thecoramaria - Tumblr blog

[thecoramaria]

🚨EMERGENCY! PLEASE READ!🚨

Moataz @moatazart, Mariam, and baby Maria are set to make the dangerous journey from Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south. From there, God willing, they will enter Egypt.

HOWEVER, the money they had allocated to procure shelter and food while in Egypt was utterly depleted by exploitative fees and hidden costs, which we break down in this post. Moataz speaks more on the situation in this post and on his own blog @moatazart, which we ask people to follow and boost. They have a fund going to raise the remaining money, but the fund only has a week and a half left before it closes! They are not even halfway to their goal!

Please share what you can with Moataz’s family so they can find safety and security in Egypt! They have no one in Egypt with whom they can stay and currently nowhere near enough money to secure shelter! After all they have survived, please don’t let this young family be left vulnerable! If they cannot procure food and shelter, they will be extremely vulnerable not only to the dangers of homelessness, but to groups and individuals who prey on refugees!

Safety for Gazan refugees does not end with leaving Gaza! If this campaign is not finished in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS, they will be homeless in Egypt! They are so close to a fresh start, please don’t let all the risks they are taking to find safety be for nothing!

[thecoramaria]

Hi friend!!! I’m trying to balance making a character emotionally deep (exploring their past issues with their parents and own personhood how they grow from all that now) with a goal that is inherently on the sillier side (goldfish “the snack that smiles back” crackers are being discontinued and they fight government folks funny style to get them back). How do I ensure these two focuses don’t lose their individual strengths?

I think you should make those two plot-lines as intertwined as possible and never ever apologise or point out the absurdity of it. Spy x Family does this masterfully, if you've ever watched the anime/read the manga. How do goldfish crackers tie in with the relationship they have with their parents? Did they create these moments of love and affection that never bled into the rest of the relationship, or at least not as much as it should have? If that was the case, I'd have the parents and their child work together to fight for these goldfish snacks to come back. It'll not only put the family dynamic in proximity to the goldfish cracker issue, but hinge the fate of this family on bringing these goldfish crackers back. In their minds, these are the one joy holding their family together. It also means that in the process of working together to bring back these crackers, there's a lot of opportunity for interaction or drama, such as:

The main character being expected to meet their parents' high expectations (like they're fighting the government here)

Alternatively, the main character being infantalised or given the vibe that they're "helping the grown-ups" even though the MC is also an adult themselves

The father (assuming there is a father) doing that stubborn man thing of thinking he knows best and refusing help

The mother (assuming there is a mother) being critical of everything about the process without offering any helpful solutions (these last two points could be applied regardless of gender btw but they are patterns I've personally noticed)

Plus a bunch more possible scenarios and directions to take

It leaves the big question of the narrative: in the process of fighting for these goldfish crackers, will this dysfunctional family be able to sort out their issues and come closer as a result, or will they be separated forever?

From there, I'd use the outcome of the goldfish cracker plot-line to contrast the fate of the family:

Scenario 1 - They win back the goldfish crackers, but the MC realises that they don't "fix" the relationship between them and their family. Thus they decide that the only way to heal is to cut them out and move on. (Idk if you're planning on writing abusive, villainous parents, but if that's the case then this is the route I'd show.)

Scenario 2 - They don't win back the goldfish crackers, but in the process they learn that they never needed them in order to reconcile and heal as a family. The parents recognise and respect the person the MC has become, and the MC also understands their own parents better. They may not have gotten what they wanted, but they found what they needed.

Now, the story you have in mind might not look anything like what I've outlined here, and that's okay, but I wanted to use my version to demonstrate the following considerations:

How do I tie the internal struggle of parents and personhood with the external struggle of fighting the government to bring back the snack that smiles back?

How do I make the outcome of the crackers plot-line matter to the parents plot-line and vice versa?

Ultimately, the closer you tie these two threads together, the more they strengthen each other. It may be a silly scenario, but how many times have you forged connections through silliness and humour? How many times has something that someone else claimed "wasn't that serious" bothered you? How many times have you gotten attached to things that might seem small and insignificant to other people? Something can be absurd and funny and still be earnest and emotional at the same time.

That's why I must reiterate this: Never ever apologise for or lampshade this absurd plot within the story itself. Play it dead-straight, and it will work.

[thecoramaria]

[thecoramaria]

could you give suggestions for how we should be sharing our fanfic on platforms like tumblr? I don't know how to post my fic on here in a way that's visually appealing. tysm <3

Sure! I don't promote my fics on Tumblr anymore since my main account has been shadowbanned, but when I did, I would use Canva graphics like these:

Canva is a free program that has lots of different templates and assets, but you can also import your own assets. Create a brand that works for your fic (colours, fonts, formats, shapes and silhoettes, etc) and then use stock images or official art to make your graphics. (Never ever use fanart without permission from the artist.)

Including a quote that raises questions or captures interest, especially when combined with a certain visual, is a great way to get someone interested. Be sure to include alt text in your images as well because you never know when a blind person who uses a screen-reader will stumble upon your posts. I've gotten some really sweet blind readers on my fics. As for how I format my Tumblr posts while promoting my fics, you can see an example here. I pretty much include a chapter-specific summary as well as hyperlinked text to the fic. Please ensure that the text you hyperlink also describes what the link even is, because that's essential to screen-reader accessibility as well. (Think "you can find the chapter here" vs "you can find the chapter here". A screen-reader user won't know what "here" refers to but they will know for the latter.) After that, the next thing to focus on is tags. What are your fandoms? What are the main relationships? Who are the characters? Be sure to tag those so you show up on the dashes of anyone following those tags. Just don't tag anything that isn't actually present in the fic, such as popular ships and such. That's just going to annoy people. Focus on your target audience instead.

Hope this helps~!

[thecoramaria]

Have you ever considered making a discord server?

Yes.

[thecoramaria]

Since my birthday post died down I am posting this again, as these two women still need to get their families out of Gaza:

Rawda and Enas are single mothers with children who are stranded, unable to cross the border, without medical supplies, food, and proper shelter.

These fundraisers are being organized by Maha Saymeh and Dina Zaazaa, Canadian family members of Rawda and Enas, who are currently working to get them out of Gaza. Both were found under the Gaza Evacuation Fund Relief Fund page, which was verified by the Ottawa4Palestine team.

Here is Maha Saymeh's Instragram page.

Dina Zaazaa is an elementary school teacher in Ontario (x).

Both fundraisers have still have a long way to go before they reach their goal, so please reblog if you see this, and d0n@te if you can, even if it's just a dollar or two.

[thecoramaria]

Hey guys, I have a priority fundraiser rotation for you:

Fadi & Shahed: 2,044 USD out of 62.5k

Sana'a & Sujood: 12,016 £ out of 50k

Mahmoud Qassas: 9,994$ out of 200k

Ezzideen Shehab: 10,296€ out of 32.5k.

Hussam Aburamadan: 16,374€ out of 148k.

Hamdi Hijazi: 1,511$ out of 25k.

Suheir Hojok: 16,897 AUD out of 70k.

Madleen Abu Jayyab: 29,005$ out of 70k.

I have personally verified every one of these campaigns listed here.

As Mona's campaign nears completion I'm preparing for you this list so we can show these families the same amazing and unbelievable support we showed Mona and her family. The invasion of Rafah grows nearer everyday. Please understand the urgency of this campaign.

Version date: April 25th 2024.

[thecoramaria]

Genocide experts warn that India is about to genocide the Shompen people

Who are the Shompen?

The Shompen are an indigenous culture that lives in the Great Nicobar Island, which is nowadays owned by India. The Shompen and their ancestors are believed to have been living in this island for around 10,000 years. Like other tribes in the nearby islands, the Shompen are isolated from the rest of the world, as they chose to be left alone, with the exception of a few members who occasionally take part in exchanges with foreigners and go on quarantine before returning to their tribe. There are between 100 and 400 Shompen people, who are hunter-gatherers and nomadic agricultors and rely on their island's rainforest for survival.

Why is there risk of genocide?

India has announced a huge construction mega-project that will completely change the Great Nicobar Island to turn it into "the Hong Kong of India".

Nowadays, the island has 8,500 inhabitants, and over 95% of its surface is made up of national parks, protected forests and tribal reserve areas. Much of the island is covered by the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, described by UNESCO as covering “unique and threatened tropical evergreen forest ecosystems. It is home to very rich ecosystems, including 650 species of angiosperms, ferns, gymnosperms, and bryophytes, among others. In terms of fauna, there are over 1800 species, some of which are endemic to this area. It has one of the best-preserved tropical rain forests in the world.”

The Indian project aims to destroy this natural environment to create an international shipping terminal with the capacity to handle 14.2 million TEUs (unit of cargo capacity), an international airport that will handle a peak hour traffic of 4,000 passengers and that will be used as a joint civilian-military airport under the control of the Indian Navy, a gas and solar power plant, a military base, an industrial park, and townships aimed at bringing in tourism, including commercial, industrial and residential zones as well as other tourism-related activities.

This project means the destruction of the island's pristine rainforests, as it involves cutting down over 852,000 trees and endangers the local fauna such as leatherback turtles, saltwater crocodiles, Nicobar crab-eating macaque and migratory birds. The erosion resulting from deforestation will be huge in this highly-seismic area. Experts also warn about the effects that this project will have on local flora and fauna as a result of pollution from the terminal project, coastal surface runoff, ballasts from ships, physical collisions with ships, coastal construction, oil spills, etc.

The indigenous people are not only affected because their environment and food source will be destroyed. On top of this, the demographic change will be a catastrophe for them. After the creation of this project, the Great Nicobar Island -which now has 8,500 inhabitants- will receive a population of 650,000 settlers. Remember that the Shompen and Nicobarese people who live on this island are isolated, which means they do not have an immune system that can resist outsider illnesses. Academics believe they could die of disease if they come in contact with outsiders (think of the arrival of Europeans to the Americas after Christopher Columbus and the way that common European illnesses were lethal for indigenous Americans with no immunization against them).

And on top of all of this, the project might destroy the environment and the indigenous people just to turn out to be useless and sooner or later be abandoned. The naturalist Uday Mondal explains that “after all the destruction, the financial viability of the project remains questionable as all the construction material will have to be shipped to this remote island and it will have to compete with already well-established ports.” However, this project is important to India because they want to use the island as a military and commercial post to stop China's expansion in the region, since the Nicobar islands are located on one of the world's busiest sea routes.

Last year, 70 former government officials and ambassadors wrote to the Indian president saying the project would “virtually destroy the unique ecology of this island and the habitat of vulnerable tribal groups”. India's response has been to say that the indigenous tribes will be relocated "if needed", but that doesn't solve the problem. As a spokesperson for human rights group Survival International said: “The Shompen are nomadic and have clearly defined territories. Four of their semi-permanent settlements are set to be directly devastated by the project, along with their southern hunting and foraging territories. The Shompen will undoubtedly try to move away from the area destroyed, but there will be little space for them to go. To avoid a genocide, this deadly mega-project must be scrapped.”

On 7 February 2024, 39 scholars from 13 countries published an open letter to the Indian president warning that “If the project goes ahead, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.”

How to help

The NGO Survival International has launched this campaign:

From this site, you just need to add your name and email and you will send an email to India's Tribal Affairs Minister and to the companies currently vying to build the first stage of the project.

Share it with your friends and acquittances and on social media.

Sources:

India’s plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be ‘death sentence’ for isolated tribe, 7 Feb 2024. The Guardian.

‘It will destroy them’: Indian mega-development could cause ‘genocide’ and ‘ecocide’, says charity, 8 Feb 2024. Geographical.

Genocide experts call on India's government to scrap the Great Nicobar mega-project, Feb 2024. Survival International.

The container terminal that could sink the Great Nicobar Island, 20 July 2022. Mongabay.

[Maps] Environmental path cleared for Great Nicobar mega project, 10 Oct 2022. Mongabay.

[thecoramaria]

@ fic authors what do you personally consider a successful fic? What’s the bar?

[thecoramaria]

No see results option, I'm forcing you to perceive yourself. rb for more results plus

[thecoramaria]

Portraits of Afro-Palestinians from the Book “Guardians of the Mosque”

[thecoramaria]

Alright curiosity has sttuck me and im also wondering if theres like an ettiquite, because i like almost never post multichapters, theyre always one shots i end up breaking into chapters bc they get so big. So my question is this:

When you post a multichapter you have completely written out/you know what itll contain by the end, do you tag the fic with everything it has when you first publish or do you update the tags as you upload chapters?

I'd also like to hear reasoning if thats cool! Again multichapters are a weird thing for me and i hardly know how to tag my fics as is lmfao

[thecoramaria]

Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

We’re going to find the author by process of elimination.

[thecoramaria]

WRITE IT!!! WRITE THAT SELF INDULGENT SHIT!!!

[thecoramaria]

“I cleared the rubble from Israeli airstrikes, tilled the soil, and planted seeds. This is our home, our land. Everything will return more beautiful than before.”

Yahya Bashir, Gaza

[thecoramaria]

Update Harvard students are walking out in solidarity with Columbia’s students

These are billion dollar for profit institutions that directly impact financial backing of Israel’s apartheid regime