#please note when I say 'the media you're currently invested in'

[shayvaalski]

a weird thing no one tells you about becoming a parent while being a person that gets overinvested in media is that you will, quite abruptly, exit the type of media people write thoughtful fanfiction and meta about, while -- and this is key -- not becoming any less consumed by the desire to consume thoughtful fanfiction and meta about the media you're currently deeply invested in

what i mean by this is that every time mint and I listen to the podcast we've both pairbonded with i am Compelled to either check the tumblr tags to see what people think about the latest expansion of the podcaster-focused framing narrative, or look for Little Hedgehog and Bebe fanart, or search AO3 to see if anyone has really like, dug into the complicated sibling relationship between the proprietors of competitor business The Sleep Railway and The Sleep Train

and they NEVER HAVE

[nicosraf]

What advice would you give to an aspiring young writer hoping to become a published author?

This is a tough question since I don't think I'm either accomplished, skilled, or old enough to be giving advice ahahaha but also I'm not really sure what area you'd want guidance in?

As in, do you want to know how to improve your craft? How to navigate publishing?

I guess, if I were talking to my younger self, here's what I would say:

Read the books in the dark part of the library with broken spines and yellowed pages and faded words. The boring books. The books that couldn't be published today. The offensive and forbidden stuff.

You'll learn more about writing from Literature classes than Creative Writing classes.

Ask yourself, "What's the purpose of this line?" for every single line. Sometimes the purpose is simple: "Because I think it's funny/hot." That's okay.

Want to traditionally publish? Invest in your appearance and your social media presence but don't lose your identity trying to people-please. Understand that most people who traditionally publish got there through nepotism. It's a business run by white women. Understand their sensibilities before submitting.

Want to self publish? Get active on social media and befriend other authors. Understand that indie readers like adult content

Don't write a sad moment and then have the characters tell jokes to break the tension. Let the tension hang.

Kill all of your characters, not physically.

Learn from movies. Learn from folk tales. Learn from how your friends tell stories from their life.

Who is the narrator? Why are they telling this story? Why are they telling it like this?

Write a whole draft without going back and re-reading what you wrote. Editing will be tough, but at least you'll have a finished draft.

Writing is 90% editing. Give it 3-5 rounds of edits. Be harsh with yourself. Then kind.

Make note of plot points/objects — give each one an introduction, a mention, and then a Use. For example, a knife is introduced in chapter 3, it's mentioned again in chapter 5, and then someone is killed with it in chapter 8.

If you feel like, "I don't want to write this, I'm not good enough," know that you'll never be good enough. And you're never going to write a perfect book. That doesn't exist. Accept that it'll be flawed and make peace with that.

"But what if I get older and see my current work as juvenile/bad?" It can never be bad. It'll be a portrait of who you were when you wrote it. Your heart and your skills.

My professor once urged me to never, ever use cliches in my prose — as in "heart dropped," or "tongues battling for dominance." I wouldn't go so far as to ban them. But be aware of them, ask yourself if you could come up with something better.

This might be a wacky list but this is basically the rulebook I would give my younger self. If you have any hyper specific writing questions, I can try to help with that too! But, again, I'm not an expert.

Good luck! :') I hope this might help a little at least

[queeroftherodeo]

Masc4Mask: An Update!

Chapter 6, The Switch is live after a freaking year. After breakfast, Orville has a photoshoot and an interview, and when he gets back things between he and Brad start to take a turn in a different direction.

Going to bury the chapter's notes behind a cut, but the TL;DR is, it's been a fucking hard year, and my editor @nectarine-migraine deserves all the thanks in the world because without her, this chapter wouldn't exist.

THIS HAS BEEN A YEAR IN THE MAKING, and for everyone who has been anxiously awaiting an update, I'm sorry it's been so long and THANK YOU for waiting, reading, re-reading, commenting, and reaching out to me now and then to let me know that this fic means something to you — that means more to me than you'll ever know.

This has been one of the hardest years of my life. Over the past year, I got a new job, moved apartments, struggled incredibly with my mental health, ended up in the ER due to work stress and anxiety, started working with a therapist and got medicated, figured out the job is killing my soul, and got covid (I'm okay). Covid actually came at a good time, and the time off is giving me time to regroup, figure out what I want to do, and finally finish this chapter.

Words can't adequately describe the sheer magnitude of this chapter. It's actually split in two, and chapter 7 is almost complete (currently maybe half the size of 6, but split just in the interest of readability). Chapter 6 alone is over 13,000 words — that's just under a third of the length of the story up to this point. This took a colossal amount of effort, and has been being worked on off and on over the entirety of this past year. Just this week, it's caused a couple all-nighters (my sleep is borked bc of being home sick though, so it's less like an all-nighter and more just consumed my and my editor's evenings). This is a labor of love. It's something I need to write, and something I know a few of you have said you really look forward to reading more of. To those folks who are invested, I want to let you know I have this outlined right through the end (which is going to be at least 5-8 more chapters, who knows, honestly). I'm seeing this through.

As a final aside, please do not use any access you may have to Brad or Orville on social media to bring their attention to this story. This is a work of fiction. Please abide by local and regional RPF by-laws and just be cool. I'm not aware of anyone who has been un-cool, but I just feel strongly this bears saying, because I want to keep writing this thing.

Lastly, this chapter simply wouldn't exist without my editor, nectarinemigraine of ao3, who has been my constant cheerleader and challenger throughout this past year. Thank you for giving me the feedback I need to hear, telling me when I need to expand a thought or an idea, for making me follow the Kiss Rule, for saying terrible words like "gerund" to me, and for letting me have the brain sometimes so I could knock this thing out. I love you, you're so talented, thank you.

Enjoy.

[ghostiewriter]

I'm just following the discourse here and seeing red flags everywhere. You're saying you and your friends created the Jiara community basically right and invested in a community blog in the form of jiaraweek to showcase creators. This is all great and kudos to you all. The problem is all that applies to a faceless collective. I could set up an anon blog like jiaraweek and reblog everything in the tag and then fi home without actually giving a shit.

If we are talking about the Scottish Club as individuals, its a different story. On your blog, on alphinias and pakfiction, all I hear is the refrain of we are welcoming, we are friendly, we support other creators. All I see is you all just supporting each other on your personal blogs. Pakfiction only reblogs either the popular fic with a lot of notes or her pals stuff, but makes out she's worn out writing and reblogging everyone's stuff. It just makes Jiaraweek a cop-out. You have to practise what you preach. Personally reblogging on a faceless community blog where anyige who tags it gets reblogged or jiarasource isn't the same as personally supporting other jiara fandommers. The rest of us are creating and reblogging other content that we enjoy regardless of who made it. We do this on our personal blogs to show personal support. We label tags with personal messages etc. Its not about just making friends. I reblog people content I never spoke to and might never will. I cheer on total strangers. I say this because I noticed none of you feature on your mains anyone from jiaraweek that isn't in your friendship circle which is just more red flags.

I don't sit there and go oh I help run jiaraweek. That's great, but that's only a couple of times a year. The rest of us are trying to keep the community going all year round by assidiously reblogging etc. A community you apparently run.

Instead of attacking each other, why don't we change our ways? You and your friends can be more proactive. Had a spotlight feature on your personal. Try and encourage outside your friendship circle. Small steps can make a big difference.

Right off the bat I gotta ask, who the fuck do you think I am? Ma’am I am not some huge blog that’s rules a fandom and I never said I did. I just pointed out that some of my friends (not me personally) run the jiara week account and started the whole thing to help get creators known!

Now not that I have to explain myself to you, but I am currently visiting family in Pakistan in the middle of a fucking village where the internet can barely open files. I fully plan to reblog the jiara week content on my main blog but I just don’t have the internet access to do such without my tumblr crashing. It’s honestly a surprise I’ve been able to answer these asks without my phone crashing.

But also can you lot just get the fuck off your bullshit? We are literally just people running our own blogs, talking about shit we like and befriending people with similar interests. We have no fucking responsibility to anyone to post a certain thing or whatnot. I try to support other content creators when I can by reblogging them when I see them, but ma’am what the fuck do you want me to do? Go through the tag and single-handedly reblog everything? I have a live outside of tumblr.

Stop pining this on me and my friends because we aren’t the only fucking people in the fandom. There’s plenty of us and yes, it would be great for everyone to reblog and hype up content creators but guess what? People don’t always have energy to leave person comments, or they don’t know the person well enough to leave something inherently chaotic in fear of scaring or offending someone.

So please, write as much bullshit as you want and attack me as you please but I am simply a fucking 18 year old with a tumblr blog who’s just going about her life. I’m not a fucking celebrity with a huge platform or such. I’m literally just a normal teenager on a social media platform minding my own fucking business.

Kudos to you if you reblog and like everything, I am very happy you are helping get creators out there. And while it is nice to do such a thing, literally no one on tumblr has a responsibility to do such. It’s our own fucking blogs and we are just meant to do whatever the fuck we want.

And please, get your fucking facts right. The Scottish club is literally just me, Jade and Magan who literally mind our own business. Jordan is a good friend of mine who literally does her best to hype up and tell us about new content creators. Just because my fucking friend group are active on the tag, doesn’t mean are isolating or gatekeeping the fandom.

We are all literally here for the same thing. But please feel free to go through my blog and find me a post I reblogged that wasn’t from one of my friends cause I assure you that you will find it.

But also just feel free to block me or unfollow me, I honestly don’t care.

It’s a fucking fandom on a social media platform, calm the fuck down.

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

The Secret Formula Behind Hallmark's Christmas Movie Empire

Hallmark's holiday lineup has gone from guilty pleasure to appointment television. How? Glamour's Jessica Radloff explores.

BY JESSICA RADLOFF NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Decorating for the holidays is serious business for many—but if you're CEO of Crown Media Networks (aka the Hallmark Channel) the bar is on a different level. "Oh, I'm a Christmas nut," William J. Abbott, Crown Media's CEO and president, tells Glamour.com. "We actually built [an addition] in our house so we could accommodate a 12-foot tree in the middle of our den, so, yeah, we just love the holidays." The same goes for Michelle Vicary, the network's executive VP of programming and publicity. "Christmas decorations go up the day after Halloween," she jokes. "I'm a little [like the] Griswolds."

Tinsel and trees aside, Abbott, Vicary, and the entire team at Crown Media actually live the business they're selling. And they're selling it well. Vicary says nearly 85 million people lay eyes on the network between Halloween and New Years. If that sounds more like a Christmas miracle than reality, you haven't been paying attention to the Hallmark Channel—or its sister property, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries—the last few years. When the network says it is "cable's biggest success story," it's true.

This year Hallmark is in the midst of airing 37 original holiday movies for its Countdown to Christmas programming (and planning the 2019 holiday slate). And watching these movies is no longer a guilty pleasure—it's appointment television. From unofficial drinking games to a user-friendly app, it's become cool to stay home and watch two people in sweaters fall in love in a town named like a Bath & Body Works lotion.

(PHOTO: HALLMARK 'Christmas at Pemberley Manor,' starring Jessica Lowndes and Michael Rady.)

Abbott says Netflix is partially to thank for changing viewer habits, particularly among millennials. "They have a formula that certainly has worked for them in terms of driving people toward watching on their smart TVs," he says. "Ultimately the more people that consume entertainment, the better off we all are."

But Netflix is only a small part of Hallmark's success. Vicary cites the constant, and often depressing, 24/7 news cycle as another factor. "I think people can only take so much," she says. "We purposely look to be an escape. We try not to be issues-oriented in terms of creating polarizing conversations, because there are places to get that. We are a place that is a haven from that. We're just a different conversation."

Abbott agrees. "I think it’s not only the political landscape, but the entertainment landscape to a degree too. There are just very few options that are not shocking, looking to shock, or looking to be over-the-top in terms of violence or salacious for salacious sake. I think people tire of that." Abbott admits that's not the only reason people tune into the channel, it is a big one—and something that Hallmark has included in its strategy. "It's tapping into emotion in a positive way and making you feel a little better about relationships and how people interact," he explains. "The Hallmark brand is all about people connecting. The secret, I think, to our success is that we focus on that relentlessly."

This secret to success doesn't come without detractors, though. Abbott and Vicary know there are plenty of people who think the content is cheesy, but to them, that doesn't have to be a negative. "I have to be honest, I don't always think predictable is a bad word," Vicary says. "I think of every Nora Ephron comedy I ever watched—the first time I saw Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on screen, I knew they were going to end up together. But it was the journey! So I don’t mind when you tune in that you know our characters—who are on two separate journeys—are going to end up together by the end. It's about how they get there."

OK, so how did Hallmark get here? How did it go from a brand-new network in the early aughts to a holiday empire? For one, consistency. Hallmark premieres most of its original movies on Saturdays and Sundays, a time when other networks air sports or reruns. "It's the perfect time to unwind and get away from reality," Abbott says. "We appeal to people wanting that escape over the weekend."

Second, it's investment. "Our movies are so much better because our production value, our stars, our music, our scriptwriting, our development, and our production are so much better than they’ve ever been," Abbott says. "Success snowballs. The more you do right, the more people notice; the more people notice, the more you invest; the more you invest, the more you pay attention, and the better it gets."

(PHOTO: HALLMARK CHANNEL LeAnn Rimes in 'It's Christmas, Eve'.)

And finally, as Vicary points out, it's about creating an experience. "We’re an emotionally driven brand. We’re about enhancing relationships and enhancing life." She says in the last decade the network has tapped into viewers' love of celebration. "The Hallmark brand already lives in that space, so it really is about delivering on the experience of the brand."

And then there's the wish-fulfillment aspect, those picturesque, snow-capped towns and leads in color-coordinated holiday attire. "We’re not embarrassed to say, ‘Let’s make it sound even more holiday oriented,'" Vicary says with a laugh. "We are not shy about creating an environment that compliments and enhances that great story."

Still, that "environment" has come under more scrutiny in the past few years for being predominantly white, straight, and without much diversity. The network needs to do more to reflect America today—and Abbott says the Hallmark Channel team is aware and working on it. "Absolutely, no question about it," Abbott says. "We've worked really hard at it. It's the type of thing we should have been doing all along, but we're pleased at where we are."

Where they are is a more diverse slate of programming than years past. It's not perfect yet, but one example of progress is a recent full-page ad Crown Media took out in The Hollywood Reporter to showcase its holiday slate. Of the 14 actors in the ad, nine were women, seven were people of color, and five were women of color.

"Our goal is to do everything we can to represent the public faces on television and represent the United States as it really looks on our air," Vicary says. "I think we have some terrific casting this year with Tatyana Ali, Dondre T. Whitfield, Patti LaBelle, Christina Milian, Jerrika Hinton, Tia Mowry, and more. We have our most diverse slate ever."

In addition to what viewers see on air, Vicary notes that "more than 50 percent of the scripts that were written this year were written by women." She also said they're consciously trying to hire more female directors and behind-the-scenes crew. "I think in the last year we have added three more women to our roster of directors," Vicary says. "We are very conscious of it."

But Abbott or Vicary know that's not enough. The executives are discussing a possible Hanukkah movie to join their holiday lineup ("One of my development execs brought me one this week that they were really excited about," Vicary says. "I said, 'Great, let's meet and talk about it for 2019.'") According to Abbott, he's even open to a Hallmark movie where the main couple doesn't end up together. "As we delve into our content and [look for] a more authentic way, we’ll progress," he says. "Everything is on the table."

(PHOTO: HALLMARK Danielle Panabaker and Matt Long in Christmas Joy.)

That progress is important to Abbott and Vicary, who want Hallmark to stay current and evolving. "It's particularly important that we represent the reality of the 21st century in that everybody is different and unique," Abbott says. "It's a pet peeve of mine when I read a story and kids are portrayed a certain way. The reality is girls can play baseball or be into science or play with dolls."

Abbott even acknowledges that the network's older movies were guilty of playing into stereotypes."You look back at some of old, old movies, and it's kind of the stereotypical situation of the woman at home," he says. "We work very hard to stay out of that stereotypical dialogue and situational behavior because it’s just not reality, and it’s not authentic. We really try to empower women. We really work hard to ensure that our women are strong—while they don’t need a man, they’d love to fall in love. But at the end of the day, that is not what they need to be successful or happy or fulfilled or have a good career. That is something that is very important to all of us to portray."

That awareness is one of the reasons Abbott credits the Hallmark Channel's growth in markets like Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and D.C. "I think there’s this feeling that we’re 'flyover country' and that it’s all red-state people," he says. "That’s just completely not true. Everybody likes to feel good. I don’t care what political party you’re part of or where you live, people like to feel positive." Yes, Hallmark's content isn't edgy—"and never will be"—but it's certainly smarter than it's ever been, he says. "And that wins."

It's been a stressful year, but at least you can count on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix to come through with the holiday cheer. After all, what's more relaxing than watching an overworked woman fall in love with a Christmas tree farmer? So decompress with all of our delightful holiday content right here.

Source: glamour.com

https://www.glamour.com/story/hallmark-christmas-movie-secret-formula