#how can you write a multi-page character analysis

[folklorist-word-florist]

An Overlook on Pacing

SO, pacing! The element that can break or make your story! :D

As we are talking about writing here, we are talking about the speed of your story: the speed of the events unfolding, AND the speed of how the events are told to the reader. E.g. You can have a story that happens in a thousand years, told in the same number of pages of a story that takes place in ten minutes. The first speed is about pacing the plot, do you rely on exposition to world-build? On dialogue? On descriptions of setting or action? The latter is about the pacing of your prose, how you construct your sentences, where you place—and how frequently—action and dialogue, exposition and inflection.

Plot and structure

First we have to acknowledge pacing is interlinked with genre. Different genres have different conventions due to audience expectations. Pacing both depends and determines the genre. And as one writer might write a space opera today, and a contemporary character study tomorrow, so their pacing would change.

My opinion is that there's no good pacing, only the right pacing--for your story. Want to drag a kiss into two pages long? Do it, but with intention, which comes with due diligence on studying different types of story structure. The most useful writing advice I got on this is Ursula K. Le Guin's two-word wisdom:

Crowd, Leap; which event serves best in lengthy detail, which can and should be a sweeping impression. This requires some planning ahead of time, so all-panster might feel a bit 😬 here. I will put a post together on panster-planster-planner later. For now, I say for panster, write all the scenes the way they are coming to you right now, as much and as quickly as you can. You can sort the event pacing in editing.

A recommendation you might have heard ad nauseam: Blake Snyder's Save the Cat beat sheet. Like any plot structure studies, take a look, apply it to the story you love, see how they worked or not worked, and take notes on how that might serve your own writing. 

Save the Cat Beat Sheet Template  •  Infographic

Stories exist with a paradoxical preposition: what we read is past tense by the nature of writing and reading, yet many, especially genre fiction writers, strive to provide the sense that the unfolding of events occurs in front of the reader's eyes; there, the sense of wonder, suspense, or urgency. Even with in flashback of The Bad Thing Hundred Winters Ago, the story moves forward because we get a clue of why something is happening/going to happen now or why/how the characters are the way they are, etc..

(Note I did not say "plot," only "story." Because Story is more than just what happened, but how what happened and where what happened and why what happened.)

Everything you put on the page should be thoughtfully curated. Every scene and each word has your own reason for why it's exactly where it is—a process that takes time and practice and critique, but trust that it'll come:)

This leads to the other part of pacing: controlling the flow, thus (attempting to) control how your readers think and feel about the story.

Save the Cat! website has many beat sheet analysis of popular movies that can be helpful in understanding how to apply the principles.

Musicality

Stories work in forward motion, pulling readers along with them. Sometimes the motion is fast, action-packed and no breathing room, like what the story character is experiencing; sometimes the motion is slow, maybe to mimic a sense of conversational tone, writer to reader, or to create the agony of suspense.

The gradations of these motions are no accidents: again, intention. Be aware of how your placement of descriptive writing, dialogue, beats, the rhythm of your sentences might change the reader's perception of time. And rhythm is in every word in every language (multi-lingo people, like yours truly, might notice how this affect the way you like your sentence constructed and use it to create a style true to you).

In short, longer words/sentences/paragraphs=slowing down. shorter words/sentences/paragraphs=speed up. There should be a balanced combination of acceleration and deceleration. Usually this is combined with story beats (action scene is followed with reaction scene, give the readers breathing room and create anticipation for next action).

An advice to combat writer's block I got when I first started writing was "Read poetry out loud."

Read anything out loud. Books from writers you like, song lyrics, your own writing. Get a feel of the shape of how the words are put together. This great advice does have an obvious deficit, ofc, in requiring the advisee possessing hearing and speech ability (and a deeper connection to them both; some people are just more visual, then it can be the length of sentences and paragraph on paper that matters). Anyone here who are writing hearing-impaired would like to chime in, we would be very grateful.

[araneitela]

AHHHH you're back!! this makes me so happy because i loved coming across your breakdown of her trailer and then sad when seeing you had left. i just really love kafka and i loved reading your opinions on her! so i've been meaning to ask you about something that i hope you don't mind! but what do you think about her path being nihility? i was reading into ix and found that they are tied or represented by laziness, meaningless behavior, and was kinda surprised. do you think that ties in with her? hope you don't mind this! have an awesome weekend!!

Smiling from ear to ear?! // Unprompted asks.

Oh my goodness, this is literally one of the most heartwarming things to receive (and in my case, I got to wake up to it) and so I'm really, genuinely smiling from ear to ear over here. This is one of my favorite things, and it's been years. I'm thrilled that the little meta about her trailer found its way into her tag, because I've enjoyed feedback, even if it's criticism. I live for people trying to poke holes in my logic (to see if it stays upright, as I endeavor to be as canon-strict as possible), or to simply add to it. But I'll also say that I'm the first to plead guilty to praise, who does it not improve the mood of significantly, honestly? But truly, I'm honored that you found details in it that piqued your interest, resonated with you, or even had you look into her with a bit of a specific eye; that's why I do it. And also, character analysis is part of the joy of writing for me, after all! So thank you for this, and choosing to come to me with this, my gratitude is endless! As for your question, forgive me, because I need to give a little bit of background (or scroll down to find my bit about Kafka, I'm just in a rambling mood lately):

Sad as I am to admit it the paths in HSR are not quite as high in lore accuracy as for example, Genshin Impact's visions, are. Where visions are directly tied to a character's ambitions, drive(s) and/or passions and are thus heavily tied to their personalities and actions; paths are a little less simple, as there seems to have much more of a gameplay (the 'type' of RPG role, things like DPS, debuffer, healer, and so forth) tied to them, that counters lore to a degree. Keep reading though, as I have opinions! A good example of this for starters is Jing Yuan, he was given the path of the Hunt (and from the wiki: "Those who follow the "Hunt" Path admire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behavior") but his gameplay fits into Erudition's gameplay role perfectly (which is explained as follows on the same page: "Deals remarkable amounts of multi-target damage. The main damage dealer against groups of enemies") though I would also argue that his personality seems to befit Erudition much more as well (again, as per the same page: "Those who follow the "Erudition" Path admire thinking, logic, and strategic behavior"), though I don't write him, so I do not proclaim to be an expert by any means. But in essence, the difficult part becomes the fact that there can be a mismatch between a character's lore and their gameplay, which will often account for a bit of a discrepancy. I also believe some characters have been tied to a specific path, but it seems more likely from a lore standpoint, that they would be part of another but it is still unplayable. So yes, MiHoyo has made this a little complicated, for it doesn't seem common that lore and gameplay overlap one another in terms of paths.

However, I'm not someone who likes to just write off the concept of 'for gameplay purposes' too easy, I'll over-analyze before I simply dismiss anything. Now it's worthy to note that I've been away from HSR for quite some months now, and am not caught up with the story, so take what I say with a grain of salt, and anyone's always free to add to this, or help elaborate!

I wonder how the narrative paths (can?) influence each other. To keep up with Jing Yuan as an example, does he pray to Lan so that he keeps these 'Lightning Lord' powers that he has? To what extent do you need to follow a path to gain any of the powers tied to it? Do you simply take its tenets and 'hold them in your heart', do you progress your faith and live out its virtues in any capacity? Does this then vary from person to person, is it different across each path, because it depends on the temperment of the Aeon tied to it? Or does it go beyond that, and there is inherently a tie to its beliefs that stems from your heart or belief? If we're speaking of how human beings work and their nuances, nothing states that you couldn't 'pledge' yourself to one path, while still adhering to virtues and tenets of another, they simply wouldn't overshadow the former. Yep, it's complicated.

As for Kafka and Nihility/IX. Yes! I do think it ties in with her perfectly. See, while IX's description ("Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior") is very clear in its message, we need to keep in mind that there are actually primarily two approaches to the concept of Nihilism as a whole. One is simply admitting defeat and falling into the belief system where one believes, just like IX, that all existence is meaningless and so there's no value in life to speak of, so why live? But then if you look into the factions tied to Nihility, you can see the Doctors of Chaos and their caption says the following: "Ponderers who inadvertently encountered the Nihility. They attempt to resist the destiny of Nihility, and try to prove to the Aeon of Nihility the meaning behind the existence of all things." And this matches with what you read when you first meet IX in the Simulated Universe, where you're presented with two options to proceed:

1: You can hate that life has no meaning, turning inwards, sink into gloom and eventually become a Self-Annihilator of sorts, which is kind of, basically, the equivalent of the antimatter legion for IX. 2. You create your own meaning in life. IX presents a belief that there is no meaning, but that does not mean that you inherently need to believe the same thing, and so you find your own significance and value in life. And this seems to be paramount to all of the characters that follow Nihility to one degree or another, including Kafka. For starters, let me remind you of some lines from her SQ to prove it:

Trailblazer: Are you sure you don't follow the Aeon of Nihility? Kafka: Do I sound that negative? No. We believe that existence has meaning, but that meaning is bestowed by ourselves, not by choices.

Kafka's entire involvement in the Stellaron Hunters originates from the fact that she seeks to feel what she's never felt: fear. And this is something that, arguably, makes people value life more than anything: knowing that it's precious, fragile and fleeting. Kafka makes an immeasurable amount of references to choice (and is surprised when it indeed counters 'fate'), and then also vulnerability, which is so tightly tied to the concept of something being able to be lost (something as seemingly trivial as the coats that she collects). You don't need fear to understand the concept of importance, or value, but it inherently strengthens it. But if you wanted a stronger motivation behind it: look at how ardently she follows Elio's script, and it's because he promised her that in the future he chose, she would have what she seeks. Is that not passion within itself? Is fighting and being part of something entirely blindly, not inherently the strongest evidence of craving, a longing for something? And is that not vehemently human? Is that not... the meaning of life itself?

[jinxed-sinner]

Came For the Grumpy Cat Demon, Staying For the Critique of Christianity™️

Hi, I'm Jinx. I'm a 20 year old autistic furry artist who ended up hyperfixated on Hazbin Hotel after it jabbed me in the religious trauma lol (basically I watched the scene for Loser, Baby, got emotionally attached to Husk's design, decided to watch the show, and decided "wow, this is a really good criticism of something that traumatized me! Also giving Lucifer autism was a big brain idea!!" My brain has been nothing but Hazbin Hotel because autism so I'm hoping having a designated blog for me to post random Hazbin related stuff will help me focus on non-Hazbin stuff because I swear to god I've never been this hyperfixated on ANYTHING

My main blog (where I post regular furry art) is @jinxedshapeshifter. My Hazbin themed furry art (such as Hazbin characters drawn as anthro animals) will be posted here.

I use the same personal tags on all my blogs, since they relate to the "jinxed" part of my username; those tags include:

#jinxed chatter - random discussion posts. This can be pretty much anything tbh

#jinxed fanart - any fanart I've done for Hazbin Hotel. Basically my art tag.

#jinxed headcanons - personal headcanons I have.

#jinxed analysis - any analysis posts I make. This can be anything from analyzing details in a specific episode to character analysis.

#jinxed overanalysis - anything I deem as overanalysis. Usually this basically comes down to "I noticed this tiny detail in this one scene, here are my thoughts on that detail" and it ends up being an obscenely long post for how tiny the detail is.

I'm currently writing a multi-chapter Radioapple slowburn fanfic. You can read it here:

I'm also working on a Hazbin fancomic loosely based on how I headcanon Vox and Alastor's relationship and centered on how I think Lucifer would react to it if he ever got attached to Alastor. You can read it from the start here:

I really like designing characters! Here's a design I made for Juno, a character I created as basically a self-insert (don't yell at me about mistakes in art style, I'm not used to mimicking other artists' art styles lol):

I've also had people ask me what hypoxemia is after showing them this goober so here's the Wikipedia page on hypoxemia

[baelishwife]

What people think I mean when I say that I like Petyr Baelish:

I think he’s a good guy and I justify his actions.

I want him to have a happy ending in the books.

I ship him with Sansa.

I think he “deserved” Catelyn.

What I actually mean:

I think Aidan Gillen is attractive, and he makes show!Petyr handsome and charismatic. Despite some questionable writing decisions, I thought he did a good job of showing the human side of Petyr.

I’ve always loved evil genius characters, and I admire Petyr’s intelligence even though I’m rooting for his downfall. I like how he influences things from behind the scenes. I’m impressed by how big of an impact he has on the plot while having relatively little screen time/page time.

I do not believe that Petyr was born evil, but rather became that way because of his choices. I sympathize with young!Petyr, who seemed like a regular kid before he went down a dark path. Like everyone else, he was shaped by trauma and circumstance. It does NOT in any way justify his behavior, but it makes him a complex, multi-dimensional character.

I think he’s a complex character who is worthy of analysis. His character reveals a lot about the feudal class system in Westeros.

I like tragic villains and corruption arcs. Characters who fall from grace and cause their own downfall.

I like how clever and sassy he is, especially in the books. He has some of the best lines.

He combines several of my favorite tropes: the self-made man, the evil genius who’s secretly pulling the strings, the tragic villain who brings about his own downfall, the dark mentor who is eventually overpowered by his own student.

I don’t like how David Benioff and Dan Weiss made Petyr (and other characters) less intelligent in the show. He was too obvious about his goals and motives, and made major mistakes that were inconsistent with his intelligence in the books. He WILL die in the books, by Sansa’s hand or her orders, but the exact circumstances will probably be different.

I really like him as a villain, but I understand why he needs to die, both for the narrative and for Sansa’s character development. I trust George to make his death satisfying and memorable.

I like writing about his unrequited feelings for Catelyn because I like angst. I also like imagining the Tullys befriending young!Petyr when he came to Riverrun, because I think it WAS a pure friendship in the beginning. I do NOT think that he “deserved” her.

I do not ship Petyr and Sansa because I’m not attracted to big power imbalances, and I prefer Sansa with someone nice. I am writing a very self-indulgent Petyr x OC fic, but she’s only a few years younger than him, they’re both adults, and they manipulate each other. I don’t care what you ship, this is just my preference.

People always say, “How can you like such a vile character! You’re disgusting! You should be on an FBI watchlist!” Fiction and reality are not the same thing. I find Baelish narratively compelling, but in real life, I want sex offenders locked up. Just like how I love tons of fictional war criminals, but I’ll celebrate when Henry Kissinger finally kicks the bucket. I like sick, dark characters IN THE CONFINES OF FICTION. Why is that so hard to understand?

[fictionfixations]

im writing a multi-chapter fic

i found a cool song so i figured i could use it to name a few chapters over specific arc event stuff

anyway im more likely not to finish it so i dont actually care if someone steals an idea (honestly the context and notes along with each arc make more sense if you know what story it is, but HAH theres like no fanfic tags for the crossover that i have with mha besides character tags lmfao so HAVE FUN WRITING AN UNDERRATED FIC SUCKERS. ...ah.)

also manga spoilers

USJ: When I reached over to touch / your wound gently / I had realized you were ever slightly shivering

Interlude (conversations, statements, wrapping some things up): Spreading out your injured wings / after all this time

Sports Festival: With nowhere to go / your future unknown / You gaze at the sky as If you're wondering

Stain/Internships: As the meaning of “alive” / is coming to life all around / So now within my heart / I promise, on my part / That I’m here to keep you safe

Final Exam: From a faraway land comes / a chilling breeze / That is rustling through the pages of your story

Training Camp: There is a wistful glow that you wear / But hey, it’s no big deal / don’t you see?

Kamino [Deku or Kacchan? or both?]: Even if this world falls apart / I will / be always by your side / don't matter what / Anything that might be / blocking out the light

Provisional Licensing Exam: All these feelings that have turned to stone you know… / Cannot follow you into / tomorrow wherever we go

Shie Hassaikai/Work Studies (post note: REMEMBER NIGHTEYE- HE DIED. HOW DID I FORGET THAT?????): So now within my heart / I promise on my part / that I'm never going to / forget you

School Festival (Concert): As long as you know / that you’re not alone / Then you can overcome anything you see!

Pro Hero Arc (Endeavor redemption, the scar, the nomu and hawks mentioning the MLA): You are dreaming of the day / you’re once more in the sky

Joint Training Arc (SHINSOU!!! 1-A vs 1-B): And if what I say / can still find its way / There’s nothing to fear / when we are side by side

(MLA Arc, or My Villain Academia where HOLY SHTI EVERYTHING UPGRADES. but i wont show this cause this is strictly midoriya pov)

Endeavor Agency Arc (hawks drops hints, the main three take work studies, except idk if that'll still happen because logically theres no point to it. maybe work on cultivating analysis? remember that endeavor can understand deku mumble. maybe he practices more of a support role? katsuki takes a slight issue to this but deku reassures him that its fine, and that he doesn't care either way. its mainly spite that led him here.): Take as many colors from them as you can… / And paint your future just as / you had planned!

Paranormal Liberation War. ..am I really gonna do this?: I swear, ‘til I die / as long as I’m alive / I’ll be here by your side!

Dark Hero (depression) im most likely going to stop before this but how do i stop the fuck out of afo: And the bond that’s always held us close / you know… / It is stronger than you may believe / It will never let go

imagine i do a twist where the mirror world was related to all for one or something or the doctor and was a weird experiment (yknow how dabi was technically kidnapped and was in a coma for 3 years but was meant to be like a backup successor or some shit. what if... midoriya...? because he was quirkless so he must have a lot of hatred, and the fragmented memories could only strengthen that, and when he wakes up from being kidnapped during the training camp and HOLY SHIT I JUST HAD AN IDEA)

[variouscolors]

[Pinned] Welcome!!

Since we got this new feature, i’d like to take advantage of it to make clear people are aware of this blog’s etiquette.

The text below is an updated version of the rules (est. Feb/05/2022) which you can find it on the [Menu] in the desktop version of the blog. But I will be linking a few pages here for mobile users.

[Crossover list] • [Muses] • [Database] • [Lore] • [Ships] • [AU] • [HC] • [ART] • [Tag list]

Blog Status: Currently on depression season + trying to work on a few personal projects (YPD is one of them)

prev. url: @digitaladventurers

Rules below:

○ About Ni:

I’m Ni/Nina AKA digitalgate02 (She/They) and I’m 20+ I ask you: if you’re a minor please leave because I won’t interact with you & if you don’t i will softblock and perhaps block you if you insist. [full bio at the end of the post]

Thank you for passing by and please read all of this page, because some etiquette & info are present here:

Firstly, Personal blogs/Non-RPers following it please do not reblog any of my posts/art unless I state on the tags or on the said post that it is OK to be shared. I usually put warning of what can and cannot be reblogged. This is an RP blog and it can make me quite uncomfortable with it.  Also, if you reblog something here, I might silently block you unless you have a RP sideblog.

I tag things that make you uncomfortable, but please let me know on your about/rules pages OR warn me privately (IM or Askbox) so I can make you feel comfortable by following me.

Please TAG your N/F/S/W s/e/x & s/m/u/t posts.

I don’t follow for follow count. Also, I’m not mutuals-exclusive which means if I feel fine with you I will reply even if I don’t follow back. • I only follow multi-blogs from friends or if are digimon-only. I get a huge anxiety attack thinking i will be ghosted.

PLEASE BE 18+ YEARS OLD BECAUSE SOME OF THE CONTENT IN THIS BLOG IS MATURE. Please unfollow to not be soft-blocked. If soft-block does not work, you’ll be permanently blocked;

Please do not use passive-aggressiveness with me, it makes me uncomfortable. I only allow it to be done with my muses, but not with myself. • I don't need to make a note/rule about etiquette and not being a mean spirited person right? I don't want any anti-LGBTIA racist xenophobe following me and my other accounts.

The portrayal I mostly use for this blog is from both BR dub and JP version. I have zero idea about the US dub (or any other) so please be gentle with me. • I like 02 epilogue, Kizuna, 02TB and Adventure 2020 (Reboot/Psi) & I also have my own “epilogue AU” project, with a verse on this blog. If roleplaying with either of those is a big NO-NO for you, let me know and any foreshadowing or reference for them will be totally avoided. Also you can blog tags which has “kizuna” / "02tb" / “Adv2020″ / “digitimelines” / “epilogue” in it. Check the masterlist tag for details. • I’m canon divergent regarding some material: ▽ and Wonderswan games, as example. • For non Adv-verse muses, all of them are post-series unless stated in the tags. • I go with JP terminology & names, but I’m totes fine with dub names. If you start a thread with them, I’ll tag along with it. But if I’m the one starting it I’ll go with what I’m used to.

 I’m OK with duplicates/multimuses, all I ask you is please PLEASE do not compare or expect me to write my canon muses the same way as the others or you. If I get anyone doing that to me, I’m considering blocking. Same for anon questions trying to control how things are portrayed, aka “canon police” . As said previously, I go with BR dub and JP version for portrayal. • I do a lot of research and also analysis about some characters back and forth. However if you need to correct me about some incorrect information, please be polite and nice. I swear if you be aggressive/angry or passive-aggressive around me there’s chances of your message being misunderstood and causing me anxiety.

I know shipping is cool, but to ship stuff with me, you need to at least have been my acquaintance or a friend. Also must get totes permission from you to make some advance, like dating and marriage. • I do not s/m/u/t, sorry I’m actually not okay-ish with this kind of thread stuff and I blacklist those to avoid seeing it. • Ship-teasing is OK, and I do it most of the time!! But if you’re not okay or feel uncomfortable, tell me and muse won’t do those. Some of those kids are totally snarky and won’t lose the opportunity, however only if you’re fine with it. • I multi-ship a lot, but there’s some stuff I might be NOT OK-ish with like shipping minors with adults, digi/human or incest. I usually ship my muses as teen or young adults, or adults. I won't hesitate to block if you try to ship my adult muses with children, or a digimon with a human muse, or incest.

Please have some common RP etiquette: No godmodding, mind-reader,  etc. • Also please please, turn ask posts into normal posts, and trim them as well. If you can’t do it, please let me know and I will gladly do it for you. • Small actions like “following your muse” “passing an object to your muse” are OK, but if you have some doubt of what it is acceptable contact me first! • Please don't touch my muses without asking me first. Not this is about them, but more like... about how i don't like these kind of actions done before giving me some awareness first. Actions like hugging or giving head/back pats are OK, but things more aggressive like kissing or physical harm must be warned to me via DM. Sorry, I don't do those things to the others so you shouldn't do them to me as well.

 I love plotting & discussing stuff, so if you have that crazy idea or some angsty plot or just a funny prompt to be written with me, I’m always open for new things. For new friends & discussion. However, I tend to get quite fired up when discussing about the things I like/dislike. If it happens I’m apologizing right now for it.

Crossovers are my jam, but I kinda of put some limits on it. Like, I have to actually have small knowledge about the series to be able to put my muses in those other worlds if it is an AU setting. There’s a list of which series I’ve watched, I follow or simple enjoy.

I’m totes OC-friendly, but please let me know about your muse first. Because I love creating OCs too and I know it is hard to find canon RPers who’re okay-ish with OCs. • If your OC is related to any canon character I write, please let me know first. I get totally uncomfortable when people starts interacting with my muses like if they already know each other, so please let’s discuss and plot relationships together first!!

This blog is not a meme/icon resource, but you can get the icons i share at @goggle-digicons (aka the old blog now archived + working as digimon icon warehouse) • My icons with my fanart are exclusively for myself, but i have given permission to @yagamitaichi to use my art before in the past. So yeah, if you ask me first i won't mind lending some of my doodled icons to be used. If you steal them, i will block you asap.

○ I used to have a password, since not everyone sends it (tho it does not mean I won’t RP with you) I ditched that requirement. But if you still want to send me one, just sing “Brave Heart” chorus’ last line. I’m assuming that everyone reads this page by the way… ○

Icons credits: Tumblr: @7digitalheroes | @goggles-and-noodles | @digimon-icons | @iconwarehouse | @ofcanalave | @qtpiecaps | @guiltfreeicons | @blujaerps | @facexclaimxcafe-blog | @fractalflare (AU Mimi icons made by @notsobubbly btw) Live Journal: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

About Mun:

Hi I’m Ni (She/They; 20↑) , I love Digimon in general but the series I work more is with Adventure series. I’m Ace/Panromantic, use she/her or they/them pronouns please. I’m a scaredy-cat kind of person who get nervous and anxious at first, but once we start bonding I will drop those and be more of myself.

I love to learn new things, so please correct me if needed but without yelling at me because I kinda of hate being yelled at, bad bad personal life experiences. My muses, despite some being quite closer to my personality are NOT me so please be aware of the differences between muse and writer.

I get super duper fired up when talking about the things I love the most. However I can be quite harsh and critic about said stuff as well. I tend to get a lot of brainstorms so if I’m messaging you that much please tell me and I will slow down my pace. 

I also get excited when writing a thread, so I tend to reply hella quick while I still have in mind what to say. Don’t rush me, but give me small reminders if I forget to reply since there’s a chance I actually forgot to or thought it was your turn when in fact I hadn’t reply in the first place.

I also draw. Like, a lot. Quite compulsive. Some of my non-canon-material icons are my own art. And I feel a bit uncomfortable by using other people’s art WITHOUT their permission. So yeah, I do my own fanart icons… When I get energy for those.

[saathvikabrandfame]

How To Create An Outstanding Meta Description

Meta descriptions are critical to search optimization. The attractiveness encourages users to click the result from the results page. With meta descriptions, brands aim to provide a summary of the respective web page. 

The following sections will help you write compelling optimized meta descriptions for Google based on recommendations from official HTML specifications and Google. Even though meta descriptions can’t directly influence search rankings, their inclusion adds value to the knowledge base of potential site visitors. As a result, buyers get motivated to click and refer your product to their loved ones. 

What is a meta description?

Technically, a meta description is an HTML tag that informs search engines and users of a synopsis of what a particular webpage is all about. You can find them on SERPs below the title of the corresponding page. 

 

What is the ideal length for a meta description?

  

Traditionally, SEO agencies have been using meta descriptions that are 160-165 characters long. Doing so will prevent the partial display of meta descriptions in SERPs. Surpassing the above limit is not an offense, but the fact that Google prefers short paragraphs to understand web page content underpins the need to fix the recommended length. According to HTML standards, you don’t have to worry about such character limits but the description has to be a “free-form string”.  

 

5 Writing tactics and best practices for creating amazing meta descriptions

1. Conduct competitor analysis

Whichever industry you belong to, a thorough SERP search will reveal what type of meta descriptions worked for your rivals without Google rewriting it. You can drive motivation from the findings to write ones that outsmart them. 

2. Monitor your customer’s journey

From a marketer's perspective, identifying their target customers’ buying journey is key to effective closure. The knowledge will tell them what occurs at every stage of the marketing funnel. Since the marketing funnel varies with varying target markets, it is impossible to follow a single model for marketing success. 

3. Leverage your company’s unique tone and style

Uniformity and uniqueness of tone are vital to brands active in a multi-channel business. The endorsed tone must align with the overall brand identity as this is what users see and perceive your brand to be. When you curate your meta descriptions, ensure that rules are met- make them unique and luring so they nicely fit into the brand's ecosystem. The tone of voice is essential to reach various personas targeting specific keywords. If you don't have the expertise to write content that maintains continuity, always hire a content writing agency to do that for you. 

4. Incorporate keywords your target audience uses 

Google reiterates that they don’t consider meta descriptions for ranking purposes. Yet you can see highlighted keywords in the meta description when you conduct SERP research. These keywords are what takes the readers to the online space that satisfies their question. If your meta description gives them enough information for their query, you receive the coveted click. 

5. Make use of trending social media headlines

As a social media marketing professional, you will know what topics are trending and what are not. For that, you may leverage influencer accounts, big companies, press, etc. To make the effort more fruitful, know the topics that are presently trending in your niches and find the meta descriptions that get featured more frequently on top-ranking results. 

For that, you can use popular tools like Google Trends, BuzzSumo, and Trending Topics ( for Twitter users). These tools will inform you about niche-specific trending topics. 

How to optimize meta descriptions

According to Google, an ideal keyword must be able to summarize the cream of the content by using the required amount of text and avoiding keyword stuffing. The search engine giant also advises content writers to make meta descriptions as attractive as possible to lure potential site visitors. 

Today, SEO practices do not follow all of these recommendations from Google and W3C. Instead, they use meta descriptions for CTAs and search phrases. The best way to approach meta descriptions is to summarize the topic inside the web page in a way that site visitors are sure about the relevance of the content when viewed on the SERPs for the first time. 

Break a leg!

[nagasakidivision]

I have been super scattered lately (also rap battles are hard and Damien's section is what I've been stuck on to the point I might drop it just so I can get it out the door) so to try and get a little back in the groove again I'm gonna talk about the ethics and worldview of the team since they're fairly crucial to the storyline :U

As a minor content warning: this gets existential all over the place and veers off into discussing about the possibility of an afterlife within Shirou's section along with fairly intense self-loathing. For that reason, I'm putting this under a cut, and if that sort of stuff gets under your skin it might be best to avoid his bit. Also, I wouldn't shut up (you see where Haruto gets it from,) so it's also cut for length too.

Haruto

I mentioned this in the facts meme, but Haruto's primary framework and what he would define as his exact school of thought is existentialism. Existentialism, however, is a philosophical outlook and not an ethical framework. It gives you a way to define the world and what you ultimately need to work towards, but not really how to do it. His school of ethics would fall more under intuitionism, the idea that morality is an innate quality in all people and can be tapped into, refined, and improved over time.

Ethical intuition is something that exists without biological imperative (e.g. it isn't a thing that's necessary for survival) and what is ethical can only be determined through accessing that moral intuitive instinct. When I say it can be refined, that means you're better learning how to use it, not learning some greater moral truth. The reason that he's so against utilitarianism (which is the philosophical framework that whatever action causes the maximum amount of happiness is the best action) is he sees it as a corruption of that innate nature. What's good and right won't always make people happy.

To apply this to his reasoning of "sure, we'll do a heist on Chuouku if we can get into the finals, what's the worst that can happen," he's fully aware that this might end with them all dead in a ditch or disappeared into some secret prison. It is extraordinarily unlikely to succeed, if they do get the truth out they've mostly just exposed something that could have easily been left buried and happened years ago. People will be upset, lose trust in the government, and very little objectively good in the sense of "makes people happier" would come out of it especially since a revolution is practically speaking not going to end well even if one happens.

For the record, if Shirou and/or Damien had turned him down, he wouldn't have forced them to, but he would have tried to find other members. He had his heart set on doing it. Fortunately, the two of them also have a death wish.

Anyway. This is another argument he's made against utilitarianism: it's essentially impossible to perform the moral calculations necessary to maximize happiness, because the capacity to do so does not exist and trying to do so will inevitably result in catastrophic failures. Each person is an unknowable microcosm of thoughts, motivations, and essential traits, and as a person's known world has grown beyond small communities to a global reality where every minor action changes the life of someone miles away whose motivations and mind you can't possibly understand. The world was always this incomprehensible, it's just now been laid bare for everyone to see. This is good and bad, facing this reality allows someone to confront the truth of existence, but it also causes intense fear and trembling (that is a Kierkegaard joke) when you try to understand the enormity of the world around you.

Each individual person can only place trust in their own intuition and take it on faith that others around them will do the same, and that this will result in good...though "good" here means that you have to be aware of your actions, plan that it will potentially have a good outcome, and be attempting to commit it within a moral framework. This all comes with the knowledge that most people won't and that's why things are bad...however, it shouldn't stop you from trying to do the right thing.

Final note: Haruto is the only one who doesn't have a specific religious slant to his framework...sort of. He's very heavily influenced by Kierkegaard and Weil who were deeply concerned with the potential existence of a divine power, use tons and tons of religious metaphors when they're not outright talking about God, and toe the line between theology and philosophy. He's familiar with some theological schools of thought and the concept of intuitionism resonates in an interesting way with process theology in the sense that process theologians believe that we have a direct connection with God but can only define that divine power through a flawed human understanding. This moral intuition, Damien would argue with him, comes from that connection with God.

IN SUMMARY: shit is weird out there and the world is scary but follow ur heart and make your own goodness bro

Damien

Well, a lot of his philosophy is lifted from virtue ethics. This, again, states that there are universal values which exist as a part of human nature, but comes at things from a different angle. These values can be directly defined as things like courage, kindness, and so on. Even anger can be a good thing, in its more moderate version of zeal. You wouldn't be motivated to act against injustice without it. It is, however, possible to have both too little or too much of these, or deficiency of one that causes extreme negative qualities. So, you can be too kind in the sense that you start to completely lack any sense of self-preservation. For an example Ammon Hennacy uses, imagine the common soldier who has the courage to risk his life but is completely lacking in the kindness necessary to recognize the humanity of those he's fighting in an unjust war.

Speaking of war: he's an anarcho-pacifist which means that he is a pacifist but anpacs take the definition of violence beyond just war. Unjust hierarchy is an act of violence in and of itself, coercing people into following it through the implication of violence to the self through things like ostracization, homelessness, using law enforcement as a weapon, etc. Just because people aren't being actively harmed physically doesn't make it violence, especially when many actions of the state to keep people in line can cause psychological suffering.

(I always thought it was funny...or I guess sad-funny that Jakurai's quote is from The Kingdom of God is Within You, which is THE defining book for anarcho-pacifism as an ideology and if you tell me that Civil Disobedience actually is I will fight you, because Thoreau might have effectively invented nonviolent resistance that's just one aspect of anarcho-pacifism, the point is that it's pretty difficult to be a Tolstoyan anarchist and have a negative view of human nature the way Jakurai does. You can't think of people as being corrupted by unnatural hierarchies and that dismantling them would create a better world without having a positive opinion of what people will do when left to their own devices...which, Damien is since he thinks that virtues are an innate part of humanity!)

This is why even though Chuouku did forced disarmament and got rid of the army, which he's definitely not opposed to at all, he still can't stand them. Hoarding mics, only giving them to the people they favor and who show loyalty to them, and making sure to look away when those people misuse the power given to them, it's all violence too.

Also: according to the stageplays, Chuouku does things like giving mics to criminal syndicates, my personal headcanon is that this is to keep elements who could stand against them in check. Groups like Onigawara Bombers or Dark Liberty who'd otherwise potentially do something are running around trying to keep gangsters from making people miserable, so they're actively taking actions to make the lives of average people worse in order to hold onto power.

Anyways, back to virtues. Ethical intuitionism is partially descended from virtue ethics but often defines what's ethical different and isn't concerned with achieving some perfect balance of virtue-related qualities, while virtue ethicists are. Also, not all intuitionists believe that you can specifically name or quantify what these good qualities are (Haruto would hesitate to do it, for example) but some do. W.D. Ross, for example, did and managed to explain it in a pretty cohesive way, I think that his seven duties are a pretty neat philosophy to follow that's also actually comprehensible to someone who hasn't been reading Kant so long they forgot what words that make sense are.

So, a virtue ethicist is more concerned about personal growth than with specific greater duties to the world around them. This state of perfect cultivation was called eudaimonia by Aristotle, and actually lines up really neatly with the Christian mystic (which...Damien functionally is, Japan's Churchless Christianity movement has a LOT in common with Christian mysticism even if it's not necessarily mystical,) belief in theosis, which is achieving a perfect unity with God in which everything you do is, by definition, in perfect alignment with God.

(Christian mystics believe everyone has a direct connection to God, it's not really a denomination so much as a philosophy that crosses over with a few existing denominations like the Society of Friends. As a philosophy it's also deconstructionist in that they don't believe a priesthood is necessary because, well, everyone has that little Holy-Spirit-Voice in them. I absolutely do not have time to get into the details of that here however, this is mostly just reminding me I really need to do that writeup on Churchless Christianity.)

If anything he thinks that the external forces of hierarchical society corrupt this connection to your inner voice and try to force you into doing things that are wrong and unnatural. Consider this: you've got a loaf of bread and some spare change, and there's a man on the side of the road who's panhandling and who seems to be homeless. Basic morality says to give him the money, the bread, or both...but you're likely in a position where you may not be able to give either. You need the money for bus fare, that bread is basically there to tide you over until the next payday, and you can't be late to your job so you have to run along and pretend you don't see the guy. This is without going into the fact that the reason you have this artificial scarcity is because a tiny percentage of people hold a disproportionate amount of resources and will not do anything to help greater society as a whole.

ok this is actually longer than haruto's so let's wrap it up

IN SUMMARY: nothing in you is inherently bad or evil, you can be too much of one thing but just spend lots of time thinking and cultivating those qualities and ur good, also violence is very bad

Shirou

I don't really know what to call this other than Extreme Catholic Guilt with a side of "odd but somewhat precedented theology about the nature of hell" and "how did you combine utilitarianism with this all again?" The material world is inherently, irreversibly flawed and it's impossible to live without causing and enduring suffering throughout your life. Unlike classical Stoics or Buddhist philosophers, he stops short of the "and that's why you should let it go and understand the impermanence of the world around you" so that doesn't help him much.

Some Christian mystic theologians (and a lot of very early Christians who were heavily influenced by Platonic philosophy and saw the Kingdom of God as a platonic ideal of the world vs. the flawed physical world) went as far to say that the physical world is Hell and given that one of the earliest words to refer to Hell was an actual, literal, physical place (the valley of Gehinnom) it's not without precedent. The mystic theologian Eckhart von Hochheim believed that what humans would briefly perceive as Hell was actually a host of angels trying to destroy your connections to the physical world, lay theologian Ammon Hennacy famously said (paraphrasing) "If there is a Hell, it's what we've made of this world." It squares nicely with ideals of universal salvationism or generally concepts that there is no eternal life of torment after death. This is as bad as things get, and there's moments of not-bad within it. The flawed reality we live in is solely due to the imperfect nature of humanity and their disconnect with God.

This...isn't too far off what he believes. There's a decent amount of textual and historical evidence that Hell was more the period of torment during the imminent arrival of the Kingdom of God and afterwards there was simply a cessation of the soul while modern dogma has veered comically far away from that (and that the Kingdom of God may have been more an actual, physical place on Earth, which is veering off into things that he doesn't believe.) So it's less he thinks that he might be going to Hell, more that he thinks he's simply going to stop...being.

Or, not really, he's basically done Pascal's Wager with his soul. He's banking on the idea of a merciful God who will understand that even if he's done some regrettable actions then if he makes some grand act of sacrifice to protect other people who are innocent than he'll be forgiven. If he's already lost, too, he can keep doing them because hey, he can't get any worse than he is now.

All that said, he is trying to do something approaching good by reducing the amount of pain in the world, he's just exceptionally pessimistic it's ever going to make any kind of difference. It's more a matter of minimizing other people's suffering, frequently at great expense to himself.

I said Shirou and Damien had a death wish in Haruto's section and it's more like Damien has no common sense or practical idea what he is/isn't capable of. Shirou is the one who actively has a death wish, as in, he tells himself that he doesn't care whether he lives or dies as long as he's committing himself to a good cause. If he does die, well, better him than someone else, right?

The funny part is that he otherwise would have his life the most in order and be relatively functional if it weren't for the fact he has an incredibly negative self-image and is internally the least sure of what he's doing and if it's even possible to do the right thing or if he's just hit some irreversible point of no return for being a decent person. This has caused him to commit himself to some extremely questionable actions (that don't involve murder, that's Jakurai's job.)

IN SUMMARY: we are in hell. maybe literally. my life has no intrinsic value. help.

[analyzen]

Italian Fandom Meta | Most Popular Types of Pairings on EFP vs. AO3

EFP (2001–, Fanlore) is the most popular writing archive in Italy, and it hosts both fanfic and original fiction. Under the cut you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular types of pairings on EFP in comparison to the most popular types of pairings in the Italian section of AO3.

The Italian version of this analysis can be found here.

TL;DR:

53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted

49% of the registered users on EFP have deleted their accounts

M/F works amount to 60% of the whole website

EFP’s three most popular fandoms (Harry Potter, One Direction, Original Fiction – Romantic) all have a majority of M/F works

On AO3, most Italian works are M/M (56%)

F/F doesn’t have much content on either site (4-5%)

Methodology

I’ve followed @olderthannetfic’s methodology from this earlier Fanfiction.net analysis. Basically, I picked a sample size of 666 chapters and organized them in four categories (M/M, M/F, F/F, Not tagged; more on this later).

Why I chose chapters instead of stories

On EFP you don’t have specific links for every single story. Instead, every chapter you post gets a unique id, which can be seen in the link itself. For example, at the time of writing this the last updated chapter on EFP was this one:

viewstory.php?sid=3974099

Which means that this was the 3'974'009th chapter ever posted on EFP.

Ids follow the usual numerical order, so if a link reads id=3, then there have to be id=1 and id=2, and the next link will have id=4.

So I’ve used a randomizer to select ~1200 unique ids to analyse.

Weren’t 666 chapters enough?

I started out with 700 chapters, but half of them weren’t working. That’s because 53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted from the website.

Thanks to the link of the last updated chapter, we know that almost 4 millions chapters have been posted on the EFP. But EFP's homepage shows different stats:

Registered users: 602395, 205974 of which are authors Last registered user: [blacked out] Total of stories: 517083 Total of chapters: 1869573 chapters Total of reviews: 6222695 Online users: 17 logged in and 53 visitors

While we should have almost 4 million chapters, the stats show ~2 million chapters. Why? Because the stats only show the stories, chapters and users that are still on the website, and they don’t show the stories, chapters and users that have been deleted.

(Sorry, I forgot to translate this one. It reads: Total of chapters posted on EFP between 2001 and today. Orange: deleted chapters. Blue: chapters that are still online.)

Thanks to the stats on the homepage we also have a link to the last registered user. User ids follow the same numerical order as chapter ids, so once again we know that 49% of the users ever registered on EFP have deleted their accounts. That's a lot of deleted accounts.

Categorization

After selecting 666 (accessible) chapters, I organized them into 4 categories:

M/M: contains all stories tagged as “yaoi”, shounen ai” and “slash”

M/F: contains all stories tagged as “het”

F/F: contains all stories tagged as “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash”

Not tagged: which contains a) poetry, b) stories tagged as “no pairing”, and c) untagged het stories.

As for the untagged het stories, there are two issues:

Many M/F fics simply aren’t tagged

Many gen fics include untagged M/F ships

If the description made it clear that the story included a heterosexual relationship, I added the story under the M/F tag. Otherwise I left it under not tagged.

Also, on EFP “yaoi”, “shounen ai” and “slash”, and “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash” actually mean different things.

This screenshot here is from the posting page on EFP. It reads:

Pairings * You must select at least one tag from the list, and you can choose up to three tags. Het: for heterosexual relationships Shonen-ai: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Shojo-ai: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Yaoi: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Yuri: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Slash: for male/male relationships from TV shows/movies/books FemSlash: for female/female relationships from TV shows/movies/books

The thing is. People either respect the rules and use different tags for different kinds of stories, or they use these tags interchangeably to maximise the chance to appear in other users' searches. Which means that you’ll find RPF tagged with “shoujo ai”, and Attack on Titan fics tagged as “slash”. (More info on this later.)

Findings

On EFP, the majority of the stories are M/F.

To confirm this, I checked some specific fandoms:

Some notes:

Because EFP doesn't have metatags like AO3, what I did was: 1) go to a specific fandom, 2) filter through every single tag, and 3) jot down the number of pages per search. Every page contains up to 15 stories, so for example searching for het in Original Fiction – Romantic gives you 846 pages, which amounts to around ~12690 stories.

The tag in red, “Nessuna”, means “no pairing”. It is used for gen fics but also for untagged M/F fics. This is especially true in some fandoms, ie. Original Fiction – Romantic, and Harry Potter.

EFP’s filtering system sucks. You can only filter through stories with specific relationship tags, but you can’t filter out relationships tag. So what you see in the graph is how often a tag is used... which brings us to some issues. For example, Harry Potter is the biggest fandom on EFP, so much that Harry Potter stories amount to 11% (!) of the whole website. But in the graph it looks like the One Direction fandom has more stories—wrong. Actually, One Direction has many stories tagged as both slash and het, while Harry Potter stories tend to be either one or the other.

EFP’s filtering system sucks, part 2. Because “shounen ai”, “yaoi” and “slash” are often used at the same time, you can't really smash together all three of the tags to get a total amount of stories. I'd say that around 50% of the stories tagged as shounen ai and yaoi probably overlap, but there is no easy way to find out because, again, EFP’s filtering system sucks. The same goes for “shoujo ai”, “yuri” and “femslash”.

Fandoms with a majority of M/M stories

While there are some fandoms with more M/M stories (ie. Death Note, Hetalia, Glee, Sherlock, Supernatural, Teen Wolf), these fandoms are simply extremely small in comparison to other bigger fandoms full of M/F fics. Which obviously skews the numbers in favor of M/F fics.

What about femslash?

EFP suffers from the same lack of femslash as AO3 as a whole. In the fandoms I've analysed, only two have a big enough number of F/F. The fandoms are Glee (which has more F/F stories than M/F stories) and Grey's Anatomy (which has as much F/F as M/F stories, with little M/M).

Original Fiction

I thought it might be interesting to explore the original sections too, especially because Original Fiction – Romantic is the third biggest fandom on EFP after Harry Potter and One Direction. These Big 3 all have a disproportionate amount of M/F stories.

By logic, this would mean the the majority of the userbase on EFP prefers M/F stories. But then, aren't fans always complaining about “too much slash”? If “Any Two Guys” were enough to find slash appealing, wouldn't it be easier to simply write original M/M?

I think that looking at original stories might help us understand why people might prefer slash over het in some fandoms. For example, the amount of M/F stories in Original Fiction – Romantic implies that, when authors have to chance to choose what types of stories to create from scratch, they might prefer M/F stories.

This would support the theory that many people might prefer slash because of the lack of (well written/primary) canonical female characters + how well M/M relationships, both platonic and romantic, are written in canon texts in comparison to M/F or F/F relationships.

Obviously, we have to keep in mind that not all fanfic writers write original fiction and viceversa, so I'm not trying to find a universal explanation here. Also because not every website has a majority of M/F stories.

Which brings us to...

AO3 vs. EFP

As per today 20/04/21, the Italian section of AO3 contains “only” 24777 stories, divided between many different fandoms. To make a comparison, the Italian stories on AO3 amount to 5% of all the stories available on EFP. To make another comparison, the whole Naruto fandom on EFP has 20129 stories in total.

EFP has also been active for 20 years, while the boom of Italian fics on AO3 only started around 2018. We can't really make a 1:1 comparison between the two archives, but we can still try to understand the preferences of their users.

M/M and M/F stories on EFP vs. AO3

EFP: 60% M/F, 25% M/M

AO3: 56% M/M, 23% M/F

The percentages are almost swapped.

This might be because of the archives themselves. EFP has always been the general website for any Italian fandom (and actually at first it mostly hosted M/F content), while AO3 has always had a big M/M userbase. I'm basing this statement on this AO3 analysis from 2013, in comparison to this FFN analysis from 2018 which showed a majority of M/F fanworks, and finally this AO3 vs. FFN vs. Wattpad analysis from 2019, which showed that AO3 has always been the outlier for its majority of M/M content.

Then again, M/M stories on EFP have always been subject to the “usual” type of borderline-to-direct harassment that M/M fans are used to, which is something that still happens to this day especially in certain writing groups on Facebook, where the Italian writing community is pretty active. It wouldn't be weird for slashers to move to AO3, where they know they'll find more like-minded people and less headaches. (Also, the Italian section of AO3 has a lot of M/M RPF that's banned on EFP.)

The “Multi” tag on EFP

The only thing that barely resembles a multi tag on EFP is threesome, which for some reason is often used as a synonym for love triangle. So from the tags it isn't easy to understand if a fic includes an actual threesome (as in, a sex scene), a polyamorous relationship, or a simple love triangle.

This doesn't mean that there aren't poly stories on EFP—it simply means that they're impossible to find using the search system.

And that's all, I think!

[triviareads]

everyone is looking for different experiences out of fandom. some people only want to consume and create content and others want to have discussions, whether it be criticism or praise or anything else. the whole point of a fandom community is that it *is* that deep if you want it to be. And no one gets to dictate your fandom experience or should comment on it unless it is causing a lot of problems for other people.

I don't agree with everything on your blog, (looking at that one anon who tried to psychoanalyze everyone in their relationships with female characters. notes of truth but oof the generalizations) but it would be super weird if I did! Recent anon and some other people in this fandom don't get that differing opinions is what makes a community. (multi-)shipping, character interpretation, and analysis are the fabric of fandom. Extrapolation is in the fabric of fandom.

hell, you're doing analysis of the media of your fandom for whether you realize it or not, and some people's opinion are just more critical than others, so it is a tad hypocritical to say *just calm down* because why don't you too?

I think people get defensive when criticisms take on the fandom at large. saying THE WHOLE or MOST of the fandom is this way or taking a moral stance about something that is actually gray or something ythat some people dont give much thought to(esp bc based on who you follow and how you interact, everyones fandom looks different!) might prickle people a bit.

And in the case of female characterization which seems like a big part of our fandom because we are (from what Ive found) mostly women, we must remember that the internalized misogyny is real. Because we as women expect more of each other than we do of men sometimes its just as easy to fall into the trap of writing a fic with simpering debutantes as it is to act superior to real people you've never met before for projecting "pick me" feelings (this isnt to @ you but some of your anons)

Long story short the thoughts and feelings of real life people are more important than our fave fictional characters and I know im definitely preaching to the choir here and you shouldnt respond if you dont want to, but I just wanted to uh, commiserate? show support for healthy criticism? have a nice monologue about the makeup of online community? etc?

Anyway, feel free to disagree anything I said in this manifesto, it's the whole point :)

This was a lovely read- I'll reply to what I can, since I do, by and large, agree with everything you've said.

Since there's always room for improvement for all of us, I will definitely try to be more mindful of my generalizations of the fandom- saying "some" instead of "the whole" or "most"- when I'm talking about Bridgerton.

You are absolutely right in that internalized misogyny is real, both in stories as well as in real life, and that is why I've made a concerted effort in all my fics to avoid writing "pick me" girls and the rest of the female characters as "simpering debutantes". The women in my stories are aware, on some level (that level varying based on the time period and their circumstance), of why women are behaving the way they are. I have written two different takes set in the regency era on women schooling men on why they have no right to bitch about "vapid social climbers" or "simpering, grasping, silly debutantes" (which can be found here and here).

And this carries over into real life- how some women choose to interact with a fandom (including the fantasy aspect of women seeing themselves in certain heroines) should not judged by others, at least, as long as there is nothing too problematic about it (see: the fetishization of Regé-Jean Page, general racism I've seen in some parts of the fandom, homophobia, etc.).

[senadimell]

Fanfiction

Arguments against the concept of fanfiction are just hilarious to me. You know why? Music doesn't really have this problem, at least not at first glance. In fact, look up musical quotation and variation, two accepted musical techniques that have existed in European music for hundreds of years. Take that, highbrow critics. Or else consider the modern cover song or remix.

When you look deeper, though, even music has its problems: consider the reception of Andrew Lloyd Webber (one of the most popular musical composers in musical theatre), who’s been repeatedly accused of musical plagiarism. That he borrows extensively and somewhat indiscriminately is true; however, that he borrows ‘meaninglessly’ implies that the average theatre-goer has or should have an extensive knowledge of classical music to understand the history and meaning of any musical quotation, and that music only has meaning when it’s accompanied by its original context and meaning. 

Up until the past decade and a half, most musical theatre was dismissed as popular and not considered worthy of literary or musical analysis, with the exception of the works of Stephen Sondheim (who is brilliant, though I don’t really enjoy his works). Lloyd Webber has often been pointedly ignored, despite being a household name even with people who don’t really listen to musicals. Phantom of the Opera? It’s been playing non-stop, no revivals, at the Majestic theatre in New York for 33 years. (Of course, the irony is that Phantom of the Opera itself is fanfiction). 

The second edition of Steven Suskin’s Show Tunes (1991) included a section called “Notable Imported Shows.” About half of the shows listed were shows with music by Lloyd Webber. In the Preface to the third edition, Suskin justifies the omission of this section and the expunging of Lloyd Webber that resulted: “All of the British imports since the Second Edition have failed; thus, I have seen fit to excise the import section and concentrate on matters of more interest.” As a consequence of this executive decision, the most popular Broadway composer of the last thirty years hand probably history is now banished from a major reference book that purports to cover “The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers.” 

(emphasis added) Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: the Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber. 2nd ed. Cary: Oxford University Press, 2009.

So there it is, the same problem as fanfiction. The problem is not that a work is being reinterpreted, but that ordinary people like it. It’s not deemed sufficiently literary enough. Critics think the ‘original meaning’ is being disrespected and despitefully used. You can argue that Lloyd Webber’s quotes are meaningless or plagiarized, but you’d have to ignore the fact that people like the show. They find it meaningful. They go and see it again and again, and listen to it in their homes and cars. They propose to their significant others using its music. They sing their children to sleep with it. Regardless of whether or not you think his use of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, op. 64 in “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” is particularly meaningful, you can’t deny this:

The song has been much recorded, with "I Don't Know How to Love Him" being one of the rare songs to have had two concurrent recordings reach the Top 40 of the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine, specifically those by Helen Reddy and Yvonne Elliman,[1] since the 1950s when multi-version chartings were common.

Wikipedia, accessed June 13, 2020.

People like it. And people generally find the songs they like meaningful. 

Guess what? The original still exists! If you like it more, then you can read/watch/listen to it to your heart’s content! You don’t have to read fanfiction. You don’t have to consume the parts you don’t like. You can enjoy Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, op. 64 all you want and never ever listen to “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” and that’s perfectly fine. You do not, however, get to criticize the people who enjoy the other, or condemn those who write fanfiction as useless. (And consider that Mendelssohn himself wrote variations on other composers’ themes, to great acclaim.)

I'll be the first one to admit that I used to hate fanfiction, but it was more of a disillusioned sort of hatred because I had both high hopes and high standards, and the two couldn't coexist. It was frustrating to realize that most of what I found had poor grammar and character development, or else was based on a movie or play when I explicitly searched for the book (looking at you, most Phantom of the Opera works). I would sort through pages and pages of stuff that I couldn’t get through, and my tolerance grew short. Nowdays, I’ve had a renewed appreciation for fanfiction, now that I’m using ao3 and not FF.net, since I find sorting through works much easier on ao3. 

The short of it is this: There’s nothing wrong with the concept of fanfiction. There’s nothing wrong with what is popular. People writing fanfiction aren’t stealing profits(that’s piracy) like there’s a limited number of views. In fact, I’d hazard to guess that fanfiction drums up profit since it keeps the old flame burning. The fact that fanfiction is free, and people labor at it without the expectation of monetary reward, and write the kind of stories that aren’t deemed worthy of being published, and that critics think that labor is worthless and completely lacking in quality says more about capitalism and who owns ‘the means of production’ than anything else. (Sincerely, your resident non-socialist)

[riceccakes]

Earth, Wind, and Coffee: Chapter One Analysis

helloooooooo :) welcome to my chapter analyses for my fic Earth, Wind, and Coffee. here, i’m just going to be breaking down my writing process, choices, and fun stuff, among other stuff as well. you can read this after you’ve finished the first chapter (i’ve excluded spoilers!) or you could read all 45k words and then come back to these one by one. either way, i’m v excited to be doing this so i hope you guys like it too. lets begin with chapter one, shall we :)

some fun stuff before we start!

every chapter title is modeled after the fic title!

you may have noticed that there are two center line dividers in the chapter(and every chapter after), meaning there are three sections to a chapter. going off of this, i thought it might be cool to title each chapter based on the sections, either of its main topic or my favorite part of it. so, chapter one’s first section is korrasami meeting (hence, Meetings), section two is where i introduced Artist!Korra, and i really love Artist!Korra so naturally i had to name the chapter about her (and the thing that brings korrasami closer, Sketches), and the third section is where their friendship is solidified (i think i achieved this by giving their numbers to each other, but i also just thought it was a cute scene, Phone Number Exchanges) and now we put it all together and get: Meetings (Earth), Sketches (Wind), and Phone Number Exchanges (and Coffee) (pretty cool right??? *wink wink*) the same formula is used to title every chapter afterwards. i usually suck at chapter titles but i thought this was a super cute thing to do and it ended up working fairly naturally :)

i started this fic on sept 23, 2020. chapter one didn’t get posted until oct 15, 2020

so basically, i sat with this first chapter for almost a month before posting (which actually was a good thing, i’ll tell you why later!) i really wanted this first chapter to stand out and be lowkey perfect, so i kept writing and rewriting and rewriting my rewrites. then you know, i’d start reading and then edit and then edit the edits; it’s a vicious cycle but one that i’m used to. i finally decided to post the fic when i read the first chapter through and thought “yep, this is it” 

i was inspired by the fic it’s such a gorgeous sight to see you in the middle of the night by softshocks

mostly for the idea of having a full-length fic in only three chapters. buuut, that was also one of the first korrasami fics i read after finishing lok on netflix and i remember thinking “damn, now THIS is how you do an au” character progression in the story is great and not once during the fic did i feel bored or in a lull. i really wanted to do the same with my fic and tried my best

now, lets get into the chapter itself.

sentence structure:

i used sentence structure to (hopefully) show that something is off with korra. we don’t know what yet, asami chalks it up to working through the night, but just like the summary states, there’s more going on here with our new favorite barista, it’s just a matter of what. even with this being in asami’s pov, i wanted to show a sort of disconnect between her and korra. let me show you an example

“Asami smiles warmly, excited to try the drink. She thanks Korra and watches as the girl nods lightly and walks back over to the counter. She begins cleaning the espresso machine. Asami takes a sip from the mug, lightly moaning from the taste. She feels Korra’s eyes peer up at her for a moment. Their eyes meet and Asami blushes, putting the mug and her head down. She opens the binder on the right side, pulling out the pen tucked into the inside cover. She thumbs through to the next clean page and begins squinting at her sloppy notes, rewriting them neatly once they’re deciphered.“

i’ve italicized sentences that, even while in asami’s pov, describe korra’s actions. in comparison to the sentences around it, the two italicized sentences are rather plain and simple. they’re very subject-predicate - “She (subject) begins cleaning the espresso machine (predicate)” you have your noun/subject and verb/predicate, give or take some words for proper english and action. asami’s sentences are more complex. colored in red is what i’ve donned as my classic form of writing, which basically takes two sentences - “She opens the binder on the right side. She pulls out the pen tucked into the inside cover.” and smushes them together by keeping the first sentence as is and taking away the subject of the second sentence and tacking on an -ing to its verb. i’m not sure how writing sentences like this started but i feel like i always come back to it because it gives sentences just that lil bit of edge. the sentences are not super simple but they’re also not super hard to understand. it’s a nice balance of simplicity and complexity, in my opinion.

now in bold is the combination of korra’s - “Their eyes meet and Asami blushes.” and asami’s - “Asami blushes, putting the mug and her head down” sentence forms. it’s a nice little indication that even with this disconnect from korra, these two girls are going to come together and make magic.

this play with sentence structure pretty much continues throughout the rest of the chapter, have fun finding them :))

next on my list is what i brought up earlier! i saved this lil first chapter in my back pocket for almost a month and you know what, it was a really good thing i did. for one thing, asami’s original “tormentor” we’ll call him, was going to be tahno. the same idea of this character being a soccer player was kept but i changed the character from tahno to iroh for a number of reasons:

1) iroh’s connections to the fire nation throne were a biiiig thing in me deciding to change him. 

i loved iroh ii in lok, i thought he was super cool, but we needed someone in this story to be an obstacle for asami to face. we already have her dad hiroshi, and some of you may be thinking “isn’t that already enough??” and for a while i thought so too, but we needed a vehicle to show how hiroshi is an obstacle asami is facing. and i decided to do that with iroh.

2) i really wanted said character to be a conceded jerk and who better than a well known heir to a nation’s throne? (it really went to his head)

tahno was really already a jerk and pretty ruthless character in lok, which is why he came to mind first. and i’d had him only be a soccer star but that was cause for explaining how he and hiroshi have connections. i was struggling for a bit of how to tie the two together but ultimately realized, “hey hiroshi is a business man, he’s bound to do business in the fire nation. and iroh is from the fire nation, he’s prince! he could be a key factor in pulling strings to get more business there” and so that is why i changed tahno to iroh

3) it doesn’t stop there though! at first, iroh was only son of the firelord and soccer star mvp. he was in asami’s stats class but that was it. i realized he needed a bigger role to have connections with hiroshi, which is why he’s now a business major too

this reason is why it’s great i waited!! had i been an eager beaver and posted whatever the first draft of the chapter was, i would’ve been facing some challenges later on, so thanks past me for giving future me some help! this was the perfect way for iroh to be a conceded dick who’s in asami’s life even tho she doesn’t want him to be. i added on the bit about him joining future industries in section two of the chapter and was suuuper glad i figured it out because it helped me envision the rest of the story.

honorable mentions:

korra was going to be wearing a tee shirt when korrasami met but i changed this 1) so asami could leave up ✨korra’s muscles✨ to her imagination and 2) because gloves are a regularly used trope that someone has something to hide. i couldn’t really find a way to give korra gloves but i thought the next best thing would be covering up, so now she wears a sweater.

i googled different types of coffee. The Avatar is a latte macchiato, it’s a play on an espresso macchiato. espresso is added to milk rather than milk to espresso and features more foam than hot milk. i used this one cause i’ve always enjoyed seeing foam art and thought making aang’s classic arrow in foam would be cool. Aang’s Special is a play on his favorite treat, egg tarts. this one is a vietnamese drink and is exactly as i describe in the fic.

earth, wind, and coffee is very much a pun. one so many different levels though: earth, wind, and fire, esteemed multi-genre singing group, known for songs like september and fantasy. earth, wind (air), and fire are elements that are bended in the atla universe and while this isn’t a bending au, it’s still pretty cool. and now earth, wind, and coffee, it’s a coffee shop au. i mean come on, so many layers, i love myself for creating it but hate myself for how much i love myself for creating it.

anything i would’ve wanted to change?

honestly, no. i think because i’d already did all of the changes before publishing, but also cause any time i read through the first chapter, i just feel satisfied. i achieved all of my goals in that first chapter about setting up what would happen and it’s also just a good read.

have any questions? let me know! wanna comment your favorite things from chapter one? do it !! interact with me !! i demand it.

thanks for reading, i really liked doing this :)) (even tho more than once my writing for this got deleted and it was big sad because i’d gotten a good portion done but whatever we’re still here)

[conduitandconjurer]

Greetings! Saw your recent response about RPs. I have broken etiquette with someone who is in the RP community, and now I’m all worried that my behavior is wrong. So please, can you explain what an RP is? How do I know one when I see one? Thank yoooo!

Yes, I’m basic. I’m ok with that. But obviously not ok with it enough to put it in normal size font.

Oh my gosh, well you’re quite welcome. I don’t pretend to be any kind of expert. I’ve been doing this for over 15 years now, but my only advantage is that I’m old, LOL. 

I’m sorry you had a bad experience in the rpg (role playing game) community.  Unfortunately many of the most dedicated hobbyists in this avocation kinda...forget that we haven’t all been doing this for years, and become unnecessarily impatient with people outside of their favored circles.  I doubt that your slight was as serious as it was made out to be, so please don’t feel too badly. 

General etiquette: 

RP is usually written in third person present-tense, and on Tumblr, is situated on one of two types of blogs: Single-muse blogs (blogs dedicated to one character only) or, what has lately become quite fashionable, multi-muse blogs (blogs dedicated to between two and numerous characters at once).  

Blogs may be private (the author or “mun” will only write with someone who is a mutual follower) or not private. They may be selective ( don’t need a mutual follow to interact with you, but will decide whether or not they will follow you based on whether they think your interpersonal chemistry meshes) or non-selective.  

It is generally frowned upon for “personal” (non-rp) blogs to reblog in-character threads.  I don’t mind it at all, but many rp blogs find it extremely off-putting because they have social anxiety, or are shy, or don’t like an unconnected account messing up their activity feed. Some rp blogs don’t even like you to send them PMs or replies. These are usually blogs which label themselves as “private” (a synonym of which is “mutuals-only” or “exclusive”).  The best thing to do in this situation is to send them an Ask politely offering to interact, and respecting whatever answer they provide. 

Asks should be answered privately if they are “OOC” or “out-of-character,” that is, written by the mun/author to you, rather than by their character “IC” ( “in-character”). 

Some blogs are “indie” or independent, meaning the author/mun is free to interact with anyone willing. Others are “group verse” and only affiliated with a set group of other authors/muns. The vast majority of Tumblr rp blogs are indie. 

How to recognize various types of posts on an RP blog:

--Always check the blog description first. Unless it’s one of those blogs that’s so clusterfucked with unaccessible “aesthetic”--which imho is very off-putting and inhospitable to the disabled community--it will have links to important pages, which include but are not limited to rules (CRUCIAL to read!), about the muse/stats, relationships (in fiction, with other muses/characters, including “ships” aka romantic pairings ),and verses (that is, the worlds/settings, which can exist in multiples).  Often, lately, with the increase in mobile users, these links will take you to a Google Doc.  

--A “thread” is a term to refer to the third-person singular POV posts made in-character, usually between only two characters. A mun posts a character action and dialogue, and their writing partner reblogs with the response. They go back and forth until both muns agree the thread has concluded. How this is agreed upon varies greatly from mun to mun. 

--A “meme” is a predetermined set of Ask prompts sent by one mun to another, and the other responds in-character by answering the Ask. This is considered a great way to conduct an icebreaker. 

--A “starter” is the beginning of a thread.  It may be open, or available to all characters, or it may be closed, or written with only one other mun in mind. 

--A “headcanon” is a post by the mun about their personal ideas, usually based on content canon but in some way embellished or elaborated upon, regarding the character that they write. For instance, I headcanon that Klaus’s body temperature runs hot because, in the show, he’s always going around half-naked, lol. 

--A “meta” is a post by the mun that engages the source content in-depth, and often with an eye for media criticism, in both the Doylist and Watsonian sense. It is a form of literary analysis.  For instance, I have written meta about how the writers of TUA utilize problematic tropes about addiction, making Klaus’s struggles with substance abuse too often the brunt of comic relief. 

I think this covers the basics but let me know if I didn’t address something important :O 

[aka-ashi-keiji]

rules on my page :)

general rules

just be kind!

everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but i do not tolerate character slander due to the fact that it could be a comfort character for someone and that kind of hate could be emotionally damaging.

racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, or any kind of discrimination is not tolerated and you will be blocked and reported.

rules for requests

I don’t write nsfw so please don’t request that.

i am most comfortable with writing for bnha or haikyuu, but i’m willing to write for any character from sk8 the infinity, atla, fire force, demons slayer, jujutsu kaisen, ouran high school host club, assassination classroom, free!, tokyo revengers and blue lock!

what i will write:

fluff (comfort hc, falling in love, pining, friends to lovers, platonic scenarios etc.)

soft angst (breakups, rejection, unrequited love, small arguments etc)

angst (character death, injury, anxiety attacks, grieving with death, depression)

character analysis

oc x character *if given a vivid description*

character x character (legal ships please)

song prompts *writing a fic based off a song*

breakup scenes

comfort for traumatic past (e.g: su!cide, r!pe, sex!al haras!ment, child ab!se, etc) *will be tagged accordingly, remember to blacklist please!!*

DISCLAIMER: my writing skills lie within writing angst and that is basically it. any sort of romantic scenario will be a struggle for me to write, that’s just how i am. so please keep this in mind when requesting fluffy love prompts :))

what i won’t write:

nsfw

illegal ships (pedophilia, incest, all of that is a no)

toxic relationships (abuse, constant fighting, making each other jealous, etc)

i will not write for bnha villains, one exception is dabi.

multi part fic requests

anything that can be seen as hateful towards a fandom or character :)

personal triggers for me that i won’t write for: anything with broken glass, use of knives for self pain

that’s all there is to my page! be kind and love each other, fandoms are family and should be treated as such. i hope you enjoy my content as much as i enjoy making it, happy reading!

- j lynn

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 22 of 26

Title: House of Leaves (2000) 

Author: Mark Z. Danielewski

Genre/Tags: Horror, Fiction, Metafiction, Weird, First-Person, Third-Person, Unreliable Narrator 

Rating: 6/10

Date Began: 7/28/2020

Date Finished: 8/09/2020

House of Leaves follows two narrative threads. One is the story of Johnny Truant, a burnout in his mid-twenties who finds a giant manuscript written by a deceased, blind hermit named Zampanò. The second is said manuscript -- The Navidson Record -- a pseudo-academic analysis of a found-footage horror film that doesn’t seem to exist. In it, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson moves into a suburban home in Virginia with his partner Karen and their two children. Navidson soon makes the uncomfortable discovery that his new house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Over time he discovers more oddities -- a closet that wasn’t there before, and eventually a door that leads into an impossibly vast, dark series of rooms and hallways. 

While Johnny grows more obsessed with the work, his life begins to take a turn for the worse, as told in the footnotes of The Navidson Record. At the same time, the mysteries of the impossible, sinister house on Ash Tree Lane continue to deepen. 

To get a better idea try this: focus on these words, and whatever you do don’t let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you can’t see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. That’s where it is. Right at this moment. But don’t look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead and take an even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard it’s gonna hit you, how many times it will stab your jugular with its teeth or are they nails? don’t worry, that particular detail doesn’t matter, because before you have time to even process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms--you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book-- you won’t have time to even scream. 

Don’t look. 

I didn’t. 

Of course I looked. 

Some story spoilers under the cut. 

Whoo boy do I feel torn on this one. House of Leaves contains some really intriguing ideas, and when it’s done right, it’s some of the best stuff out there. Unfortunately, there are also several questionable choices and narrative decisions that, for me, tarnish the overall experience. It’s certainly an interesting read, even if the whole is ultimately less than the sum of its parts. 

First of all, I can see why people don’t like this book, or give up on it early (for me this was attempt number three). Despite an interesting concept and framing device, the first third or so of the book is pretty boring. Johnny is just not an interesting character. He does a lot of drugs and has a lot of (pretty unpleasant) sex and... that’s pretty much it, at least at the beginning. There’s occasional horror sections that are more interesting, where Johnny’s convinced he’s being hunted by something, but they’re few and far between. Meanwhile, the story in The Navidson Record seems content to focus on the relationship issues between two affluent suburbanites rather than the much more interesting, physically impossible house they live in. The early “exploration” sections are a little bit better, but overall I feel the opening act neglects the interesting premise. 

However, unlike many, I love the gimmick. The academic presentation of the Navidson story is replete with extensive (fake) footnotes,and there’s tons of self-indulgent rambling in both stories. I personally find it hilarious; it’s an intentionally dense parody of modern academic writing. Readers will note early that the typographical format is nonstandard, with the multiple concurrent stories denoted by different typefaces, certain words in color, footnotes within footnotes, etc. House of Leaves eventually goes off the chain with this concept, gracing us with pages that look like (minor spoilers) this or this. This leads into the best part of this book, namely... 

Its visual presentation! House of Leaves excels in conveying story and feeling through formatting decisions. The first picture I linked is one of many like it in a chapter about labyrinths. And reading it feels like navigating a labyrinth! It features a key “story”, but also daunting, multi-page lists of irrelevant names, buildings, architectural terms, etc. There are footnotes that don’t exist, then footnote citations that don’t seem to exist until one finds them later in the chapter. All this while physically turning the book or even grabbing a mirror to read certain passages. In short, it feels like navigating the twists, turns, and dead ends of a labyrinth. And that’s just one example -- other chapters utilize placement of the text to show where a character is in relation to others, what kind of things are happening around them, and so on. One chapter near the end features a square of text that gets progressively smaller as one turns the pages, which mirrors the claustrophobic feel of the narrative events. This is the coolest shit to me; I adore when a work utilizes its format to convey certain story elements. I usually see this in poetry and video games, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done so well in long-form fiction. City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer, both of which I reviewed earlier this year, do something similar, and are clearly inspired by House of Leaves in more ways than one. 

And yes, the story does get a little better, though it never wows me. The central horror story is not overtly scary, but eeriness suffices, and I have a soft spot for architectural horror. Even Johnny and the Navidsons become more interesting characters over time. For example, I find Karen pretty annoying and generic for most of the book, but her development in later chapters makes her much more interesting. While I question the practical need for Johnny’s frame story, it does become more engaging as he descends into paranoia and madness.

So why the relatively low rating? Well... as I alluded to earlier, there’s some questionable stuff in House of Leaves that leaves (...hah?) a bad taste in my mouth. The first is a heavy focus on sexual violence against women. I did some extensive thinking on this throughout my read, but I just cannot find a valid reason for it. The subject feels thrown in for pure shock value, and especially from a male author, it seems tacky and voyeuristic. If it came up once or twice I’d probably be able to stomach this more easily, but it’s persistent throughout the story, and doesn’t contribute anything to the plot or horror (not that that would really make it better). I’m not saying books can’t have that content, but it’s just not explored in any meaningful way, and it feels cheap and shitty to throw it in something that traumatizing just to shock the audience. It’s like a bad jump scare but worse on every level. There’s even a part near the end written in code, which I took the time to decode, only to discover it’s yet another example of this. Like, really, dude? 

Second, this book’s portrayal of mental illness is not great. (major spoilers for Johnny’s arc.) One of the main things about Johnny’s story is he’s an unreliable narrator. From the outset, Johnny has occasional passages that can either be interpreted as genuine horror, or delusional breaks from reality. Reality vs unreality is a core theme throughout both stories. Is The Navidson Record real despite all evidence to the contrary? Is it real as in “is the film an actual thing” or “the events of the film are an actual thing”? and so on and so forth. Johnny’s sections mirror this; he’ll describe certain events, then later state they didn’t happen, contradict himself, or even describe a traumatic event through a made-up story. Eventually, the reader figures out parts of Johnny’s actual backstory, namely that when he was a small child, his mother was institutionalized for violent schizophrenia. Perhaps you can see where this is going... 

Schizophrenia-as-horror is ridiculously overdone. But it also demonizes mental illness, and schizophrenia in particular, in a way that is actively harmful. Don’t misunderstand me, horror can be a great way to explore mental illness, but when it’s done wrong? Woof. Unfortunately House of Leaves doesn’t do it justice. While it avoids some cliches, it equates the horror elements of Johnny’s story to the emergence of his latent schizophrenia. This isn’t outwardly stated, and there are multiple interpretations of most of the story, but in lieu of solid and provable horror, it’s the most reasonable and consistent explanation. There’s also an emphasis on violent outbursts related to schizophrenia, which just isn’t an accurate portrayal of the condition. 

To Danielewski’s credit, it’s not entirely black and white. We do see how Johnny’s descent into paranoia negatively affects his life and interpersonal relationships. There’s a bonus section where we see all the letters Johnny’s mother wrote him while in the mental hospital, and we can see her love and compassion for him in parallel to the mental illness. But the experimental typographical style returns here to depict just how “scary” schizophrenia is, and that comes off as tacky to me. I think this is probably an example of a piece of media not aging well (after all, this book just turned 20), and there’s been a definite move away from this kind of thing in horror, but that doesn’t change the impression it leaves. For a book as supposedly original/groundbreaking as this, defaulting to standard bad horror tropes is disappointing. And using “it was schizophrenia all along” to explain the horror elements in Johnny’s story feels like a cop-out. I wish there was more mystery here, or alternate interpretations that actually make sense. 

Overall The Navidson Record part of the story feels more satisfying. I actually like that there isn’t a direct explanation for everything that happens. It feels like a more genuine horror story, regardless of whether you interpret it as a work of fiction within the story or not. There’s evidence for both. Part of me wishes the book had ended when this story ends (it doesn’t), or that the framing device with Johnny was absent, or something along those lines. Oh well-- this is the story we got, for better or worse. 

I don’t regret reading House of Leaves, and it’s certainly impressive for a debut novel. If you’re looking for a horror-flavored work of metafiction, it’s a valid place to start. I think the experimental style is a genuine treat to read, and perhaps the negative aspects won’t hit you as hard as they did to me. But I can definitely see why this book is controversial. 

[galfridus1]

Thanks to Creators

For the @creators-anonymous thankfulness week, today i’m doing a list of fic and artist recommendations. This is not a complete list by any means - the NNT fandom is packed full of amazing writers and artists - but these are a selection of my favs from 2019. Check out the warnings etc on these fics before you read.

The Lion of Britannia by @lickitysplitfic is just this incredible story - it’s got humour, drama, romance, the works. If you haven’t read it yet I really recommend that you do even if you’re not that big of an Escalin fan. I bet you will be by the end!

Dark Side of the Moon by @cerneala - this is one of the most beautifully written fics on AO3 in my opinion and this is the fic they really convinced me that OCs can work well in fanfiction. The language is stunning and the world-building is detailed and satisfying without being bogged down. It’s a wonderful read.

The Master Swordsman by @jacklynnfrost - this is really, really clever. The premise of this AU and the way it dovetails with the canon is just... well, clever, and fun to read. The descriptions are vivid, and the emotions feel so authentic. Go read!

The Cursed Tree by @bean-of-nerves and @redworld96 - this fic is written so naturally you will barely notice time passing as you’re reading it. The imagery is just remarkable and every character is on point. The art to go with it is equally good so do check both the fic and art out.

Everything @han100894 writes is incredible but I particularly like the Escalin AU Collection - this is so inventive. Merlin and Escanor are kept wonderfully in character across a number of different interesting and creative universes.

Beyond Your Shape by @lemaskadra - chapter 2 is my favourite. It’s like a work of art rather than a story. The scenarios here are imaginative and original and definitely worth checking out - do read the warnings.

Bloom by @leighthepeach - just go read it, especially if you are into Banlaine because they are perfectly characterised throughout all of these oneshots and the writing is fluid and beautiful.

In terms of art you will be doing yourself a favour if you check out these blogs:

@bertazsleepyhead - jaw-droppingly stunning work from a consummate professional.

@lionsheartart - incredible drawings, multi fandom and all of them good.

@thegoddesselizabeth - work so good it could be in a gallery.

@zeldrispendragon - just look at the colourings! And the art style. Genius.

@vitsuie - look at the pictures posted on this blog and fall in love with them!

@sesshlidia - just jaw-droppingly brilliant.

@yuleira - gorgeous pictures with an incredible finish. You can feel the emotion coming off the page.

@okamideimos - really lovely style, amazing colouring.

@nerroart - I mean, some of these are so real-looking they could be photographs. Just go look.

@princessfroslass - I would be amazed if you did not love these colourings. And if you don’t stay for the analysis and headcanons.

@timidfaee - there is so much fun, personality and skill in these pictures. Please go look.

@coffin-of-eternal-darkness - best known for on point NNT analysis and the art is amazing too. I really love the composition and the colours.

@emo-hedgehog-zeldris - really cute and lovely work.

@smolmeliroll - I really love how natural the art looks, it looks effortless.

I’m... going to have to stop. There are loads more great fics and art. Worth exploring the NNT tags on Tumblr and AO3 :)