sugarcane is growing next to a sandy beach. On the left side of the picture, parts of a stone bridge is visible. Possible a bridge build by xB himself or another unknown to us hermit.

Floating particals let us assume that theres a sporeblossom and a cherry tree nearby.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

You know what fucks with me? Is it ever like actually fully explained how in the Deathly Hallows, Ron and Hermione get into the Chamber of Secrets by themselves. Is Parseltongue just a language people can learn now? Did they make Ron retroactively a Parselmouth too? Or is the chamber dumb enough that you can do the snake equivalent of meowing back at a cat at it and it'll go 'seems legit'

Another one for the 'what the heck happened to the writing in this book' pile maybe

Honestly, yes, that was so contrived, and for, like, no reason.

I mean, the explanation in the book is this:

“But how did you get in there?” he asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. “You need to speak Parseltongue!” Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise. “It’s what you did to open the locket,” he told Harry apologetically. “I had to have a few goes to get it right, but,” he shrugged modestly, “we got there in the end.”

(DH, 623)

So, it's exactly a person meowing back at a cat, you're spot on with that description. It's so bad Harry doesn't actually recognize it as words in Parsletongue the way he always does, because Ron isn't speaking it! He isn't actually saying anything, just hissing randomly!

Which makes it bizarre the chamber actually opened to him like this. Seems like either loose security, some contrived magic helping Ron out or he was very lucky. Honestly, I prefer to believe he got the hissing lucky that one time, it seems more probable than the other options.

JKR did state in an interview Dumbledore learned Parsletongue, or at least, knew to understand it when spoken to him, but I don't treat it as canon. It doesn't make sense with everything we know about Parseltongue as a magical language, the way speakers of it just hear it as English, Harry has to strain for a moment to realize it's a different language (he can tell in the memories in book 6 if he listens carefully). Also, Dumbledore seems to me in these memories he's showing Harry like he doesn't understand the Parsletongue. And as I take the books' texts over the interviews when it comes to evidence, I don't believe he can and I chose to believe you can't learn Parsletongue and Ron got really lucky with one of his attempts to mimic Harry.

All in all, it seems she just decided you could learn Parsletongue in book 7 and ran with it. I don't even know why, since, like, it wasn't necessary? There were plenty of pages she could've replaced with Harry going down to the chamber considering how much time is spent on very little, well, anything. And if she really didn't want to add that scene it could've been an invisible scene like: "Harry opened the Chamber for Ron and Hermione to retrieve basilisk fangs,"

Like, I get wanting to give Ron a win, but he gets wins, he destroyed the locket and there are other ways to give him wins that don't include changing the very rules of magic.

Book 7 annoys me from an analysis standpoint, it makes theorizing harder instead of easier sometimes and it frustrates me so much more than the frankly bizarre writing choices. Although they bother me too, especially the pacing and structure of the book, but that's a whole rant on its own.

[so-many-ocs]

a guide to formatting dialogue (it's harder than you'd think!)

a request from instagram that i'm posting here. buckle up, because this is a long one!

if a spoken sentence ends in a period, don’t use a dialogue tag. either replace the period with a comma or replace the dialogue tag with a separate sentence indicating a related action or description.

incorrect: “I need to go.” he said.

even more incorrect: “I need to go.” He said.

correct: “I need to go,” he said. or “I need to go.” He pushed back his chair and stood.

this rule does not apply to other types of punctuation such as question marks or exclamation points.

leave the dialogue tag lowercase, no matter what. (proper nouns remain capitalized)

incorrect: “When are we leaving?” She asked. ("She asked" is not a complete sentence)

correct: “When are we leaving?” she asked. (the line of dialogue is included in the complete sentence)

when formatting dialogue, you can add natural pauses by breaking up a spoken line with a dialogue tag or an action.

correct: “Wait,” they said. “I feel like this is getting overly complicated.” (within the lines of dialogue, ‘wait’ is its own sentence, so you use a period after ‘they said.’ you can remove the dialogue tag and it would be written like this: “Wait. I feel like this is getting overly complicated.”)

also correct: “I’m running out of sentence ideas,” they muttered, shifting in place, “but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” (if you wrote the dialogue without the tag and action, it would look like this: “I’m running out of sentence ideas, but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” adding the dialogue tag lengthens the natural pause created by the comma. also it’s 3am while i’m writing this. “go to sleep,” you say. to which i say, “did you not read my example sentence?”)

still correct i think (probably but english grammar is a total bitch): “I am going to stop now—” Here, she began rummaging through her bag, before producing a slender vial filled with shimmering liquid, “—and show you something of great importance.” (if you removed the interrupting action, the sentence would be written like this: “I am going to stop now and show you something of great importance.” there is no comma, so the pause being added is for effect, rather than for grammatical purposes. use an em dash (two hyphens, formats like: —) or ellipses (...). additionally, the action is its own separate sentence, rather than being attached to the dialogue as a tag, so it is capitalized.)

an additional note on em dashes: if they are used in a sentence, be it for an interjection, an interruption, a pause, or a secret fourth thing, there is no space before or after the dash. here’s an example from my wip: “Now, though—and overnight, it seemed—the two were acting as a unit, leaving her on the outside.”

if, for whatever reason, a character is speaking in paragraphs, the formatting gets a bit wonky.

“This is going to be the shortest example paragraph ever, but here goes. I am going to write three sentences so this qualifies as a paragraph. Two sentences might also qualify, but I am nothing if not committed to the bit. “New paragraph,” she continued, “same speaker. Wow, look, I incorporated an earlier concept to demonstrate it in a different context. How cool is that? You should totally follow whoever is posting such great writing advice.”

there is no end quote after the first paragraph, but there is a start quote at the beginning of the second paragraph. the end quote comes whenever the speaker is finished. why? i have no idea; i didn’t invent the english language, i just work here.

you can use colons and semicolons in dialogue. it gets a bit awkward, but we’ve just covered paragraph formatting, so how hard can it be?

correct: He asked: “What on earth are you talking about?” (colon in place of a comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

also correct: They said, “It’s getting late, isn't it?” (comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

incorrect: “What on earth are you talking about?”: he asked. (the question mark functions as a comma and eliminates the need for a colon. also, as a rule of thumb, the ending punctuation does not get placed outside of the quotation marks)

still incorrect: He asked; “What on earth are you talking about?” (use a comma)

you can also use colons and semicolons within lines of dialogue (as you would in a normal sentence)

stylistic choices

you do not have to use quotation marks in dialogue, but whatever you choose to do, do it consistently.

For example, some writers format their dialogue in italics, they said. But grammatical and punctuation rules still apply.

Others don’t use italics and just hope people can spot the dialogue or action tags, she supplied. This can get a bit confusing, but I think that’s the point.

— Some use dashes to indicate the start of a line of dialogue, and, of course, the standard varies from place to place and language to language.

‘Still more use single quotes,’ he offered, ‘though I’m not sure why. Maybe it looks better.’

that's it for now! really, you could probably write a book on this topic alone, and cover every minute detail of grammar within dialogue (how would one format an interrobang, i wonder?), but here's a kind-of-basic-but-still-dense guide :)

buy me a ko-fi | what's the deal with radio apocalypse?

[arson-09]

Feyre not knowing how to read… doesn’t make sense?

she said she wasnt taught to read, and other social related things because she was too young when they lost their fortune. However she says she was 8 when their mother died, and they lost their fortune soon after.

Now theres no certainty over what historical era fits the mortal lands best, which makes it harder to base at what age you learned to read but clearly women were taught (her sisters learned) but at what age? I learned to read at around 4, half the age of feyre. And historically boys were taught around the same age too (I used english Tudor era because i felt it fit the description best but if theres another lemme know) so feyre not knowing how to read because of her age doesn’t make sense

Now this could have been easily solved by her having a learning disability like dyslexia, didn’t have to be by name but make it clear she struggles because of reasons outside her control. Otherwise her not being able to read or write doesn’t make sense. Which is a common issue found in sjms books sadly, giving characters a trait or issue that makes no sense. sigh

edit: yes she was neglected, that kind of explains it but it makes me question why? i genuinely cant remember if its explained or not WHY her parents didnt gaf (which also makes her strange loyalty to her father confusing?) Maybe its just because but thats such a unfulfilling answer. Yes its common in real life for that, I can’t suspend my belief for this one. Just because doesn’t cut it for fantasy fiction books, non-fic and contemporary sure but in fantasy it feels cheap

and i wanna make it clear cause i already got a weird ass anon message, im not criticizing feyre as a character? im talking about the writing choices and how i feel about them as a reader and writer.

[impending-day]

Can you tell me/us what you can about your conlang(s)?

YES!!!!! YES HAPPILY!!!!!

Ferise/Herise

Basics

started this conlang in 2019 while taking french. i think its cause i wanted to one-up french [i hated it]. theres 11 different pronouns:

h͡a [i], e͡n [you], fr͡e [he], dr͡e [she], hr͡e [they singular], e [it], heh͡r [we], nr͡er [you all], fo͡er [they male plural], do͡er [they female plural], and ho͡er [they neutral/mixed plural].

theres also four different standard verb conjugations [with no exceptions!!]:

-o͡n verbs, -y͡i verbs, -x verbs, and -s͡h verbs.

the line above two letters indicates that they are actually one letter within the ferise/herise alphabet! they usually have a unique pronounciation that isnt replicated within any other letter or letter combination.

speaking of letters, heres a picture of the alphabet:

a whopping 42 unique letters! wow!!

each letter has one assigned pronounciation. theres nothing like "o can make 15 different sounds depending on the word" like in english. of theres a letter, you automatically know what sound it makes, cause theres only one sound it can be!

another note is that there are, naturally, some sounds missing, like the "ch" sound and the "th" sound. those are unfortunately not part of ferise [more on herise later].

Grammar

the grammar of ferise/herise takes inspiration from a lot of languages. as i only speak english fluently, it naturally takes from english. but its also partially inspired by french, russian, japanese, and chinese, and thats only the ones i can come up with off the top of my head!

sentence structure is still very much subject/predicate like it is in english. "thing does action" is fairly standard for germanic languages i think [im not a linguist so feel free to correct me], and naturally ferise/herise also takes from them.

verb conjugations are also fairly standard. theres a certain form each verb takes based on what the subject is. in order to make it future or past tense, all you need to do is add a few letters on the end. to negate a verb, add another few letters onto the very back of the verb, behind past/future indicators. no fancy schmancy "past perfect" whatever the hell that shit is no thank you 😭

adjectives always go after the word they describe, no need for "and" or commas or anything like that. im thinking of adding a word to indicate the end of a description, something simple like "ib".

prepositions are where the chinese influence comes into play! i was reading an article that said they go before the verb, and then describe the first objects relation to the second object after the verb. so i borrowed that! so if you want to say "i am on the road", you would instead say "i on am road" [there are no articles like "a" or "the"].

question words wrap around the entire sentence. the beginning of the sentence always starts with "bom", and the end is a question word! some conditionals like "can" and "must" behave similarly to question words, and go right before question words at the end of a sentence.

making words plural is fun, since theres two methods! the first is for small amounts but still multiple of an object. you repeat the last two letters of the word, tack em onto the end of the word. for larger groups of objects, you disregard the first method and tack on "a͡ef" at the end of the word!

thats most of what i have right now with grammar. im working on trying to do comparisons, but nothing i found is right yet.

Wait! What's "Herise"?

great question!! its a dialect of ferise, complete with its own slightly separate pronounciations and preferences for name lettering.

writing: herise is more commonly written in cursive [which is notably Much Harder but more fun to write]! what makes cursive so difficult is all the letters end up in different spots on the line: some end above the line, some below, some in the middle, its all over the place. very tricky!

pronounciation: theres a few letters that have differing pronounciations from their ferise counterparts, most notably being the letter "d". remember how i said the "th" sound doesnt exist in ferise? well thats the sound it makes in herise, similar to that of a "ð" and not a "þ" [more "the" and less "thick"]. theres some other details i dont really feel like getting into cause this post is already a monster. ill leave you with some examples of ferise/herise writing!

[yabashiri]

I'm back with a bang. Project Fiction - an Irumatsu and Irujnko fic will be finally published in its entirety! First arc is up, at about 50k words and 7 chapters. Read more to see if it's your cup of tea.

Do you hate some things about DR canon? Do you wish the talent system in Hope's Peak was more explored? Then read no further! I'll copy some bullet points from PF's description on AO3 and explain them in more details.

This work has: - Heavy OOC for Iruma and Kaede

PF!Iruma is not lewd, but she's a hothead, a reserve course student, and she also likes basketball. Weird, right? She also has nothing to do with inventions, her true talent is more of an abstract concept in line with your usual 'hope' and 'despair' gimmicks. It allows me to create a story with no killing games, but filled with tension similar to how Death Note is considered a 'shounen' even though it's a detective mystery.

As for Kaede, be warned that she only appears in chapter 8 for the first time. Remember her pre!game line in v3? "I don't have faith in humanity". What if I based her entire character on that and pitted against this Iruma? You can't imagine how heated it gets. - In-depth exploration of how Hope's Peak works, what's a 'talent' and how it impacts the chosen students

Do you know how talents are assigned? How scouts do their work? How exactly Kamukura Izuru was made and what studying on the reserve course is like? I know, and I'll show you in great detail.

- Nods to the canon, while turning the plot of DR1 upside-down.

Junko's game plan stays the same: kill the council, rebel the reserve course, fill the world with despair. With Iruma, however... not all goes as planned. It's not a story about people stuck together until almost all of them die. We go from Hope's Peak to an open world, and you'll see famously neon Tokyo in all its glory.

- Heated gay arguments, a weird online game, absurd talents beyond your average human standards.

While the story goes beyond ships and their dynamics, it has that in spades. I also present to you a certain game by Team DANGAN, and it's not about a pun-making bear torturing students. Imagine Genshin Impact's combat but more tactical, focused on PvP. That -- and much more.

- An abundance of author notes. This one has a lot to say.

I'll be straight with you, I put a shit ton of details into my works. Chekhov's Armoury is a trope I came up with before I realized it existed. I'll give you fanarts, songs, memes. Basically I've never had a lot of readers so I had to get used to creating fan content by myself.

- Typos I am translating this work into English, and while I'm pretty confident in my abilities, I am not perfect. It's kinda hard to know how real people talk when you're not exposed to the language on a daily basis. If anyone wants to be my beta, I'll be honored.

Translating this thing is ungodly hard. Writing it took me 4 years and was even harder. This story means a lot to me, I put my heart and soul into it, and I truly hope someone will enjoy it as much as I do. I also hope someone makes a TV Tropes page for it one day :D This is my only dream as a creator.

Give it a shot -- you won't regret it.

I hope.

[weirdcat1213]

MXTX and Marie Lu: an unnecessary long post about writers I like very very much

spoilers for Heaven Officials Blessing and the Legend series but not that bad

tldr; They describe things and I like that but I had to make it this long and add some stuff about writing and cultural expectations cuz i guess ill always be an english major at heart

Ok so I need to get this off my chest so I hope youre interested in writing, describing things and cultural expectations

So I've started reading Heaven Officials Blessing cuz I like gay and sad people and I love the donghua so much but BOI THAT WOMAN CAN HURT ME SO GOOD >:D

The simplicity of her words may be due to translation, her own style or part of the normal style in China but it contributes a lot to the books in my opinion. It is because of her simplicity that the reader is able to follow her long and detail descriptions.

Now, a lot of writers like to describe things, and MXTX does this a lot. She describes clothes, places, faces, etc when it's necessary for the story. But what I love about her is how she describes certain actions and moments.

There are moments that just cannot be described in 3 sentences, they're too important. The example that I want to show has not left my mind since I read it because it was one of the best slaps in the face ever.

TGCF Vol. 2: (from the free version I could find but it'll do)

"Before he even finished, there was a loud scream, and Hong Hong-er leapt to his feet, running towards Guoshi to headbutt him.

His voice was young and tender, but his screams were filled with rage, as if his heart was filled to the brim with unspeakable pain and anguish, making many of those present shiver. That young child was covered in injuries, yet he tore and hit out at them like a red-eyed rabid dog, violent and aggressive.

The Deputy Guoshi blocked Hong Hong-er and Guoshi backed away, yelling, “MAKE HIM LEAVE THE MOUNTAIN, HURRY! Don’t touch him, I mean it! That fortune is too toxic, don’t touch him!”

The Deputy Guoshi hurriedly moved aside, and Mu Qing and Feng Xin didn’t know whether to act. Seeing that everyone was avoiding him like he was a poisonous snake, that child was

shaken and started thrashing even harder, biting and screaming.

“I’m not! I’M NOT!! I’M NOT!!!!”

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped him around the waist, encircling his small form. A voice came from above his head.

Like look at this! This moment cant be longer than 2 minutes and its described in such way that breaks me. The voice and actions of the little kid (who is kinda doing a bad job saying "hey im not actually dangerous/toxic") get under your skin. The descriptions of his voice, his figure, how he looks yelling, how everyone reacts to this moment, how the MC reacts to this...its all just so amazing. The description grabs you by the ear and it makes you listen, it makes you watch. And thanks to that harrowing description the last bit really gets to the reader. Finally someone bothered to actually listen to the kid and console him. It's so fucking beautiful and it makes me want to eat glass. It really gives you the feelings that an angel really came from above to save a child from the pain in his own heart.

“You’re not. I know you’re not. Don’t cry, now. I know you’re not.”

That young child pressed his lips closed tightly, grabbing on to that pair of snow-white sleeves around his waist with a death grip. He forced himself to hold back for a long time, but in the end, he couldn’t. A stream of tears suddenly rolled down from that round, black eye, and he burst out crying."

And all this emotion, this care for the craft reminded me of something, of someone. The queen the legend Marie Lu.

Although I would say she follows the regular American conventions when it comes to writing (she is american after all), she also takes care in her descriptions. However, in this case I want to talk about how she describes feelings. Marie Lu's characters are not just happy or sad but they have Feelings that just need to be expressed on the page otherwise they will explode. An example:

LEGEND SERIES BOOK 4 REBEL:

I nod again. "I'm sorry. I-"

"I find myself nodding through my tears, wishing I could have turned to him sooner, wishing I could be more like him in every way. "I see them every night," I say to him, my words breaking. "They're there every time I close my eyes, I jump at every sound. I see a soldier in every person standing at a corner. I thought- I thought if I could just drown it all out in the Undercity, if I could replace it with something else so loud and overwhelming, that it might go away- I thought if I could just see the Republic again, return home and understand my past..."

The pain in Daniel's eyes is raw and real. The fear of this was what had kept me silent for so long. He nods once, his hands firmly on my shoulders. "I see them too," he says quietly. "I should have talked to you about my nightmares. I can't expect you to open up to me if I don't do the same."

"Don't be." His eyes soften, and he pulls me into a hug. "You didn't do anything wrong."

It is his embrace that finally breaks my last barrier. I cry and cry and cry. I cry because I'd never let myself truly understand my own brother, because I'd never understood myself. I cry for all the lives that our pasts have set on different paths- for June's loss of her family, for Tess's loss of her childhood, for Daniel becoming a parent when he was himself just a boy. I cry because I'm grateful that we still, in spite of everything, have all found each other.

Because sometimes, broken pieces find a way to make a new whole."

NOW WHY AM I BOTHERING WITH ALL OF THIS. A couple of days ago one of my favorite video essayist youtubers said that his best writing advice was to keep things simple, that that was the best way to write.

This is just one of my favorite moments ever. The MC has been bottling things up for the whole book and on that scene he finally let's everything go. His brother also finally let's go his own fear and allows himself to be soft with his brother. The scene, however, would not work as well as it does without the description of the moment right before he breaks down crying. The feelings he can sense from his brother, his own feelings about his own perceived weakness, etc. These descriptions just gives the reader a window to see how much the characters have in their hearts. Again, it's so many emotions they could explode. Like this scene could have cut short in multiple ways and if it was recorded for a TV show it would not feel as long as it does in the book. Lu bothers with these descriptions to remind the reader that the characters have real feelings inside. They twist and change as it would happen to someone real and that's amazing. I love how she does it every time.

So how come these scenes, really description heavy, are this fucking cool and a short and fast description would not have been able to make them justice?

It's because usually when we talk about "keeping things simple" or "show dont tell" we want to apply them for everything. We want to apply them no matter the author, genre, target audience, etc.

This book explains it way better that I ever could but basically, writing tips and advice are based on what we consider normal. Most people consider the american conventions the rule, so when someone doesn't apply them to their writing, the writing is flawed. In the same book it is mentioned how typical Chinese writing prefers telling over showing things. They just love the details and that can be seen in MXTX's writing. She is following conventions that usually would be deemed as "wrong." Going back to Marie Lu, I want to think that she knows a bit about Chinese writing but she also knows that, even if its not the rule, descriptions help her writing alot; which is why she does it.

This is a nice and long way to tell you that when you read something pls do it with an open mind. Please dont have a mental list of what makes good of bad writing ready to point out an author's flaws. You could be discovering a new convention from a different culture, a convention that can be game changing for the book.

[dailybbq]

HI WOW I LOVE UR ART

if possible can u drop some of ur qtaro hc's? its rare to meet another qtaro enjoyer !! :D

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! i'm always so happy to find others who enjoy him - it's been a little easier since 3-1 now that other people actually consider him :'P!! & yes of course! i have many, but i think (since it is a 'general' prompt), i will leave it to the basic headcanons on his backstory/character for now :]

DAY 2: WHO IS HE?!

- Ethnically Puerto-Rican & Scottish-Japanese! He's fluent in Japanese, Spanish, and English (less so, he's uncertain about some pronunciations and prefers writing it out instead of speaking it) - where he grew up has certainly affected the sort of intense emphasis/descriptive language he uses in Japanese, but Spanish has also affected the style in which he speaks :D + he also really enjoys learning about other cultures (and reconnecting with his own!) through language & conversing with the people there. It's much more interesting and personal than simply... reading research other people have gathered on them.

- Transmasc non-binary; primarily uses he/him in English, él/lo in Spanish! He also finds neopronouns fun. Though he doesn't elect to use them for himself, he doesn't mind if others do!!

- Bisexual & polyamorous also :] I have a small (often not too relevant, other than me providing further context to all of those Q-taro's had to leave behind for the Death Game) headcanon that he has a boyfriend named Yusuke (友輔) who he met in high school! Yusuke's also struggled academically, to the point that he fell a year behind Q-taro — having to make-up the credits for that extra year before he could finally graduate. Soon after, when he was able to make it through his undergraduate degree, they celebrated together... and through an drunk accident, Q-taro severely injured himself. This is the incident shown in-game, and it's what plays into his struggles of realizing how much he's seemingly 'left behind' and how stagnant his life feels while Yusuke continues school, the kids at the orphanage are growing up, the team's already figured out a strategy to make up for his absence... but, well. I digress.

- Q-taro really loves taking photos of his day-to-day. Even if he's not often the one in the pictures, he loves getting to see his friends smiling at some stupid joke he made behind the camera, or taking more subtle pictures when they're casually hanging out and laughing — not purposefully smiling for the camera or anything... it feels far more genuine.

...Hence, his 'treasure' in the prize exchange is a camera the kids got for him on his birthday one year. Photos of his life before the Death Game are still in the cartridge — even the one he took of Yusuke moments before he was hospitalized and isolated from everyone he cared for. Asunaro grants him this to serve both as a reminder of his loved ones waiting for him, and of how devastated he was when he was injured and felt as if his life was passing him by. In this 'Game', his life will be stolen — and Q-taro still has a life he wants to live... he has to live...

- In any case... I also think he has a chronic limp from (physical) bullying he endured when he was younger (he never really tried to fight back, and they went harder on him because he was dark-skinned + a large kid, they assumed he could take more of a beating). He healed up well enough, and it doesn't impair his skill on the field at all, but it is noticeable when you notice him casually walking. When Asunaro replaced his limbs upon request, they still had to implement some weakness in it such that he wouldn't question or overcompensate for the limp he's always had. (& adjacently related, but I do delve more into a pre-/no-Death Game AU reference here if you're interested!)

- Additionally, I do believe he's coded in-game to have autism — whether or not it was as intentional as Gin's pre-established symptoms, it remains true in my mind... The ways in which he connects with Gin and Kai, his literal and blunt manner of addressing things (there are many instances, but particularly the start of 2-1 where he belatedly realizes that although he'd like to applaud Sara for being strong, he needs to instead focus on the fact she's still in a vulnerable place and try to support her that way... 'cause she is still a kid, even if she's trying to act like a leader right now. It's also why his later conversation with her quickly veers into the topic of 'casual life' — by way of distraction and finding comfort for her sake, because he knows Asunaro's pushing the participants' limits intentionally), the intense 'passion' he holds for many things... you must see my vision, yes...

With that, and the context of many other participants in-game canonically having schizo-spec disorders, I also headcanon him to have schizo-affective bipolar disorder. He foremost experiences auditory hallucinations, and occasionally has to double-check with those he cares for to make sure they weren't calling him, or that they didn't say something that his brain has latched onto and repeated (which, when not idly irritating, can be upsetting phrases that he internalizes). When he's experiencing manic episodes, he often goes days unable to sleep because he feels both physically and mentally restless — he'll often struggle to manage his frustration/sensory overload in his attempts to physically wear himself out (in the hopes it gets him to finally rest) & he tends to intensely focus on various inane hobbies he'll drop soon after the episode ends. This includes (but is not limited to): testing out pottery, collecting and sorting different washi tapes, researching and testing the differences in fungi, and baking (he normally just cooks; baking isn't his thing (although he loves pastries)). Q-taro also struggles immensely with articulating himself aloud (this also ties into the autism) when it comes to more lengthy or serious discussions. While he understands what he wishes to say, he can't often figure out a good way of getting it out — hence defaulting to physical touch and affection to reassure others.

- Speaking of his favored physical touch! I think he enjoys all forms of it, but ultimately prefers:

- Hugging (people are usually shorter than him, and he likes hugging them, then picking them up in the air and spinning him... though he's also fond of casual moments where he gets to lean down over someone's shoulder while they're busy and hug them like that) - Hands on one's face (when he's comforting a kid, he often holds their face to help them feel 'steady' & to make it easier to wipe away their tears (or, lets them lean into his shoulder to hide the tears), and will gently nudge their chin up when he's trying to inspire some confidence. he likes letting his loved ones close to his face, because he considers that a really vulnerable part of someone. (also... he thinks it's cute when Yusuke pinches his cheeks when he pretends to be scolding him.)) - Hand-holding!!! (it's nice, and as i've shown above... he likes being gentle with his loved ones. but, whether it's something silly like swinging their hands around, or holding their hand in public for comfort's sake, or simply something to help them ground themselves... he just enjoys knowing they're there.)

And... I think that is all I'm going to add for now!! I hope this suffices; thank you for reading through! Maybe next time I'll delve more into my hcs of how he interacts with some of the cast (or, perhaps simply draw that out :D)

[groundzero-v]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Thank you @gracelesslady23 for tagging me! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Only 8 (one is still waiting to be revealed in the prongsfoot fest!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

121,775 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter, and then mostly barely known fandoms haha (I have a soft spot for rareships), I'm thinking about writing for svss or mdzs too though

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

I don't wanna listen anymore - prongsfoot, multi-chapter, misunderstandings

Ad Infinitum - cyberpunk game, one-shot

Rising over dying flames - bnha gen fic, percy jackson au, two shot

Kintsugi - prongsfoot, multi-chapter

Marauder's Guide to Saving the Wizarding World - prongsfoot longfic, current wip, Marauders fight Voldemort AU, Triwizard Tournament arc, overload of pining, Marauder banter

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! I really treasure nice comments and re-read them often. They are very special to me. I try to always reply, even when the comment is only a word, but sometimes responding takes me some time

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really do angty endings haha. I'm a very happy ending oriented person, I like my angst only before the very end. So angstiest? Probably nothing

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them! But so far probably the unrevealed prongsfoot festa fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got some slightly weird comments but so far (thankfully) not any outright hate. I'm very lucky that people in the prongsfoot fandom are so incredibly nice

9. Do you write smut?

Ah, not really. I do like to read spicy fics sometimes but it depends

10. Do you write cross-overs?

It depends on the definition, I like to put characters into different universes, but the original characters of that work don't exist when I do. So it's more of an Alternate universe!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Hopefully not? I'm afraid to know, but I don't think my fics are popular enough to be stolen haha. (Whoever steals fics should be deeply ashamed though!)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Once so far, to russian

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't, I imagine it's really difficult, but it could be a lot of fun as well

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Prongsfoot!

I fell in love with them a long time ago and I really love writing or reading about them. The characters feel so comforting to me and I love the intensity and devotion they have for each other.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

I currently have only one real WIP published, the Marauder's Guide. For me its really easy for self-doubt to set in when writing long fics so it becomes harder and harder to push myself to write next chapter after not picking it up for a while. But I really want to finish it. I think it will take a long time but I will do it! Hopefully?

So I suppose the answer is my wip for the Sirius Black fest. I have this great idea in my head, but when I try to put it to page it sounds so bad it makes me lose motivation. We will see if I can push through haha (It's prongsfoot by the way because of course it is).

16. What are your writing strenghts?

I saw banter mentioned a lot in comments so probably that! I really like writing dialogues between the Marauders and especially James and Sirius. I also really like adding in tiny character or worldbuilding details

17. What are you writing weaknesses?

Description definitely. Pacing too, especially in the first drafts. Actions during dialogues maybe? I sometimes struggle to describe who is doing what to show exactly what I have in my head. The biggest problem is definitely endings though. I always rush them :(

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Overall I don't add another language to my fics. I never know how much to translate, how much time spend with it and so on, so I use it very very little.

Technically though, English is my second language, so I'm always writing in a different language haha.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter! I think it was Prongsfoot as well

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

I think I tend to like my newer works because the older ones make me embarrassed by their writing haha. So probably Marauder's Guide! It's an idea very dear to my heart, even if it's not perfect in the slightest

Tagging @plecotusauritus @padfootastic @roalinda (no pressure!)

[not-poignant]

if ur still doing the writing meme (i've liked all ur answers even the 'unpopular' ones a haikyuu fic i loved once got rewritten and i'm still sad i never saved the first one because i didn't realize the author didn't like it and i wish i'd commented more or sth to make them know we loved the og so much) -> 13 and 34 plz

Ahh I'm sorry you went through that anon re: the Haikyuu! fic. Please don't guilt-trip yourself for it. Authors have lots of reasons for rewriting a fic, or deleting a fic, and sometimes even when it's had thousands of kudos they will still do it.

It sounds like you commented in general (since you say 'commented more' instead of just commented) which is like... really awesome. Who knows, maybe the author thought they were giving you the better version! You can always leave a comment and ask if they still have the original chapters on file somewhere if that author's still active, and if they'd be willing to share them with you somehow.

Now to the meme:

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

I was going to answer this with 'easy, everything I don't write' lmao because I just avoid the stuff I find hardest. But that's kind of...not the point. So in all seriousness:

Big ensemble scenes with big ensemble casts. I don't know why I insist on writing these a fair bit, but anything that has more than two characters in a scene is a struggle. More than four is like 'OH GOD.' It's just a lot of work in a different kind of way.

Happy endings. It's not that they're difficult to write, exactly, it's that I'm often...kind of sad to be letting go of the story and I feel like I've already let it go at the point that I'm writing the happy ending. Like, I am not happiest when I'm writing the happy ending, though I want it to feel really really good for readers. I love happy endings, but I also get really noticeable lag and slow down a bit towards the end of stories, because I have less motivation. An ending means letting go of that version of the world, or that installment, and my brain is like 'dun wanna.'

Beginnings/openings. I don't really enjoy the first few pages of a first chapter and I know I'm not often good at beginnings which further preys on my 'everyone is going to hate this story' insecurity I have at the beginning of a new thing.

Action scenes used to be in this but they're not as much anymore. But I do really struggle with sex scenes too! And I think that's a reason I don't write them as much as I used to. It's not a bad thing, one of the reasons they're harder is because I want them to be good and I just don't want to do carbon copies of previous sex scenes and I've now written like 200 of them.

As for things I find easy, hmm. I'm going to go with broadscale characterisation and dialogue. I also think generating character and place names is really easy, and inventing species to populate a new world is easy. I also think describing nature is easy for me, though I sometimes feel silly or like...I'm boring people when I describe it, so I try not to do it toooo much.

I'm bad at writing description but hilariously I don't find it difficult. x.x Maybe that's why I'm bad at it.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

*takes a breath*

Since you don't mind unpopular opinions I hope you don't mind this one: I fucking don't rate the Oxford Comma and try to avoid using it wherever possible. It's really easy to avoid some of the errors an Oxford Comma can prevent through context, and frankly, the Oxford Comma can create its own issues which can be prevented through not using it. You can avoid or introduce ambiguity whether you do or don't use it, basically, one solves some problems and introduces others, the other solves some problems and introduces others.

In that sense, it's understandable why it's not mandated in many style guides. It is preferable in US English, but damn, I'm not from the USA. And the Oxford Style Guide recommends it but the Oxford Style Manual recommends against it. Australian Style Guides, including the one issued by the government, generally oppose its use, but it's not mandated, so it's really at the author's discretion.

I've tried using it. Like, I've sat down and thought 'right I'm going to give this a good shot' and I just really don't like it. So you'll see a handful here and there in my writing where I thought 'okay let's try it' and then just been like nahhhh.

I have no problems with other people using it, and those people can have all the extra commas I'm not using because damn, they'll need them. :D

--

From the Weird Questions for Writers meme!

[onboardsorasora]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers tagged by  @lilyrizzy thank you for the tag! this was insightful for meeeee

1. How many works do you have on ao3? 7 (all my other fandom fics are on different sites)

2. What's your total ao3 word count? 139,751

3. What fandoms do you write for? F1 and InuYasha

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Match Point, Adore You, Teeth, Wreck Me and Random Works

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! I love squealing together with my readers.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Wreck Me! Lmao people were big mad. Second would probably be that Quest Fic “Tell Max I love him”

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? So far the only fic that’s ended is the Adore You verse. So Teeth has the happiest ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Nope. no one has told me to my face/in my ask/comments/DMs that they hate my fics. 

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I do! I have a fic (InuYasha) where there was an art exhibition that devolved into an orgy. No sex pollen needed. I have a smut fic series (also InuYasha) I’ve only been writing rpf for less than a year so I’m behind on the smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? I don’t think I have (def not for F1) but I’m not opposed. I just need to know a lot about both worlds to feel comfy

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of. I’m also afraid to go looking

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not that I know of, and I’m afraid to go looking lol

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? My DMs are just chat fics all day every day. I’ve outlined like 2 fics which I’ve published with @blacklaces

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? My OTPs are Maxiel and SessxKag. I do love me some Dewis as well

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? So far, I don’t have a new WIP for F1 just yet. I do have a lot of half baked ideas written in my notes app. But I have 1 IY one that…. I dream about finishing but I know it’ll never happen. Its already been 10 years and it was supposed to be a whole ass epic plot. Its sat at 69k words….it would have easy been 100k. Thats not happening I feel

16. What are your writing strengths? Honestly, I’m not sure. I think its my dialogue? I’ve been trying to get better as descriptions. Honestly Idk lmao. My writing strength might be comedy? Idk idk– if someone knows, please tell me?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Angst, or keeping the mood angsty. I’ve been working on my pacing and descriptions

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I don’t do it anymore. I used to (for IY its a little harder because the original show is Japanese set in feudal Japan so a lot of the nouns are Japanese) But for F1 I just write with the assumption that everyone is speaking English and if they aren’t then I’ll say it. Like there was a note in Adore you to assume any dialogue between these two characters are in Italian. Because, of course, the scene was set in Italy. I’m in my “here is some dialogue” he said in Dutch era.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Either InuYasha or Yuu Yuu Hakusho. I can’t remember, but it probably was IY

20. Favorite fic you've written? I think its Tennis AU!! I truly love Tennis!Dan so so much! Enchanted AU is coming in a close second. 2Wrecked2Furious is my baby so I don’t think I can reasonably count it fairly.

Tagging...... @blacklaces @purplesallthewaydown @flawlessassholes if you haven't as yet/want to. Also anyone else <3

[genuflectx]

A Marvellous Light ("Terato" Book Review)

You can thank my fiancé for me reading this one, because this really isn't my usual cup of tea when it comes to literature! It's not "terato," not even exactly "exophilia" either, however I think its general themes might appeal to some people of those communities- even I was a bit shocked and impressed by it.

The first half has vague spoilers, such as descriptions of sex and if there was a happy end or not. Under the cut you’ll find a longer review with detailed spoilers.

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske has a simple plot at its core. Robert "Robin" Blyth is a typical well-to-do Edwardian jock who, due to a clerical error, is introduced to the secret world of magic. He meets Edwin Courcey, an icy and bookish magician with subdued powers- something Edwin's family looks down on him and teases him for. When Robin is attacked and cursed because of his accidental introduction to the magical world, Edwin feels responsible for him and does everything he can to find out how to remove that curse, with plans to remove Robin's memories after. Along the way a terrible magic conspiracy is revealed that the two become slowly more involved in. While also becoming quite "involved" with each other.

Pros and cons time! But.. I don't particularly have a lot of cons.

PROS ★ ★ ★ 

If I wanted to describe it in fanfiction tropes or tags, I would say: slow burn, magic kink, jock/nerd. Fun combinations.

Marske is really well spoken with her prose, and pacing seems to be a strong suit. Despite being her first published book, she really has mastered the craft of storytelling!

Highly romantic. Sexual content itself is built upon a strong foundation of slow built romance.

Multiple gay sex scenes, with some veeery interesting usage of magic as a kink. Something I've never seen before (but I've never been in any fandoms with magic, so maybe it's common in those?).

Because Robin is non-magical and Edwin is, it can sorta feel like that human/non-human gay relationship you might be craving. However, since they are both still technically humans, it doesn't really count as terato or exophilia explicitly.

A very rich magical world intertwined with the Edwardian period. It feels really unique, and the magic itself has rules and limitations, meaning magic isn't the end-all-be-all when it comes to power. Which... plays right into the underlying plot.

Themes of the rich (and rich men) being idiots and ignoring the importance of domestic magic and the magic of women. Marske is writing a period piece- and I appreciate her desire for accuracy while also clearly trying to find ways around it.

Ends on a happy note with potential for the next book and the main characters do not die.

CONS ★ ★ ★ 

The biggest turn off for some readers might be the prose. Yes, it's well written and well paced for what it wants to accomplish, but it is an Edwardian period piece that can still be pretty wordy. I don't think it's overly flowery, but someone else might find it harder to read if they don't really want to know what happens next.

While probably realistic for a bunch of rich white English gentlemen of that period, a large part of the book tends to feel like they're just piddling about reading books, chatting, and eating breakfast. That might be boring for some readers.

Somehow, the main villain should have both been obvious and was too obvious at the same time. I don't know if that is genius or lame. I guess it depends on what perspective you take.

This is a very "relationship" based plot; character relationships take the forefront over plot or action, as you'd expect with slowburn. If you go into it more interested in the romance and sex you might have a better time than if you go into it wanting to devour something plot heavy- it truly is just not plot heavy, unless you consider their romance the actual main plot.

★  ★ ★  WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO TERATO FANS?

Yeah! If you like magic stories! If you don't care for magic- or don't care for Edwardian period pieces- then maybe not for you. But if you do, then this is a darn good read. Marske is extremely competent in her craft, the romance builds slowly and the sex scenes feel both loving and exotically satisfying.

Just because magic stories aren't exactly my thing I might personally not read book 2, but I absolutely know my fiancé will because they adore this book and could not put it down. In their words, they believe it is one of the most romantic books they've ever read.

★  ★  ★  FINAL RATINGS:

Monsterousness: 0/10 Eroticism: 10/10 Story: 7/10 Characters: 10/10

MY FINAL SCORE: 9/10 (Not my favorite genre, but really good!!)

Heavier spoiler time!

I initially wasn't sure how I felt about the characters, I think ultimately the beginning is the story's weakest part. I feel that these are characters you grow to love more over the story's length, and when you are first learning who they are and getting that early exposition on magic it's sorta "eh" compared to the meat of the book... i.e. the rest of their relationship. Because yes, it's really their relationship that carries it. And that's not a bad thing! I actually prefer character-driven stories. But I think that's just something to keep in mind about this book (and probably the series), that relationships heavily take the forefront and the underlying plot is second to that. In this book, Edwin's past relationships and icy personality melting for Robin are more important than actually doing footwork to discover what happened to Reggie, the missing person, for example.

About 40% through the book however, I did have the realization that nothing was really happening or moving forward. It was a lot of playing little games, chatting over breakfast, and reading books. Sure, all this leisure is likely pretty realistic for their social status, but it does not necessarily make it an engaging read. Luckily, I think watching Robin and Edwin slowly fall for reach other to have encouraged me enough to keep reading to see them get even closer, but I do think that this might be a detriment to others.

It's not completely explicit, but rather something the reader needs to make a conscious effort to notice, that women and domesticity play a large part of this book's universe. By that I mean no one is going to beat you over the head to say "PAY ATTENTION TO THE SERVENTS AND LADIES" but they do play very important roles, in spite of accurate world views from the men that the women are too dumb to be taught. It is a domestic spell which allows Edwin to remove the curse from Robin's arm. It is a group of women- ignored by their misogynistic male magician counterparts- who discover the Last Contract and realize its potential for misuse. It is a pair of intelligent sisters who aid Robin and Edwin when the two are lacking friends. If you are a shallow reader you might take characters' opinions (including main characters) on women at face value, but their opinions compared to the actual actions and personalities of the women and servants is meant to show how wrong these spoiled Edwardian men are.

I really don't have much else to say! I thought the slowburn romance was great and using magic as a kink unique, especially the kind of magic they used. Overall it was a good book.

[fuck-off-im-ace]

I saw your tags about French book ideas 👀 i’m currently at a level where I’m just looking at graphic novels to read (I think I’ve got dialogue down but prose? Uhhhh) but if you had book recs that are above that level I can tuck them away for the future

Hi @sofflepoffle! I’m always super happy to have the opportunity to talk about french litterature, so i made you a little list, from easier reads to harder things!

Pierre Bottero - Le chant du Troll (French writer) This is my favorite writer of all times, and he writes children’s books. He’s incredible, his writing is so poetic and deep and well developped, with beautiful characters and a nice storyline. This one is a graphic novel, i usually dont suggest to start with this one because the story is 1000x more emotionnal if you already know about the world and who the kid is, but my mother read it out of the blue and she cried so i’d say it still hits? 

Hergé - Tintin (Writer from Belgium) You’re probably already familiar with the Tintin series, they’re honestly good as a learning tool. I would suggest Le secret de la licorne, On a marché sur la lune, or Les 7 boules de crystal.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Le petit prince (French writer) Pretty well known, its easy to read, cute and wholesome overall, would recommend trying it!

Pierre Bottero - La quête d’Ewilan (French writer) He got a few book series, but they all connect with each other, so this is a good place to start but you could start from somewhere else! Easy read, since it’s a children’s book.

Jocelyn Boisvert - Mort et déterré (Writer from Québec) YA book, so pretty easy to follow! Cute story of a teenager who dies, but somehow doesnt fully dies? He becomes some kind of zombie creature, and then just chill as a zombie with his bestie, trying to do things he never got to do in his life. 

Jocelyne Saucier - Il pleuvait des oiseaux (Writer from Québec) I have to say, i didnt read it, but my friend recommended it to me, and he says its a good and easy read! They also made it into a movie, if you wanna try that.

Patrick Senécal - Any book of him, really (Writer from Québec) This writer is kind of our own Stephen King (kinda more gross and less good, no offense to the dude), so if its your kind of thing you could check it out, pretty easy read!

Michel Folco - Dieu et nous seuls pouvons (French writer) Comedic story of a family of excecutioners living in the XVIIe century. There is some torture and lots of killing of course, so avoid if its not your thing, but over all pretty good book!

Jean Barbe - Comment devenir un monstre (Writer from Québec) Very good book, heavy read because its a quite serious book. Very good tho!

Domique Fortier - Du bon usage des étoiles (Writer from Québec) Historical fiction, i liked the suspense and the description of the territory, a very captivating read! 

Véronique Grenier - Hiroshimoi (Writer from Québec) Fun fact, this writer was my philosophy teacher in college! She’s a poet and a writer, so this book is kinda halfway between both? It’s a love story, or rather a break up story, but written in form of a poem. It’s kinda hard to read, because she plays a lot on sounds, creates new words by mixing two together, so hard to read, but also pretty short sentences. 

Boris Vian - L’Écume des jours (French writer) A personnal favorite of mine, its an absurd tragedy, putting it on the top of the list because of the “absurd” quality of it. A lot of things do not make sense, like rooms that change shape depending on the music playing. 

I didnt want to into too much of a big rant, so just putting those i can think of quickly, but if you want more ideas, like more easy read or more medium reads or whatever you can always hit me up! I would also suggest reading something you’re already familiar with? You might be already doing that, but if not, for me its what helped the most. I literally just took books i read in french, found them in english, and then tried reading that. I hope this helps, hit me up if you need anything else!

[rigelmejo]

Reading 镇魂 is like reading 寒舍 a little. My brain is like ahhhh thank goodness I am home I know what's going on I can relax I don't have to struggle or slog through desperately trying to figure anything out... I can just relax and enjoy and maybe contemplate something if I feel inclined. No urgent need to figure out a puzzle I have no prior ideas about. It's like starting a puzzle when I Can see a picture of the completed version on the box 镇魂, versus starting a puzzle with no idea what it makes. Even if the puzzle is "easy" I have this tension about what if I don't figure out what it's a picture of ToT which makes reading harder.

Also I just.... priests writing style is comforting to me a bit, okay. It's the first writing material I ever practiced trying to read, I have a lot of familiarity with it. Guessing words feels safe because I know the writing style well enough to know the unknown word is an adjective or noun or verb easily, is core information or an extra descriptive detail easily, which Part of rhe sentences tend to move actions forward versus add to the scene. I have a very good idea of the sentence structures I'm looking at when I read a priest novel. That kind of comfort is... nice. Even in English, its the difference between like... me reading someone who writes like me (or who's style I find familiar like say Stephen King or Holly Black) versus when I try reading a new English author and the style is just different enough it slows me down and takes time to adjust to.

Even 天涯客... its written differently than this kind of modern 镇魂 and 默读 style. But tyk still has ultimately the same kind of overall paragraph and sentence clause organization priest writes in. This is also true of 杀破浪 and even Can Ci Pin. Even though yes all these are harder to read, and with some variance in style, compared to when I read zhenhun... just the fact it's priests writing makes my brain feel less fried and more comfortable figuring things out. Whereas when I read 破云s author, or even the easier SCI writers stuff, I am just so struck by the writing style differences I feel like it's degrees harder (and that's before I even factor in unknown words).

[sunriseverse]

For the ask meme: 9, 10, 12, 17, 28, 33, 40

thanks for the ask!

9. How do you find new fic to read?

honestly i just open whatever tag i want to read and backread from whatever's the newest. i do filter out certain things (length, completion, some archive warnings), but other than that, i don't do much else, just go from there. this is, as you can imagine, harder in smaller fandoms, and sometimes i feel a bit like a rat searching for crumbs.

10. How do you decide what to write?

usually what i write is either 1. prompted (rarer these days now that i'm not Known as a prompt writer), or 2. based on ideas i toss around with my friends. talking concepts through with people helps solidify my thoughts and portrayals—i'm not very good at forming cohesive narratives on my own, without anyone to bounce them off of.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

hmmm, i can think of a lot i used to be neutral towards, but now i hate or dislike strongly, but not much the other way around...................maybe non-linear narratives? i used to find them annoying, but since i started writing them for sunrise and realised how useful they are, they've grown on me.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

pacific rim or his dark materials fusions always get me. i think these are a bit more common, though (pacrim has its own fusion tag, even), so i guess my most obscure and highly-specific au would be a dmbj-zmyx fusion/crossover—dmbj could definitely work as a door world, but both fandoms have a really small english fanbase, so i'm not sure the overlap between them, and likely, i would be the only one who wanted to read it.

28. Does anyone read your fics before you post them? If so, who?

i don't tend to let people read the entire completed fic before it's posted, but i do send my friends excerpts! poor @lungache has to listen to me both ramble about my concepts and toss my horrid little sneak peeks at them, and @lucientelrunya gets the same treatment, and i greatly appreciate both of them for it.

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

the ideal chapter length is whatever gets the job done, but if i'm writing a multichapter fic, then whatever length the first chapter is is the bare minimum for all following ones. i've written fics that had 1k chapters, and i've written fics that have 5k chapters—it really just depends on how much i'm covering per chapter. (also, my chapters these days tend to be longer just because i love description and emotion, and refuse to be concise.) for preferred reading length, usually anything 1k+ is good for me, and i'm not too picky—i'm willing to read 2k chapters, or 30k chapters.

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

depends entirely on what i'm feeling. i haven't reread most of my bookmarks, but if i'm in desperate straits (have been through a tag and read everything i'm willing to already), i'll go back and reread things.

[linguacoreana]

Japanese

Japanese opened my eyes to the Greco-Roman sphere of influence in European languages. Even Eastern Europe is in this sphere with tons of Greek and Latin words for industrial words. English is so influenced by European languages. This may seem obvious, but I didn’t realize how true this is until I saw the way Japanese imported foreign words. Japan was in a totally different cultural sphere of influence, and their language has been heavily affected by the Chinese writing system.

Japanese showed me the alternate ways to form new words using foreign roots. For example, English created the term “internet” using the Latin root inter- and the native English word net. Japanese also has a similar system of mixing Chinese character roots with Japanese words to create unique words. I never realized the extent to which English speakers coin new words using foreign words. This seems counterintuitive because English is our native language not the source of the roots, Latin and Greek, but English and Japanese share this style. Japanese helped my English understand how we use roots to coin new terms.

Latin

The languages we speak are just a snapshot. That’s what I learned from Latin. Learning classical Latin, the grammar, the word choice, the word order feel completely ancient. While things can be vaguely familiar to English speakers, I really got the impression that this is an old language.

That got me to understand my native language and its place in the timeline of humanity. The English we speak is heavily affected by modern concepts. We just accept words that did not exist 200 years ago, let alone 2,000 years ago. The language we speak is just a blink in linguistic history.

Latin made me realize how we gave old words new meanings with new concepts. For example, Latin did not have a word that is used in the same way as “message” is in modern context. Latin had a word for the old meaning of message, the underlying theme. Latin did not have a word for DM.

It made me so much more open to linguistic change. Words change so constantly. If we were linguistic purists, we just wouldn’t be able to describe the modern world around us. Linguistic purism just makes communication harder. Latin helped my English be more descriptive of the world rather than prescriptive.

German

Again, with another English cousin, there was more to discover about English. German taught me about the lost depth of English. We lost so much sophistication in the Germanic side of English that people ignore because the Latin-derived are the words of higher education or complexity. If you want to sound sophisticated, you would say “assimilate” (Latin) instead of “blend in.” (Germanic) You might say “residence” (Latin) instead of “house.” (Germanic)

Centuries of Latin as a prestigious language has made English speakers forget how much depth there is in the Germanic side of our language. I did not realize how much nuance there is with English phrasal verbs until I learned German phrasal verbs that work in a similar way.

These words have totally different meanings: let in, let out, let off, let on. However, they play with the abstract meaning of allowing in such a unique way that I haven’t seen outside of Germanic languages.

German made me aware of how interesting the Germanic side of English was, not just the Romance/Latin side. German helped my English embrace every piece of its origin.

Chinese

Building English words is tedious. That’s the feeling I got after dabbling in Chinese. We have so many unique words for concepts that can compound words in Chinese.

Why do we have a unique word for “pistol”? There are no roots to this word. To know this word, you need to memorize the full thing. You can’t understand it in pieces. In Chinese, you can understand compound words in pieces; there usually is some logic.

Chinese helped me understand that there is actually a lot of memorization in English. In Chinese, you can build a lot of words with pieces of older words you know. In English, this does not happen until you are almost a native and can build valid words with ease.

Many English speakers think that Chinese would take a long time to learn because there are thousands of characters to learn. I found the opposite. Chinese made me realize WE have thousands of unique words to memorize, not them.

Read the full blog post on my website.