#some of these are months old and also crossposted from twitter

[14dayswithyou]

MINORS: DO NOT INTERACT ! Welcome to the official "14 Days With You" Tumblr! The FAQ, post masterlist, and general rules can be found below! Also, this is a side blog — meaning all replies and follows will come from @cutiesigh!

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND ! » Put your age in your profile before interacting! » Reblogs/replies are appreciated and welcomed! » Keep reading below to learn the secret phrase.

itch | discord | bluesky | twitter | #14dwy tag

▋MASTERLIST !

» 14DWY Lore updates & blog post retcons (check reblogs for current versions) » Official character relationship chart » Official character sheets + blank template » "Understand my ship in 5 minutes" sheet (outdated) » NSFW Alphabet: Ren | [REDACTED] | Teo » All of the 14DWY fics I've written » All of the 14DWY art I've made » CuriousCat archive » Frequently Asked Questions

▋F.A.Q !

What is Ren's real name? Try and guess it!

Are Ren and [REDACTED] the same person? Yes, they are the same person. "[REDACTED]" is his real self and "Ren" is a persona he created specifically for Angel.

Will we get to see/learn more about [REDACTED]? You'll learn more about [REDACTED] in Day 7, but getting Ren to remain as his real self will all depend on the choices you make in the game. As of Day 4, [REDACTED] currently does not appear in the game.

How old is Ren? Ren is one year younger than you, but at least 18! However, if you are 18, then he’d be one month/day/hour younger than you instead.

Can you tell me some basic information about Ren? Ren is non-binary (AMAB + prefers masculine and gender-neutral titles), uses he/they pronouns, born on February 14th, around ~6'5", half Japanese and American, and pan/demisexual.

Does Ren have a Spotify playlist? Yes! Here's a playlist full of songs that make me think of him, and here's a playlist full of songs that I personally think he'd listen to. As folks tend to request a lot of different playlists, you'll need to check out my Spotify profile for the rest of the cast.

What are the main cast's sexualities? Pronouns? etc. Here are their heights, here are their ethnicities, here are their birthdays, here are their sexualities, here are Ren's tatts, and here are their pronouns.

What does the “canon” / “blog canon” / etc. tag mean? Posts tagged with "canon" means it complies with the official universe set for the game, "blog canon" means it complies with the universe set for this blog, "AU canon" means it's set in an entirely separate universe with its own lore, and "non canon" means the post is just for fun and shouldn't be taken seriously.

When will Day ___ come out? Whenever I feel like it. Please understand that I am a full-time university student who also works a part-time job, so it's difficult for me to find the time to work on 14DWY.

Where is the best place to find updates? The 14DWY Discord would be the best place to receive game/development updates (as well as interacting with the community and playing the updates early), though I do crosspost major updates on Tumblr, Twitter, and BlueSky after a week or so.

Will there be a mobile version? No. My main priority is releasing builds for PC/Mac for now.

How many love interests are there? Just Ren. While you can get a romantic ending with some of the other characters, they won't have a dedicated "route" like Ren.

Do you have a Patreon / Ko-fi / Kickstarter / etc? I have a Ko-Fi now, but please continue to keep your money! Just knowing that you enjoy 14DWY is more than enough support for me!

Do you have an F.A.Q tag with more questions? Yes! Here's a masterlist of other frequently asked questions, and here's the general #FAQ tag for even more questions I get asked on a regular basis. Please check them out before asking something!

Why haven't you answered my question yet? It probably made me uncomfortable, you didn't put your age in your bio, you didn't read this entire post properly, or I've answered it before. I also don't write deeply personal/in-depth talk about major character death, self-harm, suicide, incest, noncon, pedophilia, or anything else of that nature.

How do I ask a question? To ensure you've read everything here, please include any of the following sentences below in your message and make sure your age is visible on your profile. Otherwise, I won't answer it. You can also switch Ren's name with another 14DWY character if you'd like!!

Ren's favourite number is [the amount of letters in your username]!

Ren's favourite colour is [the main colour shown on your blog]!

Ren owes me [your age displayed on your blog] dollars.

Ren's favourite letter is [the last letter of your username]!

Ren should paint his nails [the main colour shown on your blog].

What is Ren's schedule for [three days from now]? I want to go on a date.

Once you've selected a sentence, you can submit your question! I also update these from time to time, so always make sure to check this section before you send an ask!

Anything else I should keep in mind? I'll be shifting away from answering Angel-centric questions for the time being, since more often than not, they usually elicit the same kind of response ^^; Folks often ask how Ren would react to an Angel with a specific profession, personality trait, or interest; and the usual response is that he ultimately wouldn't mind & would cater towards it because he loves Angel for who they are.

▋TAGLIST !

Use the tags below for easier navigation!

[iraprince]

[crossposting some housekeeping rambling from twitter]

this month's timelapse is gonna go up on patreon later today!!! i am just gonna zoom through and cram as much last-minute stuff in as possible first lmaoooo, so much of my work/warmups this month were on paper so it felt a little light

it's actually still LONG bc i ended up drafting an entire 8-page comic in my timelapse doc so that process is interspersed in between normal warmups/scratchpad stuff lol. but we're just gonna see if i can squeak in a little more variety

watching back the 10+ minutes that's in there so far and it's like. ALL gw2 oc stuff lmao. i have been Afflicted (actually it makes total sense bc, like i said before, most of my Work Stuff this month has been on paper so digital is where i've been spending free time/unwinding)

related, i've also been toying w the idea of eventually making old timelapses public, like roughly 6 months after they go up on patreon i unlock them? i want them to be early-access enough that they're still a meaningful reward for the behind-the-scenes tier, but it's also just like. a LOT of STUFF!!!! and i think they're cool to watch!! so i would be happier if they weren't paywalled forever, i think.

speaking very frankly idk to what degree this will impact ppl who are specifically interested in timelapses to pledge vs just wait, but like... i ALSO want to balance trying to be smart about financial stuff vs. feeling like i'm throttling stuff i genuinely want to share more widely just to make sure i have Enough Crontent for ptrn, ykwim. hopefully ~6m is a gap that achieves that but if u have thoughts lmk!

[ran-orimoto]

[Merry Christmas, my Tumblr cupcakes! Buon Natale! The Shibayama family and me all wish you a wonderful Natale. So much peace, happiness, joy, harmony in your households💕.

Hm, I usually hate crossposting but I will make another exception for Christmas💕. I think here Kou has received so much love in these months? I know he’s the most popular kid among my Ocs on IG, but on Twitter it’s definitely Ran.

Anyway, short long story. My Christmas comic sketches lack sense every year and this is what I like about them🤣. ]

Kou doesn’t really hate singing. Indeed, when he lived in Italy he was so into singing, as much as Junpei, and he also used to sing during Zecchino D’Oro.

Zecchino d’Oro is a musical festival where chorus of children sing original kids songs. When I was younger, I had so many DVDs featuring musical videos dedicated to children and I admit I still listen to some old songs when I feel like doing it ahahah. They are very adorable and pure, and there also ton of Christmas songs (both original and cute revisitations). During the competion lot of famous singers join and I believe Junpei would love having fun with kids too. So I do headcanon he will eventually end up there too someday, and Kou would be so happy and proud💕🤣.

However, when Kou starts living in Japan, his classmates will begin making him uncomfortable about Junpei, due to how big he is. This will lead Kou to becoming colder in Junpei’s regards and detesting singing as well, because it’s something that’s connected with Junpei. This is the reason why every Christmas isn’t that appreciated by Kou🤣.

Even if Izumi is busy with the restaurant, Junpei will always give his best to stay with the children as much as he can, also to fill those times of the year he couldn’t be there. Moreover, he knows he isn’t going to stay with them on New Year, so he obviously wants to give them his whole attention. A tradition in the Shibayama ‘s household is to sing Christmas songs while Junpei (tries🤣) plays them on the piano. Needless to say Kou doesn’t really like this activity at all, or better, he does like it but he is too torn to admit it.

So he will walk away this year as well, while someone is wishing upon a Christmas star to get a precious desire of his fulfilled. Digiworld has got no concept of time…It can connect dimensions but also people living in different time layers. Uhhh, Junpei, I don’t think you have wished to get a Kou for on Christmas Eve’s night ahahahahahahah.

“My wish is to get to stay with Izumi-Chan forever…~~~”

✨✨✨✨✨

Kou…Isn’t exactly what he wished for, okay? 🤣 Or maybe he is, in some kind of way?

PSA That I thank Joseph for still making me discover Junzumi official stuff at the end of 2022. I was kinda inspired from the “More More Happy Christmas” Frontier song ahahahZ

[sturlsons]

221119

one of my friends here said it feels like coming back to your childhood home and seeing that your bedroom’s being used for storage. to me it feels like coming back to an apartment i loved for so long and filled up with so many things over a decade and they’re all still here but there’s a silence in the dusty sunlight. 

THAT’S FINE. it’s still here and has always been, and i’m glad i can come back to it. to my new followers, hi!! to my old ones, hi again!!

a very quick life update for those who only follow me on tumblr and hence haven’t heard from me in ages: i’m 26, still chaotic good, still in france, and now working as an english trainer and section head in a fancy engineering school in paris. i also signed a civil union this spring with an aries demon. he goes by alexis. i also acquired a brand new chronic illness/disability (long covid) in december 2021, and have been suffering. i’ve been off twitter for the past two months because of it (i can’t handle too much screentime), and am actually glad to be back on tumblr which moves slower, because i think it’ll be good for my health. so: here i am!

more under the cut. (god i missed saying that.)

my tumblr inbox has suffered a pathetic neglect. i will refuse to be embarrassed about posting replies to months-old asks. telling you i love you is more important than my embarrassment at replying late. new followers who’ve come over from twitter, i will be closing cc in favour of tumblr, but my old cc page will stay open should you feel like hunting up a reply.

i will be setting up a mighty queue as i’ve got some 350 likes i’ve been hoarding over the past years too, feeling weird about disturbing the silence on my own blog. new followers beware, i am as obsessive a curator as any other guy on tumblr. you want mountains, i’ve got them. people in suits i’ve got them. a long and arduous tag about kavinsky from the raven cycle, i’ve got it.

speaking of which, i’ll be making an updated tags masterpost soon for you all to delight in old tags and new. i can’t wait to get back to tagging posts with my wip’s.

i might migrate my newsletter, lion tamers weekly, to here. at any rate, whenever i update it (hopefully soon) i will crosspost the link here.

my twitter is still up and will be till the day that hellsite dies, but i will start crossposting fics here too and would appreciate reblogs, which are tumblr’s currency! for new followers who’ve never used tumblr: a like doesn’t help put my gay fic on someone else’s radar bc tumblr’s algorithm doesn’t work like that, but a reblog would! <33

i will also, come 2023, be setting up a patreon!! but more on that later. 

i think that’s all for the moment!! welcome back to my twisted mind, here’s to being able to share what i love in a freer and healthier way!

[yumeka36]

Frozen 2 review

I’ve seen Frozen 2 twice now and feel like I’m ready to review it (somewhat) objectively. Obviously there will be spoilers so read at your own risk.

I’ve looked at a number of reviews of the movie both from fans and general critics/moviegoers, and it made me realize exactly what kind of movie this is: pretty much all of the criticism I’ve seen has to do with the plot being unfocused and rushed at times, with points made about the convolution of the mythology elements. On the other hand, the praise I’ve seen has to do with the growth of the characters, how appealing Anna and Elsa’s development is, and the overall message of accepting change, righting past wrongs, and being who you’re meant to be. It’s almost like the critics who didn’t like the movie and the fans who did had completely different expectations for what they wanted to see, with the former expecting some intricate fantasy plot that all clicks together and is fully fleshed out, while the latter is expecting to see their favorite characters face new adventures while growing their relationships and personal identities. And this latter interpretation is the defining point of Frozen’s appeal, even more so in the sequel: the franchise is all about the story arcs of Anna and Elsa and how their bond as sisters helps them grow stronger together as well as individually. In Frozen 2, it’s the characters that are driving the plot instead of the plot driving the characters. And because of this, the movie would rather spend more time focusing on character songs and interactions (not just Anna and Elsa but Olaf and Kristoff too) than exposition and fleshing out of story elements. It would rather spend time showing Kristoff singing about his pining for Anna’s love, give Olaf scenes showing how his new-found knowledge has made him view the world, and give Elsa a follow-up to “Let It Go” in “Show Yourself,” than to spend time explaining, say, the Northuldra culture, how the spirits can make decisions like giving Elsa powers, or exactly how the magic of Ahtohallan works. Yes, this does make some story points lacking and hurried, but I feel that the filmmaking team relies on the fact that we’re so in love with these characters that not understanding every detail in the lore and plot won’t ruin our enjoyment. And, from the acclaim the movie’s getting, I’d say they’re right.

Frozen has always been about quality character story arcs as opposed to quality world-building, but the reason this is more prominent in Frozen 2 is because the first movie had a smaller scale story with minimal lore to focus on, so the character arcs stood out more. Because the sequel brings in more world-building elements, it’s easy for someone who’s not invested in the characters to focus on and judge the movie based on the fine details of the plot. Of course it would be nice if we could have both: intricate, solid world-building as well as character development, but that would probably make the movie too long – it could work for an ongoing series but not for a time-restricted Disney movie that only has a degree of creative liberties and still has to adhere to certain story flows and formulas. So then the questions are, did I feel enough was explained in Frozen 2 to make sense of the story even if a handful of things were lacking? Did the quality of the characters and their developments and relationships make up for a plot that was a bit messy and unfocused? I’d say the answer to these questions is yes.

With that in mind, as a fan judging the movie based more on how the characters are handled rather than the plot, and considering the hype the movie had to live up to and the insane number of directions they could have gone with the story, I think the final product turned out to be very good. The few things I had issue with are as follows:

-as I discussed in most of this post, I admit that the movie is a bit rushed at times, with certain scenes and plot points that needed more focus being glossed over. An extra 5-10 minute runtime would have benefited it immensely: a few more scenes of Agnarr and Iduna in Ahtohallan, more discussion in the finale of Anna becoming queen and what Elsa’s role as the fifth spirit is…even just another 30 seconds for each of these would have made a big difference. But at the same time I feel enough is explained to satisfy a general audience and the main appeal of the movie – the character arcs and relationships – is very well done.

-Kristoff’s failed proposal in the wagon felt way too forced. Anna was just way too quick to misunderstand him, making it feel very unrealistic and it only made their relationship look regressing rather than progressing. The other attempt in the forest was a bit forced too but not as bad as this one. These scenes definitely could have benefited from another rewrite. But thankfully they’re short.

-the new characters like Matthias and Honeymaren contributed virtually nothing to the plot: they could have been replaced with just nameless Northuldra and Arendelle soldiers and nothing would have changed in the story. I think the only reason these characters were made is because there’s some rule that Disney sequels have to have new characters and can’t just rely on the strength of the old ones, so these guys were created even if the movie didn’t necessitate them. Even the four spirits were more plot devices than actual characters. As cute as Bruni is, as soon as I saw him I was like “yeah, he’s just there to sell toys, not gonna contribute anything to the narrative flow” and I was right. This again goes back to what I was saying before about how Frozen 2 chooses to focus more on its (star) characters than world-building through new characters. So in a way, having these new characters isn’t a flaw and it actually shows just how good the original Frozen characters are: they still have so much depth and personality that hasn’t been explored that they can carry this new story on their own without the help of new characters.

But other than a few missing and rushed plot pieces and a little poor writing in Kristoff’s scenes, I thought the movie delivered very well. The love Anna has for Elsa is so amazingly conveyed in this movie that you don’t even need to see the first movie to understand it. All of their interactions and conversations felt so genuine. Olaf was very funny even if all of his jokes didn’t hit their mark. Most of the songs were great and really felt like they were written to move the characters and story forward and not just to be earworms kids will always want to sing. “The Next Right Thing” is one of the darkest moments I’ve seen in any Disney movie, but also one of the most emotionally moving and I have to give kudos to the creative team for keeping it in. “Show Yourself” is the true successor to “Let It Go” (why do they keep pushing “Into the Unknown”?) and is such a beautifully sung and beautifully animated sequence. Speaking of the movie’s animation, it’s gorgeous and it’s so amazing how far the technology has come since the first Frozen. There’s so much detail and nuances in the characters’ expressions and actions that only multiple viewings can pick up on.

Of course, I can’t complete this review unless I discuss the elephant in the room – the ending. Anyone who’s been around the fandom the past couple months knows how bent out of shape everyone got once a vague description of the ending leaked online. Now that I’ve seen it for myself and know all the context, I’m okay with the message: Because Iduna did the right thing and saved Agnarr despite him being her enemy, the spirits gifted their child with powers that could be used to correct the past wrong, should she choose to. And because Anna did the right thing by choosing to destroy her kingdom to save the forest, the spirits freed Elsa who, in turn, was able to save Arendelle. Elsa fully embraced herself and is able to live as she wants, but still able to see her family when she wants. It’s not that she didn’t like being queen of Arendelle and living with Anna and the others, but now that she knows exactly what she is – the fifth spirit – she wants to explore that, but is still able to have a life with her family too. Likewise, Anna has found a purpose she never had before. Even though it’s a major change, she’s happy because she knows Elsa is happy and they can still see each other whenever they want. But as I said, exactly what Elsa does as the fifth spirit should have been explained more (hoping it does in future installments). For what we got though, it was a happy ending, but I won’t say it’s satisfying until we get some more information in future books, filmmaker interviews, and, hopefully, future animated shorts and sequels.

I’m still trying to get over the shock, not just of the fact that a movie I’ve been speculating and daydreaming about for six years is finally here and known, but also the fact that it ended up being very different from what I ever imagined in my theories and headcanons. But now that I’ve watched it twice, I understand the direction the filmmakers went and can appreciate the message they wanted to convey even if the execution was a bit messy. I’m hoping I’m high on Frozen 2 for a while because once it wears off and, assuming, there’s no announcement of new Frozen content by then, I’ll have to figure out what to do with my life! This movie is all about coming to grips with change and I’ll definitely be doing that in reality depending on what the future holds for the Frozen franchise. But as of now, I’m still willing to follow Anna and Elsa into the unknown.

Art credited to @pacota22ma on Twitter

*Crossposted from my main blog, Yume Dimension*

[mittensmorgul]

I would like to get my fics seen more, increase visibility; should I have a blog just for my fics? I don't really have one that i maintain regularly, nor do I really have the desire, and if i made one for fics, it would just be to get higher traffic from the tumblr crowd over to Ao3. So i'm wondering if it's worth the trouble. I don't write just to get views/kudos/comments, but i have to admit it is a little disheartening to put a ton of effort into something and get little response.

Oh gosh, hi. :D

I long ago abandoned my writing sideblog, @mittenwraith, which I only made because I was dumb enough to choose a different pseud when I signed up for AO3, and I figured people would be confused if they found me talking on the tumbls about my fic but with a different name... I realized I’m of the “we blog all our nonsense in one place” types of people. Either that or I’m just too disorganized to maintain two blogs, and most people who are here for fic are already following my main blog anyway. It seemed like a lot of work for little result.

I have no idea how, but I seem to get a lot more traffic on my fic on AO3 than I do on tumblr. I might get 100 notes on a fic on tumblr, but thousands of hits and hundreds of kudos on AO3, so I have no idea how that works. I’ve also been here writing and posting fic for nearly five years now, and had time to build up a decent subscriber list, so a lot of those people generating hits and kudos likely clicked through from the AO3 email, too, and never went through my tumblr at all.

I wish I knew of some sure-fire way to increase traffic on my fic. I don’t typically write tumblr one-shots, and I always post multi-chapter fic all at once rather than dragging it out WIP style (which generates an artificially inflated hit count anyway, and I’m not here for artificially inflated anything... if my works are gonna have hits, I want them organically... :’D)

And yeah, I absolutely do write because I want to read my stories myself, whether or not anyone else cares to read them. I love it, but it just hit kinda harsh doing that top ten tumblr posts thing and even with my (relatively, compared to like... gif makers and artists, and even the popular one-shot writers) paltry original post notes totals, none of my fic even came close to being among them. I get most people probably follow me for SPN meta, because following me for my original fic would be an exercise in tolerance considering I only post new fic on average about once a month. Hopefully the people who DO read and appreciate my fic are happy with what I post, though. In the end, that’s what matters most to me. Are we all having a good time? Yes? Then I feel really awkward complaining that I average something like 300 kudos on a fic. Because to 300 people, that fic was important to them in some way.

As for tumblr notes... I’ve been at this (writing fic) for almost five years now, and I haven’t discovered the magical secret to getting notes, so I think it’s probably about 90% luck, honestly. To everyone who has liked and reblogged my fic posts, I LOVE Y’ALL THE BESTEST. :’D

I used to think I would be happy to “artificially inflate” my notes total by posting chapter by chapter, but I realized I just... don’t care about notes bad enough to bother doing that. I figured if it was something I was truly fussed about, it would be worth it to me, but meh...

I’ve also noticed a large migration of fic writers to twitter, and considered publicizing the fact that I do have a fandom twitter account that I pretty much never, ever use... and just tweeting my fic there. My regular twitter is not for fandom stuff. I’ll occasionally reply to fandom twitter with it, but most of the people who follow me there aren’t in the fandom, so I avoid crossposting from tumblr, or posting my fic there. That’s probably another avenue to getting your work seen, though.

There’s also using the tags-- destiel tags, of course, and some of the fandom community tags if you’re part of something like the @profoundnet or the @writersofdestiel. Reblogging other writers’ works also leads to those writers reblogging your works. Participating in challenges that reblog your works to a wider audience can help, too, on top of having your works as part of those collections on AO3. It’s like having your fic shelved in the bestseller section, you know? The hope is that people who otherwise would never have found your stories will see them through those collections. And on tumblr, there’s also reblogging your own fic, several times over the first few days after posting, but also randomly throughout the year. For example, I reblog all my holiday fic around the holidays every year, and even four year old fic will see a nice little resurgence of interest. Outside of that, I think it’s just a matter of luck regarding which fic will take off.

I mean, with the series ending in just a few months, I expect there to still be a happy little community of fandom creators that will hang around, but we’ve already lost a ton of creative types to the tumblr nippocalypse, to regular fandom turnover, etc. Like original Star Trek, there will probably always be SPN fandom online, even if we’re not as active as we’ve been in the past. I figure if I’m going to continue creating for this fandom, it’s something I’ll have to set expectations to, you know? Because I’m not going anywhere, you’re stuck with me forever :’D

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

uuuuuuuuuugh

At what point can you pry an interesting setting and a reasonable plot out of hackey, thudding prose?  I keep running into this problem with science fiction, even stuff that's fairly modern and highly recommended, where it's like a goddamned laundry list of activity with no connective tissue or life to it.   Like you’re reading along and it might as well be

Brian McAstronaut awoke in his space-bedroom to find that the ship's solar sails had become tangled in some space-debris while he slept.  He would have thought 'overnight' instead of 'while he slept,' but of course he was in space and so there was no such thing as 'day' or 'night.' There was only sleeping in his space-bedroom and being awake in his spaceship.  The year was 3030, and not being in space was something that people did in the Before Times, back when they lived on Earth and drank earth-liquor and believed in climate change.   Brian McAstronaut lived now, and in space, and he only believed in himself and his solar sails, because his exceptionally clear idea of what life was like in 2020 in spite of that having been a really long time ago gave him some really cool and cynical ideas about the nature of men.  That was dangerously close to introspection, though, and he decided to stop doing it, because introspection was for people in other genres.  Brian McAstronaut scrambled the semi-sentient space robots to go out into space and straighten the solar sails, which his spaceship needed to travel through space. As he watched them work, he drank some space-liquor and listened to a piece of wildly anachronistic music that, presumably, the author likes very much or thinks will make the character sound cool or cultured to the readers, like if this was all happening here on Earth and now in the year of our lord 2019 and the character was listening to a troubadour's banging lute solo on his airpods.  Which would be pretty great, wouldn't it, if we found some weird old-ass science fiction where the protagonist is listening to a rhapsody on their electric pianoforte and never mind, that's Jules Verne. Anyway, as Brian McAstronaut drank his space-liquor and listened to that Rolling Stones album you had to be a really hardcore Rolling Stones fan to like, he looked out at the stars and waited while the author absolutely ransacked a fucking thesaurus to describe the panorama.  It did not affect him emotionally in any way, because having emotions is for girls, or maybe for people who aren't in science fiction novels, which is basically the same thing.  Brian McAstronaut had always lived in space.  Living in space was what Brian McAstronaut did.  Being impressed with space instead of alternating fighting for survival in space with treating space like it was his sofa in a twenty-first century living room was for people who weren't Brian McAstronaut. And it's not that the writers are necessarily incapable of making it better.  The book I'm reading now is fairly interesting when it dives into its self-contained stories and leaves the main narrative in the dust, but the second it crawls back out into the bitter blast of the main narrative, it's "Brian McAstronaut did this" and "Brian McAstronaut did that" and Brian McAstronaut better wind up being a badly-programmed android or some shit, because there's really no excuse for this.   Your protagonist is not a wooden puppet to carry your plot around--even the pulp detective guys churning out murder mysteries for a penny a page knew that.  It's also like... I mean, not to tell science fiction authors how to do their jobs, but ideally your prose should do something other than give space fetishists something to jerk off to.  There's the old razzle-dazzle, and then there's just whaling on the genre descriptor buttons like a drunk dude playing whack-a-mole. Like don't go out and start writing something like Brian McAstronaut ran his callused, manly hands over the glossy black hull of his new ship.  It jutted proudly from the platform, its two heavy rockets hanging below it in an extra virile way.  The extremely phallic, powerful spaceship excited him, but not in an overtly gay way, because the primary market for these books is straight men who are weirdly insecure in their own masculinity, and if they wind up conflicted about how a scene makes them feel in the pants department, they'll leave a bunch of one-star reviews on Amazon and spend all their free time calling the author a cuck on reddit.   Brian McAstronaut was super-secure in his own masculinity, because he had a spaceship kitted out with all the bells and whistles, which are of course named after twentieth- and twenty-first-century physicists--male physicists--because physics stopped being done after that and also because we're all running around right now hitting our Lanchester brakes in cars powered by Benz engines while our phones use a Haartsen connection to blast music over our de Forest speakers.  Brian McAstronaut was glad he'd shelled out the extra credits for the optional ramjets, which made him feel a very straightforward and normal way in the pants department. The entrance to his new spaceship was a vertical slit located between the two rockets--full to bursting with rocketfuel, just ready to spray it all over the stars--and Brian headed for it like a man on a mission, like a man's man who knew what he was doing and had never disappointed anyone with a rocket in his life.  He grabbed the hefty entrance handle firmly and confidently, by the base, and pushed his way into the dark warmth of the vertical slit.  It was keyed to his unique genetic imprint, and it telescoped open, welcoming him home. Inside, the spaceship was spartan but inviting, needing no furniture or decoration or anything other than the quiet of the red womb-chamber.  He could spend years here, suspended in cryogenic sleep, one with the ship while they sped across the stars.  It would just be the two of them, Brian McAstronaut and his ship--the ship which was all his, and which he would never have to share with another person.  He was pretty sure the ship loved him, and that this was a perfectly ordinary conviction to have.  It was certainly very normal to not have to care about the rest of society, or how much time was passing, or whether or not his friends missed him, so long as he was one with the ship.  He was like twentieth-century actor John Wayne, when twentieth-century actor John Wayne was astride a horse. Everything that wasn't the womb-chamber was full of computerbanks and monitors and blinking lights that he could control with his strong man hands.  Nothing would happen without him inputting commands, which was just how it should be.  He was the man who hit the space-buttons and charted the space-course and decided when to pull over for more rocketfuel. Brian McAstronaut climbed into the womb-chamber and pushed the red button next to the emergency brake for the onboard Nixon recorded.  A Schimmelbusch mask was extruded from the placental lining, and Brian McAstronaut took it gratefully, wrapping himself in the thin, flexible umbilicus that trailed from it to the ship's life support system. "Mother," Brian McAstronaut said, breathing in the cryosleep space-gas.  This was a normal thing to say, and he didn't feel at all weird about it.  A nineteenth-century psychologist called Sigmund Freud had discovered that this was a perfectly healthy response that perfectly healthy men had to womb-chambers, and Brian McAstronaut didn't need space-therapy to deal with his space-issues. On the launchpad, a space-dockhand pounded on the hull yelling about the ship being parked outside the lines and tying up the pad, but he couldn't get in because it wasn't his ship, and Brian McAstronaut's ship only loved Brian McAstronaut and, maybe, a special resupply ship or two that also loved Brian McAstronaut and so the ship would be willing to share him every so often.

Also, if you slam on the brakes every few pages for five paragraphs of salivating descriptors that are just a SkyMall catalog of shit coke-addled futurists and thought-leaders were giving tedtalks about the month you wrote it, it's pointless and annoying and dumb and also it dates the shit out of your story.   Like, most science fiction is going to feel dated after a bit no matter what.  It's the nature of the beast.  Ideally, you want to avoid everyone in your target audience picking up the book a mere three years down the road and a) feeling like they opened a time capsule and b) being able to tell precisely when you wrote a scene just by searching Cory Doctorow or Warren Ellis's twitter feeds for the relevant buzzwords.   In conclusion, I know we're not all out here writing fucking Shakespeare, but these really aren't that hard to avoid!  At all!  Just... hire an editor who's not high on their own supply or something.

(crossposted to dreamwidth)

[feoplepeel]

Give AO3 a Chance

Back in January, Odylism put out this call to fanfic writers in the community she writes for (the Campaign Podcast--go check it out guys). The TLDR message was: Please archive on AO3.  Tumblr is ephemeral. AO3 is a bit more permanent. The rest of her message is below:

What is AO3?

AO3 is the Archive of Our Own. It is the big pan-fandom fan controlled fan fiction archive. Essentially, anyone can go and post fanfic there for others to read and enjoy. It is controlled by a non-profit, the Organization for Transformative Works.

Why are you begging me?

Because I love fandom and fic. Anyone who’s been in fandom a while can tell you of the great amounts of fic that have been lost over the years. Fanfic archives have evaporated. LJ has blacked out content they didn’t like. Geocities came tumbling down. Tumblr is what we’re on now, but anyone who’s tried to go back and search for something six months later can tell you that tumblr is hard to pin down. If you don’t have something bookmarked, it can be impossible to find again. Even if you did bookmark it, you have to pray that person didn’t change their URL.

AO3 was established with the purpose of having a central repository for fanfic that’s stable. It’s been the major repository of fanfic for a while now.

Why should I archive? It’s just dumb/less than 100 words/totally silly/terribly written.

Fanfic is important. Your fanfic is important. I couldn’t begin to describe all of the silly junk I’ve written or read over the years. Not everything has to be perfect serious canon longfic. Each fic, from epic to drabble, paints a picture of the fandom at the time when it was written. AO3 helps us capture that history. I want to be able to go back and read fic (both the serious stuff and the silly AUs) long after Tumblr has gone the way of the dodos. AO3 also has the benefit of being searchable. If I’m in the mood for a certain story, I can go on AO3 and search for exactly that.

What do I need to do to archive on AO3?

For those who want serious instructions, AO3 has an official FAQ that’s helpful.

First, you need to register for an account. If you’re a chameleon person who changes their handle with every new moon, that’s okay. You can add additional pseudonyms after you register. You can go here to register. It does require an invitation code, but they send those out fairly quickly. If you’re not willing to wait, you can usually find someone on here who has one laying around.

Next, you need to post your fic on AO3. When posting a story to AO3, you have to pick a title and tags. Some tags are obvious (characters, relationships, warnings). If one of those tags is missing from the archive, you can add it. The additional tags can take some nuance, but are great for indicating tropes or trigger warnings. AO3 allows users to format their stories using HTML or a rich text editor. I’m an old and always just put together my HTML myself, so I can’t speak to how good/bad the rich text editor is. Once you’ve formatted, you will be shown a preview of the story before you post so you can check everything one last time.

Last, you wait. People can give feedback on AO3 in two ways: kudos and comments. Kudos are a little button people can press at the end of a chapter or story to signal that they enjoyed the work. Comments are when people leave actual written comments on your story. AO3 doesn’t have a great comment culture, but it isn’t any worse than tumblr.

I don’t write fan fiction, but I want to comment/leave kudos/bookmark stories.

Great! You can comment and leave kudos without an account, but I really recommend getting one. Some users don’t allow anon comments or restrict their stories to only logged in users. Bookmarking is only available to registered users.

This is a lot.

I’m sorry about that. Obviously, I have a lot of feelings about fic and the preservation of fandom. Being on AO3 is a great way to preserve fic and make it searchable.

If you have questions or need help, please let me know. I’m happy to walk anyone through the process. You can contact me through tumblr or on twitter.

I’ve been seeing a lot of small fics for Stranger Things not being crossposted to AO3 and I don’t know if that’s for lack of an account or disinterest in posting. I appreciate all the amazing fic that I’ve had the privilege to read on Tumblr, but Tumblr doesn’t allow for bookmarking, save my personal bookmarks (and I know I’m not the only person who has experienced the sinking feeling of clicking on a blog after someone’s changed their url or deleted their blog). In an addition to the original post, “Tumblr is a good way to meet friends and spread the word about new things, but a terrible terrible way to post and archive fanfic. Who knows if tumblr will even be here in a few years, being sold to new companies and subject to new corporate mandates.”

Thanks for reading. Again, feel free to ask me anything <3

[kelmcdonald]

Shipping Everything to Everywhere

New Post has been published on http://sorcery101.net/news/shipping-everything-to-everywhere/

Shipping Everything to Everywhere

Doing a lot of shipping this month

This is crossposted with my newsletter.

And it will probably be for the last time in a while. I said this last month but I’ve been prepping my store to be taken over by White Squirrel. I’ll be at Rose City Comic Con September 13th – 15th and immediately after I’m renting a Uhaul and driving all my stock up to White Squirrel headquarters.

August was kinda quiet because it has been prep for this big move and mostly writing. I finished writing a graphic novel I’m doing with my buddy Jose Pimienta. It’s called Stars Hide Your Fire. It’s about two friends who each find themselves bonding with immortals on opposite sides of a conflict. The picture above is from it. I’m writing it, Jose is doing the lineart, and I’m coloring it. I just finished writing it yesterday. Jose has already drawn a large chunk of it, so I can get to coloring. I’ll start posting pages on my Patreon either this month or next, but I want to sit down and figure out some color choices before I start posting anything publicly.

One of the downsides to focusing on writing for a month is that it’s harder to show that off in a newsletter or on patreon.

Other than writing I’ve been reading a lot of manga. I got myself the Shonen Jump app so I’ve got caught up on a few series I’ve heard good things about but hadn’t checked out. I particularly liked Promised Neverland which is about some kids find out the orphanage they live in secretly a farm. They are being raised as food for demons. The kids are trying to escape. So it’s got a lot of suspense and is very focused on minds games and strategy.

I wanted to take the time to read some manga because I think it’s important to keep up with comic when working on comics. I think finding out new stuff that is out there is inspiring. Reading manga in particular is helpful because with Stars Hide Your Fire done, all my writing attention is going to writing You Are the Chosen One, which is going to be very long. Since manga is usually longer and more decompressed, it’s helpful to see how different ones are paced. I’m about 150 pages into writing You Are the Chosen One and the beginning is a little slow because there is so much to establish.

I’ll keep working on it most of September. So yeah, September is shipping and more writing. I am feeling a little weird about not having art to share though. So I’m gonna try to make time so do some more concept art for You are the Chosen One. I basically keep a list that is “Stuff that needs to be designed before beginning” Maybe I’ll get to that. I have a few possible freelance jobs that will end up taking priority if I get them.

Last month, I also started saying what I’m planning to use my Patreon money on. Patreon money is still gonna go to a new printer since one month isn’t enough to cover it. Printers that can handle bristol are hard to come by. I’m looking at this one to replace my 9 yeah old Espon Photo 1400.

Here’s what you might have missed from me last month:

It’s a light month, so just Dirty Old Ladies podcast has new stuff for you all. We did an episode about what tools we use and an episode on advertising. I was super depressed and burnt out during recording the advertising episode so sorry for being a downer in it. It was recorded when Twitter/Social media was taking the most out of me.