#need more of them and tsats wants enough i actually will not be able to function eughhhh

[incorrect-riordanverse]

if there is a fanfic rewrite of the sun and the star…. or if anyone wants to try their hand in it….. hit a girl up….

[kate1028]

❗️Spoilers for Tsats❗️

Okay so I’ve seen a few reviews on tsats now and I wanted to give my opinion about it now. First of all: I absolutely loved it, like I immediately started rereading it after I finished it. Nevertheless I have some things I want to point out and talk about:

Will not bringing a weapon with him: That’s a point that actually annoys me because Wtf? I really see him being the person, who brings as the last one a weapon with him if they go to a field trip or mortal world quest but into Tartarus? No, I really think that he would bring a weapon with him. Besides it made him seem helpless most of the time, which isn’t right.

Nyx describing the cocoa puffs as their children: Like ewww no that weirded me out so much, please no stop that. That really bothered me.

The writing is different to the other books: Yeah obviously that was going to happen, because Rick didn’t write that book alone and honestly it’s not really bothering me by now, it’s just different and we’ll see wether it will bother me at some point (I don’t think so)

Percabeth and dam: Okay yeah maybe it’s rather unusual for the characters in the book to use these words/ that joke but I still love that it was in there. It’s just something from the fandom in the book and I couldn’t care less that it’s maybe not that logical.

Will’s character: So about this there seems to be a lot of contradicting opinions but I admit I didn’t think he was out of character (yeah the part that he was so helpless most of the annoyed me too a bit but I think that’s mostly because he didn’t had any weapons, which I already mentioned earlier) Apart from that I really think that he would freak out in the underworld, and maybe it also seems really extreme because he’s down there with the literal opposite of him, when it comes to this. Like, Nico’s second home is the underworld and he likes the darkness and has no problem with death. Will on the other hand is a child of Apollo (btw Apollo already mentioned his concerns about Will being in the underworld in ToA 5) and can’t deal with darkness that easily like Nico does, and even prefers the light over the darkness, which is completely valid. Furthermore he is a healer, his fatal flaw is probably not being able to accept that sometimes you just can’t heal and help people, so obviously he’s weirded out by being in the underworld, surrounded by death. And he also can’t accept it that easily, because for him, as a healer, death is not really an option, therefore I can understand his struggle and the tension that grows between Nico and Will, because Nico on the other hand isn’t a healer and has been surrounded by death for ages. But I think Will does a good job in learning and understanding that you can’t difference death and darkness that easily from life and light, because it’s a circle. But he needs time to understand and adapt, being in the worst place to ever exist while that doesn’t help much either btw. And for my last point: No, Will was never the pure happy sunshine character, maybe we just saw that side of him, but think about it: We know now, that he’s been in Camp already, when Nico came in Camp. Means he’s been there (and maybe had already a closer connection to Lee) when Lee, one of his siblings and cabin counsellor, died, he also seemed to have a rather close connection to Micheal, who died a year later with half of the rest of the Apollo cabin, Will’s other siblings, and all the while he couldn’t do anything, couldn’t heal them. And then suddenly he was the cabin counsellor, a figure role and needed to be brave and couldn’t show too much weakness to encourage the other ones, while still grieving. I think that leaves some trauma too, not as bad as Nico’s but enough to get scared and suspicious of several things. Oh and can we please talk about Will having plague powers?!?! 🥰

Reyna: I wished that we would’ve seen more of Reyna, I’d’ve loved that but that would probably be rather complicated to include especially after she joined the hunters, so I can understand why they kept her out.

Friendship between Piper and Nico: I loved to see them in the end and talking to each other. I think it could really help them to get over Jason’s death. If they would get Leo in now too that would be the best, because I feel like those were the closest people to Jason (and Thalia and Reyna) and then they could get together and help each other.

Hazel: I also hoped she would appear more often but it’s still just one book and you can’t include every single PJ character because you just don’t have the time and space (same applies for Reyna)

My last point: The whole book felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the books of that universe. But there are probably a few reasons why: First, like already mentioned, it was co-written, means another author included their ideas and writing style, so obviously the book will get a different vibe as the previous ones. And obviously you notice that, even if you maybe can’t really name it, because you read fifteen! Fifteen books, who weren’t co-authored, in that world before tsats, which is a lot. Second of all it’s just one book. A stand-alone. Rick never wrote a stand-alone in that world, always five books. Now he wrote one, co-authored. This could be the reason why so much feels fast paced and maybe even pressed into the story, because he had ideas and wanted to put them in there, maybe even needed them, but couldn’t unravel them completely because it’s just one book, not five like he’s used to. A lot needed to happen and happened in that book, so it was fast paced and felt at some point even forced. After reading the book, I think it would’ve been better to make a Duology out of that. Then you would’ve been able to explore things slowly and take your time. Those two things are probably the reason why I felt that this book was a bit disconnected to the rest. Much was missing (like characters: Hazel, Reyna etc), there wasn’t any time to take things slow and explain, like what I’m used to.

As a conclusion there are some things in that book that I don’t like and could’ve been made better but in the end I still love it and it kind of healed something inside me that I didn’t even know was broken. It just felt so sweet and somewhat healing. ❗️That’s just my opinion on that book, and I can completely understand that others think differently as well as respect that, so please also respect mine.❗️

[robo-cryptid]

Hello! Do you have any tips for getting motivation back? I feel like I haven't written anything in months and my mentality at this point is like "why start something if you're not even gonna finish it?" You're writing is inspiring so I thought I'd pop by and ask :)

Oh gossshhhhh. First, thank you. Second, you asked at QUITE A TIME, anon. I’ve been struggling with motivation myself (combo of work/school stress and family stuff stress makes me want to… not take seriously projects that I would like to take seriously). But, you know, there are a few things to try! Included here are my usual caveats that not everything works for everybody, so these are just things that do it for me when I need it:

1. I make to-do lists. For fun/hobbies, these are not “you must be productive no matter what!!!” to-do lists. They’re more like… wishlists of things I’m thinking about writing. Sometimes this is enough to make me pick one and work on it.

2. I talk to other people about my ideas. That can help me get excited about an idea and get the creative juices flowing, or it can sort of… offload it in a way that tells me maybe I don’t actually feel like writing more than the idea at all. As long as you’re okay accepting either result, it works. I also follow people who post tons of ideas, presumably doing the same thing or something similar, so there are always things floating around for me to think about.

3. I write only the scene(s) I feel like writing right then. So if you’re thinking about a story but you don’t feel like writing the beginning, don’t. Lol. Write the scene that made you think about it in the first place, then work backwards, or forwards, or write a bunch of disjointed scenes until you have the energy to try to connect them. (Both TSatS and NTIC started this way, and I’m still sitting on scenes from TSatS that I wrote like. Weeks ago.)

4. Drabble or do some other very low-commitment writing. Whether it’s going in knowing you loosely want to write a whole short fic in one sitting, or you want to set yourself a hard word limit of 200 or 350 or 500 words, or hard time limit of 1 hour and tell a whole story there, it’s fine. (I usually pick the first “make it complete” version, but I type hella fast, and I know some people who like more quantifiable things.) Either way, being able to sit and write a complete story in one sitting definitely gives me that “I did a thing!” feeling that can kickstart more writing. The trick here is the “low-commitment” part, though. Don’t spend hours and hours on it, and don’t spend a ton of time editing either. Get it out, make sure it’s coherent and not totally riddled in typos, and post it somewhere. Call it done, even if it’s not (in fact, if it’s not done enough for you, maybe there’s your motivation).

5. Nuclear option: get out a timer (ideally something like a Pomodoro timer, but any timer will do) and give yourself, say, 20 minutes. Tell yourself you are Going To Write, Damn It. Then write and don’t stop until the timer lets you. Don’t edit. Don’t pause. Just expel all your bullshit. What you write matters less; you’re totally allowed to type “fuck this fuck this fuck this” over and over. Sometimes, you have a page full of “fuck this,” and that’s okay. But sometimes you have a page half full of “fuck this” and the beginnings of something else there. And maybe you’ll feel accomplished because you did twenty whole minutes of writing! Or maybe you’ll actually want to continue, and what? You have an idea now? And some words on a page?

6. This kind of goes back to the “low commitment” writing, but I think worrying about whether or not you’ll finish it is sometimes the art-killer. You don’t have to finish it. In most fandom contexts, you do not have deadlines and are not getting paid (there are people who do and their commitments are gonna be a little different, but still, the stakes are not often “lose your job” stakes). You’re allowed to forgive yourself for fudging self-imposed deadlines on hobbies. I think everybody should try to finish stuff, because being done with something you worked hard to create can be a really deeply fulfilling thing, and one that like, honestly, lots of us don’t get in our more mundane jobs. But you don’t have to, and if worrying about that is stopping you, remind yourself of that. You don’t owe anybody your writing, in the end! (Unless telling yourself you absolutely owe them is the thing that motivates you, in which case, ignore Point 6 entirely, you now owe me some writing, anon.)