#literary arts (and crafts!)

[logandria]

“His wedding gift, clasped around my throat. A choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinarily precious slit throat.”

- The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

A recent personal project. Pearls, glass, and so many meters of fishing line…

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

December, from The Procession of Months (c.1889). All the poems were written by fifteen-year-old Beatrice Crane and illustrated by her acclaimed artist father, Walter Crane.

via contentinacottage.blogspot on pinterest

text id after cut off

[TEXT ID: "December" by Beatrice Crane.

Now wildly sweeps the wind

And wildly drives the sleet

DECEMBER fast draws nigh

Wrapped close from head to feet.

Her eyes glance restlessly

From shaken tree to plain,

The dark hair 'neath her hood

Is wet with frozen rain.

Her furry cloak she holds

With one hand round her form,

The other one lifts high

A torch to light the storm

Scance tree or shrub doth cheer

The dreary scene around,

Save for the moaning wind,

There is no other sound.

December's eyes grow sad

And fainter still her tread;

One hears a long, low sight

Which tells the year is dead. /end ID]

[andreasmithdesigned]

Bewitched Me PDF Pattern now available

[scribefindegil]

I mean this in the ace-est possible way but Dimple-in-Reigen's-body is really hot. sorry.

[rubberduckyrye]

Just 2 AM thoughts: Theory crafting is just another form of writing fanfiction, you cannot change my mind.

[shenyaanigans]

the journey of a writer is you begin writing just for the sake of writing and often hand wave details that aren't that important to you to get to the fun bits. then you decide you want to improve and you go through a rigorous process of thinking about lots of mechanics and abiding by sense and rationality, because the most damning insult to a piece of fiction is testing the reader's suspension of disbelief too much. this level of self criticism then colors the interpretation of other texts as well, where they are held to a particular standard where every detail must be perfectly logical, well researched, and contain no contradictions (cinema sins, if you will). nirvana is when you realize that doesn't matter and you go back to hand waving details that aren't that important to you.

[anyroads]

Posts I've seen in just the last week:

AO3 is one of the most visited sites in the world

It's ok if your fanfic [that you're writing for free in your spare time] is unfinished! You do you!

How very dare these WGA writers not finish writing my stories for me [that they spend full work days every day working on] just because they don't get compensated fairly for their paid labor and decided to go on strike?

Respect unions! Unionize your workplace! Respect picket lines!

Posts I have not seen ever but maybe it's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

AO3 would not exist without the paid writers who are currently striking. You would have no stories to write fanfic of. The entire world your fic exists in was created by someone else's labor.

[delilahdesanges]

[Publishing] The Saltbush Review

In a rather wonderful turn of events, my very Northern Hemisphere self has been accepted into a very Southern Australian literary journal, The Saltbush Review. Funded by Arts SA, Saltbush Review’s third issue is focused on the theme of “Intersections”, and features a diverse range of work – fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and reviews – from a diverse range of writers. (Saltbush photo is public…

[littlefinerthings]

Emily Brontë "Fall, Leaves, Fall" greeting card

[allison-dedecker]

Clippings: How It Was Made

This piece was generated from a very cool writing prompt game hosted by The Voidspace Magazine:

I wanted the piece that be fluid, so that there was no specific order that the three sections had to be read in. I wanted it to feel like a series of memories that can bubble up at any time unbidden. So, I modifed a template I found here:

and made them into an infinity card:

Want to make your own copy? Here's the template:

And here is a little tutorial I put together:

If videos aren't your speed, I also made this photo guide:

Feel free to customize it with watercolors, colored pencils, stickers, anything! I'd love to see your booklets if you feel comfortable; just tag me in a post or reblog!

[riewritten]

about reader-insert because!!!

i'm hollering. crying. screaming. dying. like AAAAHHH @frenchdyer can pulverize me and i'll thank them.

i understand the stigma attached to reader-insert fics! i've been to diff fandoms since childhood (kpop & anime alike) & i believe that hierarchy in preferences has always been a constant in the platform—the same goes with pairing fics, i think, given that my circle of friends isn't particularly fond of them as well.

not sure if the same applies to my fellow reader-insert writers but what's interesting in this type of writing, in my opinion, is the challenge of establishing the psyche of a nameless main character that's as authentic as the canon ppl—like, a sense of character completeness despite major ambiguities in their identities. i also think reader-insert fics pave the way to character analyses & dynamics in a much more creative way. i enjoy reading articles that deconstruct my fave characters but as a writer, i kinda want my reader to visualize how i perceive this particular canon little meow meow of mine more literally (and i thought the best way to do so is through scenario bldgs where they could converse with you, a lovely reader!)

i'm very very grateful you were able to resonate and indulge with this nameless being i've written and *at some point* imagine my canon characters behaving with loyalty to their characterization in the material. being shy for consuming reader-insert fics is understandable, in a way, but i think those who hold that concept with disdain belittles the creative horizons people can venture in creative pieces :'D lastly, to be able to help you widen your self-perspective along the way is by far the greatest thing i've ever heard in a while.

[agirlnamedbone]

Let's just say that inspiration is a mysterious gift that, in the hands of a "real writer," in the deliberate and conscious exercise of craft is carefully, patiently, and lovingly developed into as complete an expression of that inspired moment as the writer is able to manage. While not averse to the promptings of logic or analysis, the "real writer" accepts the gift, opens herself or himself to that inspiration, and allows the whole mind (right and left brain alike) to recombine the world "in its very atoms." The result is a creation, that, like the larger creation (or just call it the real world, if you prefer), is complex, engaging, frightening, ambiguous, beautiful, baffling, threatening, consoling, runic, and ultimately richly and meaningfully satisfying. Rhyme and meter and the essentially rhythmical nature of all "real writing," whether in poetry or fiction, may be nothing more or less than an expression of the meaningful order inherent in the cluttered Babel of language, or perhaps the meaningful order inherent in the chaos of reality itself (what William James called the "humming-buzzing confusion" of experience).

R.H.W. Dillard, Going Out Into the Crazy, at Blackbird Review

[elisaenglish]

So it is, so you are—a flow of dreams transfused...

[thatficwheretheprotagisadog]

i think we need like, phenomenology of any kind of media consumption? the “quick dopamine hit” is useful for understanding things, sure, but we need to balance that with our need to attempt new things.

for me, it goes:

consume a specific piece of media (as asked by someone/discovered)

find related media and situate them according to 1 (this is the bit that social media usually exploits)

once done situating, most of us still end up consuming and consuming related media, because we’ve kind of automated the “finding of/reaching to” things, which is usually the most arduous part of many tasks. think: how long it takes to get somewhere, how long it takes to find relevant things

at that point, you can do two things: move on from the genre. or be the one making works in whatever genre you’ve found yourself in (creating fanworks/thematic or theorising meta, or researchwork if you’re talking academia); it helps in situating yourself better, which is the productive part of engaging with anything. it helps you learn more about it, instead of just looking at similar things.

there’s also a third secret thing, which is being forced to consume more media on the point while paying attention to the minute details, which is the bit i hate, but usually happens because it’s easier to check than the loftier things. sorry and thank you

that’s usually how it goes for me. this i’ve seen applies to EVERYTHING: cultural norms, researchwork, art/media, most things social, beyond just actual physical navigation

[ancientroyalblood]

The Power of Minimalism in Writing: Saying More with Less

As I contemplate the art of writing, my thoughts circle around the profound simplicity that minimalism brings to the craft. In an era of information overload, the ability to say more with less is a skill that transcends mere brevity. It’s an exploration of how every word, like a carefully chosen brushstroke, can paint a canvas of depth and emotion. The Weight of Every Word: Thinking about…

[prokopetz]

On the one hand, it's true that the way Dungeons & Dragons defines terms like "sorcerer" and "warlock" and "wizard" is really only relevant to Dungeons & Dragons and its associated media – indeed, how these terms are used isn't even consistent between editions of D&D! – and trying to apply them in other contexts is rarely productive.

On the other hand, it's not true that these sorts of fine-grained taxonomies of types of magic are strictly a D&D-ism and never occur elsewhere. That folks make this argument is typically a symptom of being unfamiliar with Dungeons & Dragons' source material. D&D's main inspirations are American literary sword and sorcery fantasy spanning roughly the 1930s through the early 1980s, and fine-grained taxonomies of magic users absolutely do appear in these sources; they just aren't anything like as consistent as the folks who try to cram everything into the sorcerer/warlock/wizard model would prefer.

For example, in Lyndon Hardy's "Five Magics" series, the five types of magical practitioners are:

Alchemists: Drawing forth the hidden virtues of common materials to craft magic potions; limited by the fact that the outcomes of their formulas are partially random.

Magicians: Crafting enchanted items through complex manufacturing procedures; limited by the fact that each step in the procedure must be performed perfectly with no margin for error.

Sorcerers: Speaking verbal formulas to basically hack other people's minds, permitting illusion-craft and mind control; limited by the fact that the exercise of their art eventually kills them.

Thaumaturges: Shaping matter by manipulating miniature models; limited by the need to draw on outside sources like fires or flywheels to make up the resulting kinetic energy deficit.

Wizards: Summoning and binding demons from other dimensions; limited by the fact that the binding ritual exposes them to mental domination by the summoned demon if their will is weak.

"Warlock", meanwhile, isn't a type of practitioner, but does appear as pejorative term for a wizard who's lost a contest of wills with one of their own summoned demons.

Conversely, Lawrence Watt-Evans' "Legends of Ethshar" series includes such types of magic-users as:

Sorcerers: Channelling power through metal talismans to produce fixed effects; in the time of the novels, talisman-craft is largely a lost art, and most sorcerers use found or inherited talismans.

Theurges: Summoning gods; the setting's gods have no interest in human worship, but are bound not to interfere in the mortal world unless summoned, and are thus amenable to cutting deals.

Warlocks: Wielding X-Men style psychokinesis by virtue of their attunement to the telepathic whispers emanating from the wreckage of a crashed alien starship. (They're the edgy ones!)

Witches: Producing improvisational effects mostly related to healing, telepathy, precognition, and minor telekinesis by drawing on their own internal energy.

Wizards: Drawing down the infinite power of Chaos and shaping it with complex rituals. Basically D&D wizards, albeit with a much greater propensity for exploding.

You'll note that both taxonomies include something called a "sorcerer", something called a "warlock", and something called a "wizard", but what those terms mean in their respective contexts agrees neither with the Dungeons & Dragons definitions, nor with each other.

(Admittedly, these examples are from the 1980s, and are thus not free of D&D's influence; I picked them because they both happened to use all three of the terms in question in ways that are at odds with how D&D uses them. You can find similar taxonomies of magic use in earlier works, but I would have had to use many more examples to offer multiple competing definitions of each of "sorcerer", "warlock" and "wizard", and this post is already long enough!)

So basically what I'm saying is giving people a hard time about using these terms "wrong" – particularly if your objection is that they're not using them in a way that's congruent with however D&D's flavour of the week uses them – makes you a dick, but simply having this sort of taxonomy has a rich history within the genre. Wizard phylogeny is a time-honoured tradition!