#I hoped it would be done several days ago but I've changed things so many times....It is now Very Close to being done!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

If I was in a lucid dream with a ghost, I would simply impress them with my blunt rolling skills

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #mdzs au #MDZS disco elysium au #This is brought to you by my Scrambled Egg brain - slowly burning up as I try to finish a long comic for this AU. #I hoped it would be done several days ago but I've changed things so many times....It is now Very Close to being done! #I probably should have just posted each page daily but at this point I'm just being stubborn. I want it complete and together. #Ruining the surprise a bit to say 'yeah its a digital art comic' #But its been tricky figuring out the style I want to use for it! #hence the swaths of MSpain(t) doodles that boil down to 'how would this look if I did X?' #I wanted to do a fully Black & White Ink style. But I scrapped it. Then I did small bits of colour. And scrapped it. Sigh. #This comic started out as just the first panel and then my brain went 'hold on. Its time to make a dumb joke' #Any disco elysium fans who finished the game probably know the scene I'm doing for the *actual* comic after seeing this <3 #Anyways I know in my heart LWJ would roll the worst blunts ever his first time. And then dedicate himself to the rolling craft- #-until he has finally mastered it. He would roll blunts so good that people would hire him and pay him a monthly salary for it. #But he declines. His master blunts are for his beloved and his beloved alone. #wwx would roll above average but after having lwj do it for him he can ever go back.

[barrenclan]

sorry if this is spoilers bc we might learn more later. I'm super confused with Rainhaze's thought process. When he was saying its pointless. like. I get not wanting to go back bc he killed his mom. but what did that have to do with Asphodelpaw? Couldnt he just walk away? Did he see her and decide he wanted to be part of Defiance? And this was the tipping point to prove it? I'm super confused. Was it because if she left she'd tell someone? I assume we'll get a better explanation later?

Absolutely! I've actually been waiting for a chance to really dig into this. Like Rainhaze himself, his issue is written with a lot of confusion and uncertainty, and it's not very straight-forwardly, so I understand why his motivations are easy to miss. So here it is!

Firstly; Rainhaze as he existed in BarrenClan and Rainhaze as he is now are two very, very different beasts. Obviously he's still the same person, but he's gone through a mountain of trauma, violence, and was forced to confront the fact that if pressed, he would kill a family member - even his own mother. Sure, in the moment he was threatened into doing it, but it opens the possibility that he'd even do that. Maybe he would've done anything to protect his family then, but it's been a long time.

Then, over many months, he's subjected to propaganda, murder, and terrible treatment. His mental state from where he was when he killed Dustfeather is massively changed. He's depressed, listless, and much more willing to kill. Not only that, but Defiance propaganda has worked on him.

(Issue 24)

With so much constant killing in his life, and being constantly vulnerable, he begins to see death as a good thing. Something that ends suffering, something that doesn't really matter in the end.

(Issue 28)

So now we're at Issue 31. Rainhaze is in a "doldrum", like Ranger says (a period of inactivity or lethargy). He's so torn between his new life and new beliefs, and his old regrets and old connections to BarrenClan, that he's basically attempting to end his own life through inactivity. Ranger doesn't want this. Here's his plan:

Ranger knows that BarrenClan lives opposite the forest, across the prairie. He specifically orders Rainhaze to "kill something", planting that idea in his mind. He's hoping that Rainhaze will find one of his Clan members, and make the decision to kill one of them. This would push Rainhaze over into whatever full breakdown Ranger wants, and solidify his ties to Defiance. And that is what happens. So why did Rainhaze make that decision?

We already have the basis of an incredibly traumatized Rainhaze. He views himself as he is now, and who he used to be, as different people. And he belives that's completely beyond redemption.

Yes, all those months ago he promised he was suffering in Defiance for his family and Clan, but it's really hard to hold onto those noble morals when you're being put through hell every day. Rainhaze hasn't even seen his family in months. They don't seem real to him anymore.

Then he is finally confronted by Asphodelpaw, the symbol of everything he's put himself through torture to protect, and all he wants to do is go back to Defiance. And here we go, getting to these lines;

Rainhaze is a coward.

He's separated from Deepdark and Ranger, by at least several days. He could absolutely come home with Asphodelpaw and warn all of BarrenClan - they could evacuate in time, be far away by the time Defiance arrives on their territory. But then he'd have to face his family, face his sister whose mother he violently murdered. Have to stand there and have them look at him and know him and see the scars on his body.

When he says, "this is vile, pointless, irredeemable, monstrous", he understands that killing Asphodelpaw is a disgustingly cruel action. He knows that. He understands that he's choosing Defiance over her, and over them. But that's the choice he feels he needs to make to protect himself. He's not thinking about his family any more.

So he does something so completely vicious and irredeemable that he is forced to choose Defiance. Because there's no way that any BarrenClan cat would forgive him for this. There's no way he would forgive himself for this.

And thus, Rainhaze figures himself out, and burns every other bridge entirely. He makes his choice.

#ask #rainhaze #analysis #raz goes insane about rainhaze: the post

[definitelynotshouting]

Hunger AU Topic of The Day: Crafting Tables

So if you know me even a little bit you will know that i literally can never leave well enough alone when it comes to worldbuilding. In that vein, i have been noodling on the concept of what crafting tables-- and by association, crafting itself-- are like in the hunger au.

As the folks in my discord server probably know, i've been noodling on this for a while.

But a few days ago i finally came up with an answer, and that answer is: crafting tables arent actually tables in hunger au. Instead, they're a plugin that's a little larger than your average USB drive, and are designed to interact directly with a Player's comm to facilitate crafting.

To talk about that, though, we need to dive into what crafting is in hunger au.

In hunger au, crafting is essentially a chemical reaction, if that chemical reaction was made up of code instead of molecules. Crafting components are arranged together in a corresponding pattern and then, using the crafting table (also called a crafting upgrade, or even just a crafter), have key elements of their code stripped and rearranged, forming an entirely new object. The crafting table is vital to performing this transformation without having to wholesale code the object by yourself via comm-- something that takes far too long when it can be done with a crafter in a matter of seconds.

This leads into the interfacing side of things. While your typical comm is already capable of the same function, it's only in a very limited capacity (aka the 2x2 crafting grid in your inventory). Attaching a crafting table to your comm offers a more robust and extensive selection of crafting commands, so the Player doesn't have to make up an entirely new item from scratch.

As an example, one could arrange a few wooden planks and a cushion in the general shape of a chair, then attach a crafting table to their comm, and through use of commands, could turn those planks and the cushion into a chair. By consequence, since these objects aren't being made via typical irl construction, anchoring items like nails aren't necessary. The chair would come out as one whole piece.

The physical look of a crafting table is, as previously mentioned, a little larger than your average USB drive-- so keeping them plugged in, while useful for crafting purposes, is less than convenient, considering comms in this universe are anchored to a Player's wrist. Most Players keep several lying around, or carry one in their inventory or even just their pocket-- but it's not uncommon to lose them and just have to make another. They're easy to craft using a comm, and one of the first things a newly spawned Player instinctively knows how to create.

They're also somewhat customizable for those who care enough to do so. Many Players end up changing the surface code of their crafters, so that they resemble something other than the default crafting table texture. Scar's, for example, looks like Jellie :]

Alright this post took me way too long to write but i hope this makes sense and you guys like the additional worldbuilding :] ive been thinking about this one for a while now, and im so glad to have finally gotten it figured out!!! :D

#minecraft worldbuilding #mcyt #hunger au #worldbuilding #crafting tables #shouting speaks #ftr grian as a watcher can utilize crafting plugins even without a comm #a secret tool that will definitely hurt us later #txt

[gisellelx]

Every once in a while, I reread one of your stories and I can’t help but check your website for any updates for One Day 😇 Just curious: are you still working on it? No pressure whatsoever of course!! I love the way you portray Carlisle in that fic & am already super thankful for those first 8 or so chapters! Anyways, hope you are doing well & thanks for providing us with so many high-quality fics!

- Sannehale

Ah, this ask made my year. (Also now I realize your two blog names. Sneaky!)

Yes., yes I am. It was actually open on my laptop even as this ask came in. My prereader is asking about it too--I stopped giving her chapters because I was realizing that I got a lot of enjoyment out of sending them to her and that was filling enough void that it cut off my writing mojo. I'm thrilled though, that she can't see where it's going.

I'm stuck on chapter 16 (of likely 23-25) at the moment because a whole bunch of dominos have to fall in order to get to several reveals that are going to happen in very fast succession to move the story out of the second act. Also the second act/B story was hard because I am not a romance writer! 😆 It's not the genre I read and I'm not very good at writing it, but the middle of this story called for a romance and so there is one. Or so I hope.

I've also gone back and shored up some things that needed shoring--introduced a few of the characters who turned out to be important earlier on, and added another character in Bella's research mentor, Amy Jackson. I'm worried that I'm under-utilizing her at the moment.

This ask, though, prompted me to back out to the card view in the Scrivener project and I realize I actually did leave myself the breadcrumbs necessary to get myself out of here. Maybe I'll put my shoulder to the wheel and see what happens if I just follow the outline I laid out.

Anyway. I feel like I shouldn't end an ask without giving a little bit of some of the over 40,000 words that are written and not posted. So here's a tiny bit. This actually may not stay in, and in any event doesn't spoil anything--it's also the headcanon behind this chapter of Montage, though this scene was written years ago and my headcanon about Carlisle's name and his parents' names goes back over fifteen years now.

Of course, I knew a lot more than most people who were hunting down a relative from the 1600s. I clicked on the link for church records, and then delimited my search. If Carlisle was 367, that put him in 1644. That seemed reasonable. I filtered the results by the location, London, and then 1640 to 1650.

CULLEN, I typed. CARLISLE.

Zero hits. I frowned at my screen for a long moment and then practically slapped myself in the head. Of course there were no hits for Carlisle Cullen. Wasn’t this the very thing we’d been arguing about for months, now? I backspaced over the first name, and changed it to WILLIAM.

There were only three hits. Astonishing. I had assumed that Carlisle would have done his due diligence. He’d had hundreds of years to track this information down—why hadn’t he? William Cullen number one was in the baptismal records of St. Luke’s Catholic Church. He had been baptized in 1642. That would make him nearly the same age as Carlisle, no luck there. William Cullen number two, however, was on over seventy pages of documents—the records of St. James Aldgate, listed as parish pastor. And William Cullen number three almost caused my heart to stop.

Born 17 February 1644. Died 8 August 1667.

Twenty-three years old.

My heart, pounding, I clicked on the church register, enlarging it so that it filled my screen. The handwriting was old, faded and pixelated, but it was tidy and easy to read. Carlisle Cullen, it read, with William crammed onto the line before the first name, in the same handwriting but obviously a different pen—the lines were narrower, slanted slightly differently. Born and baptized on February 17, 1644. Father, William Cullen number 2. And mother…

My heart sped. There, in the same scrawly hand—his father’s hand, I realized, it must be—was written the words, Sarah Cullen (Crawforth).

A quick “Open in New Tab” allowed me to pull all the records from the 1600s from St. James Aldgate and in five minutes, I had a birth date of November 15, 1620. And a death date, which was of course expected, of February 17, 1644. But it was the annotation here which was breathtaking—in a different handwriting, written by the midwife? Some other member of the parish?

Died babe in arms.

Tears sprang to my eyes, and with blurry vision, on a hunch, I ran one last search. Then I printed the pages with the documents, shoved them in a folder, and headed for my car.

#carlisle cullen #writing #my fic #teasers #one day the sun will rise

[durotoswrites]

🎁 - Favorite NPC?

💐 - Most overrated bachelor/ette in your opinion?

☘ - Which game was the most fun in your opinion?

🎁 - Favorite NPC?

I have quite a few! In a previous ask, I had mentioned Pastor Carter. Another favorite of mine is Saibara. I first found myself interested in learning more about him when he was shopping in town and mentioned how hard things were when he first became a widower and had to learn to do everything all on his own. He didn't sound like he was complaining, but I remember the words and expression seeming really sad. He's definitely too rough on Gray in some respects, but he really does mean well. We catch instances of him telling the main character how he wants to make sure he can teach his grandson as much as he can before he leaves this world, and I just get such a lonely vibe from him. Thus, it is my mission to befriend him, hehe. He might seem gruff on the surface, but there are times when he's actually really gentle, and I love that.

💐 - Most overrated bachelor/ette in your opinion?

Uh-oh, time for an unpopular opinion, hehe. I know that my reason for this is based on the times that I used to read fanfiction and also for the way I write this character. I do love writing this character and there are so many interesting facets to write.

Sorry, y'all, but I've gotta go with Popuri on this one (Mineral Town Popuri in particular).

Things have changed in the fandom/fanfiction world for the Bokumono series, and I feel like there is a larger variety out there, but several years ago, I distinctly remember 90% or so fics featuring the bachelorettes to have Popuri. There are so few fanfictions that feature bachelorettes as opposed to bachelors, so it was easy to feel oversaturated by Popuri.

I have learned to appreciate her more over the years, but I feel that her events have some of the weakest writing in the GBA games. I really liked that in Back to Nature, her first event is her running off to cry after leaving the chickens outside and a coyote gets to them. It really showcases that she's still learning about chickens. I guess they replaced it with a runaway chicken in the GBA games so that it wasn't as dark(?) but I think it really lacks that punch that she's a novice and a little immature. Plus we missed out on some great expressions, like the one below!

I feel that the entire Chicken Li'l/Popoultry family could have had some more impactful events. But I guess that's what fanfiction is for - write the stuff you want to see, hehe.

☘ - Which game was the most fun in your opinion?

Oooh, this is a HARD one. My favorite parts of the games are the farming sim aspect, and I love how Back to Nature/Mineral Town have everything accessible with no hand holding. If you wanna save your money to buy a ridiculous golden lumber fence, that's your choice. It's not something you have to wait several seasons to come into stock. The speed of the day feels just right to me. I have to carefully plan what I want to get done. I remember playing Grand Bazaar and adoring the Bazaar portion, but it was the first one I played with the slower timer, one second per minute. I like to milk as much as I can out of each day, so I would just end up jumping in the water over and over in hopes of getting a piece of ore and using up all the stamina that I had left over because the game was too easy in that respect. I think I like the events in Back to Nature/Harvest Moon for Girl more than the handheld Mineral Town games, so my vote's going to go for Back to Nature/Harvest Moon for Girl. If only you could play after marrying as a girl! I'm still frustrated at that. I really would've loved a remake of those games. They could have taken out all of the casual sexism in For Girl and kept all those fun extra festivals, like the Tomato Festival, the Goddess Festival, and special events like Ann's birthday party.

Harvest Moon Ask Game!

#ask box game #harvest moon ask game #emeraldhazeart #harvest moon #story of seasons #thanks for the ask! ❤️

[inlocusmads]

This is Me. No, Seriously. And some thoughts:

First off, I am truly sorry for leaving without a word. I hope this post sort of clarifies a few things about why I had this sudden amazing urge to delete everything and walk off. The short version is, I'm surprisingly not doing okay.

Yes, this is me. Mads. You can put down your magnifying glasses now! I deactivated my account and went limbo for a week, succumbed to outside pressures and such and just couldn't help it. It was one of those days where I'd reached a point, you know? Where I was like, "Okay. This is it. I'm walking away."

If you guys didn't know before, I am a writer! Yes, not only do I write fanfics, but I have a couple of original works too. And I also have terrible anxiety. A few days ago, there was this happening in the fandom and things were said and I heavily regretted my words. I had this horrible feeling that I pissed off a ton of people and on the internet, it is very easy to drive someone mad. There's always going to be happy people and not so happy people and I should've definitely considered that before talking and sharing some possibly hurtful opinions.

But that isn't the reason! The main reason is, I'm just not doing okay! There's so much uncertainty in my life and though writing and art and all these things gave me some clarity, I always had this sickening doubt that it wasn't going to last very long. And struggling with quite a load of "hard times" shall we say, I just couldn't take it any longer. My mental health was literally down the drain and I no longer found happiness in doing what I want to do.

And when you're driven to the brink of insanity, to the point where you'd delete your works (the hours and effort put into them) and it is just reduced to ashes within a matter of seconds, it becomes somewhat of a serious problem. I've always struggled with work and have a bad case of self-sabotage, IRL and in the internet. But the damages are worse in real life and academics and health take a huge toll. I wasn't doing okay at all for a couple of months and I just assumed this would be a "kill switch". To have a fresh start and restart from checkpoint or something like that.

But I couldn't do that. Not when I'd done a bunch of stuff. It took me a fair amount of time; a week to kind of process what happened. And I know it is just a "silly little internet blog" and a couple of fanfics, but this and many other instances has set this precedent where I just want to crawl into a hole, cry as much as I could and wake up to this fresh day where I can try again. I couldn't do that for two reasons:

My effort and time that have gone into writing things.

The good people here that need no introduction.

So yes. I'm not doing okay lol. I just assumed I could just push through it, but I just couldn't. Things were becoming a lot more difficult. I couldn't think. I couldn't sleep properly. And worst of all, I'd just sabotaged myself once again because I assumed either I wasn't "deserving" of it or I felt like I've done something wrong. Like this sickening feeling, you know?

I'm pretty sure I've pissed off a lot of people and I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you! I promise. I'm trying to get better at understanding what I want, trying to better myself back at home. But it is a hard change to process. You wouldn't know the severity of your actions until way later. And yet at this moment, I have the same sickening feeling.

Now I won't go into very detailed reasons, because mental health talks can be quite sensitive and I really don't want to go into that conversation right now. My intention is not to "grab people's attention" or "stir up drama" and just offer an explanation as to why I'm not doing well and why I don't think I'll be very well. Plus, it is a personal subject and it is really not appropriate to you for me to drag anyone into this.

Who am I?

An absolute clown who deleted all her blog, her fanfictions and left and now has come crawling back because she clearly knows fanfictions are her only form of catharsis and is now knee-deep in a sea of thoughts (and not the good kind!)

Whew. That was a long sentence!

What happened to my works?

I didn't just delete my Tumblr blog, but I deleted all of my backups. Yes. I really went that insane XD! Google Drive, Docs, Canva edits, everything is at present, permanently deleted. And I mean, completely erased. Yes, I did delete them. Please put down your "MADS ARE YOU INSANE?!" comments because I am very aware of that!

I hope I can salvage some of my works through people's reblogs by stalking them lol, but I don't think it'd bear fruit. Mostly because Tumblr has this annoying "keep reading" thing where if you want to access the original post, you have to visit their blog and my blog is.. well.. deleted. So.. there.

Will I rewrite them from scratch?

I remember all of their premises and titles, but let's be real, my memory's pretty crap. I don't know, honestly. Maybe I'll rewrite the ones I really enjoyed and avoid putting pressure on this whole thing. I wanted fanfic to be a chill sort of experience; talking, reading, goofing off, but my brain had other plans.

Damn you, cerebrum!

Am I coming back from the dead? When will I keep writing again?

I'm gonna have to pace myself for sure. It'll happen when it happens.

Writing's a nice hobby for me, so I think it'd be a while before I quit it completely.

Am I going to be okay?

Yes. I'll be fine. I really don't want to draw people's attention to this very rant-y sensitive-y, ooey gooey feelingsy post , so I'm going to be disabling the reblogs. Honestly my mental health kind of sucks lately and I haven't sought out help. (I'm really heading for disaster, aren't I?)

But I am getting slowly better at the "think before you act" thing. I hope this doesn't happen again and I don't just go away. I'm kind of glad that my brain came to its senses and told me to knock it off. But the chances are, it is not going to be a permanent change. I'll try my best at being a good person, I suppose and not drag everyone into my messes! I'll also try to talk about things, assess them and maybe take better care of my health and not try to sabotage myself? I dunno. That's like asking a cheetah to stop running so fast.

But I'll pace myself in this regard. I know, fandoms are not something to get all worked up over, but it is real life at play here. My hobbies, academics, interests and others are just really unfortunate to be earning the short end of the stick.

Am I going to try and recover my works?

Maybe. I am not proud of them, but I do plan on trying to retrieve some of them. I love the process of it more than the finished product, so I really want to try and salvage some of them to calm my head into thinking I made a proper, wise decision for once.

You can't expect everyone to root for you, because you have to root for yourself.. at the very root of the problem (Ha!).

Is everything okay for me?

Yes. Okay.

I am truly sorry. I know this stupid explanation probably doesn't make sense and there's tons of stuff out there and I'm just a sitting duck here lol. But I hope for good things.

Things are.. hard at home to say the least. Fandoms and real life cannot mix. They're immiscible. Like oil and water, because things will soon get ugly.. which lead to big Apology Posts at 3 in the morning, like these. I'll try to handle things better and not let it affect my work and interests, but it is just hard. So freaking difficult. :( It's like, I can't even get out of bed these days. It is probably the deepest slump I've ever hit. And "slump" is too short of a word and too shallow of an estimate.

Once again, I am so sorry for this absence and this sudden disappearance. I promise I won't pull off another Bilbo Baggins, put on my One Ring and disappear again. I want to be honest and I hope this Apology Post suffices.

Don't be like me lol! I'm being serious! Please love what you do. It is heavily important. And it doesn't matter if you're writing cheesy romance or literal witchcraft. Please let it make you happy, even for just a moment, because happiness is very fleeting; at least in my perspective. It isn't about fandoms or hate or anything. If you love what you do and hold the highest, silliest hopes possible, nothing can ever bring you down.

And please don't delete your blog and vanish off and come back later with this. It is not worth the pain! If you're struggling, please get help or chart your own course to feeling better. Please let it not get intense and horrible and bad (and no, I'm not preaching or anything. I'm just echoing the words many people have already said before, with hope that nobody has to go through any of this or feel unwelcome or feel this need to delete and restart, because it isn't worth it at all.)

I hope you have a good day! See you! :)

#mads rants about pointless things because she's run out of content to write and is now resorting to shameless venting! #wahoo!

[blocksruinedme]

SMALLETHO WEEK STATUS: PENULTIMATE REPORT

(please let this be penultimate report)

Okay I have 11 hours to get these out in saturday my time zone and i am going to do it, or i'll take my me off and throw me in the lake (it's right there down the street I'll do it.)

You'd think they'd be done by now. You'd think given how many days ago they were first "basically drafted" they'd be done right now. But noooo, some bitch (me) decided the fic "deserve more" and there are scenes "they really need" and like fine yes I still agree but why can't they just be done.

Red Life fic:

the first three sections are about incidents after turning red than made etho go "huh" about joel. they serve their purpose, but currently exist mostly in the form i scrawled down on the back of another fic in my car after the dentist. I could def describe things more, add a little more reflection about their place in the double life ecosystem as they start murdering and burning

gotta make good kiss at end, and the last bits of lead in, and the little bit after

the main issues here is that i gotta go rewatch DL ep 4 from multiple POVs. at minimum i need pearl's pov of dying, and maybe check for some other people's reactions to joel's shit that are not in smalletho vids but in universe they would have heard. (if only i could shove knowledge of every traffic episode fully into my head, sigh. so much content.

so that's not too bad!

fuck me there's 36 [] around words i don't like/phrases that need to be replaced/etc. fml fml fml

LARPer au morning after fic

apparently i'm adding all this backstory, which means i got to take it out o the author's notes, which i hope will make it more appealing. it's mostly about the party that this is morning after, but it's joel pov and *very* focused on getting laid, he's kinda aware that a lot of shit went down for pretty much everyone else

i want to add a very quick awkward bit with joel asking jimmy about the party the night before, currently he's totally succeeding at making joel (who is very distracted) think he's fine. and it's not gonna get explained in this story, but i'm not setting up a giant mystery, it's just more of "joel missed some shit last night". if that upsets people... i'm sorry! i'm actually very new t writing fic but it feels fine? it's a 5k story, alluding to the rest of the world seems fine

then it's just, fuck holding my breath... 40 sets of []. many many many of them, when i have people look at them, they say "that's fine", and it's just me at "will i have a time to struggle for a synonym/rephrasing

Dear everyone who compliments my writing skill (which i love, keep on doing it)

i hope you are not comparing yourself to me. here's some reasons why i probably have a leg (several legs?) up on you

i am very old and have been writing in one way or another possibly since before you could write.

I legit used to teach sat prep in writing, i have been trained in this and made money on it

if you live like i do, when you are my age you will also have a pretty big vocabulary

i usually edit a lot. I get beta, i throw problem sentences and such at friends, i've gotten proofreading from actual professionals. If i published most of my first drafts, well. I might not get as many "well written" compliments (though i think my plot and characterization would be similar levels of quality, my voices not so much - i have google docs for the way people talks and go through my dialogue looking for places to change things. it's actually great. i could share it?)

it's wild that what is my most popular fic by 3x is the one that went from thought of to posted in <12 hours and thus had only quick editing. so, it's not alway from editing

i just never want anyone who doesn't have those things to compare themself negatively to me, y'know? That said I'm a hypocrite, I compare myself negatively to professional writers in other fandoms. So, do as i say, etc

am i avoiding getting back to writing? yes

back to joel talking about asking scott to help him get tarted up

okay one last thing, me being pleased with my writing - i am jumping between my early 20s larper au and my late 20s/30s burning man au, and i think i am doing a good job at giving age appropriate characterizations to similar version of the same characters. my 21 year old Etho feels 21 to me and my early 30s Etho feels early 30s to me. These ensembles are very much based on my own experiences so I've got a lot to work with, 60 year olds would be harder :)

#me #my writing #larper au

[nightshiftpodcast]

Also! About people who are veil touched... is there a limit on the amount of time that someone might be fighting veil sickness? or a specific speed that s-cells might develop? because I have an idea for an oc who has been very Very slowly going through the transformation into a shade (years) and freaking out about it more and more as time goes on

i think i could do some interesting things with that idea (hehe) but if thats not cannon compliant i can definitely re-work that idea

If I've said something about this in canon in the podcast itself, it's escaping me now - but someone asked a similar question in our Patreon Discord about a year ago so here's all the lore we shared then!

"Obviously, not that much is known about Shades in-world (I know everything but that's for later) but veil sickness survival rates depend on the severity of the illness, and how it is contracted.

Many cases of veil sickness occur during the biannual veil lights phenomenon (they occur twice a year around the solstices). The same way you might get a really bad cold in winter and call it 'flu', people can get slightly veil sick after this event and spend a few days in bed. Then, the same way actual flu can be life threatening, veil sickness can be extreme. I'd say probably about 30% of the people who get veil sickness end up fighting for their life. Chances of surviving it are about 50/50, but chances of turning into a Shade from catching it are seemingly completely random, and not all that common. Staying inside at night during the lights is considered a way to stay safer, although it is speculation, not science.

What is known is that there's a far higher chance of becoming a Shade from a random encounter with a Veil rift than there is from catching veil sickness during the annual Veil lights. Rifts open unpredictably and seem to be far more unstable than the biannual event, and extreme sickness and transformation is more like 80% likely to occur, with death being more likely too.

In terms of what transformations happen, there exists something known as 'The Shade Scale', created by an independent researcher called Dr. Melanie Cruz. It is debated but generally considered reliable. Some shades start low on the Scale and get worse over time, slow or fast, to the point of death. Others just land somewhere on the scale and stay there for the rest of their lives. It goes from 1 to 13. On a basic level, 1 is a 'low mutation' and 13 is a 'high mutation', but the scale is not a straight line. Variables on the scale include from 'low chance of transference' (transferring sickness to others) to 'high chance of transference' and 'no further mutation' to 'continuous mutation' and everything in between. The most "dangerous" (take that with a pinch of salt) and detectable shades are all high on the scale. It's estimated that about 60% of Shades score at 6 or higher on mutation. They might slowly become incorporeal, or appear to burn up from the inside like coal on a fire. Seb mentioned a Shade in episode 2 who was fully transluscent - this person would have scored at a 12 or 13. Of those scoring above 9, more than 50% die within a year. Reason for death, mutation or transference is unknown, but those who start with worse mutations more often continue to mutate. Shades who are low on the scale - 5 or below - have what you referred to as 'aesthetic' changes. Despite the difference in mutation, there's no correlation on Shade magic. More mutation does not seem to mean stronger magic. However, there's not enough research nor has enough time passed to really understand where any of them fit permanently on the scale, and the study was only done on a selected number of willing participants, making the results questionable. As there is no real measure of how many Shades exist - especially those who pass as normal people - it isn't known whether the ratios discovered by Dr. Cruz are even close to realistic."

Hope this helps with your OC building!

- Julian

#night shift podcast #send asks #night shift lore #lore post #audio drama #veil-touched

[dragonnan]

This is very difficult for me.

I am not someone who easily, if ever, asks for help. However I am in that position and have been since 2020. I realize it is not a unique situation - so many of us are in the same boat that to even ask for help feels galling. To clarify, I'm not asking for charity. And I'm not asking for help if you are someone also struggling. What I'm hoping, is that I can share my story, and if you feel moved, you'll help share my post.

In the spring of 2020, my father had a fall. He was 85 and had developed pain in his legs and knees after decades of hard work as a carpet installer. That day, in February, he stumbled over a bunched up rug and landed hard. The fall ended up fracturing his hip. I immediately was the one to take point - getting dad to the hospital for X-Rays as well as other procedures. I still remember the many hours sitting in that cold hospital room - acting as interpreter between Dad and the hospital staff due to his partial deafness.

At the time, we assumed Dad would slowly recover and eventually be able to get back to doing the things he enjoyed. 85 wasn't that old, after all.

But it was not to be.

Over the months, he steadily grew worse. Oh, the fracture healed - but his ability to be mobile grew less and less. I became his full time caretaker. I don't think I slept more than a few hours a night for the next 9 months. I didn't have work - due to Covid, my full time freelance job had vanished along with many of the opportunities I had cultivated. I'm honestly not sure how I managed to get by at all, financially. I made enough - and sometimes that's the absolute best outcome one can have.

In May, my maternal grandmother, and the last grandparent I had remaining, died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101.

We mourned, and we pressed onward. I won't detail out every single moment/event of the months that followed. We did the best we could until it became impossible to do more. And then, finally, the horrible day came when I had to tell my Dad that he no longer could be in his home. We had to send him away so that he could receive a level of care beyond my abilities. To this day I feel tremendous guilt for that. That somehow I should have tried harder - done more. I suppose that's a very human thing, though.

Dad lingered at the nursing home for several more months. One blessing was that it was across the street. One hardship was that this was during the height on Covid - making visiting complex. But we did the best we could (a refrain that became an unpleasant mantra over time).

On December 8th, at around 3am, my Dad passed away. It happened quickly - I wasn't able to be there but my two brothers had been contacted and were able to be by his side. Stubbornly Norwegian to the last, Dad clung to life until finally my younger brother, held his hand, and told him it was okay to let go. He took two more breaths, and he was gone.

Going back, towards the start of this same year, one other event took place that has profoundly impacted us all. My mother was diagnosed with dementia. Even with Dad's decline, I was finding myself with two parents to care for. After Dad's passing, for a few years, Mom was mostly okay. I was able to take a job with the same printing company I'd worked for several years ago. It was very part time, but it was enough income to keep the lights on, so to speak.

And then I got Covid - and Mom got Covid too. And, while it was mild, and we recovered in about a week, something changed with Mom's dementia after that. She could no longer safely be alone. A week after I called in sick, I was forced to call my boss to officially quit. This was sometime around July or August I think? In any event, I've had no steady income since that time. My saving grace was a freelance job to illustrate a book (actually I had 2 jobs like that about the same time) so I was able to get a bit of income to carry me forward a few months. But it won't last and I'm finding myself, at last, coming to social media for help.

I feel the weight of stress so profoundly.

That is the primary reason I chose to share what I did. In the last few month's of Dad's life, I even hit such a dark and horrid place that I began contemplating the logistics of suicide. No, I wasn't to a point of making it actionable - but I was incredibly close. It was that point that actually help motivate me to talk with a mental health professional about medication. Its been helping.

So do I actually have a point after all of this massive and unsolicited sharing?

It is to ask that you do a small thing. Help share my site. And, if you feel you can afford it, maybe purchase some of my products.

Nothing I sell is expensive. My sets of clipart are $3.99 for 10 (I also have larger sets at different price points). I also offer stickers for $4.99 and a variety of other digital and physical wares.

My shop is now my only semi-steady source of income. It gets a lot of great reviews but not a lot of visitors despite it being live since 2013.

I'm not looking for wealth. I simply need enough - to lift that blanket of uncertainty and fear about what the next week - next month will bring.

I'm sorry, this is really sounding like one of those "For just a Dollar a day - help feed a starving artist down on their luck" commercials...

If you've made it this far, I appreciate you traveling through my ramblings. If you are able to visit my shop - share - even buy one of my wares, thank you tremendously!

I also can create any freelance design you'd like - everything I create is digital so when it's completed you'll get it instantly. You can send me a private message for rates.

TL:DR - I'm struggling financially and its been a really tough few years and I could really use some help.

#long post #looking for help #my etsy shop #parent death mention #dementia #dealing with grief #financial stress

[links-studies]

17 questions and 17 people tag

omg I'm so sorry it took me so long to get to this D: Been a long semester lol. But thank you for tagging me @ink-stained-clouds !

ヾ(•ω•`)o

nickname: SO many. kit kat is the main one though. yeah as in the candy.

sign: virgo

height: imagine having height (barely 5'2")

last thing i googled: mu. yeah just mu

song stuck in my head: this is like the super rare 5 second window where there hasn't really been any in particular. a bit ago it was "Season of the Witch"

number of followers: 261. as one of my fav professors would say: chump change !!**

amount of sleep: u think I can count???

lucky number: 10 and 7. but if you ask me people have too many small-number lucky numbers. I'mma throw in a spicy 101 in here for variety

dream job: I want to be a phd professor at a university doing research and teaching!! AKA I think a real job would kill me

wearing: pajamas. I dress well for class but as SOON as I am done with my commitments for the day you bet I am changing into comfort clothes.

movies/books that summarize you: this is SO cheesy but Forrest Gump. But also The DaVinci Code. and i've been told I just look & act like a Lord of the Rings book kind of guy. If I'm being real honest with myself here though, the true answer is some obscure fanfiction that hits like an emotional truck and is 100k words minimum.

favorite song: I cannot pick one. that is cruel to all the other 4,999 songs on my playlist (not actually an exaggeration!) But one song I really like is "The Day Before You Came" by The Real Tuesday Weld. But it'd be criminal if I didn't tell you to listen to "Don't Go Outside" by Poppy as well.

favorite instrument: cello but the vibraphone sounds kinda pretty too

aesthetic: I look like I walked out of a dark academia photo in terms of clothing choices I cannot lie and that about sums it up.

favorite authors: I do not remember anyone's names, ever. this is not a joke I have several favorite authors but man idk who they are. I read their name once on the cover before I started the book and immediately forgot it.

favorite animal noise: my dog makes the STUPIDEST howling noises and I love them. like you know those silly sounds husky dogs make? yeah that.

random: for some reason this catches people off guard but I can't actually drive lol. I don't have a license

as for my 17 people to tag: Idk if I know 17 people off the top of my head???? There's @problematicprocrastinator who is SO sweet- one of my favorite mutuals (on my main blog I believe: which is pumpkinylink !). Outside of that I honestly don't know who's comfortable with being tagged, so if you're seeing this just feel free to make one of these and tag me so I can see it!! And as always you don't have to make one if you don't want.

Anyways, thank you for reading to the end! I hope you have a good day/night, wherever you are and whenever you're reading this

ヾ(^▽^*))) byyeee love you 🤍

#tag game #long post #**for reference the full quote from that prof is: #'The population of the earth is around 10 billion. One or two people go missing and nothing really changes… Chump Change!!' #he's one of my favorites haha

[bookwyrminspiration]

Response to an ask from Ophelia:

Yo! Ophelia! Hello! We can both be paralleling each other in this scenario. Something something peas in a pod and mirror images of one another but also our own separate people.

And cool!! I don't know if I've ever met anyone else whose had/has a parent in the coast guard! My dad was in it a long time ago, before I was born/when I was but an infant. So it hasn't really affected me much, I just know it's a thing. I can't remember if the moving around I did as a kid was because of that or because of other jobs. But he does get a veterans discount at many places which is convenient. And there's a few things ingrained in him still, like he always properly folds up a flag when we store them (if we ever even take them out) even though we are not patriotic in the slightest.

he is no longer in the coast guard and is instead a very skilled nurse who is fed up with the field and now studying linguistics on the side, but it's cool we've got that in common!

And thank you! I'm doing alright all things considered. Had a bit of a hiccup the other day, but seeing as I'm a few weeks into school and there have been several sudden schedule changes, the fact that I got this far is surprising. Otherwise I'm good! Getting all my work done and reading books for class. I just finished The Canterbury Tales (with a strange modern translation) and started Pygmalion, which will be my fourth book for this class.

Also hell yeah!! I have to do some drawings for that same class and need to get caught up on them so I'm not cramming before the due date, so drawing with you would be perfect! Emotionally I'm sharing all my art supplies with you <33

i hope you're doing alright and that you're being kind to yourself!!

#quil's queries #ophelia nonsie #the class I was worried about this semester so far seems to be not nearly as big of a deal as I thought it would be #'this class' i don't know why I'm referring to it like that. it's my lab class for human anatomy annd physiology #i took the lecture class a few semesters ago and was woefully unprepared and didn't know what I was getting myself into #still got an a. but it...was not pretty #this time however it's the lab class! (online) which is already easier. and also i've already covered like most of this information once #so it's better the second time through #maybe that'll change #but for now I'm hopeful :) #then again I'm always looking for positives #ah i'm getting distracted

[kagiura-akira]

20 questions to ask a writer

i stole this from my suggested feed so feel free to steal this from me too

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 36, 4 are incomplete series. Only 1 of those 4 hasn't been abandoned so I've only got 1 WIP posted on AO3 as of current.

2. What's your total A03 word count?

169,732

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now it's pretty exclusively Hirano to Kagiura but I tend to move fandoms once every couple years as my interests change.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

From most to least,

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Not always but it's about a 50% chance that I will. Sometimes if it's just a "omg this is awesome" I don't really know what to say other than thank you so once I thank one comment from the same person that comments something like that once on one fic, if they have similar comments on the other chapters, I tend to not respond to the others unless it's the final chapter

I do like to engage in questions about my writing choices though!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't tend to lean toward angst endings but maybe that time I wrote a fic about youngjae grieving over a dead lover? Or when I wrote that short yoonseok Time Traveler's Wife AU.

Every ending I write usually has a little bit of hope in it, even if it's angsty. It's relatively rare that everything is doomed in an ending in my fics.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think ABCs of Us has what I would consider the happiest ending but my plans for the kagihira Strawberry Dreams au will end better 😈

8. Do you get hate on fics?

People are nicer these days but I got some flames on my old stuff when I was a teenager. And like. Yeah they weren't that great, but the first one I ever got made me want to cry of course.

I haven't gotten any hate since I made my ao3 account.

9. Do you write smut?

Yes, however I had only written T rated stuff until like 2019 when I finally got over my hesitation (God forbid the Internet knows I have... *gasp* thoughts about sex?!?!) and wrote smut for the first time at the ripe old age of 27 lmao. I've only written like. 2 or 3 really explicit things because of that.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I don't tend to. I'm not sure I ever have actually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Only once that I can recall for certain. I had a sasamiya oneshot translated to Russian. I think someone started to translate ABCs of Us several years ago but ended up never finishing.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Kind of? I did the writing, but it was planned together with an old friend. It was abandoned though.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Right now it's kagihira (Hirano to Kagiura) but past obsessions honorable mentions include 707xMC (mysme), yoonseok (BTS), and SoulxMaka (Soul Eater)

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

That short fic about kagihira bringing a kitten home to the dorm and hanzawa finding out but gaslighting the whole dorm into thinking there's a ghost cat haunting the dorms. It would be a good thing for like. Writing when I'm not feeling up to it. But I don't have a clear vision for it, only a vibe, so it's probably least likely to get done.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't tend to repeat myself too much, maybe to my own detriment though. My grammar is typically on par because my self-proofreading skills are good. I think my descriptions of fictional places are up there, too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My top is writing transitional scenes... It's really painful sometimes.

After that in no particular order are making structured plots for long fics, coming up with titles, how to open/end a story, and filler dialogue.

I do a lot of technical writing for my career so I find that sometimes I have trouble switching out of formal technical science paper mode to creative writing, but that struggle helps my narrative grammar to an extent. Not so much the dialogue.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm not confident enough to write full sentences in anything other than English. I had a medium understanding of Japanese while I was learning kanji but one day I stopped keeping up on my lessons right as I was starting to grasp sentence structure, and now I can't remember anything because it's been like 2 years and I haven't been using it.

I could construct a sentence in German with confidence but why would I want to do that lol

19. First fandom you wrote for

Bleach 🫣

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I personally have the most fun writing the kagihira parent AU oneshots, but the most satisfying to write was the smut chapter in I'll Love You If You Let Me. I remember ABCs of Us being nice to write too.

#writing #AO3

[eldritchsurveys]

1157.

1. What is the last thing you said to the person you like? .

2. Does your favourite song remind you of anybody? >> the Zeal & Ardor song doesn't remind me of anyone but the Carpenter Brut + David Eugene Edwards song is 100% a Bruni song and will always feel like a loveletter from him.

3. Do you have a member of the opposite sex you’ve told everything to? >> there is no one in the world I could possibly tell every single minute detail about myself to, nor anyone I could imagine even wanting to know that much detail. 4. Has anybody really broken you? If so, has it changed you? >> several people have played their part in breaking me. what do you mean, has it changed me? there is no possible way you could break me without it fundamentally changing me. that's what a breaking is -- irrevocable change.

5. Do you honestly have any regrets? >> I honesly can't imagine regretting anything more serious than eating too many cookies or something ultimately inconsequential like that

6. Missing anybody? >> not at the moment. this sort of thing comes and goes like the tide 7. Do you want any tattoos? If yes, what? >> always, but I don't have any specific ideas in mind right now. I stopped musing on tattoo designs a while ago, considering I can't afford them.

8. Are you in any kind of emotional pain right now? >> not at this moment (thank gods for small wonders etc)

9. When and why did you last cry? >> last night. I was feeling some grief about the inevitable but still painful loss of a special interest bond.

10. Why are you doing this survey? >> it occurred to me that it's been some days since I last took one

11. What was the last thing to annoy you, even the slightest bit? >> the fact that my digestive system doesn't work the way I want it to, lol. psyllium fiber you're my only hope

12. Last time you wore the opposite sex’s clothing? .

13. What do you bite on more; your tongue, your lip, or your nails? >> I don't bite, I pick (my lip, primarily, but also hangnails) 14. Would you rather go back a week or go forward? .

15. Could you go out in public looking like you do now? >> I'm fully clothed, so yeah, technically I could. but I prefer not to wear my house clothes outside (and also I would freeze to death if I went out like this right now).

16. Who did you like on New Years? .

17. Are promises important to you? >> I don't make promises, so either they're of so little importance that I don't even think about them, or they're of such great importance that I don't make them lightly. I genuinely do not know which one is true. 18. Did anything “cute” happen in this week? >> probably, but I'll be damned if I can remember now

19. What are your plans for the day? >> today is over, so I'll just say what I did: went grocery shopping after Sparrow had their labs done, then came home and played ESO for a couple of hours. other than that, I've just been messing around on tumblr.

20. What did you have for breakfast? >> a microwave steam-bag meal comprised of quinoa and veggies.

21. Have you had sex in 2016 yet? .

22. What kind of booze did you last take shots of? >> god, I can't remember the last time I took a shot of anything.

23. What are you wearing currently? >> Stitch-patterned lounge pants, grey undershirt, Duff's hoodie.

24. What colour hair do you find sexiest on the opposite gender? .

25. Have you slept over at a member of the opposite sex’s house in their bed? >> I've slept over at several people's houses in their bed. 26. Who last slept in your bed besides you? >> no one sleeps in my bed but me. 27. What time did you wake up today? >> around 06:00

28. If the last person you had sex with asked you to date them, would you? . 29. How long until your birthday? >> five months and a week or so 30. What colour is your car (or the one you drive most often)? .

31. What celebrity did you most recent ex resemble? .

32. What’s your favourite kind of cereal? >> the only cereal I've been eating in recent times is Honey O's from Trader Joe's.

33. What’s something you want to purchase next time you’re at the mall? . 34. When you lost your virginity, were you sober? >> I was

35. What was the last movie you watched? >> Angel Heart, which was way more interesting than I'd expected

36. Has anyone of the opposite sex ever told you that you were sexy? .

37. If you could see any musician live, front row, who would you choose? >> I don't know anymore. I've gotten so used to missing out on concerts because I can no longer afford them that I don't even think about them.

38. Do you own any books written by musicians? >> I do not

39. When was the last time you received a massage? .

40. When did you last consume something that had peanut butter? >> the last time I had a peanut butter sandwich was like 2 months ago. I genuinely keep forgetting that that exists as an option.

#surveys #survey #random survey

[nazmazh]

So, I know this is going to sound a little bit heretical, but I am going to give a little bit of praise to tumblr's recommendation/exploration system

Now, before you break out the torches and pitchforks, hear me out!

My blog got apparently hacked and then deleted a couple of days ago. There was nothing Tumblr could do about that, apparently.

And that, ...well, it sucks.

But if that's what the situation is, well, then, so be it.

So that meant remaking my blog and sideblog and whatnot. And so that's what I've been doing.

The biggest problem though, is rebuilding the list of people/blogs that I was following. Like sure, I remember a bunch of ones I interacted with pretty frequently - Mutuals that were regularly active, prominent accounts, etc.

But I had my account for 10 years, that's a long time, accumulating blogs that I followed. And sure, many of the oldest ones have fallen by the wayside, but many others were still there, just not always at the tip of my tongue (I've always been a bit of a digital hoarder, reluctant to ever "clean out" my follow/friends lists, even if, like someone hasn't logged into Steam in 10 years).

Some people change their URLs like their linens, so the name I associate with them might be three or more changes out of date.

Some people had names that I remember the vague idea of, but not the specific phrasing. Let alone specific spellings and numbers.

Some people have blogs that aren't easily searchable - Either accidentally or by design.

Some people didn't post much that on their own that I can clearly remember, but liked and reblogged a lot of my posts, so despite them being wonderful, their names didn't stick as hard as other people's

Sometimes my brain just plain fumbles things and utterly forgets someone that I really ought to remember.

So I've been scrambling, trying to remember names, trying to even get close enough that search can find them (which doesn't work as well with most people's normal accounts - which generally don't have huge followings. Occasionally, I'll get a flash of insight and remember someone that I'm hoping to find back. Occasionally, I'll get lucky and someone who was following both me and someone I haven't been able to find yet will reblog something from them.

Bit by bit, I'm slowly carving my comfortable little corner of the internet back out. It's not quite the same. I can't be quite as cozy knowing there's people out there I've lost track of.

So, now we come to the heresy:

The explore / recommended for you sections have actually been pretty useful in finding some of those stray accounts. It's not perfect, and there is a lot of wading through blogs I'm not necessarily interested in, but it has helped me find several of the blogs I was looking for. Some were kinda low-hanging fruit that I probably would have realized eventually, sure. But others have been people that I'm genuinely grateful to have been nudged towards.

I guess their algorithm or whatever is pretty decent at figuring out my weird little intersection of interests and finding back people that line up well with that, which happen to be people I used to follow or followed me.

And yes - Further heresy, some of those recommendations are people I hadn't been following/aware of. But y'know what? They absolutely are up my alley, so sure, I'll give 'em a follow.

And yeah, I guess this means once this initial flurry has settled down, I'll maybe check those recommendations with some intermittent frequency.

Now, the part I feel will be least controversial, because it complains about these things they've done:

I'm quite unhappy that in losing my account, I've lost all my grandfathered-in structural rules, and that now, my account auto-defaults to the "For You" feed instead of the "Following" feed. And that "For You" is locked to be the first tab and always on, even if you have the other tabs disabled.

I'm grumpy about how my "Following" feed will still get people I'm not following in it - Though I'm led to believe that should decrease the longer I'm around and the more content I'm already following.

I utterly loathe that they make you follow several tags (annoying but not bothering anyone personally) and several blogs before you even have a chance to get yourself set up - IIRC, it wouldn't even let you search for specific blogs to follow there, just what they recommended - So I'd just be some rando blank blog that showed up in the mentions of these people and then disappeared when I inevitably unfollowed to curate my feed my own way. PLUS, even if I could look for my faves again, would I want to follow them as a blank new blog (that I was lucky enough to get my name back on)? Would I just look like another bot to them? Would I look specifically like a bot that's somehow trying to fake being someone they recognize? (At least there's a bypass whole process to this if you open a new tab/window of tumblr).

I'm quite unhappy about how obtrusive the "push algorithmically-determined content" drive is. Because honestly, if they just left it somewhere unintrusive and framed it as "Hey, would you like to look for some other people that would probably fit well in your feed?", it probably wouldn't ruffle nearly so many feathers as it has.

But no.

For whatever reason, they make it mandatory and override user preferences.

Circling back to that "curate your feed thing" that I mentioned - You know what would actually be a good use of those dashboard tabs - Customizable ones. Not just Following/Tags/Popular/etc. But ones that you could use to make lists of specific groups of blogs you're following so that you can focus on something if you're in the mood for it, or looking for your favourite bunch of posters, or if you want to follow some spicy blogs, keep them from popping into your main feed when you're using mobile, and have a list that's dedicated to them, or at least, allows them in the main feed only during specific times/circumstances.

Greater customization and curation of your own feed! Wouldn't that be wonderful!?

The control over my feed was what I loved so much about tumblr compared to pretty much any other social media site. But enshittification is what it is, and tumblr certainly is falling prey to it - Albeit at a slower rate than some other sites, for sure. If they were among the first sites to actually take steps to push back against it, they might have a pretty solid hook.

But I suppose that is easier said from here than done from their HQ.

But, like, they could try something, right? Anything?

[PS: Please re-follow me if that stupid account deletion means I lost track of you but you're somehow seeing this. I'm not dead! If you still want to, that is - No pressure!]

[PPS: New followers of course welcome, assuming they're not, like, awful people :P]

#tumblr #tumblr stuff #rebuilding my blog #enshittification

[grimwood-notice-board]

OUTLINES! WTF DO I WRITE???

By Eldon Macwood

I've seen several authors over the years talk about outlining being a problem for them. To fair, you can totally pants an entire book, edit the holy fuck out of it, and potentially make a bestseller. Lee Child, Stephen King, and many others have done just that. But if you're like me, and want to build your story, then there's hope for that.

This post isn't for the pantser. Maybe a hybrid who's a plotsters, and definitely for the plotters.

The thing about outlines, yeah, there are a few different templates out there, and you don't have to follow them them to the T. You can be as general as you want. Have as much, or as little as you want. YOu can just write story beats, which are nothing more than small guideposts on the chapter, to an outline, and then create your beats from that. Which is what I like to do.

There are two ways to write them: 1, the old fashion way, and it's totally cool if that's your way. As in, you do all the work. 2, use AI. Now, now, calm down. Breath. I know, the evil AI, blah blah blah. But hear me out, you don't have to use AI for everything. I know, this isn't something that the AI-phobes would tell ya, but it's true. You can use Claude or Chat GPT for free, and create outlines and story beats.

Even if you never use AI for anything else, using it just for outlining, and beats creation, you can 10X your writing output.

Regardless if you wish to join me in using AI as a tool, there are templates I will share with you. If you just want to write it all yourself, here are some sources (I can help you if you wish to use AI).

TAKE OFF YOUR PANTS! is a book I started out with, and was a template I used for a very long time.

Here's the template for Derek Murphy's outline template, which is one of my favorites. This post shows how to use it with AI, but you don't have to use AI to make it work. As Derek talked about this template four years ago, and can be found here on YouTube!

For doing just beats (this works from your braindump or an outline you already wrote) you take the basic events from a chapter, and you use them go off of. Back in the day, I'd usually have just a few beats. Now I tend to use the Sudowrite system which works with non-AI writing as well, which is a 12 beat system. Now you can adjust that however you like. And I prefer to have my beats organized to scenes within a chapter. Use your beats to gage how many scenes you will have.

Beats are usually at least one sentence per beat, but having a few sentences might work better for you. Depends on you, and your story. You can be as general, or as specific for each beat as you wish.

Is this a lot to think about? Maybe. Again, while it's still a system to learn, AI does in fact make it easier. I have my own system, and I use for free Chat GPT and Claude. I use a prompt I learned about in the Sudo community, the person who created it did so for a Notion template. I use it in Chat GPT which gives me really good chapter summaries of chapter I've already written. I use those with the outline chapter to create the next chapter beats. The only I don't do this for would be the first chapter. But you can still write instructions for that set of beats.

Everything here that I've talked about, you could sit down and work out to system for yourself. Be it non-AI, or with AI. Either way. At some point, I will probably show more on outlining, I'd like to put together a cheap course on it. Why cheap? Because I want to help, and i need money, and I know not many people out there can afford much. So cheap is my compromise. Still not sure if I will have time to put it together, but if I do, I will make it as easy as possible, and update it as AI changes.

This is a topic I love talking about. I have no issue with helping for free when I have time to do so, a course would just be a go-to tutorial on the subject that the consumer can use at any time.

But yea, Libbie's book, TAKE OFF YOUR PANTS! and Derek's outline template are my two main suggestions. And my top one, using AI with these templates. There's also another template I've learned from the AI community which goes up to 37 chapters.

And really, the more you work with this topic, the more you will get to the point of customizing your own template style. You might come up with more than one, depending on what you're writing.

I wish you the best in writing. If you need some help with the AI side of things, let me know, and I will give you a hand.

#authors #writers #AI #Outline #Outlining #storycraft #Sudowrite #chatgpt #claude

[followingnewhorizons]

Thank you, @thesquireredux for your questions, I hope my answers to them make up for my lateness in returning my reply.

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing?

At the moment I do not have one favorite article of clothing but rather, a favorite accessory type, and those being neckties.

I have been a casual collector of ties for some years now, though a pretty bad blow was dealt me a few years ago when a travel bag containing what was then my entire collection of Adrian ties and sundry other items was stolen from my apartment building. I am still quite upset over the whole thing yet I've began collecting Adrian ties again. Perhaps one of these days I shall share a photo of them, as I believe them to be quite charming and some exquisite.

Adrian, by the way, is the designer best known for his costumes and gowns for many leading ladies of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood and of these, Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers are perhaps his best known contribution. His menswear is somewhat obscure but deserves attention especially in contrast to the work he made for the silver screen.

Snapdragon: At this moment, what do you want?

Quite simply, a sense of peace. Agitation and uncertainty have been felt in abundance by myself since the turn of this year, and all this plagued with troubles both with work and at home. The less said about these things, the better, I think.

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change?

I would not wish to stop anything so much as to give more--more kindness, more attention, and certainly more words to certain people regarding my affections toward them. It hasn't been until the past two years or so that I've taken to being more open with my feelings and emotions, in all senses.

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them.

There are, for me, quite a few people of past and present who inspire me, and in a multitude of ways.

I hesitate to choose one, since each has his own particular character and attributes which attract and motivate me. I do, however, admire our beloved Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him, his companions and family. A look at his life can allude to my love and admiration--an orphan, he faced many trials and tribulations, but never did he waver in his faith and principles. I am always trying to incorporate his teachings into my life (holistically, where some might delineate between "daily" and "religious" life, as a Muslim, these are one and the same, inseparable by the very nature of faith as we know it). As such, I try to keep myself and my spirit in line, so to speak, and one which is straight and narrow.

Pansy: What was your most memorable birthday? What made it be so memorable?

I struggle to recall a birthday in recent memory that has been a happy one, but my latest was memorable with regard to the unorthodox celebration (or lack thereof).

My partner and I went late at night to the newest crop of buildings in the Hudson Yards, which impressed me upon closer inspection and experience. They've done well with that area in terms of the overall design, architecture, shops, etc., and what I once thought was a blight on the city's skyline has become an area I wish to explore and experience more. The closest kindred city this spot reminds me of is Dubai, with expansive, uncluttered, and relatively calm walking space and quietude amongst the shops. Again, it is a place in the city I hope to explore further.

Lantanas: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?

Not one in particular but several instances have both humbled and inspired me, as an ordinary person and as artist-in-the-making.

Looking back on moments in my life, a strange exercise to perform in my three decades of earthly existence, I remember those times when my compositions had been praised (or seemingly so) by my mentors... once my piano teacher remarked the influence of Ravel was prevalent in my pieces, similarly my composition professor in university stated that while my music tends towards recursive stasis (which I'm aware of and fully intend) no doubt Debussy would have been interested in the sorts of harmonies and timbres I was exploring. Also my friend and teacher of organ delighted me when he said my improvisations were distinctly French in character.

This all to say that I'm glad in knowing those French masters of music have taught me well.

Hellebore: How do you show affection?

Undoubtedly my mode of affection is puzzling to some, as I'm not really the "hands-on" sort, in a manner of speaking. Often my affections are known through what I am willing to share and subjects I allow myself to be passionate upon in conversation.

I admit though that this way of expression causes problems, not seldom, and too many times have I had to explain myself and my actions, yet my manners have not changed much since this has come to my attention.

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of? merci beaucoup xo

I do not know, truly. I would like to believe that my skills with composition (music and poetry) leave something to be proud of, but this is simply fantasy on my part.

Perhaps it's best that I always try to be kindhearted and gentle in all things and with all creatures. Lately this attitude and way of being has been my primary focus rather than any kind of material accomplishment.

Thank you for asking these, and thank you for your patience while I returned my reply.