kestalsblog

[kestalsblog]

Surprise, another Hotline chapter 🙈

#south park stanman #South Park #south park fanfic #stan marsh #Eric cartman #stanman

[kestalsblog]

You strike me so much as a fellow former theater kid! 🥰

Are you saying I'm dramatic? LOL!

Sorry to disappoint, but this assumption is really far from the truth 🥲 I've always avoided any kind of stage production like the plague, and I was never friends with those kids back at school either because they were too loud for me. I also don't care for Broadway or too many musicals. There are a few exceptions. I think I'd be awkward onstage.

No offense to you and the other theatre kids, though! You have a lot of passion from what I've seen and you’re bringing people joy, and I'm down with that 👍

#anonymous asks #assumptions #thanks for the ask #theatre kids #kestal

[kestalsblog]

The fact people write fics that could very well be award winning novels is insane.

Like—they write this for FREE. FOR FREE.

You beautiful bastards, I love you.

#fanfic

[kestalsblog]

Oh, to be in a house surrounded by hydrangeas and honeysuckle, in hopeless, flowering love with a man who is tender..

#writeblr #romance #love #love love love #thoughts #men #kestal #bonus if he has dark hair 😍

[kestalsblog]

I think about love all day every day

#love #romance #text post #love love love #kestal #💕

[kestalsblog]

Paradise!!

#photography #the beach

[kestalsblog]

Some people are mistaking my previous Taylor Swift post as being a blind Swiftie devotion post, and I think they missed the point. I’m not a Swiftie. I like some of her songs; others I consider difficult to get through. Do I think she’s a groundbreaking artist who changed the musical landscape? No. Do I think she’s heralding in the apocalypse of intelligent lyricism? Nah.

My purpose was to remind you to evaluate your own judgements and hone the vocabulary to understand your observations and understandings. For example, if you think her lyrics are bad, explain why. I suggest moving away from terms like “good” and “bad” and “mediocre” and writing your own definitions of those empty abstractions anyway.

A few summers ago, a teacher friend of mine was complaining that teens are becoming stupider and stupider because the books they read (if they read at all) are becoming stupider. Like a parrot, I recited a statistic about the national reading level I’d read because I thought that was enough to support our shared claim, but then how easily I’d accepted “teen books are bad” started to bother me.

So I spent the summer making numerous trips to the library and reading all of the top seller books for young teens, and then the more obscure ones too. I made lists about what I liked and what I didn’t and why. I read author bios and about the publishing houses to understand the politics of who gets accepted and who doesn’t. I knew I wasn’t the target audience, but I tried to remember what I loved as a teen myself, and what I love now. Some of the books were unbearably difficult to get through; others made me cry, and I ended up buying them.

Maybe it was a pointless task, and maybe this anecdote is too. But all I’m trying to suggest is that if you’re going to be a critic, you should try to be the best critic you can be - someone who is considerate, who is contemplative, who is fair. I promise you’ll become a better reader and listener this way, and the journey will heighten your own enjoyment of the media you consume.

I’m not trying to be preachy either, so I hope it doesn’t come off that way. Criticism is its own art like any other. It takes time and practice. I’m still learning.

#ts ttpd #Taylor swift #the tortured poets department #media literacy #media analysis #thoughts #reading #criticism #writing #writeblr #kestal

[kestalsblog]

Cartman is blessed by the cat distribution system and they end up having/fostering a bunch of cats!Stan’s a tad allergic but keeps it on the down low because he also loves the cats and loves seeing Cartman happy (plus he’s on top of cleaning)

I love this so much! Eric is a bigger softie than he lets on, and Stan would never say no to more cats 😭

They take turns saying “okay, this is the limit. No more” and the next day the other appears in the doorway with a scraggly cat and this expression 🥺

“Ugh fine… one more.”

#stanman #South Park #anonymous asks #headcanon #thanks for sending! 🩷

[kestalsblog]

I want to hear Stanman headcanons… please send some if you want. You can do it on anonymous 🙏

#stanman #South Park stanman #Stan marsh #Eric cartman #asks #anonymous asks #headcanons #pleeeeeaase??

[kestalsblog]

I love it enough to repost

[kestalsblog]

The devastating lack of Stanman fanart 🥲

#South Park #South Park stanman #South Park Stan #south park eric #Eric cartman #Stan marsh #fanart #please? #🍒

[kestalsblog]

I keep seeing the argument against TTPD that the lyrics are dumb, it’s not poetic, not really artistic. Lame posts like “if you like TTPD, you probably got an F in high school English class,” conflating some kind of warped version of media literacy and elitism with the album’s value.

But an essential part of media literacy is defining WHY you don’t like something - apart from vibes, from “it just sucks,” etc. I encourage everyone to practice understanding and developing the language to explain the reasoning behind why you reject certain songs and art pieces, and if your answer is “it’s not poetry,” you need to be prepared to define what poetry is and should be.

You don’t have to love everything you encounter, but you do need to craft tools to understand your opinions, even the negative ones. Trust me, it will make your own experience with media so much more enjoyable and considerate.

Plus, most reasonable people would rather read a thoughtful defense of an art piece we dislike rather than “it sucks and you’re dumb if you like it” - even if we don’t like it either.

#the tortured poets department #Taylor swift #ttpd #ts ttpd #media literacy #album #text post

[kestalsblog]

Questions For Writers

I like to read about people evaluating their own work, but most of the writeblr tag things I've seen on Tumblr are very OC and/or specific fic-centric. I wanted to create something a little different to get people thinking about their own work. Any and all writers are welcome to do this! Please do it and tag your friends so I don't feel alone.

Feel free to expand on/explain your answers to any of the questions. I tried not to make it overwhelming.

What's a word or phrase you love that you find yourself drawn to using again and again in your writing, and why do you love it so much?

Do you value feelings or grammatical correctness more?

Describe your writing style/voice as a feeling, a colour, and an image. (Example: dreamy blue window pane)

How did your relationship with writing begin, and where is it now?

What's a piece of art you feel has had a profound effect on your own? (It can be visual, music, written, etc.)

#writeblr #writing community #writing #writing tag game #tag game #writing game #text post #for writers #poets #fiction #fanfic writers #creative #creative writing #questions #kestal

[kestalsblog]

Super mutually obsessive and hot Stanman fanfiction when 🙈

It's something I've definitely thought about and not off the table if I felt enough people were interested 👀🌶️

#south park #south park stanman #stan marsh #eric cartman #stanman #ao3 #fanfic #anonymous asks #thanks! #it pays to share your interest! #so let me know #🌶️

[kestalsblog]

Generally I’m drawn to the sweet, super romantic fics that melt your teeth from how tender and romantic and sugary and healing they are…

But man, sometimes I crave darker fics about that obsessive adoration and devotion, the kind of painful romance & sexual energy that’s fiery hot and all-consuming

#writeblr #writing community #writers on tumblr #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #writing fanfiction #ao3

[kestalsblog]

Reblog if you write fic and people can inbox you random-ass questions about your stories, itemized number lists be damned.

#fanfic

[kestalsblog]

Yikes. I'm the original writer of that "not every story is about seeing yourself in it" post that got wildly spread from here onto different platforms. If you're involved in writing communities, you may have seen it (posted below).

I'm not wildly attached to this post and kind of freaked out by how far it spread. College students have even DM'd me multiple times to ask if they can use it in academic essays about windows vs. door and media literacy. That's not an attempt at a humble-brag because honestly I never thought a random post I made while lying on my bathroom floor would reach this level. I've considered deleting it, but haven't done so because it was impactful to some people who sent the most thoughtful responses.

Anyway, I'm writing this because I have started to encounter my exact phrasing in other people's posts, even painted into their own artwork on Instagram and Twitter/X with credit to me removed. I get the heebie jeebies when I see it anywhere, but seeing it be claimed by all these other people is disconcerting.

So yeah, that was my post.

#writeblr #viralpost #plaigarism #stealing credit #credit to original #kestal