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iveonlyeverseenliketwoanimes · 6 years

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Hawks: Day Off (Part 2)

A/N: I got a couple of requests to do a second part to this and so I tried my best to come up with something! Sorry if it's not great, I wasn't planning on turning this into a multi-part story but hopefully you enjoy! :)

PART 1 MASTERLIST

It had been a couple weeks since that shitty day in the office, you weren’t all that mad because you got paid overtime, but still, it wasn’t exactly how you wanted to spend your day off.

Everything had calmed down a little in your work life, nothing too interesting had been happening in the land of Heroes, just small crimes and a ton of paperwork. The big mission you had been working on with Endeavor and Hawks had come to an end last week, it all went smoothly, and you’d managed to take down a huge part of a current crime syndicate that was trying to illegally sell power enhancing gadgets.

Obviously, the end of that mission would mean the disbandment of the team, or rather meant that Hawks should go back to spending time at his own agency rather than annoying Endeavor on a somewhat daily basis, but that didn’t appear to have happened. You assumed that the pair had become friends after working with each other for so long, but the look on your boss’s face every time Hawks entered the building seemed to debunk that theory.

Every time Hawks came to visit he always made an effort to swing by your desk and wish you a good morning or afternoon, which ultimately ended up turning into a lengthy conversation about anything and everything, one time you spent a solid hour debating whether or not Die Hard was a Christmas movie and during another visit you discussed how winter was a way better season than summer – he disagreed but that’s beside the point.

Hawks might have been a complete idiot at times but dammit he was the cutest idiot you’d ever seen, he always brought a smile to your face with his stupid theories on different films or tv shows and he told some of the corniest jokes, that was his charm, and oh boy was he charming your socks off. Just seeing his adorable little smile when he walked into a room seemed to make your day so much better, he was, quite literally, an angel.

You’d both seemingly fallen head over heels for each other, but you were both so caught up in your own feelings and anxieties over what to do that you hadn’t realised how each other felt. It was cute, or at least your co-workers thought so. Other people were fascinated by what was occurring between the two of you, it was like a love story unfolding before their very eyes, the two clueless superheroes that had met on mission and had developed feelings for each other without realising were now subconsciously trying to spend loads of time together, it was great, they’d even started a betting system on how long it would take for one of you to ask the other out, most people betting that Hawks would finally live up to his flirtatious actions and actually just ask you to dinner.

You had been a rather busy with some personal stuff lately, you’d only just managed to find a dress for your cousin's wedding and now you were having to deal with all your relatives breathing down your neck over the fact that you hadn’t said you were bringing a plus one to her wedding. It wasn’t exactly your fault – you were so busy with work that the concept of dating was somewhat side-tracked in your life path right now. You weren’t against dating someone, a lot of high profile Heroes swore of dating due to thinking their line of work was too dangerous and it would put their partner in danger, you, on the other hand, didn’t consider yourself high enough profile to warrant any form of arch nemesis, you’d arrested a fair few small scaled criminals but nothing compared to the likes of All Might, Endeavor, or even Hawks.

While you did like the idea of having a significant other, the concept of weddings was a little much. Your cousin was going all out, a big, grand display of her and her partner’s love for the world (Well a select group of friends and family) to see. You thought the whole little was over the top and having to deal with your family going on and on about how you could be the next one to walk down the aisle wasn’t fun, maybe one day you would, but that wasn’t going to be any time soon.

You woke up on an average Monday morning and went into work, it was a nice day out, not too hot and not too cold, the few clouds that were out made some beautiful sky art and the sunshine made it warm enough to where you wouldn’t need a jacket. You spent the first half of the day on patrol with some of the other sidekicks currently working under Endeavor, but nothing too interesting went down so you and a couple others returned to the headquarters in order to get some in-house work done. The whole office space was currently getting a revamp and so your desk was very messy as you were trying to get all the documents out of the draws for when your new equipment came in. You had paperwork and all sorts of personal items everywhere and you were desperately trying to get it all into piles so you could have some form of organisational system in place.

As you were shredding a bunch of old documents you saw someone pick something off your desk out of the corner of your eye. Turning to fully look at them you saw the cute little angel boy himself holding a small A5 card, you weren’t sure what it was at first, to be honest, you were a little messy and probably had stuff from your first day still lying around. You sent him and smile as a form of greeting and he returned the gesture.

“Wedding huh?” The messy haired blond said. “I always loved weddings, they’re fun – dancing, drinking, the overall theme of love, it’s great”

“Well if you love them so much why don’t you go? I’m dreading this damn thing and dress shopping has been a pain in my ass” You replied sitting back in your seat, relaxing a little seeing it was just the local red feathered chicken man.

He laughed a little at your statement, he always enjoyed your company, you were honest and always really light-hearted about everything, so it made falling for you easy so it made befriending you easy. “Is that an invite to be your plus one or are you saying I’d look good in your dress?”

You snapped your head up to look at him, he’d made some silly little comments here and there but this one was very direct and personal. You were a blushing mess, you didn’t mean to accidentally somewhat ask the number 2 Hero to go to a wedding with you, yet here you were. You also weren’t sure if he meant it, I mean what did he expect you to say? ‘Oh yeah, I've actually been meaning to ask you to come to this wedding as my date so all my relatives can poke and prod into our lives and get a couple year head start on planning our wedding’ how were you supposed to joke it off either? ‘hahaha yeah funny one Hawks, us going on a date is so out of the blue and hilarious, I would never want to actually go to any kind of personal event with you ahahahaha’.

“I- um, I gue- I erm” You were in a weird state of confusion and embarrassment. You were a complete mess while with the one person you really wished would never have to see you like this.

“Well I mean, I am known to be great company, kids and grandmas love me so I’m sure I’d fit in just fine” His internal thoughts seemed to be going 100mph for the same reasons as yours. What was he doing? What was happening here? Why was he going along with this little joke that was very quickly turning into a serious proposition? In his mind he was a wreck but, on the surface, this was his moment, he was putting on the smile and making sure he seemed somewhat unbothered by the whole situation, you said yes? Cool, he’s excited about the cake, you say no? That’s cool he can go down to the local market and buy his own damn cake and not have to share with anyone. Everything was fine, apart from the small fact that he was low-key asking out the love of his life in a very odd way, and you were probably going to say no because he was an idiot and should have asked you to something normal like a coffee. Why was he like this?

“I genuinely can’t tell if you’re being serious or not right now” You finally said. You were very confused, this was supposed to be a normal, if not slightly boring, day at work and yet it had very quickly turned into a day you were sure you wouldn’t forget.

“I just noticed that you hadn’t ticked the ‘plus one’ box on the invite and if you’re ‘dreading this damn thing’ then maybe I could make it a little more interesting” The red feathered man had now turned up the flirting to a full 10, there was no backing down now, he was too deep into this.

You were shocked, it was a good kind of shocked, you loved Hawks’ playful little comments, but you never thought that there were actual feelings behind them. Asking to tag along to a wedding with you was definitely not a playful little comment, that was a serious situation, who does that? Who willingly wants to go to a wedding? You had to admit that you liked the idea of going together though, Hawks was so carefree, bubbly and social, so having him with you at this wedding would definitely make the whole ordeal a lot more fun. Oh God were you seriously considering letting this guy come to a family event with you? What would your family think? Just imaging all of the looks and questions about the pair of you being together made you a little more nervous. But what if this was your chance? What if this was the one chance to get a date with a genuinely lovely guy? I mean he’s basically already said he would like to go so all you have to do is say yes.

All you have to do is just say yes.

Just say yes.

“Yes!” Hawks eyes shot up in your direction, he’d subconsciously been fiddling with the small piece of card in his hands while waiting for you to respond with something, your silence breaking his heart as each second passed. But now? His heart was all over the place for a whole other reason. “I would like that, I mean if you’re being serious, because if you’re not then this is really awkward and nowimnotreallysurewhattodobecau-“

“Awesome! March 9th right? I’ll pick you up at 12 and we can make our way there together!” Your cute little ramble just made his heart all the more giddy, while his nerves were hidden by his confident smile yours seemed to be less subtle and that made him extremely happy. The cute girl he’d been low-key obsessed with? He just bagged a date with her and he couldn’t contain the huge smile that made his way onto his lips. All this time he’d been anxious about asking you out? He doesn’t remember it because all he knows is that he has a date, with a cute girl, who just so happens to be you. All the teasing looks he was currently receiving from your co-workers (who were currently cashing in their bets)? They’re looking at the number 2 hero who just bagged a date with the love of his life. Today was the day that Hawks finally asked you out and the only regret he had was that he wished he’d done it sooner.

#hawks #bnha hawks #mha hawks #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #hawks x reader #hawks imagine #hawks oneshot #hawks story #bnha x reader #mha x reader

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ireflectaut · 3 years

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Post One

I read several children's books over the last few weeks and picked my two favourites to deep dive into in order to learn as much as I can about why I liked them, what made them effective and what I can take from them to start creating my book.

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak is an iconic children's book for ages 3+. Sendak introduces us to a little boy, Max, and takes us through his journey to ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. Max has a fight with him mum for being unruly and wild and is sent to bed without dinner. He is angry and upset and escapes across an ocean to the world of wild things, where he can exert energy and play and be wild freely. Once he has worked through his energy, he realises he wants the comfort of home again and so he returns, across the ocean once more, and finds a peace offering from his mother; hot supper in his bedroom.

I loved this book as a whole; it has such a beautiful child-like simplicity that is nostalgic and magical to read as an adult. The themes felt thought out, fully realised and relatable, which included Love, forgiveness, childhood anger, independence, and imagination.

Love: Max leaves out of anger and forgets his home for a while; a home with a loving mother and a dog and a comfy bed, and he gets swept up in another world. Even when you are unconditionally loved, sometimes you need a break and to have space to miss it and realise how beautiful, safe, and important the people that love you are. He realises how necessary that is in being happy; he can survive on his own and have fun, go wild, do what he wants with no rules and regulations, but overall- Max chooses home.

His mother also offers a symbol of love to him, without even exchanging words; she leaves her son a hot homemade supper. This is such a great universally understood motif, that hits home for everyone – excuse the pun. In unconditional love, sometimes you don't have to verbally say you're sorry; the other person knows, because they know who you are and love you no matter what.

Overall, in the arch of the story, Max chooses his mum, and her love over everything else.

Independence: Max left home because he wanted to, he created a whole world by himself, he became king of the wild things, he tamed them; and then he realised that he didn't want that, he wanted what he had all along. The fact that Max figured all of this out himself is so important to creating such a vivid character; he makes decisions and has character growth because of his exploration of independence.

Childhood anger: Sendak doesn't ignore it, he portrays it in a natural and non-judgemental way. We don't see max apologise for shouting at his mum, and instead he works through his anger by himself on his own terms. Sendak breaks the taboo of anger – it is a normal emotion for both kids and adults, and we need to learn to accept it in order to deal with it. Max literally tames his wild things.

Imagination: Sendak writes about Max’s imaginary world as if it is the obvious truth; he doesn’t say “and then Max imagined...” he says “That very night in Max’s room a forest grew” (Sendak, 1963, p.10)

“And grew -” (Sendak, 1963, p.12)

“And grew until his ceiling hung with vines

And the walls became the world all around” (Sendak, 1963, p.14) Sendak respects the concept of imagination as reality and in doing that creates a vivid and truthful world. Max’s imagination plays a crucial part in working out his anger; he is in a world with no boundaries, no rules, no parental guidance; he can do anything he want, and only with this power could he express his independence and feelings in order to work towards a healthy mental state in which he can happily return home.

Sendak uses a plethora of language techniques to make the book dynamic and beautiful. There is a real rhythm in the way the story is written; it starts off softy in the first two sentences, leads you in, and then amps up the drama suddenly on the third page, like the chorus of a song. Maurice uses similar amounts of words and structure in the sentences on the third page to make a lyrical and fast paced flow.

Language techniques

There is a real rhythm in the way the story is written; it starts off softy in the first two sentences, leads you in, and then amps up the drama suddenly on the third page, like the chorus of a song. Maurice uses similar amounts of words and structure in the sentences on the third page to make a lyrical and fast paced flow; when you lay it out on one page it looks and reads similar to poetry, great poetry; this is where the lyricality comes from. The similar sentence structure carry's you through easily, and the repetition of “And” makes it sing-songy.

A few techniques that Sendak uses that I liked:

“His mother called him “WILD THING!”

And Max said “ILL EAT YOU UP!”” (Thompson, 1957, p.1)

I like that Maurice uses all capitals for the dialogue here, it puts such emphasis and excitement, and makes it more dynamic to look at. It also emphasises Max’s intense energy that obviously can be hard for his mum to deal with. It shadows a reality of angry fights between parents and children- something that almost everyone has experienced and can be extremely hard to work through; we can't blame our parents for being stressed and affected by the intensity of raising children with so many other stresses in their life, and we can’t blame children for being unaware of the strain they are placing, or for expressing themselves.

“That very night in Max’s room a forest grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.10)

I really like the lack of punctuation; no full stop, no comma after room, it makes it feel very childlike and sure of itself. Maurice has written the story as fact; there's no need for more context either.

Sendak uses alliteration with A sounds consistently, and uses other alliteration throughout, for example

“... a forest grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.10)

“and grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.12)

“And grew until his ceiling hung with vines” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

“...a forest grew

And grew -

And grew until his ceiling hung with vines

And the walls became the world all around” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

And then later:

“And in and out of weeks

And almost over a year

To where the wild things are” (Thompson, 1957, p.18)

There are many more examples through the book. He is a beautiful poet; a great skill for writing children's books.

“They roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth” (Thompson, 1957, p.20)

“And rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws” (Thompson, 1957, p.21)

The repetition of terrible makes it fun and easy to read; children or tired parents aren't getting lost in a sea of describing words (although there are plenty in the book, just not an overuse), we don't need four words for terrible, its unnecessary; we get the picture through the other describing words of claws and teeth and eyes and roars. It's not convoluted and still provokes an image, and when paired with the illustration, it's a perfect team.

Then, Max smells dinner for far across the world and wants to go home.

“But the wild things cried, “Oh, please don't go -

We'll eat you up – we love you so!”

And Max said “No!”” (Thompson, 1957, p.34)

The rhyming of go, so, and no is so simple but so effective. It drives the cadence of the page.

“we’ll eat you up – we love you so!” (Thompson, 1957, p.34) is such a beautiful idea and comes from a letter Maurice got from a child's mother saying that their child ate Maurices letter back to them because they loved it so much. It's such a childlike notion, it's incredibly charming and odd. I like that Sendak isn't afraid to be weird.

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, 'Dear Jim: I loved your card.' Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, 'Jim loved your card so much he ate it.' That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.” (Sendak, 2012)

“and it was still hot” (Thompson, 1957, p.40) Is the last sentence of the book, a sweet detail about Max’s dinner that his mother left him. This small but beautiful image; a hot meal, provokes many childhood images of my own, and is something that is a universal signal of home and love.

The things I want to take away from Where the Wild Things Are to incorporate into my book are Sendak’s confidence in writing about themes that aren’t common or are thought of as taboo; themes such as anger in children's books, and the complexities of parent and child relationships, I also love the slightly abstract nature of Sendak’s writing and how he really explores imagination. I am very impressed with how active and assertive Max’s character is; I find that when I write, I can easily fall into having a passive protagonist, so this is something I will definitely work on and learn from.

I want to write my story as poetically as Sendak writes, I think it's a great way to create a rhythm and enjoyable reading experience that doesn’t rely on an abundance of unnecessary words; I think this is an important difference in writing an adult or YA novel and children's books; you need to get your point across concisely and vividly in a lot less words. In making my book poetic I will also use alliteration and make my sentences similar sizes. I also want to have a dynamic visual effect of the words in my book; Sendak uses capitals, and I will investigate other ways to do this too.

BOOK TWO:

Eloise in Paris by Kay Thompson

Eloise in Paris is a longer form book than where the wild things are and is for a slightly older market (aged 7 and up). This is clear from the more varied vocabulary and clear indication that the writer trusted the audience more with figuring out the context of what Eloise was saying and understanding the humour; “I always travel incognito” (Thompson, 1957, p.11) Eloise says with big celebrity sunglasses on.

Eloise in Paris is about a 6-year-old upper class girl who travels with her mother, nanny and dog to Paris. The book is an exploration of Eloise as a character; written in the 1950’s, Eloise is an unconventional female protagonist for the time; she is boisterous, confident, eccentric and unforgivingly herself.

I love this book for its incredible depth of character and playful writing techniques. It still feels contemporary and relevant 70 years from its creation, knocking down boundaries of how girls should behave and the idea of the four unit family (mother, father, and two kids) with its unconventional mother / daughter / nanny relationship.

Thompson initially wrote the first book in the franchise for an adult audience, which can explain its uncommon point of reference; the books don't have an obvious lesson or message as most kids books do, we just watch in awe as Eloise moves through the world moulding it to her own wants and needs, having a hell of a time doing it.

Themes:

Growing up/wanting to be grown up:

Eloise has a strikingly individual point of view; and she seems to know a lot about everything, or at least is so confident that we believe that she can do anything. She mimics the grown-ups in her life, from language to behaviour, saying “And oh my lord” (Thompson, 1957, p.12) and pronouncing rather as “rawther” (Thompson, 1957, p.4). She says things like “well by all means send it up right away”; (Thompson, 1957, p.1) an unusually mature tone with a sense of adult urgency that is rare in children unless mimicking the dialect of adults.

Unconventional family dynamics:

We don’t hear from Eloises mother almost at all in the whole book, we see her in the illustrations; but Eloise is never actually with her mum, but instead at a different table with her nanny, or watching her with others from afar.

Independence:

Eloise does what she wants, when she wants. If she wants to cross the road at the Arc De Triomphe without a care in the world, she will, and if she wants to loudly explore the hotel by herself in the middle of the night, she will. She is perfectly autonomous, something that many kids don't have and can only fantasise about. The book serves as a fantastic break from the rule abiding reality that many kids exist in.

Womens liberation:

Eloise was born in the 50’s; a time where women were expected to be pretty and quiet, cook clean and pop out babies. Eloise rebels from the notion of the silent woman; she is funny, clever (she learns french!), charming and self-assured, and she isn't afraid of anything. She is a fantastic role model for children, especially young girls who are still being told to this day that their value is in being passive. I also like that that wasn’t even necessarily a thought over ‘lesson’ or point in the book, or it wasn’t spelled out; Thompson just let Eloise be whoever she wanted to be.

“Life magazine said Eloise was "the most controversial literary heroine of the year. She charms and terrifies like a snake." (Goodman, 2017)

Language techniques:

Thompson has so much fun playing with the language in this book, and there is an incredibly strong sense of character that we can hear from her careful techniques.

Onomatopoeia:

“zibbity zap clink clank” (Thompson, 1957, p.1)

“zambo sting sting stinger” (Thompson, 1957, p.7)

“clink clank pick up that phone” (Thompson, 1957, p.8)

“ne quittez pas and zuk zuk zuk zwhocky zuk zuk swgock zuk zucky zuk zuk zwock nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn” (Thompson, 1957, p.22)

These are just some examples of the onomatopoeia that Thompson uses in Eloise in Paris. This technique makes reading it so amusing and strange and puts you right into the silly and unembarrassed mind of a child.

Phonetic spelling:

“Nanny is rawther long-sighted” (Thompson, 1957, p. 4), and “I am rawther photogenic” (Thompson, 1957, p. 80) the use of phonetic spelling to signal accent; this book has a high chance of being read out as well, so this forces the reader to say rather the way Thompson imagines Eloise would say it, making for a more interesting and silly listening experience, also enriching the upper class character of Eloise.

Once Eloise is in Paris she starts saying “Nahnee”(Thompson, 1957, p.19) instead of nanny, which again conjures such a great image in the reader’s head of the slightly snobby and extremely flamboyant Eloise.

Listing:

Listing is a great technique to break up the structure of a text; and in Thompsons case it’s always funny:

“Here’s what you have to pack if you’re going to Paris France

Mary Jane button hook

Pliers

Consomme container

Hotel kit

Here’s what else you have to take

Everything” (Thompson, 1957, p. 9)

and a lovely little insight into the details of her world; Mary Jane button hook shoes matched with pliers and a soup container? It's clear that Eloise has big plans, and a million thoughts running through her mind. The lists Eloise writes are though it was written by an eccentric rushing around causing chaos.

Repetition:

“Get out get out get out” (Thompson, 1957, p.11)

“Regardes which means look look look” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

The repetition creates a fast paced reading experience, it rushes you through the sentence and throws you onto the next.

What I want to take from Eloise in Paris is the remarkable sense of character that we feel through the language that Thompson used, the silliness and the boundlessness of the capabilities of the character. I love the idea that a child can do anything they want without any real consequences; they should leave the reading journey feeling like they can be whoever they want to be, and achieve whatever they want to achieve.

I loved the engaging elements that make the book fun to read; from listing to onomatopoeia, these techniques are exciting for children to read and make sure that the book isn't boring or one dimensional.

I also want to take inspiration from the craziness of the world around Eloise; yes she is a little girl, but she is not normal in any way. She is unique; just like everybody else. I love the flamboyance of the crazy hotel she lives in, and that she creates mayhem wherever she goes.

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redscullyrevival · 8 years

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Fool’s Fate: The Tawny Man Rundown

@sonnetscrewdriver I’ve moved on to Dragon Keeper!

Plot/Setting/Narrative

Jesus

Okay

Holy shit???

I need a moment

Alright, so lets start easy

Being the Age of Sail nerdo I am this book’s voage bits were amusing and then a bit dissapointing; an apprecaition of sailing and living the sailor LifeStyle isn’t really a Six Duchies thing it seems, huh?

I was SO excited with getting a glimpse of my precious Bingtown babies in the last book that I was stoked for a high sea adventure in this book but wah waah mostly it was sea sickness and brooding

Honestly I let myself down because this is a Fitz story and, well, how else would the sea be depicted?! LOL

Poor Thick

Poor everyone for the most part, yikes

Farseer had a lot of mystery to it, a lot of slow burn world building/concept reveal with answers eventually given; Liveship Traders showed it’s cards on the table for the most part but thrived of the suspense of all the threads coming together or possibly unraveling; Tawny Man is the first series where I understood events before the characters did, the results of which made the series much more subdude than the last two.

Not in a bad way, just, ya know, different.

“Life Is Change” is very obviously the big overarching connecting theme between the Realm of the Elderling series and I only have praise for the fact each series has it’s own distinct tone and approach to the same (and shared) characters - it’d be a hallow utterance if the book narratives themselves did not change and grow series to series.

The change in Tawny Man is big; it’s big for the narrative space and it’s big for Fitz and it’s big for the reader.

And you can accept the change or reject it, that’s a option we as the reader has.

I choose to embrace it.

But oh man, oh my god, I will miss The Fool. I’ll miss “Fitz and The Fool” as a unit. I know there is a new series and I’ll get to it eventually but I’ve got four Rain Wild books (YAY!) before I come back to Fitz and his part of the map so this is a solid goodbye for a while and it feels odd to part with them in the place we do.

Odd, but new.

I’m talkin’ out my butt - I’m a little sad okay?! But I’m happy too.

And I think that’s what this book was going for; a kind of reaffirmation that life and change is hurt and happiness and a lot of effort went into guiding readers through feeling that message as well as understanding it on an informative level.

Ultimately I enjoyed Tawny Man more than Farseer, it’s just much more my-type-of-story.

I never really agreed with/bought into Fitz’s choices within much of the Farseer Trilogy. I understood Fitz’s logic of course, so his choosing to let expel his pain and hide away (and all the other choices along the way) were not make or break issues for me; there is much to enjoy simply being along for the ride.

But with Tawny Man it was very satisfying for me to see Fitz come back again and again to his past decisions and not cast them off as impervious to change or impossible to face.

That’s a beautiful message.

I embrace that message very much in my mind and I will try to embrace it within my own life as well.

And this isn’t relevant to anything but a little thing I’d like to preserve for my own amusement: This was the first book I’ve ever read on a Kindle! Lee got me one for my birthday for my “Year of Book” project. It took a little time get use to but once I adjusted I really enjoyed it - particularly the fact that if you are reading a borrowed book from an online library it shows you what others have highlighted as they read! I found that very interesting and I enjoyed highlighting my own favorite bits (which, not shockingly, coincided with many other people’s favorite bits).

For Rain Wild Chronicles I may start a new section for these write ups where I relay some of my highlighted sections, ‘cause why not? These are already long and useless, might as well really own them.

Fitz

I know there is a lot we could talk about when it comes to Fitz in this book

But I kinda already covered him in the setting/plot/narrative section above

And I really just want to let anyone bothering to read this know that I’ve never liked Fitz more then when he cleaned up and donned fancy Jamaillian digs and walked into Molly’s family chaos to tell a grieving family he is FitzChivalry Farseer and he’s gonna look after them.

I was shocked and horrified and thrilled and laughing

Fitz truly changed! It wasn’t just description of his inner change (although that was lovely, good for The Fool, thank you Fool) but the end of the book drags a bit as it does so as to allow Fitz to act on this inner change - which is something I’ll never hold against Hobb.

So many books end quickly after their narrative climax but Hobb likes a good post cuddle and god bless her for it.

Cutting a story off after the final movements have played is dramatic and can help events stand out as an experience in an audiences mind; but there is unique pleasure in seeing the individuals of an orchestra pack up their belongings and shuffle out isn’t there? There is a true affection for humanity’s relentless plodding along in those final chapters. Fine by me.

The Fool

So I freaked out towards the end there, ya know?

And much like with when it happened to Fitz, a part of me thought it a cruel thing to do, to bring someone that far gone and that brutalized back.

I understood the thematic ouroboros of The Fool’s return and as a fan it was a relief of sorts but there is still that small part of me that found it cruel all the same.

I’m floored with how moved I was by the aftermath of the Fool’s death. Fitz’s quest to find the body and then to restore dignity to his friend - that was some rough stuff.

It wasn’t “true grief” like with Nighteyes (for me anyways) but rather a form of anticipatory mourning, but in reverse? Hard to explain.

The point is yes, I cried.

Oh oh oh how I hope The Fool can learn to manage in a world they can’t see into or shape. I hope to see the Fool again after visiting the Rain Wilds.

Hap

lol

fuckin’ Hap

I love this idiot

I love how all around Hap epic and fantastical things happen and his story is just him coming of age and figuring his shit out

Good for him

Does he know who Fitz really is though?! This was never addressed?!

Prince Dutiful

Dutiful cracks me up

I love how he’ll go into PRINCE MODE and be near perfect Sacrifice and royal and awe inspiring

then he laughs at boogers

Dutiful is hilarious to me, how I see him switch back and forth between mature young prince to out-of-his-depth-survivor brought me much joy

I love his friendship with Thick; I love how he falls for Elliania’s transparent baiting; I love how he’d be cool outwardly but skill “WTF is happening?!?”

What a joy!

Chad

In the last book Chad really slipped through my fingers but now we’re back to our normal rocky relationship.

I like Chad

but then I don’t

And I think, finally, I’m okay with that duality

Thick

My sweet little man

Everything about Thick is my favorite thing

I especially love how he is often described as being bored

Discussing intrigue and espionage and dragons? BORED

Hahaha!

No wonder he and Nettle get along so well

I especially loved how he decided, for himself, to stay with Fitz on Aslevjal

I’m excited to come back and hear more, learn more, about Thick

Nettle

I wouldn’t wanna be on Nettle’s shit list, would you?

What a storm of a person!

Nettle isn’t very defined still, she is a bit reactionary and never quite gets totally fleshed out by the end of the book.

Which is a bit of a shame.

But! Nettle of the Dream World is a different story.

She feels much more defined there and I dunno, maybe that’s intentional?

I like her but I’d have to spend a lot more time with her in the solid narrative space rather than the abstract dream/skill narrative space to really have opinions or emotions over her as her own character rather than her as a character and how she relates/involves/moves Fitz, Burrich, Molly, or Thick.

Elliania

Elliania has a similar disadvantage as Nettle does but at the same time she still has more definition (to me) then Nettle; her motivation and actions are followable and her personality is filled in with Outisland society.

And she ain’t afraid to smack a bitch up with her titties out.

So she gets some mad bonus points right there.

I really felt for Elliania’s struggle and she totally won me over in the scene where she comes up from inside the Pale Woman’s domain dragging her forged sister and mother with her.

One of those scenes where the grandure, emotion, and awe of it all was very powerful

loved it, love her

Web

YEAH

Don’t need permission to do what’s right - fuck yeah

Web’s the friggin’ best guys

I want a spin-off of him teaching Old Blood children and Fitz

Swift

This little shit

I love him, I love all of Molly and Burrich’s wild children, but Swift gave me anxiety lol

I’m actually really intrigued by Swift but he’s too brief and wild at the moment, I hope he mellows out a bit but still keeps that confrontational fire and uses it for good

Burrich

NO.

God

Damn

When my man showed up on Aslevjal I was shocked

I was so mad

I was also very happy of course but ughgughgu

I WAS CONFLICTED and had good right to be

Oh this man, I really adore Burrich even though he is a flawed person - that’s what is so compelling about him though.

We kept learning things about and from Burrich up until the very end.

I’ll miss you, Heart of the Pack.

Molly

I’m devastated for Molly

I’m Happy for Molly

I’m very pro-Molly in general even though she is a bit vague

Like, she is more than just a plot device but not by a whole lot, ya know?

What I wanna do though is sit her down and have a real heart to heart; ask her if she really thinks Fitz will ever be truly free himself of his duty, from his duty to the Farseers or from his own idea of honor.

That man is going to leave off on some quest or some shit you know it, I know it, she must know it!

Be safe Molly, but happy, but alert

#realm of the elderlings #The Tawny Man #Year of Book #fandom talks

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thingsireflecaut · 3 years

Text

Post One

I read several children’s books over the last few weeks and picked my two favourites to deep dive into in order to learn as much as I can about why I liked them, what made them effective and what I can take from them to start creating my book.

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak is an iconic children’s book for ages 3+. Sendak introduces us to a little boy, Max, and takes us through his journey to ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. Max has a fight with him mum for being unruly and wild and is sent to bed without dinner. He is angry and upset and escapes across an ocean to the world of wild things, where he can exert energy and play and be wild freely. Once he has worked through his energy, he realises he wants the comfort of home again and so he returns, across the ocean once more, and finds a peace offering from his mother; hot supper in his bedroom.

His mother also offers a symbol of love to him, without even exchanging words; she leaves her son a hot homemade supper. This is such a great universally understood motif, that hits home for everyone – excuse the pun. In unconditional love, sometimes you don’t have to verbally say you’re sorry; the other person knows, because they know who you are and love you no matter what.

Overall, in the arch of the story, Max chooses his mum, and her love over everything else.

Independence: Max left home because he wanted to, he created a whole world by himself, he became king of the wild things, he tamed them; and then he realised that he didn’t want that, he wanted what he had all along. The fact that Max figured all of this out himself is so important to creating such a vivid character; he makes decisions and has character growth because of his exploration of independence.

Childhood anger: Sendak doesn’t ignore it, he portrays it in a natural and non-judgemental way. We don’t see max apologise for shouting at his mum, and instead he works through his anger by himself on his own terms. Sendak breaks the taboo of anger – it is a normal emotion for both kids and adults, and we need to learn to accept it in order to deal with it. Max literally tames his wild things.

Imagination: Sendak writes about Max’s imaginary world as if it is the obvious truth; he doesn’t say “and then Max imagined…” he says “That very night in Max’s room a forest grew” (Sendak, 1963, p.10)

“And grew -” (Sendak, 1963, p.12)

“And grew until his ceiling hung with vines

Language techniques

There is a real rhythm in the way the story is written; it starts off softy in the first two sentences, leads you in, and then amps up the drama suddenly on the third page, like the chorus of a song. Maurice uses similar amounts of words and structure in the sentences on the third page to make a lyrical and fast paced flow; when you lay it out on one page it looks and reads similar to poetry, great poetry; this is where the lyricality comes from. The similar sentence structure carry’s you through easily, and the repetition of “And” makes it sing-songy.

A few techniques that Sendak uses that I liked:

“His mother called him “WILD THING!”

And Max said “ILL EAT YOU UP!”” (Thompson, 1957, p.1)

I like that Maurice uses all capitals for the dialogue here, it puts such emphasis and excitement, and makes it more dynamic to look at. It also emphasises Max’s intense energy that obviously can be hard for his mum to deal with. It shadows a reality of angry fights between parents and children- something that almost everyone has experienced and can be extremely hard to work through; we can’t blame our parents for being stressed and affected by the intensity of raising children with so many other stresses in their life, and we can’t blame children for being unaware of the strain they are placing, or for expressing themselves.

“That very night in Max’s room a forest grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.10)

I really like the lack of punctuation; no full stop, no comma after room, it makes it feel very childlike and sure of itself. Maurice has written the story as fact; there’s no need for more context either.

Sendak uses alliteration with A sounds consistently, and uses other alliteration throughout, for example

“… a forest grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.10)

“and grew” (Thompson, 1957, p.12)

“And grew until his ceiling hung with vines” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

“…a forest grew

And grew -

And grew until his ceiling hung with vines

And the walls became the world all around” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

And then later:

“And in and out of weeks

And almost over a year

To where the wild things are” (Thompson, 1957, p.18)

There are many more examples through the book. He is a beautiful poet; a great skill for writing children’s books.

“They roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth” (Thompson, 1957, p.20)

“And rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws” (Thompson, 1957, p.21)

The repetition of terrible makes it fun and easy to read; children or tired parents aren’t getting lost in a sea of describing words (although there are plenty in the book, just not an overuse), we don’t need four words for terrible, its unnecessary; we get the picture through the other describing words of claws and teeth and eyes and roars. It’s not convoluted and still provokes an image, and when paired with the illustration, it’s a perfect team.

Then, Max smells dinner for far across the world and wants to go home.

“But the wild things cried, “Oh, please don’t go -

We’ll eat you up – we love you so!”

And Max said “No!”” (Thompson, 1957, p.34)

The rhyming of go, so, and no is so simple but so effective. It drives the cadence of the page.

“we’ll eat you up – we love you so!” (Thompson, 1957, p.34) is such a beautiful idea and comes from a letter Maurice got from a child’s mother saying that their child ate Maurices letter back to them because they loved it so much. It’s such a childlike notion, it’s incredibly charming and odd. I like that Sendak isn’t afraid to be weird.

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, ‘Dear Jim: I loved your card.’ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, 'Jim loved your card so much he ate it.’ That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.” (Sendak, 2012)

The things I want to take away from Where the Wild Things Are to incorporate into my book are Sendak’s confidence in writing about themes that aren’t common or are thought of as taboo; themes such as anger in children’s books, and the complexities of parent and child relationships, I also love the slightly abstract nature of Sendak’s writing and how he really explores imagination. I am very impressed with how active and assertive Max’s character is; I find that when I write, I can easily fall into having a passive protagonist, so this is something I will definitely work on and learn from.

I want to write my story as poetically as Sendak writes, I think it’s a great way to create a rhythm and enjoyable reading experience that doesn’t rely on an abundance of unnecessary words; I think this is an important difference in writing an adult or YA novel and children’s books; you need to get your point across concisely and vividly in a lot less words. In making my book poetic I will also use alliteration and make my sentences similar sizes. I also want to have a dynamic visual effect of the words in my book; Sendak uses capitals, and I will investigate other ways to do this too.

BOOK TWO:

Eloise in Paris by Kay Thompson

Thompson initially wrote the first book in the franchise for an adult audience, which can explain its uncommon point of reference; the books don’t have an obvious lesson or message as most kids books do, we just watch in awe as Eloise moves through the world moulding it to her own wants and needs, having a hell of a time doing it.

Themes:

Growing up/wanting to be grown up:

Unconventional family dynamics:

Independence:

Eloise does what she wants, when she wants. If she wants to cross the road at the Arc De Triomphe without a care in the world, she will, and if she wants to loudly explore the hotel by herself in the middle of the night, she will. She is perfectly autonomous, something that many kids don’t have and can only fantasise about. The book serves as a fantastic break from the rule abiding reality that many kids exist in.

Womens liberation:

Eloise was born in the 50’s; a time where women were expected to be pretty and quiet, cook clean and pop out babies. Eloise rebels from the notion of the silent woman; she is funny, clever (she learns french!), charming and self-assured, and she isn’t afraid of anything. She is a fantastic role model for children, especially young girls who are still being told to this day that their value is in being passive. I also like that that wasn’t even necessarily a thought over ‘lesson’ or point in the book, or it wasn’t spelled out; Thompson just let Eloise be whoever she wanted to be.

“Life magazine said Eloise was “the most controversial literary heroine of the year. She charms and terrifies like a snake." (Goodman, 2017)

Language techniques:

Thompson has so much fun playing with the language in this book, and there is an incredibly strong sense of character that we can hear from her careful techniques.

Onomatopoeia:

“zibbity zap clink clank” (Thompson, 1957, p.1)

“zambo sting sting stinger” (Thompson, 1957, p.7)

“clink clank pick up that phone” (Thompson, 1957, p.8)

“ne quittez pas and zuk zuk zuk zwhocky zuk zuk swgock zuk zucky zuk zuk zwock nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn” (Thompson, 1957, p.22)

Phonetic spelling:

Listing:

Listing is a great technique to break up the structure of a text; and in Thompsons case it’s always funny:

“Here’s what you have to pack if you’re going to Paris France

Mary Jane button hook

Pliers

Consomme container

Hotel kit

Here’s what else you have to take

Everything” (Thompson, 1957, p. 9)

and a lovely little insight into the details of her world; Mary Jane button hook shoes matched with pliers and a soup container? It’s clear that Eloise has big plans, and a million thoughts running through her mind. The lists Eloise writes are though it was written by an eccentric rushing around causing chaos.

Repetition:

“Get out get out get out” (Thompson, 1957, p.11)

“Regardes which means look look look” (Thompson, 1957, p.14)

The repetition creates a fast paced reading experience, it rushes you through the sentence and throws you onto the next.

I loved the engaging elements that make the book fun to read; from listing to onomatopoeia, these techniques are exciting for children to read and make sure that the book isn’t boring or one dimensional.

Bibliography

Sendak, M. (1963). Where The Wild Things Are,

Thompson, K. (1957). Eloise In Paris.

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fantroll-purgatory · 6 years

Photo

@rice-22

-go away,im not showing you my upper face >[]c

-Actually that teal stuff its paint but…. his wounds look like that??

-afraid of odd numbers,wearing skirts and most of all,afraid of that round thing with holes

-As i said afraid of odd numbers so we need an fourth….fact?

based on betta fish,squids,death and associated god and titan is Pluto and Themis

This boy is interesting, but he’s definitely a little bit all over the place. I’m going to try to reign his themes in a bit to try to create a more cohesive character. Before I even get to his blood color or start reviewing him, I’m going to talk about the basic premise you have for him… It seems that he was a fuschia who later became a teal? But I have a more interesting idea for you.

Perhaps he could be a tealblood who really wants to be a fuschia. Who wishes for the throne despite this being a clearly foolish and doomed goal.

So I’m going to thin his theme down to Squids, for their camouflaging ability, ink for the idea of darkness and to harken back to the interest in painting you’ve given him, and Pluto, for his association with wealth, death, and blueish-green colors.

Place:posibly some unknown planet/place in space

Let’s put him on a colony planet! We’ve never been given much information about whether or not mother grubs have been transferred off planet to start populating other colonized lands. It would take you a little extra effort, because you’d have to write up your own ideas for what this planet is like, but it’s an interesting chance!

Maybe it’s a crappy backwater planet with lots of hostile life that’s mostly used as a waypoint and he’s being trained to handle some bureaucratic ship-docking job that he hates and so that’s why he decides he wants to be an heir. He knows he’s doomed to die here and he doesn’t want to do that. He wants to climb the corporate ladder, aggressively.

Name: Shinoi Tanzul(not sure) (Shin)means 4 and death in japanese,since his aspect is doom (oi)from aoi,means blue in japanese,also pronounced like oy,expression for feeling tired,surprice,etc (Tan)short for titannium,strong unlike him,atomic number 22 (Zul)from azul,blue on spanish

I think changing his name to Dibran Glauce might be a good idea!

Dibran is a reference to the Dibranchiata class of cephalopods, which are the kind that utilize ink in chromatophores to change coloration. Glauce is Pluto’s twin who died of mysterious causes at a young age.

Age:close to 7 alternian sweeps (14 earth years)

Strife Specibus:painting brush,(got an bi-dent on the other side)

I think it should be a paint brush that transforms into a bi-dent, much like Kanaya’s lipstick/chainsawkind. It’s a nice reference to his desire to be a fuschia without quite hitting the mark.

Fetch Modus:wallet modus,simple as looking for your stuff at your wallet but no,its all overlapped and messy

How about a squid modus instead. It’s like a tree modus, but with more camouflage. There’s a base item that is the “head” of the squid and then 10 arms where he can store additional items. Removing the head ejects everything. Also, he cannot tell what any of the items are. they’ve all blended into the white backgrounds of the cards. He’s got to play a guessing game.

Blood color:born as a fuchsia blood,then noticed he was really an teal troll,got his blood teal at the end and he looves it!!

Since there’s less logical reason for a transition between fuschia and teal, that’s why I decide to make this switch. Instead of necessarily having a biological switch out of nowhere between a midblood and a fuschia, having a midblood attempt to vie for the throne is a lot more fascinating as a concept.

Symbol:well,he got just an actual sign,pimini,sign of the adjuster,derse dreamer,doom aspect (he decided to paint his sign on the shirt and he sucks at it,but he still uses traditional sign for himself)

I actually do like this for him. The Adjuster fits well as a name for his desire. Maybe he self-selected this symbol after finding it online? But I think I’ll adjust it just a little bit to be a fusion of Pimini and Pluto’s symbol.

Partially as a reference to Pluto, partially as a reference to Limini (which would be his birth sign).

Trolltag:DuoBloo Bettadoom (idk)

aspiringIllustratheir, a reference to his art motif his aspirations, and his desire to become an heir.

Quirk:he ïs P_retty døømed and hïs head ïs seP_arated øn twø ør møre P_arts….!! P_ :similar to the sign used for Pluto,P Ï :two headed I,same as an bident or him Ø :magic half O,since half of his face is visible Tries to type as best as possible,uses pairs on (….),(!!),(??),etc. He uses glasses on faces and swap between them: 3] B/ >[]D >2o ….

I do like the pairing thing… But I’d leave off the half o, because combined with everything else it becomes a little visually busy. The P_ might not be necessary either. Just capitalizing P probably works well enough! Maybe have him use ~~ sometimes as a reference to squid tentacles.

Special Abilities:he can see but can’t see,can see past,present and future,also can see other people point of view and sometimes on 3rd person,also got some mind powers but he sucks at being body strong

If we place him as a teal, that means he wouldn’t be given an actual abilities inherent to him. However, we know that seers do start to get some access to visions even prior to godhood, especially if they have a medium through which to view. If he’s a doom player, maybe he’s cursed… Cursed by some on-planet entity that allows him to witness oncoming danger, but also saps his strength and causes him to be easily agitated?

Personality: he is two or more minded,he is more often to the shy side but can get mad on two seconds by anything

Let’s give him a little more. Maybe he has a sort of air of mystery to the people around him. He’s shy and quiet, but he manages to play it off well, being perceived as more enigmatic than anything else. Since I have him placed as a teal, I want to give him some moral center… but I think it can be a really weak one considering his attempt to break the mold. So maybe his ethical center is just that no one deserves to die unknown in a job they didn’t ask for. And probably that he deserves to rule.

More importantly, he needs to have a lot of focus on fantasy… He has this rich inner world where he’s convinced he can achieve this goal despite shit being bad and it being foolish.

And you can keep him being emotional and reactive. Having a hairpin trigger is a really good character trait.

Interests:video games,equality,necromance and nonsences

This needs to be extrapolated a little more. Equalizing opportunity and obtaining wealth would probably be big goals of his. A desire to change the system. He could be interested in death/the dark, too, which could indicate how he becomes involved with a cursed entity… Give him a general interest in getting off planet and a general interest in politics too, maybe. I’m not sure what you meant by nonsences? Does he like those kinds of jokes that are just utterly incomprehensible? Because that’d be fun.

Title: seer of doom, can see the bad stuff coming

I do like this. He has a passive ability to know of the doom that is going to come and befall him. However, he has only partially realized his aspect. He must learn to Understand the doom that will befall him. He has to understand all the structures and ties and rules and systems that bind him. He must understand their inner mechanisms. He must understand all the ways in which he has created an unwinnable situation for himself. And then, through his inverse, Witch of Life, he has to attempt to actively influence the development of the world around him through this complex understanding… There’s a lot of growth potential for a character like him.

Land:land of Doom and stains??

Land of Idols and Stains, maybe. A land where he is worshipped as a false god, but it comes with dangerous, deadly consequences?

Well thats all for now >2]

Design time!!:

Left: This is sort of his pre-trying to become a fuschia look.

Horns & hair: I kept the horns the same, but the hair I had to move up. I love characters with covered eyes, but there really was no themeatically appropriate reason to do so. It felt too much like falling back on blindness for a Suffering Aesthetic and I just don’t play with that. So the hairline moved up.

Eyes & mouth:: I still wanted to give him the cute look the low hair had given him, so I gave him round and happy eyes. I gave him tiny pupils, though, because smaller pupils tend to be just slightly freakier fsr. His mouth is still just that little smile.

Symbol: I put limini on his old shirt.

Socks & shoes: I made his socks teal and kept the splashes of paint on his shoes.

Right: Here’s when he starts trying to play fuschia.

Helmet: The tiara attachment is obviously edited from Feferi. I wanted to make sure the helmet would cover up where his fins would be Missing. Keeping this on would be good for making his image convincing.

Symbol: I combined Pimini and the Pluto sign I mentioned earlier. I still made it messily painted on. The added bonus of this is that it looks like he killed another fuschia.

Socks & shoes: I just changed the colors to fuschia variants.

Thank you for sharing him! I hope I was able to provide some valuable insights!

-CD

#rice-22 #shinoi tanzul #dibran glauce #shinoi #tanzul #dibran #glauce #tealblood #fuschiablood #(kind of)#seadweller #(sort of)#review #redesign #cd review #submission

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