#personal: writing

[kerouacs]

Characters: America, Philippines (OC) Warning: Mentions of WWII in the Philippines, the Korean War, and Cold War politics in general Summary: It's nineteen-fifty-one, and Philippines is in Washington D.C. as America's guest.

[sarasa-cat]

Still feeling behind on EVERYTHING.

(Slightly grumbly that partner let me sleep for an hour after my alarm went off. Dude. No. Alarm went off for a reason. Ggghhhhhhhhh.)

Some interesting writing experiments behind the cut

Everything today has taken longer than planned BUT, for a change of pace while writing -- and actually make it to my breakfast or brunch (depending on the time) writing session -- I started one of those solo journaling RPGs. The way I have it set up, it will take me 13 sessions to complete. Today was session 1 which was actually a double session as I wrote and collaged two pages for two prompt sets. Or, actually, it was a triple session if counting the fact that I needed to read through the whole zine from beginning to end, think on it for a moment to decide how I would set up my "house rules" for this run, set up the template for a page layout in a digital file that includes space for text and images I will generate each day, and then select the randomizer tools I wanted to use -- the shadowscape tarot, no dice -- and get the cards sorted out and ready for use in this solo TTRPG.

I am using the "Yourself" solo journaling tarot-based TTRPG (which just went on 50% off sale and is cheaper than most cups of coffee!) -- https://k-ramstack.itch.io/yourself

The first session produced 1215 words as it was a little longer given how I have set up my house rules.

These words were fast and easy to write. Not exactly memoir fiction. Not exactly urban fantasy. Somewhere in between.

There is a solidness and a sense of ease to this that I like.

I suspect that when I am done after the 13 days of this, I will end up with 8000 to 9000 words. With the exception of the first day and last day, all of the days in the middle involve a single prompt generated from two tarot cards (and the TTRPG rules) and I've digitally created space in my template for approximately 580-600 words per day.

While this will give me enough words to expand a little bit into a novella, I suspect the 8 to 9k words I will produce in two weeks won't have the glue to totally stand alone but they will likely become something I can rework and reuse once I figure out which direction I want to take it. (Potential direction as of today: standalone urban fantasy story? Illustrated art-n-story book? Character development to fold into my sff universe? Bits and piece of text to scavenge and reuse in a variety of things?)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Given that today was an eeexxxxxttttrrraaaa long session getting all of this set up and ready to go, plus a double writing session so I could make sure my digital template is working for me, all of the time I spent today kicking this off won't be reflective of my daily effort for the next 12 days. I suspect it will take me 30-45 minutes daily to put together a page of ~580 fresh new words plus images (clipped from various sources for personal use, yes, some are copyrighted by other ppl, which includes images of the tarot cards thus I cannot show the pages even if I felt compelled to).

And that will leave me time to get back to existing WIPs, to start other new writing experiments, or both.

...

Currently sticking this post here for sake of sticking it somewhere.

That said, I will soon start up an actual writing blog rather quietly tbh. If following my pro-self's writing blog is something of interest, let me know.

No clue when I will take the time to start up my public writing blog because I currently feel so behind on everything but-- just putting that out there as a future thing for sometime this summer.

[pierog]

i'm so glad goncharov happened when it did, right before prolific public use of AI. that was pure honest gaslighting straight from the heart. real human whimsicality and trickery thru blood sweat and tears. we were a family. and we all gonched, together. you cant replicate that with any machine.

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[evidently-endless]

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

As a writer I need everyone to know that whenever I write "exchanged glances" my intent is this

[paigegonerogue]

I, of mostly sound body and spirit, request that if I’m ever to die, someone post a new work on my AO3 that says “sorry, she died, ongoing stories postponed forever” because don’t I want my fanfic buddies to think I ghosted them. Amen or whatever you say in a will.

[plaguedoctorate]

idk man. i just think itd be really cool if sign language classes were mandatory throughout primary school. yeah because it would make communication with deaf kids and autistic/nonverbal kids much easier. and those kids would be accessible to the others so they could make friends and have healthy relationships. yeah. and kids would eat that shit up man. like their own little secret language? they love that.

[werewolf-transgenderism]

keep seeing undergrads on social media saying “oh if a prof has a strict no-AI academic integrity policy that’s a red flag for me because that means they don’t know how to design assignments” like sorry girl but that just sounds like you’ve got a case of sour grapes about not being allowed to cheat with the plagiarism machine that doesn’t know how to evaluate sources and kills the environment! I have a strict no-AI policy because if you use AI to write your essays for a writing course it’s literally plagiarism because you didn’t write it and you’re not learning any of the things the course teaches if you just plug a prompt into the plagiarism generator that kills the environment, hope this helps!

[ukrainian-groove-metal]

I love the "came back wrong" trope but from the opposite side.

Imagine you are dead. And then you are RIPPED from the embrace of decay into the world of the living again. Your memories are hazy and you don't recognize any of these people, but they act like they're close to you? Like they love you? So you try to get your memories back, to act like you belong here, but everybody tries to forget you died. And you can't. It is omnipresent. And just trying to grapple with that fact pushes the people who "love" you away, and they're incapable of understanding, and they're so confused, what's wrong N̶̄̀O̶͛͗T̷̉́ ̷͋͝Y̴̎̌Ȍ̴̈U̸̓R NÄM̴̃͑E̵̾̇? And you just need them to understand, you aren't that person! You aren't! You don't know who that person is! You don't know why any of this is happening, but they're unwilling to bend, they keep insisting you are that person, your memories will come back, everything will be normal again, and you want to scream and cry and claw yourself open to show them you're different. Your existence as a being wholly separate from whoever you "used to be" is a sin unto itself. All you can do is scrabble for life and to them, you're killing whoever they loved to do it.

just. lots of fun in that concept, you know?

[w1770w]

GUMROAD IS BANNING NSFW CONTENT IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS

I haven't seen anyone talk about this yet, so I might as well.

They've updated their content policy to comply with payment processor Stripe and Paypal's censorhip. They gave 24 hours. On March 16th 2024, Gumroad TOS will no longer allows sales of any written or drawn nsfw content.

This is going to hurt for so many creators. Giving that little time leaves people's source of income wildly unstable, especially with such a huge overhaul of what content is allowed.

I hate this. I hate what censorship is turning the internet into. I hate that nsfw content creators keeo getting pushed to the fringes, that they need to digitally migrate so often, because nowhere can be trusted to allow their art for long.

I don't know what to do next, there isn't some sort of "here's what you can do to help!" People just deserve to know.

[kerouacs]

📜✨Last Line Tag ✨📜

RULES—share the last line you wrote for your WIP, and then tag as many people as there are words.

tagged by @stirringwinds ! thank you hehe

(Journada del Muerto; the route of the dead man. Irony coats the tip of his tongue to the back of his throat as he murmurs its name, and he thinks of the fabled dead man resting undisturbed, buried by sands and history several feet below the ground, remembered only as a story, a byword. Irony taste of wormwood, the acrid taste thick upon his tongue.)

tagging @gilbertgeilschmidt , @moya-zaichik , @bubbleteahime , and whoever else is interested!

[taibhsearachd]

Hey guys... I met my wife through NaNoWriMo, I am as attached to the concept as a person could be, but if we're going to recreate it... I'm begging you to not put it in November. November is possibly the worst month for it if you live in the US. In school? You're probably studying for finals toward the end of that month. Adult? Some part of your family is going to want you to come visit them, which is a whole thing if you have to travel to see them.

We can break free of this. We can have a whole new novel writing month. I'm begging you. Even as someone whose life partner came to me through NaNoWriMo. Do not put this fucking month in November.

[black-quadrant]

sometimes all you need is one passionate person who goes berserk for your work to keep you creating

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[yeehawpim]