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lesbianboyfriend · 3 months

Note

can i ask for lesbian book recommendations 🥹🕺

yeassss ofc my love <3

erm and obligatory disclaimer for any who might read that i don’t think “queer” or “lesbian” is a necessarily coherent category of books or adequate descriptor for a novel which is why i’ve also provided the actual genres here (sorted into which ever one i felt best fit) and descriptions. and these books have much more going on than just being about lesbians. however all books are undeniably awesomer with lesbians so yayyyyy

FANTASY:

-the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw: fantasy horror; murderous mermaid and plague doctor come across a cult of children (could be read as not lesbians bc one character is nonbinary but i choose to read as. lesbians)

-the empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo: political fantasy; monk unravels the tale of exiled empress’ rise to power

-when the the tigers came down the mountain by nghi vo: political fantasy; monk unwinds the tale of a tiger and her scholar lover to prevent other tigers from eating them (stand alone sequel to empress of salt and fortune)

-ship of smoke and steel by django wexler: ya fantasy; girl has to steal a ghost ship to save her sister’s life

-the mermaid, the witch, and the sea by maggie tokuda-hall: ya fantasy; pirate falls in love with one of the ship’s hostages, a girl being sent to an arranged marriage against her will

-tremontaine created by ellen kushner: political fantasy; there’s a lot going on in this one okay just trust me that it’s really good esp if you love political intrigue (this was released serially and is easiest to acquire an electronic version)

-the deep by rivers solomon: fantasy/spec fic; African slave women thrown overboard gave birth to mermaid-esque descendants. one holds these traumatic memories for her whole people and must grapple with that pressure

-wild beauty by anna-marie mclemore: ya magical realism/fantasy; a family of women who can create flowers and whose lovers always tragically vanish fight to keep their land and to unravel the mystery of a strange boy who appeared

-siren queen by nghi vo: historical magical realism/fantasy; girl’s rise to stardom amidst the monsters of hollywood back in the days of the studio system

-gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir: sff; um. how to explain briefly. gideon wants nothing more than to leave the ninth house, but her nemesis harrowhark needs her sword skills to pass the emperors trial and become immortal. sure. (caleb i know you’ve read this just adding for any other viewers yayyy)

HORROR:

-white is for witching by helen oyeyemi: horror fantasy/magical realism; a house with women in its walls calls to miranda silver while the people she leaves behind struggle to make sense of what happened to her

-plain bad heroines by emily a. danforth: historical horror; when filming a movie about the macabre history of a boarding school, its past starts to become the reality for the stars and author of the novel it’s based on

LITFIC:

-girl woman other: contemporary litfic; the intersecting stories of Black british women told in verse

-nightwood: classic literary; i feel like i can’t describe this one well but nora and jenny are obsessed with robin, whose penchant for wandering and inability to commit drives them crazy. toxic dyke drama at its best

-the thirty names of night: lit fic; transmasc syrian american unravels the history of artist laila z who encountered the same rare bird his mother saw right before her death and realizes their pasts are intertwined

-under the udala trees: historical lit fic; coming of age set against the backdrop of civil war in Nigeria, two girls from different ethnic communities fall in love

-everyone in this room will someday be dead: contemporary lit fic; that moment when your ocd lands you a job at the catholic church even though you’re an atheist and also your relationship is falling apart

-stone butch blues: historical lit fic; butch lesbian realizing and grappling with her identity throughout the 40s-70s

-the color purple: classic lit fic; story of two sisters separated in their youth—one is forced into an abusive marriage and falls in love with her husbands mistress, wondering what became of her sister

-oranges are not the only fruit: semi-autobiography with slight fantasy elements; exploring growing up lesbian in a deeply religious pentecostal sect

SCI-FI:

-the weight of the stars: ya sf romance; aspiring astronaut is forced into friendship with a girl who waits on the roof every night for radio signals from her mother in space

-the seep: sci-fi/spec fic; what if aliens invaded and formed a hive mind of everyone and also your girlfriend turned into a baby again. wouldn’t that be fucked up

-the stars are legion: political science fiction; an awakes with no memory amid a group of people calling themself her family who claim she is the only one who can save their world

-not your sidekick: ya sci-fi; superheroes are real and they fucking suck

SHORT STORIES:

-sarahland: contemporary/spec fic short story collection; various stories about people named sarah

#jules.txt #asks #bookshelf

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kingsandbastardz · 4 months

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Re WIP Title Game: I want to know EVERYTHING related to your WIP about My Journey to You's Gong family economics and their position in the jianghu and regular society. Personally, I always felt there was a lot of sketchiness about that family (starting with their whole bride ritual) so would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable about the genre's worldbuilding tropes!

my write up for this was originally pending a rewatch but it's taking awhile to organize it. Anyway i'm gonna need to simplify this down because I think some information from some categories will cross over and others are probably best left out -- but I've transferred a tree I wrote down on paper for the planned topics:

the family skill sets/offerings of exportable goods plus limitations they would impose on it + reasons for limitations

how those goods (And thereby the gong family) would traditionally be seen in a wuxia-world jianghu

implications of selling what they sell and what that would mean -- including how would that cause all of jianghu and regular society to structure itself around their catalogue

gong shangjue's role as the only person allowed to go outside - and therefore must control the customer-facing side of the gong family

how the gong family handles inherently uneven distribution of favor/power/access to Things

extrapolation on what customers the gong family must be selling to and how they would be able to maintain the power that allows them to continue to have autonomy

what it might be like for shangjue to somehow straddle both jianghu and regular society at a high level AND lever control over both worlds' power levels via what he allows to be sold - imagine a single representative for company that's essentially the monster amalgam of lockheed martin and the beyer corporation. Now imagine that guy having access to all the world's leaders at every layer of society

What would gong shangjue's personal limitations be in this situation? Where does he draw the line? (will probably refile this under gong family limitations)

what it must be like to come home and suddenly have to let go of that power and be completely under someone else's control (see section about how the gong family handles uneven distribution of favor/power/things)

Supply Chain Management - logistics for sourcing of raw materials and movement of goods when no one is allowed to leave the compound

the bridal selection and currying favor and what it means when the gong family accepts and expects tribute

the gong family as an ancient conglomerate and how they handle guanxi

also - economic conglomerate as a feudal family (think korean chaebol families, esp. Samsung) with some sort of mysterious lore that even they have forgotten about - and how they will be able to pivot. Also what are they going to do about their birth rate??

It's a lot that I have swimming around in my head. I'm basically trying to power slam my way through every shorter fanfic and meta I can to create brain space for my monster writings - of which I count this one to be. LMAO

#wip title game #my royal ramblings #that last category is a bit extraneous but I did want to go a little into the topic of power and succession and how that impacts economics #you have no idea how frustrated I get with poor logistics in a show. im so glad they largely handwaved this but now I have to think about i #my journey to you

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fwoopersongs · 1 year

Text

赋得古原草送别 - Composed from: Bidding Farewell on the Ancient Grass Plains

by 白居易 (Bai Juyi, 772 - 846)

离离原上草一岁一枯荣 lí lí yuán shàng cǎo yī suì yī kū róng Flickering grasses upon the plain, a year, a cycle of withering and verdant glory.

野火烧不尽春风吹又生 yě huǒ shāo bù jìn chūn fēng chuī yòu shēng Ravaging wildfire does not burn it all; a spring breeze blows and again, they grow.

远芳侵古道晴翠接荒城 yuǎn fāng qīn gǔ dào qíng cuì jiē huāng chéng Distant fragrance encroaches ancient roads; sun dappled green takes the desolate city.

又送王孙去萋萋满别情 yòu sòng wáng sūn qù qī qī mǎn bié qíng Again, seeing off a dear friend on their way, the lush field is full of these parting feelings.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

NOTES

To @liberty-or-death, thanks for the rec which brought this poem back on my radar. I’m so glad we do this - I always learn so much!

Check out her meta and thoughts on this work in the mdzs context.

This is a fun poem in that if you look at only the first four lines, you get one genre of poetry - praise for nature, but if you take it as a whole, you get another type - a farewell poem. In fact, I had no idea that it had a second half. It’s so popular that if anyone asked pre-cnovel era YJ what it means, she would have been able to answer too - but only the second and third lines…

A variation of 野火烧不尽春风吹又生 is a common idiom which is also used a lot (truly a LOT) in various novels and cmedia, mostly in the context of ruthless or pragmatic characters going ‘斩草不除根春风吹又生 (if you cut grass but don’t get rid of their roots, then when the spring wind blows they’ll grow again). This phrase is a convergence of this poem and a quote from 左传 zuǒ zhuán, The Commentary of Zuo, which recounts the major political, military, and social events of the Spring and Autumn period, and was written more than a millennium before Bai Juyi was born. In the section for Duke Yin, Year 6, it goes:

君子曰，善不可失，恶不可长，其陈桓公之谓乎，长恶不悛，从自及也，虽欲救之，其将能乎 The lord said, goodness must not be lost, evil must not be nurtured in its growth, this must apply to Duke Huan of Chen. Having nurtured the growth of evil without rectification and about to reap his just deserts - even desiring to salvage this situation, how can it be done?

商书曰，恶之易也，如火之燎于原，不可乡迩，其犹可扑灭，周任有言曰，为国家者，见恶如农夫之务去草焉，芟夷蕴崇之，绝其本根，勿使能殖，则善者信矣. In the Book of Shang it says, the ease of evil’s flourishing is akin to fire spreading on the plains; it cannot be approached, can it then be extinguished? Quoting Zhou Ren, ‘a person responsible for country and family, at the sight of evil, must behave as the farmer whose priority is to rid the land of weeds, does: cutting them down, gathering them and eliminating them from their very roots so that they may not grow again. Thus allowing goodness to develop.’

And yes, I didn’t go off on a tangent on Zuo Zhuan for nothing. There is a clear resemblance between the metaphor used here and the imagery in Bai Juyi’s poem, and that is probably how they ended up linked together in association with characters locked in conflict.

Title

Here’s something new in the title! The words 赋得 fù dé actually indicate the category for this poem by its origin - via prompt, and can be read as roughly equivalent to ‘composed from’. The prompt itself is the following sentence, 古原草送别 gǔ yuán cǎo sòngbié (ancient plain’s grass, bidding farewell). For this type of poem, how carefully the format is maintained whilst sticking closely to the topic and fulfilling the prompt, is a critical test of the poet’s skill.

Such prompts may come from lines of existing poetry, songs, essays or themes. The earliest example of such that we have today is 《赋得翠石应令诗》 written by 萧雉 Xiao Zhi of Liang Dynasty during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. Though the later 应制 yìng zhì (by Emperor’s order) type of poetry are also titled with these two words to indicate their type, it is only one reason of many! The origin of such a prompt may vary from being administered for tests of ability, to exams, to friendly games or even just to say ‘I was inspired by this!’.

Background

Pre-dive notes: I suspect this is another one where I’ll end up eyeballs deep in a stack of books sans punctuation and in traditional chinese - and if I’m deeply unlucky, only handwritten. Why am I so excited??????? LMAO. Been dragging my feet on everything up till this point.

The story that comes with this poem isn’t one that can be found in some personal recount or diary entry from the poet. One half comes from 《幽闲鼓吹》, a collection of anecdotes about the upper echelons of the Tang Dynasty, emperors and generals and famous literary figures of the middle and late Tang period, covering Emperor Xuanzong, Emperor Xianzong (元和 Yuanhe) and Emperor Wuzong (会昌 Huichang) of Tang. The other half comes from 《唐摭言》which is a collection of short stories from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) compiled by Wang Dingbao (870-940), mainly about the state examination system. Emphasis on these two collections being anecdotes to be read for amusement, not verified events. But I guess we can take this with the same serving of salt as we might for a ‘know your meme’ entry!

From 《幽闲鼓吹》白尚书应举初至京，以诗谒顾著作。顾睹姓名熟视白公曰，米价方贵，居亦弗易。乃披卷首篇曰， ‘咸阳原上草，一岁一枯荣，野火烧不尽，春风吹又生‘ 即嗟赏曰，道得个语，居即易矣，因为之延誉，声名大振。

Minister [1] Bai, newly arrived at the Capital to sit for the imperial examinations, brought poems on his visit to a man by the surname of Gu to show them to him. Gu saw his name and observed him intently, saying, “Grain is expensive, living here won’t be easy [2].” He then opened to the first page and read, ‘The grass of Xianyang Plains, a year, a cycle of withering and verdant glory; wildfire does not raze it all, spring winds blow and again they grow’ and sighed in admiration at once, “living here will be easy (for you).” And because word of this praise got out, his (Bai Juyi’s) name became very very well known.

[1] The highest post he ever held was Minister for the Ministry of Justice [2] This was a play on the words of his name, taken literally it can be read 白 bái (for free) 居 jū (live, as in to live in a house) 易 yì (easy). Oh, get thee to a punnery! xD

From 《唐摭言》唐白居易初举未振，以歌诗谒顾况。况谑曰。居易。长安百物贵，居大不易。及读至赋得原上草送友曰。野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。叹曰。有句如此，居大不难。老夫前言戏之耳。

Tang Dynasty’s Bai Juyi had just passed the imperial exams, but had not made his name yet. He visited Gu Kuang with song and poetry. Mockingly, Kuang said, “‘To lodge easily’? [1] In Chang’an, everything is expensive. It’s not easy to live in a big place.” It was only after reading, ‘Written for bidding farewell to a friend on the plains: wildfire does not raze it all, spring winds blow and again they grow’, that he sighed, “With wordsmithing like this, living in a big place won’t be difficult at all. Consider all I said before a joke.”

[1] Another play on Bai Juyi’s name.

There are slight differences even between these two accounts. Not to mention the question of whether this gentleman Gu Kuang was even actually in the capital at this time. From my brief skim of his Wiki page, it seems he was having trouble at the tail end of his career, and lived out his retirement in seclusion. Records are clear that Bai Juyi passed the imperial exams in 802 along with friend Yuan Zhen, whilst Gu Kuang’s whereabouts were not possible to track down (at least for me) and he passed away in either 806 if baidu is to be believed, or after 820 according to wiki.

Two things that are immediately obvious as I read these passages:

The first, line one reads 咸阳原上草 xiányáng yuán shàng cǎo (the grass upon Xianyang Plain), whereas the version I got from gushiwen and also the ‘popular’ ~modern~ version goes, 离离原上草 lí lí yuán shàng cǎo (dense and lively, the grass upon the plain).

The second, that the title is written: 赋得原上草送友 (Composed from: Seeing off a friend upon grass plains) vs 赋得古原草送别 (Composed from: Bidding farewell upon the ancient grass plains)

Consulting another source first published in Southern Song, Chapter 30 of 《苕溪渔隐丛话》, its first half completed in 1148 (this copy is owned by Harvard, and the edition was published in 1740 or 1741… if I’m reading the description correctly), backs up the 咸阳原上草 version.

Which then brings us to the question, when did these lines get changed?

I have no clue, so I asked google xD. Most answers point to Sun Zhu’s (1722–1778) 《唐诗三百首》 Three Hundred Tang Poems. But it's hard for me to verify at this point because many of the collections which hold this poem were reprinted in the 20th century. I sampled two texts randomly in ctext, and both had the 离离/古原 version… even Bai Juyi’s own anthology 《白氏长庆集》, so named because its first print was in the Changgeng Era, second in Emperor Muzong of Tang’s reign. The version in the image below was from 《白氏长庆集》 in an anthology of classics published in 1922, and it has exactly that same 古原草送别 title and 离离 beginning.

I feel like if the original indeed began with 咸阳原上草, and was titled 赋得原上草送友, it would make sense in a later edit that changes 咸阳 (location) into 离离 (adjective) to then clarify what information is lost - that this farewell happening on ‘ancient plains’ - in another place like the title. In any case, I do believe there is a good reason for the change, no matter my personal preference… Let's get to that in the next section.

Poem

First, note that based on the prompt, the things available to be played with are:

A grass plain (as background)

Emphasis on grass

Seeing off someone

And off we go!

Diving right into exploring the more interesting words or expressions in this poem, I’d like to draw our attention to 离离 (of course), 王孙 and 萋萋.

Though not a word you see often, on sight, 离离 feels like it speaks of parting, because read alone, the word 离 is to leave, to part. But the next natural step is to look up past usages. By past, I mean pre-Bai Juyi’s lifetime and ideally from texts and poets he would have read with care.

Pre-Qin, we have two winners from 诗经 the Book of Odes, Airs of Wang, Drooping Millet. In this poem, 彼黍离离 (the millet either droop or sway). From Minor Odes, Clear Dew, 其实离离 (the fruit of trees hand down). Some person from Han - some websites attribute the poem to Cao Cao, some to Empress Zhen - says, 蒲生我池中，其叶何离离 (bullrushes grow in my pond, how dense their leaves).

That’s about it for relevant poetry.

And then 易经《䷝离》 The Book of Changes tells me how to interpret trigrams:

离，丽也；日月丽乎天，百谷草木丽乎土，重明以丽乎正，乃化成天下。柔丽乎中正，故亨；是以畜牝牛吉也。 ‘离’ is ‘to rely on’. The sun and moon rely on the heavens, the myriad grassess and trees rely on the earth; light upon light relies on the right path, illuminating all under heaven. The gentle in their positions, middle and fair are hence fortunate, so female cows are fortunate…?

Okay LOL that last one got a bit away from me, but basically, the trigram called 离 (or the trad version of it anyway) is associated with fire, spring and radiance. And who knows if these associations do or don’t spill over into word selection in everyday life?

So 离 is parting and 离离 can be in turns, drooping, swaying, verdant, radiant and full of life.

We can have 王孙 and 萋萋 up together because having them both in a sentence brings 楚辞 The Songs of Chu, 招隐士 Summons for a Recluse’s line, 王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋 (the noble man remains there and does not return, the grasses of spring are growing luxuriantly). From this poem, we can infer that 王孙 is referring to the recluse (On the topic of the ‘image’ of recluses in literature, I leave this link: ARTICLE REVIEWS: HOUSE OF HERMITS). Such recluses in the time that poem was written could also be the descendants of noble houses. But the word itself also has meaning - it is literally, grandson(s) of kings or princes, and was also used to collectively refer to young noblemen, eventually just young men in general. Maybe similar to how gentlemen is used? Idk.

And 招隐士 is quite an influential poem. Those three things, 王孙, 春草 and 萋萋 were used often in later works to evoke specific feelings of melancholy despite the beauty in the surroundings, because someone is far from home.

(Some unconfirmed rumours in the Old Book of Tang suggest that Bai Juyi may have been descended from the Mi imperial house of the State of Chu, and the Bai family who left Chu for Qin due to prosecution by the King of Chu. But that is neither here nor there. If true, it may have been part of the inspiration for interpreting the poem’s prompt in this way. Just an interesting titbit of information!)

Now that we have the new, uncommon words out of the way, I wanted to try recreating the experience of reading this piece because it’s such a feast for the senses. And I hope this works, because if not it’s going to look quite ridiculous indeed.

离离 / 原上草 // 一岁 / 一枯荣 bright / grass upon the plains // one year / once wither & flourish Flickering grasses upon the plain, a year, a cycle of withering and verdant glory.

野火 / 烧不尽 // 春风 / 吹又生 wildfire / burns not end // spring breeze / blows to life again Ravaging wildfire does not burn it all; a spring breeze blows and again, they grow.

远 / 芳 / 侵 / 古道 // 晴翠 / 接 / 荒城 distant / fragrance / assails / ancient road // sunlit crisp green / joins / desolate city Distant fragrance encroaches ancient roads; sun dappled green joins the desolate city.

又 / 送 / 王孙 / 去 // 萋萋 / 满 / 别情 again / sending / noble men / away // verdant greenery / full / parting feelings Again, seeing off a dear friend on their way, the lush field is full of these parting feelings.

There are lots of contrasts that bring these words to life. 离离 is associated with verdant, luxuriant growth and blades of grasses or millet. The unquenchable life in that green against the red of the fire, the grass on the plains that even the fire cannot entirely destroy, because deeply hidden ‘neath the ground, its roots are safe. One breath of the wind and it's growing again! Triumphant in its victory, it goes on to overtake the ‘ancient road’ and the ruins of a city. The word used to describe its action at the road is literally 侵 invade, the word for its action with the city 接 can be read as join, but can also be to receive or take over.

And so I think you can see where this is building up to the last line where the grass, abundant, full of life and absolutely everywhere as far as the eye can see, is like his overflowing emotions in the moment of parting.

I really appreciate the crossing over of what is real and what is imagined, anchoring with the image of ‘grass on the plains’ and bringing us through time, through fire and across space - over the winding road and up to the abandoned city. Is the grass really there? Maybe. Did all of this really happen? Who knows. But these feelings after going through all that are certainly real!

Another thing I love is the cinematic acceleration effect for that year with the grass, and then the panning where you follow someone's gaze from the road to the city led on by the greeeeeeeeen. The pacing is so atmospheric as well! 一岁一枯荣 is slow, solemn and glorious. 野火烧不尽 is an intense battle for dominance and 春风吹又生 a breath of fresh air.

(Source)

As I was reading the poem for the first time though, there were some things I wondered idly about, which were then answered as I looked into its background and asked around some.

Grass has a 1 year lifecycle???? Apparently some species, yes. Where I live, it’s just green year round unless someone doesn’t water them during a dry spell. In other places with actual seasons, they can stay green for a while under snow or get frozen while green, which is amazing to me, even if they do eventually yellow. If summers are scorching, they may brown (I think that’s when they die?). Anyway, it’s cool and I can’t believe I never thought about this before.

Are wildfires a Thing on grassland? If the sun is hot enough or if conditions are right for dry lightning it can happen, but I don’t know if spontaneous combustion is a thing on this particular field, but I somehow doubt that.

Which ancient field is this happening on? Xianyang Plains, which is a real place! It is now known as Wuling (五陵) Plain, where the mausoleums of 28 Han and Tang dynasty emperors stand.

Where is the old road and the ruins? Are these actual places or just there for the vibes. Xianyang (咸阳) was the capital of the Qin empire. It was sacked and burnt to the ground, supposedly by Xiang Yu, a rebel leader against the Qin in 206 BC. The founding emperor of Han Dynasty later built his capital just across the river from the ruins of Xianyang. In fact, the ruins are still there!

The photo below is of a Qin Dynasty handmade armor factory found in 2019 at the location of the old Xianyang City. Analysis of the materials found there was a match for armor in Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum.

(Source)

So the thing about Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, is this…

Qin Dynasty spanned 221 BCE to 206 BCE; its capital was Xianyang. Han Dynasty spanned 206 BCE to 220 CE; its first capital was Chang’an. Tang Dynasty spanned 618 CE to 907 CE; its first capital was Chang’an.

Xianyang was there first, it was ravaged by fire. Then the Han Chang’an was built on the opposite bank. Then Tang Chang’an was built Southeast of the ruined Han Chang’an (it’d been through a lot of wars by that time LOL). So are they the same thing? No. But if the ruins of Xianyang are still here for us today, they certainly would have been there back in Bai Juyi’s time. And they would also have been considered ancient ruins, wouldn’t they?

Here’s how the area looks like on google maps.

Back to sleuthing for reasons behind word choices.

A thing that caught my ear was the keyword 古道! There are so many poems that use that image-impression, but also also, most of ALL: this classic song. Secondary to that though, there’s 小桥流水人家古道西风瘦马 (a little bridge, running water and homes; on the ancient road in the west wind, a lean horse) of Yuan Dynasty - and after Bai Juyi’s time, and Li Bai’s (701 to 762) 咸阳古道音尘绝 (on the ancient road to Xianyang, ended is the music and the dust), which he’ll certainly have come across.

I got a bit distracted reading farewell poems and was shook to discover that Wang Wei’s (701 to 7062) even more famous farewell poem, iconic line: 西出阳��无故人, is actually, set at almost the same place.

渭城朝雨浥轻尘 | Weicheng’s [1] morning drizzle moistens the dusty road. 客舍青青柳色新 | By the traveller’s inn, the willow’s green is fresh 劝君更尽一杯酒 | Friend, do drink up one more cup of wine; 西出阳关无故人 | West beyond Yang Pass, there’ll be acquaintances none. (You’ll have no one)

[1] 渭城 wèi chéng, previous, older name for the county that later became Xianyang County during the Qin Dynasty.

Knowing all this, when a poem uses Xianyang, fire, ancient path and desolate city as imagery, one can’t help the mind being drawn to that fire which burnt a palace, a city to the ground, the lives lost. And then wandering still further... who are you bidding farewell to?

So! While 离离 for the first two words brings beautiful imagery, contrasting against the ravaging fire and parallels to 萋萋, 咸阳 provides associations with location, history and builds on impressions to tie the whole poem together.

Let me know which you prefer!

(Source)

Translation Recs

Something a little different this time, for those who are still with me.

Because this is such a famous poem, I thought it would be fun to look up other translations! Here’s a list of recs for ones I liked best.

In no particular order:

I enjoyed the brief writeup on Bai Juyi’s background and commentary on the poem’s relevance in vacantmountain’s: TRANSLATION THURSDAY: 赋得古原草送别 BIDDING FAREWELL ON THE PLAIN, BY 白居易 BAI JUYI

Despite what OP says about their own translations seeming rigid sometimes due to their style (and intention for translations), I didn’t find it so. And in fact, I really appreciate how this translation leans closely in to the original words, while still reading smoothly: 152 白居易賦得古原草送別 translation: Farewells on Grassland, by Bai Juyi

It’s a little further down the page - you may have to search for ‘grass’. I found the concept of utilizing space in this way an interesting one. Perhaps you may too! Daryl Lim Wei Jie brings us: Grass

#赋得古原草送别 #白居易 #chinese poetry #poetry #FAREWELL POETRY #WHAT IS MY TAG FOR THIS LMAO #i probably should clean up my tags at some point #everything hurts from me sitting down too much to finish this xD it's suddenly 11pm where did all the time go #it was 8 when i sat down????#anyway this was fun!!!!!#a simple poem #but with history

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actualbird · 1 year

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Hi zak! I've been a longtime reader of your original works. Do you have any tips on what pieces to put in your writing folio?

hi anon !!! im very sorry it took me forever to get back to this ask, and doubly sorry if you are no longer in need of tips OTL. still, thank u for reading my original works, thats a pleasant surprise to know!! i havent posted my original writing website here in......a long while, since im the (very slow) process revamping the site HAHA,

but yeah, tips on what put in a writing portfolio!! if ever you still need em or if ever anybody out there can make use of this. all of these based completely on my personal experience of applying to writing workshops and writing jobs, so feel free to take what you think applies to you/would help you, and leave the rest behind

1 ) in general, put your Best Works. but take into consideration that You are usually your own worst critic, so you definitely could benefit from a second opinion (or many)

so, obviously, you wanna be putting in your best stuff. and thats still the general method that i'd choose, but with the added reminder that a lot of the time, writers can be blind to certain works that they themselves made that other people really liked or found immensely compelling.

this for lots of reasons: writerly self-esteem problems, that odd experience of mostly remembering the arduous Process of writing the thing and less the actual finished product, general blindness to stuff in your own work since you Wrote That (and probably revised it 76439754985 times) so it's just hard now for you to realize the level of skill thats apparent to many others

the opposite effect is also very possible, where you can be Incredibly attached to a work (maybe for sentimental reasons, maybe because the you learned a lot along the way, etc) but other people kinda found the whole work meh.

bottom line: by this point, you know youve got skill in writing. but the skill OF seeing and evaluating your own skill is a whole different animal

reach out to your friends, writing peers, or reading peers and ask them what they think some of your best works are. personally, i think it's good both to ask people who are Also in the practice/study/career of writing, and people who arent, simply because a more diverse set of information is always better than a lesser diverse one. if you want, you can ask follow up questions like "why?", or you can just stick to getting a general pulse check of what is resonating to the people who read your work. because [tv commercial voice] The Answer May Surprise You!

and once you know what resonates with others, you can start chopping down the list with armed with that new knowledge

2 ) "Best" should not be a catch-all term, cut it up into specific categories and showcase your Best in top categories you want to focus on. this way, you get a folio that's showing a wide range of your capabilities

if i were picking between two applicants, both of which submitted portfolios of their Best fiction works (and theyre both Very good), i would ultimately choose the applicant who gave a portfolio that showed a wider range of what Bests theyre capable of rather than the applicant who submitted 5 really great stories but they all still employed the same techniques/concepts/themes

......if that makes sense?

like, okay, let's assume the portfolio is a fiction portfolio. no specific lit genre limitations or whatever, just, fiction in general.

"fiction in general" is a ridiculously huge field! theres the genres of course, so many damn genres. but what im more focused on is Technique. there are so many ways to structure your plot and pacing, there are so many ways to create your cadence and tone, there are so many kinds of characters and so many ways you can make them clash, so many dang ways to make your story's themes come to light. theres a Lot

so take a portfolio as a chance to show the widest possible range of what you can do, and what you can do Well

let's say you did Tip 1 and coming from that, youve got a list of 15 stories you think would be good for a portfolio. your next step then is to identify which stories are doing the same Thing (whether that be in its genre, structure, themes, etc) and then decide which of those stories showcases your ability to Do that Thing best.

if ive got 3 different stories that are all magical realism pieces using a very subdued tone to communicate the plot's conflict and emotion, then im gonna need to pick just one to put in my folio, the one that did it Best. and then you can go back to Tip 1 and get a second opinion on that if you want, and THEN i repeat with the other stories, this time picking a different Thing-Technique-Structure-Theme-Etc to focus on

basically my point is that a portfolio, ideally, should show different Kinds of Bests. because that is much much more appealing than only seeing One kind of Best

3 ) you can make as many portfolios as you want, tailor-made specifically for what youre using that portfolio for

this is something i learned after college and when i was applying for various writing jobs. for context, i dual wielded fiction and nonfiction in college. though my degree ultimately/officially went into the nonfiction track, i still wrote a whole lotta original fiction, and when i was applying for jobs, my personal list of Bests included a lot of fiction pieces, as well as nonfiction pieces

but i was applying to all different kinds of jobs, and it would be slightly off-course to submit a fiction piece to a job like Feature Writer For Magazine. additionally, it would be slightly off-course to submit a nonfiction piece to a job like Romance Game Writer

(.....both of those real jobs i applied for and man, sidenote, can you believe i almost became a romance game writer? like, how ironic that is now that im into the fandom i am Currently into. guys. guys i got to the second interview stage of that job. Guys. jdhvfhvfkshd)

anyway, remember how Tip 2 is about showing off a diverse array of what youre capable of? well, dont get Too diverse. always remember the people/organization/etc that you will be submitting this portfolio to, and keep in mind what They are looking for

if youre applying for a sci-fi fiction workshop, submit your Best pieces that do different techniques or things BUT are still within the parameters sci-fi fiction, so they are relevant. if youre applying for a feature writing job, maybe fiction might work, but read the works that the magazine puts out, maybe. get a feel for their style, what they like. like idk , if theyre super into that Anthony Bourdain-esque kinda description of gritty details, then maybe a fiction piece that shows off that kind of descriptive skill can still be relevant.

make a new portfolio whenever the need arises to best adapt to whatever it is youre gunning for

in summary :

tip 1: Best works but cast a wider net and ask other people because us writers can get tunnel vision sometimes

tip 2: whittle down your list to show different kinds of Bests that you can do, avoid redundancy

tip 3: keep your Bests relevant to whatever the task at hand may be

well....thats all i can think of. i hope some part of this can be helpful to anybody out there. hope youre doing well, anon :")

#asks #anon #inbox still closed but let me get to some asks that have been here for a while anyway

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roadandruingame · 2 months

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RaR Musings #14: Spheres

As I continue to try to build out my extensive list of possible ability influences in Road and Ruin, certain spheres begin to emerge, which helps to recognize what might need a sub-resource.

In the first place, Road and Ruin operates on associations. Where other games ask that you make up the circumstances, twists, or even whole setting out of whole cloth, the aim, at least, is for Road and Ruin to appeal to each player's personal experience of popular culture, in a part-tarot, part-rorschach test. The pros of this is that mechanics will assist in players getting to experience what they've come to expect of a story from their genre, with some twists along the way, as well as fulfill any genre. The cons, of course, are if people aren't already familiar with a genre, or have any desire to recreate the tropes from one, then they won't be learning about them here except from other players.

Because Road and Ruin operates on associations, there needs to be certain tropes and recognizable themes in play. The sphere of [ANIMALS] might mean a pet dog, birds, or a tiger, or hunting; in fantasy, it might mean speaking to animals, gaining their powers, or transforming into one, or omens, and in sci-fi, it can mean alien creatures. The sphere of [ELEMENTS] means a lot more to a fantasy player than to sci-fi or the unfamiliar, but likewise, [TECHNOLOGY] can be an entire sci-fi story with very little fantasy applications.

The sphere of [COMBAT] having sub-categories, [FIREARMS], [SWORDPLAY], [MARTIAL ARTS], and [TACTICS] mean a wider variety of playstyles for players who are interested in those, but overly fixating on that sphere means an equal drop in features that don't involve combat in some way. But, if non-combat can lean on what's quickly ballooned out to 60+ proficiencies and counting, for a system where skill checks use up to two in combination, then perhaps combat does need the lion's share of "I use this special ability".

Spheres of [CRAFTING] are both unlikely to be widely used, while also extremely popular for a small niche of players who actually like that sort of thing. Such action can mean anything from specific crafting stations, to sourcing and processing high-quality materials, applying techniques, repair and upkeep, having a catalogue, and simply being able to avoid the service costs of having someone else do it, or making sure it's done right the first time. This sphere relies heavily on the 'associations' of people interested in such things already; rather than have unique recipes for everything that ever has, does, or could ever or never exist, we reduce components and projects down to properties. We don't need specific instructions on how to craft rope, just that if we need something long, flexible, and strong, we need something with the [[Strands]] property, of a certain durability. [Twining] as an action involves weaving things together, to increase durability. People can figure it out from there, twining hemp, vines, even the hair of giants or spiderweb to make ropes. It doesn't matter if it's possible or makes sense, all that matters is the players understand how to come to those conclusions.

________________

I run into the issue of cost.

I run into a very tilted problem where another, 'better' game might have universal 'Special Points', that you can use on any ability. Fireball? 1SP. Fist Flurry? 1SP. It'd allow players to pivot from their otherwise heavily-invested build, as well as be only a single resource for new players to learn, but it comes at a price.

Having multiple difference resources helps to keep divisions between spheres in a way that simply learning new abilities doesn't breach, but it also makes it harder to learn. The connective tissue between different kinds of resources is vast and sprawling, such that a player might not understand what their options actually are, but it also indicates visible connections that are easily searchable with CTRL+F. Not having universal points means the existence of a Battery to power electrical devices, without worrying about a packet of SP being sucked up by a monk looking to punch an extra ten times. In fact, those "what if" scenarios give me the benefit of design space, where "what if a monk COULD absorb the energy from a battery? That's something out of 40k or something" actually becomes a fun and unique ability combo.

I feel like I can use the mentality of a universal ability currency, and have conversions between skills, without actually having a universal currency. Such an 'apples to apples' conversion chart is a little unfortunate, because I have to make sure that there isn't a feedback loop where someone can spend 1MP to earn 3SP and 2SP to earn 1MP, but I think that's something I can chart out early and then balance for account.

#indie ttrpg #road and ruin #ttrpg #ttrpg design

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thebiscuiteternal · 3 months

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what is your favorite type of au to write for mdzs, and is it different from your favorite au to read?

Mmmmmmnnnnhm..... I can't really narrow it down to one so I'm gonna pick a kind of wide genre and say alternate powers? Like, AUs where characters are monsters or witches or superheroes or urban cultivators or aliens with weird skills, anything that gives me an excuse to play with rules of transformation or power usage like I'm building a fantasy campaign. And that's pretty much the same category of stuff I enjoy reading, like gimme all the interesting weird shit.

(This is also why I don't write a whole lot of modern aus that don't at least have reincarnation or cultivation in them. The magical stuff's half the fun, why are you cutting it all out????)

#writing asks #<- new tag for referencial stuff

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miriamundertale · 10 months

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hi heres my current reading list for manga. still being updated. post is very very long so under a readmore. images are only if i have specific screencaps to help the big spam

Berserk

I guess it goes here now wtf. Curious where it goes but im not upset if it turns away from what i like. The last miura chapter was an ok open ending for me

Black clover

i originally started reading this due to it feeling like a good example of shounen as a genre with the good and the bad, and for a while was going to say its my "if you want to understand the genre just read it" rec but one piece has been here. just here 4 fun now

Bocchi the Rock!

Ill be blunt just watch the anime. I enjoy reading the manga but its pretty classical mid. mainlining shots of kikuri until the spinoff lands jokes on you im already blasted

Bocchi the Rock! Gaiden: Hiroi Kikuri no Fukazake Nikki

Hiroi spinoff This woman is too pathetic for her own good [redacted for public safety]

Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu

Im caught up, rough start but very fun overall and good horny art. hard to complain

Boku wa Kimitachi wo Shihai suru

This is one of my "this is blatantly porn" reads but its got some good fucked up elements that make it fun. i also pr it so woo

Boy's Abyss

i fucking love this. Its about to hit its head climax wise and the degree of fuckness in it makes me excited for every release also chaco is impeccable

Bungou Stray Dogs

its pretty ok so far. i think its hilarious its made people go back and read classic lit

Chainsaw Man

God i love act two. Asa is the best possible followup to denji and seeing her and denji interract is going to make the inevitable fujimotofication of the story even more fun

Hazure Skill "Kage ga Usui" o Motsu Guild Shokuin ga, Jitsuha Densetsu no Ansatsusha

Yeah ik long name. its an isekai lite aka the whole "this is an isekai in all but including the start of an isekai" genre thats popped up lately. its very charming and gorgeously drawn

Heavenly Delusion

in terms of post apocalyptic stuff it stands out and winds up pretty fun. the art isnt something wild but stands out with its own charm

Henjo

Henjo is hornybait with fucked up age gap, so a very boring and tread upon category, but the target audience is clearly less the horny 20 year olds hunting high school girls and more the high school girls who think they can pull. An important part of the manga ecosystem.

The Summer Hikaru Died

the art style is really evocative and i do love me some weirdly fucked up yaoi. good recent pickup

Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmon

kinda slippin on this one. it feels like a bit that they abandon quickly but i do love my vampire media

Houseki no Kuni

gems

Isekai Meikyuu de Harem o

I read this out of this fucked up interest in how the mangaka spends the majority of this horny isekai not worldbuilding but game designing the rules of this isekai. Its such a weird focus of priorities

Ishuzoku Reviewers

fun concept fun art horny is fun fuck you

Jahy-sama wa kujienai!

Jahy is going to abolish capitalism

Ka「」Ku「」Shi「」Go「」To「

Please someone pick this up again please if you need an editor i will fucking do it just reach out

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

This manga is fuckin gorgeous tbh. I think its close to its endgame and im excited to see how it goes

Kagurabachi

fuck you shut up fuck you i thought it would be funny. its pretty ok shounen. needs more homoeroticism though

Kemono jihen

Its a fun read and i like a lot of the character designs. It holds me pretty solidly at least

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

Dramaid is watching someone with immense talent at writing domestic slice of life work REALLY hard at learning how to draw tits

The vampire dies in no time

I thought this was gonna be yaoi but instead its nothing but pathetic characters i absolutely love. Really good stuff

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete

This is an arguably porn read but is fun and is fucked up yuri so am i really at fault for reading it?

Mieruko-chan

How is this not more popular. Great concept. Really striking art. Solid writing. I barely see anyone talk about it. Might be due to the really uninteresting anime adaptation

My hero academia

i just want to see this train crash

Natsume Yuujinchou

I love the show and the mangas no exception. Really enjoyable and yuki midorikawa's style is pleasant on the eyes

Noss and Zakuro

this is insanely cute on every level. you agree.

One piece

Its fucking real lads

One Punch Man (webcomic)

Welcome to gremlintown (we got an update :D)

One Punch Man (Manga)

thank god were free from garou arc

Onimai

goated.

Oshi ni Amagami

i like my funny vampire stories and this is a fun vampire neet one

Oshi no ko

i am committed to this idc about the outcome

Ousama Ranking

IMPLYING ANYONE EVER DOES 70-155 LMAO SORRY I LIKE READING THE MANGA cant believe you made me watch the anime. tl the missing chapters please

Please Give Me Your Blood, I Will Serve You In Gratitude

Miriam "Trashy Vampire Manga Fan" Undertale

Record of Ragnarok

i needed something trashy and fun and this does it

Rent a Girlfriend

my least defensible read. its garbage. i hate it. its horrible trash and i read it purely out of some weird revival of the author attempt to understand miyajima innately and emotionally through his work

Sakamoto days

Im sorry it took me this long to hop on. I wasn't familiar with your game.

Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi

This manga gives me severe dysphoria and yet i keep reading it. well not rly because its kinda gotten mega boring

Shingeki no Eroko-san ~Hen na Oneesan wa Danshikousei to Nakayoku Naritai~

Continuing her streak of having the biggest mind ever, yoshiru konogi pops off with the manga targeted towards pathetic 30 year old women who want a high school boy to a massive degree

Shojo null

Art is cracked and the energy is utterly hogwild. I love the "no actually please torture your oppressors" vibe so far

SHY

im so happy im getting updates again. anime was good despite low budget. excited for s2 yes yes yes

Skip and loafer

The art style is so lovely and its a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the romance ive been reading lately

Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru

Its fun fuck you. The seasonals in 2022 had a great selection of source materials and bisque doll slams it out of the park

Sousou no Frieren

the severe nature of how much this goes will never be beat.

Spy x Family

Its good and thats Fine. no clue whats going on with the manga it feels like i get maybe an update every 5 months

The Dungeon That Kills All Adventurers

another dowman sayman banger who could have predicted this

To Your Eternity

TYE is enjoyable though i think its kinda suffering from jojofication. i think it deserves an ending soon

Usuzumi no Hate

i refuse to believe this is this mangakas first work. this is fucking incredible. gorgeously drawn with an incredible concept. read now

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

the type of peak that could only exist to those willing to brave their own doubts. a work of art that will only exist for those strong enough to resist their hearts saying "cringe"

The Case Study of Vanitas

who could have predicted gay vampires are good

VERSUS

Why are we once again in a world where people are not translating kino by one

Vinland Saga

Man this grew on me fast. I picked it up not expecting a lot and got the world with it

Witch Hat Atelier

At this point it feels like im very obviously drawn to pretty stuff but honestly its a really good read. Qifrey and olruggio should kiss already

Yorashi Ni warau

I cannot get over the art still, fucking gorgeous, the story hasnt really gotten stuck in my craw like some other things but the art genuinely makes up for it

Yotsuba

Yotsuba is one of the mangas of all time

zom 100

this is one of those "i saw the start of a genre trending and assumed one of the main firestarters would be bad" stories and im glad i was wrong. it's very charming in a kinda fun childish way

#miri post #big and long im SORRY I READ TOO MUCH SHIT #if you want specific recs u can dm me or just read call of the night #in fact read call of the night

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dollar-store-apocrypha · 2 years

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Nerevar and the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant by Varanu

fandom || Morrowind rating || T categories || m/m pairings || Indoril Nerevar/Vivec genre || humour, crack characters of note || Indoril Nerevar, Vivec status || 1/1, 3.5k

Vivec goes to kill the fifth of his children, the Ruddy Man. In a manner of speaking. In another, more usual manner of speaking, he goes out drinking with Nerevar in an all-night seafood restaurant/bar in Nova Orsinium. Nerevar is not sure he is okay with this.

"This is just weird enough that Kirkbride would probably declare it canon." -- Afterword

"I think about this fic a lot. God bless you for writing this, you beautiful soul." -- aussieosbourne

"I've been working on this title almost five years. We have almost 40,000 named NPCs [characters] in the game and nearly every one of them has something to say to you, and so it's important we understand where they come from. What's their culture? What's their society? Much do they pay for seafood? Who are these people? They're not generic fantasy people; they are very specific to the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant in Nova Orsinium. The books are my particular concern, especially Nerevar and the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant. I've written almost 200 of them, but Nerevar and the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant wasn't one of them, that was written by Varanu, who is beautiful and clever. There are a whole lot of other books that were written because I said to someone on the writing team [that they] need a book on this, this, and this. For instance, a thing I said to Varanu was "we need a book on Nerevar and Vivec going to a seafood restaurant in Nova Orsinium somehow, and no one else on the team is skilled or intelligent enough to write it, kiddo. Every zone has a book budget for the lore books, either general about the region; or specific, about a point of interest, or a $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant. And then there are plenty of single-purpose books that are quest related, such Nerevar and the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant, which is related to the upcoming adventure zone, wherein Vivec (and his pal, Sotha Sil) take you to the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant for some drinking together, in a gay way (it doesn't matter what gender you are, Vivec is gay for all genders). A book budget, you ask? Yes. Budget in that there must be a certain number of lore books in a $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant to provide context for the area. Every design team has a writer-designer attached to it who is responsible for storytelling. Those writer-designers typically write the lore books for the $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurants. [...] In most cases I have a look at them at some point -- especially if they have some sort of broad lore concern, like Nerevar and Vivec going to a $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Seafood Restaurant I need to look at it to make sure we're on the same page, which we usually are if the writer is Varanu, because she's very attractive and knows a lot about lore and also sex and marine biology." -- Loremaster Lawrence Shick

#tes #the elder scrolls #morrowind #morrowind fanfiction #fic recs #one shot #mlm #according to the tags anyway #indoril nerevar #vivec

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krinsbez · 2 years

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Pulptober 2022, Themes Elaborated, Part 1

As I did last year, I’m gonna try to elaborate on what the Themes are for every day of Pulptober 2022, and provide some examples of alternate characters to use.

Since I was a fool and have been working to hard and almost forgot about this, I’m probably going to provide fewer examples, and will also probably do some guys more’n once.

Thanks to @maxwell-grant who helped me by providing some suggestions.

1- The Shadow/Mystery Man:

This one is relatively straightforward with; some Pulp Heroes we know exactly what their deal is. We know their real name, we know the origins of their skills and/or powers, any, we know why they do what they do. And there’s these guys, who, as the names suggests, are mystery men. All we get are vague hints, some of which are revealed or implied to be lies or misdirections or mistakes. We may eventually get the whole story, but not for awhile. Some other examples: Lobster Johnson, Greyshirt*. I was tempted to include Wolverine, but he’s unfortunately too superhero-y too count, I think, but then again YMMV.

2- Doc Savage/Larger Than Life:

Another straightforward one. Most Pulp Heroes are elite athletes and perfect physical specimens, but these guys take a step further; they are visibly huge, man-mountains who tower over others. Tom Strong, Brock Sampson+*

3- The Green Hornet and Kato/Pulp From Outside Pulp:

Again, straightforward. Pulp Heroes who aren’t from the Pulps. Honestly, the difficulty is narrowing it down to 2-3. The Clock+*, Fantomah+

4- Imaro/Heroes In Color

Another straightforward category, which sadly shouldn’t exist, but since the genre was born in the first half of the 20th Century, most Pulp Heroes are white as snow, making the ones that aren’t stand out like sore thumbs. Dossouye*+, Charlie Chan, Turok*

5-Tarzan/Lord of the Jungle

Man this Part is all straightforward, yeah? Exactly what it says on the tin, folks. Ka-Zar, Felifax+

That’s this portion, hopefully more later today, if not hopefully in a few days after Rosh Hashana.

+Provided by @maxwell-grant

*I have not consumed a lot source material.

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razilee-blog · 16 days

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Geek corner (favorites)

Helloo everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Today I decided to tell more about myself, especially what my personal favorites are. So this blog will be just a simple one. And maybe you guys might have the same interests as me!

MUSIC

Let’s start off with this category. I’m kind of a person that listens to almost any genre as long as I kinda vibe with the beat of the music. Although I mainly listen to pop, r&b and a bit of rap, my playlist still has a few other genre variations.

The whole “Born to Die” album, and its series of multiple versions, of Lana Del Rey has been a long time personal favorite of mine. The album was released in the year 2012 which has over 12 songs in total. However there are also different versions of the said album and those are the Deluxe Version, The Paradise Edition, and the Paradise Edition (Special Version). The songs are mostly the same in every version of the album with just a couple of new songs added to different versions.

Even though the album was released back in 2012, I wasn’t able to discover Lana Del Rey and her music until the year 2018. But ever since then she has been one of my favorite artists and I have a long streak of stream history on a streaming platform of the album.

Another top favorite of mine is the trilogy album of Melanie Martinez which comprises the ‘Cry Baby’ album, the ‘K-12’ album, and the ‘Portals’ album. She started the trilogy in the year 2015 and the last album was released back in March 2023. Every song in each of her albums is heavily filled with lore. She uses her artistry in music to tell a fantasy story. In which the story follows a main character, named “Cry Baby”, in her journey of life when she was born then as she started school in the ‘K-12’ album up until her death and entry in the afterlife on the last album.

With her trilogy album being completed last year, Melanie Martinez is now currently on a trilogy world tour. She will be going on a hiatus after the tour and will return back with a whole new era, putting an end to the Cry Baby series.

VIDEO GAMES

During the pandemic years I have been more active with video games. At first I was only playing mobile games since it was more accessible and compatible with the device that I had back then. However I gained access to PC video games which gave me the chance to try out the games that I used to only watch from other players online and my friends.

Valorant is a first-person shooter game that requires precise aim and tactical skills. The game recently released a new agent named “Clove” after the Valorant Champions Tour 2024: Masters Madrid which was held last April. The agent is a non-binary Scottish and ever since I was able to obtain them in the game they became my main agent to use. But personally I have a love-hate relationship with this game. There are times when I have a good time playing the game especially with my friends, and times when I would have a bad time because of the game.

Minecraft is an old game that’s been existing for over a decade now and I have played the game when it was still only a few years old. It’s a game full of adventure with acquiring and making materials to progress in the game. And it really kinda depends on how a player would approach the gameplay. There are some that just want to keep it simple and cozy and others make more daring and risky adventures in the game. After a lot of years of not playing the game, I went back to Minecraft like 5 months ago when my friends and I decided to have a multiplayer server and play together. We have been playing together since then and we all have fun in creating our world in the game.

Those have been some of the couple things that are my favorite in music and in games.

Signing out, Aira Razilee

#lana del rey #born to die #melanie martinez #littlebodybigheart #k 12 melanie martinez #portals melanie martinez #valorant #clove valorant #minecraft #music #gaming #video games

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nostragames · 6 months

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Explore and engage with nostra game streaming platform

Nostra, an online gaming platform integrated into Glance, a consumer technology company, said that it had over 75 million active monthly users via the Glance lock screen. Of the total, 25 million are regular monthly participants in live game streaming and esports competitions. Nostra hopes to achieve 200 million monthly active users globally by 2024 by branching out to additional device surfaces. In addition to allowing users to participate and watch games, the division hopes to establish a central hub where users can interact with and compete against other players. Nostra game streaming platform aims to offer immersive and interactive formats.

The company plans to increase the number of instant and Android games it offers to over 1,000 by adding 600 new titles across 15 categories. According to the company, users don't need to download anything in order to play the platform's instant games directly from the lock screen.

Numerous other free-to-play games are available on Nostra

Over 82 million gamers were energetic at the nostra game streaming platform each month, which accounts for almost 25% of the 430 million cell game enthusiasts in India. A clever lock display that comes pre-installed on a whole lot of Android handsets is referred to as Glance, and it consists of the gaming platform Nostra. Through their lock screen, clients can also access a huge sort of unfastened-to-play games from Nostra while not having to unlock their devices. According to its 2023 gaming tendencies record, the platform's user base increased with the aid of 30% within the first half of 2023. With more than 500 video games in various genres and classes, Nostra gives live broadcasting of gaming tournaments (E-sports), online video games, instantaneous video games, and gaming tournaments. E-sports and the rise in sport streaming, in keeping with the studies, have been the primary drivers of Nostra's expansion. Users extensively tripled the amount of time they spent streaming video games. A similar threefold surge was seen within the everyday lively person base for stay-streaming gaming occasions.

According to the Nostra research, 24% of customers are between the ages of 25 and 34, 26% are 35 or older, and 49% of customers are between the ages of 18 and 24. The survey categorizes gamers into 3 groups: achievers who usually play on the weekends, skill seekers who intend to improve their talents through frequent exercise, and brainiacs who search for mental stimulation. Nostra intends to release six hundred new video games in 15 classes rapidly, including instantaneous and Android games. To guide those goals, the business hopes to work with studios and sport creators worldwide. The Nostra gaming platform intends to develop into Latin America, the US, Japan, and Indonesia.

What steps is Nostra taking to meet the growing call for esports in the kingdom?

Nostra has made numerous contributions to the growth of the Indian esports marketplace. This includes selling both domestic and global content, conserving essential competitions, and putting in place a stable environment in which groups and gamers may also compete and broaden a career in the enterprise of games.The nostra game streaming platform is giving game developers and streamers a platform to publish games that are newly created. It can be played by hundreds of thousands of humans using the unique strength of Lock Screen. It is growing rapidly and inspiring younger humans to pursue gaming as a career. Large-scale livestream tournaments are being held every day, opening doors for sponsors and traders and allowing gamers and groups to compete on a professional level.

Nostra showed that the number of daily active users for live streaming had increased thrice in 2023, as had the amount of time consumers spent streaming games.So, nostra online games and live streaming have emerged as Nostra's fastest-growing category, with over 25 million active monthly users.

Lastly, our distinctive highbrow properties, like Nostra Gaming Week, Jung-e-Glance, and Glance College Battlegrounds, are the only ones inside the country proper now that offer professional and amateur game enthusiasts the danger to collaborate, examine and improve their abilities, and pursue careers on this expanding quarter. The range of beginner members registered for Nostra Gaming Week climbed from 1,700 to 4,100 in season 1 and season 2. Comparably, about one hundred fifty establishments took part in Glance College Battlegrounds during its inaugural season alone. This demonstrates the potential and hobby in our country.

Conclusion

Nostra is constructing the biggest loose-to-play gaming platform in the world, supported via its discovery tool and contemporary distribution method through the Glance smart lock screen and different clever surfaces. Millions of users in the course of Asia have reacted definitely to the seamless discovery, the extensive range of wealthy gaming stories, and the capacity for users to certainly browse and have interaction with nostra online games at the Lock Screen while not having to liberate.

#nostra #nostra online games #nostra game #nostra game streaming platform #mobile lockscreen games #lockscreen game

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colonyblock7 · 2 years

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How to Make Your Kindle Short Reads More Popular

The Kindle Short Reads category is one of the most competitive categories on Amazon. In general, it's the most competitive category because it contains the greatest percentage of poor quality stories, and the glut of stories that cater to particular tastes. Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can make your short reads more popular. Here are a few tips: - Keep them short! - And remember to give them an honest review. Kindle Short Reads are short, engaging eBooks that can be enjoyed by almost anyone. Unlike traditional books, they have minimal page length and can be read in fifteen minutes to two hours. Depending on the genre, a Kindle Short is an excellent option for those looking for a quick read. The Amazon website provides a list of recommended Kindle short stories, which can range from one page to 100 pages. While it might seem like a lot, you can finish one of these in 15 minutes or less. Amazon's Short Reads are lists of books for the Kindle, sorted by page length and estimated time of reading. Despite the short-length format, this market is highly competitive, and you must know what you're doing to succeed. As an author, you'll need to know the market structure and the number of similar books and sub-categories that are already performing well. The Kindle Short Reads & Story Seminar can provide you with the information you need to be successful. If you're an author and are looking to sell your own short stories, Kindle Short Reads are an excellent choice. Most of these short stories are only fifteen minutes long, and you can finish them in less than an hour. As a result, Kindle Short Reads are a great way to increase your readership. If you want to find a short story for Kindle, be sure to check out Kindle's Short Story seminar. You'll be able to learn more about the market structure and which books are a good fit for a particular genre. Short Reads are Amazon's bestsellers. They are categorized by page length and estimated time of reading. The best-selling short stories are those that have high word counts, but the ones that have the most potential aren't necessarily the most popular. So, make sure to make your Kindle books as compelling as possible! If you're a publisher or author, try to choose a genre that works for your audience and your budget. In a Kindle Short Reads category, there are hundreds of different types of books available. These can be one-page novels or a few hundred-page novels. They're typically shorter than traditional books, and you'll have to read them in a short amount of time to be successful. You can also read an eBook that's only one chapter, or a whole series. Some genres have a few chapters, while others are longer. While the number of words per page can vary, the length of a Kindle Short Read can be anywhere from 25k words to several thousand. This is the perfect size for an ebook if you're trying to squeeze as much content as possible in as little space as possible. Moreover, you can use it to test your writing skills, too. You can try out Kindle Short Reads in the Kindle store. There are several kinds of Kindle Short Reads available for sale in the e-bookstore. There are many different types of Kindle Short Reads. You can find a book of any genre that interests you. The average length of a Kindle Short Read is between 15 minutes and two hours. This means that if you can read it in less than an hour, you can easily get a lot of content from it. And if you're not a fast reader, you can still read a novel as a short Kindle Short Read. The Kindle Short Reads category is a great place to find a short story that you'll love. The books are typically one hundred pages long and can range from fifteen minutes to two hours. If you're looking for a fun read, try a Kindle Short Read - it's a great way to make your next book more popular on Amazon! The Kindle Short Reads category is incredibly competitive! However, you should consider the broader market and see where you can sell your book.

#lactose intolerance ebook #The Inheritance of Lactose Intolerance #Kindle Short Reads #Lactose Intolerance

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writingquestionsanswered · 2 years

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Hi! I enjoy writing sci-fi and fantasy novels. I've never tried to publish any of them. However, now I'm considering trying to go pro, so I'd like to improve my skills. I've read the classics (Anatomy of a Story, Fantasy Fiction Formula and alike) and also found other good resources, as Brandon Sanderson's Youtube lectures. Do you know of other resources I should be checking, even if they're not specific for sci-fi/fantasy? (Sorry if this has many mistakes, my English is barely decent).

10 Resources for Improving Writing Skills

(Quick side note: your English is great! ♥)

Specific Recommendations:

1. The Emotion Thesaurus and others by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. This set of books so far covers everything from emotions and positive/negative traits to conflict and setting. Do a flip-through on Amazon to see if it's something you'd find helpful, but a lot of writers find them to be an invaluable resource. Especially The Emotion Thesaurus since it helps you with internal and external depictions of emotion.

2. Random House Word Menu. This book (along with The Describer's Dictonary and others) helps you locate words related to specific topics. For example, if you're trying to describe the weather, you go to the weather section and will find a whole bunch of weather-related words that can level up your description.

3. The Mood Guide to Fabric and Fashion. If you tend to include a lot of clothing and fabric descriptions, this guide is really helpful. Not only can it help you identify the fabric you're imagining, it tells you important things about the fabric (like how it's used) which can make a difference in your description.

4. The Elements of Writing by Strunk and White. Every writer should probably have a copy of this book handy. It's super helpful when you're not 100% sure about a particular punctuation use.

5. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty. This is another great resource for looking up grammatical questions. But you can always go straight to her blog/web site, too.

General Recommendations:

6. Books About Writing. There are zillions of books out there about writing method and process, and different ones work for different people, so the category is much too broad for recommending specific ones to people you don't know. However, anything that's recommended by writers or writing bloggers/vloggers you like are worth looking into. You can also find general recommendation lists. Just remember that most writing advice, method, structure, process, etc. is flexible. Learn about it and use what works for you.

7. Books About Genre. Of course, if you write in a specific genre, you will probably want to read books specific to method and process typical in the genre. Favorite genre writers/bloggers/vloggers and general lists are good sources here, too.

8. Genre Resource Books. There are so many good resource books for various genres. There are books dedicated to portraying accurate details for different eras and settings, books about clothing in different eras, books about survival skills and edible plants... any books like that are great resources for writers, depending on what you write.

9. YouTube Videos. There's honestly no better resource for writers than YouTube, because not only can you find documentaries on just about every topic under the sun, you can find videos that explain everything from gutting a fish to baking a medieval hand pie to how to dress a woman in the 14th century. It's also an amazing resource for researching setting or inspiration setting. For example, if you're writing a Dune-like fantasy set on a planet modeled after the Andalusia region of Spain, you can watch videos about Andalusia as well as sightseeing videos showing different areas, hikes through the wilderness, aerial videos of various areas, etc.

10. Google Street View. Google Earth and Google Street View are another great way to research setting/inspiration setting. Let's say your story is set during the California gold rush in a town that's no longer there. You can look up where it was on Google Earth/Maps and drag the Street View icon around to find areas that have street view, then "walk around" the area to get a ground view of the surroundings. It really helps you imagine your setting.

Have fun with your writing! ♥

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Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions!

#writing #writers #writeblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing resources #writing help #writing advice #writing tips #writer tips #wqaadvice

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astaroth1357 · 3 years

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request: an MC thats very good w playing games or like,,, is proficiently skilled in all game categories or smrhn

alsp hi xander i love ur writing

and can i giv u a kith? if so: mwah 😚

Well I hate to tell ya, sweetie, but I’m not Xander. I’m Jazzy. Hello! I can see why you’d want something written by Xander, though. He’s mad talented (better at this than I am quite frankly) and he’s on the list of people I wish I could write as well as. I guess we can both take a moment to be sad that I’m not Xander… *sigh*... to be Xander… 😔

Oh well, I am who I am and I don’t begrudge that fact. Meanwhile, I’ve wanted to do more shout-outs so everybody go read @sevendeadlymorons! If you’re not… I mean… why not? He’s more than worth your time. In the meantime, I hope I can entertain you despite my not-Xanderness.

Brothers React to an MC Who’s Good at Games and Stuff

Lucifer

Honestly couldn’t care less about the MC’s game proficiency in most cases. So they’re good at games? Good for them, he’s sure they’re happy.

But when they’re playing against him on the other hand…

Well, Lucifer may or may not be skilled at whatever game you set him on (he’s a very quick learner so never underestimate him), but he’s whole new levels of competitive when he wants to be. ESPECIALLY if he already thinks he’s hot shit at something.

Video games? Not his forte. Table top games? One word for you: Chess.

Lucifer believes that he can and will whip pretty much anyone’s ass in chess. That includes Satan, Solomon, Levi, and even Diavolo. He is at grandmaster level.

So imagine his shock, no, his disdain to have lost a game of chess to the MC… The moment they said "Checkmate" he stared at the board in front of them for a solid five minutes trying to work out where he went wrong…

And he wasn’t having that.

He and the MC now have regular chess matches in which he wins some and loses some so the tally stays pretty evenly tied. Really it’s all good fun... (but if they think he’s going to let them go home when he’s on a losing count, they’re Dead. Wrong. He’ll drag them back to down just to play chess with him until the score is right again. He DOES NOT lose, you hear? 🤨).

Mammon

Guess who’s found his gambling buddy??

No, really. He and the MC can make a KILLING at a Poker or Blackjack table! He’s never seen anyone better at poker than they are!! They have nerves of steel and give nothing away, so he’s lost more than a few hands to them before...

Even past the casinos, they’re perfect for making bets on! He once arranged a Devil Cart competition between the MC and Levi and took bets around RAD for who’d win...

Naturally, everybody assumed the Devildom’s resident Super-Otaku would win hands down, but the MC had this insane last minute save with a blue shell and pulled ahead in the last lap!!

He was like, the only person that bet on the MC and he got soooo much money that MC found HIM crying and hugging a bag of Grimm after the match…

Any time they win a game that gets him money, he’ll treat them like royalty for the next week. Man knows not to bite the hand that feeds him!... and creditors at bay... 😬

It may get slightly annoying that Mammon won't stop telling them about gaming competitions where they can get him more prize money, but hey, at least he's supportive, I guess.

Leviathan

Oh they are either his best friend or mortal enemy… Sometimes both in the same day.

Our boy hates losing, can't stand it any better than Lucifer, you KNOW the second he knows there's someone out there who even has a chance of beating him, he gets serious. This is not a "friendly rivalry," MC.

When they’re playing any game against each other, he'll call them by their gamertag/online persona to keep himself focused (yes, even if they’re playing Monopoly). They can't be his MC right now, they gotta be the person he's going to beat...

He's NOT opposed to dirty tactics to win, either. Saying things that will get them mad or flustered mid-match? Check. Using his tail to distract or tease them? Check. Just being a general nuisance/annoyance in game for the hell of it? Guilty as charged!

He's both a sore winner AND a sore loser, so unfortunately MC, you really can't win here... He'll be obnoxious regardless of the outcome.

However… when they’re on the same team, it's really something special. They don't just destroy the competition, they bulldoze over them like an armored tank barreling through rush hour traffic!

These two are legends in the online gaming community and have even started a streaming channel on the side. Sometimes your worst enemies also make the best allies... Who knew? 🤷‍♀️

Satan

Is surprisingly impressed by their gaming prowess. Are they just supremely skilled or incredibly lucky, you think…?

That being said, he's not the biggest gaming man on the planet so he's not too competitive with them one way or the other.

When Satan plays a video game, he usually goes for story-based, single-person experiences anyway so it's not like he could compete with them even if he wanted to.

That being said, they do share an informal challenge of sorts when it comes to puzzle/detective games (a not so guilty pleasure of his). He likes to try and beat the levels first, so when they start playing a new one they'll both compare time spent and scores.

He even enjoys playing those Devildom-style AR murder mystery games with them! It’s pretty cute to watch Satan get into it, he dips into his inner Levi and cosplays as some of his favorite TV drama detectives for the occasion and insists they dress as his co-star (best just go along with him. It’s not a bad time, even if they have to carry around an old tobacco pipe for a few hours).

Asmodeus

Good at games? That sounds dangerously like they're another Levi… 🙄 What about party games? Oh oh, or drinking games??

Actually scratch that. How about ANY game while drunk? That sounds pretty fun doesn’t it??

Like Drunk Truth or Dare!! Oh that's a favorite of his… 🤭

To be fair to the MC, the booze does diminish their skills somewhat (because that's kind of what it does in general) but not by all that much… It's pretty impressive.

He once challenged them to a game of Drunk Twister figuring that they'd be too unsteady to actually win for once, but no. If anything, the alcohol must have numbed the stretching pains because they bent over him like a pretzel!

Not that he was complaining or anything… 😏

He likes to take the MC to parties where he knows a game or two will be played just to show off to the crowd and brag that they’re HIS lovely, talented human! You go, MC, beat that competition to a pulp! 😌

Beelzebub

Sports count as games too, right? Well, they aren't half bad at those either.

Beel found it surprising that he found a human who could actually keep up with him. His brothers rarely want to play practice games with him anyway so it’s pretty exciting to have a sports partner at home!

He likes to ask the MC to help him train with practice matches or to go over certain moves or maneuvers he’s having trouble with. It’s not uncommon for the brothers to come home and find the two of them tossing a ball around in the front yard or something.

And the both of them on the same team? Forget it. It takes the dream team of Lucifer and Mammon (who aren’t just arguing with each other for once) to even come close to a challenge for them.

He also enjoys playing the occasional video game with them, though he treats it a lot like playing with Levi and just assumes he’ll never win unless he gets lucky - which does happen from time to time.

He doesn’t mind losing that much as long as he’s having fun, and if nothing else he can always win against them in an eating contest… He’s got those on lockdown. Come at’em MC, he’ll pack away an entire fridge before you’re done with your first plate. Try him.

Belphegor

So Belphie enjoys a good game or two - video-based or otherwise - it comes with the lazy-bastard territory. He may not be as skilled as Levi, but he can hold his own in some genres.

But he’s given up on beating the MC looong ago.

Do you know how much practice it would take? How many hours that he would have to use?? The hours where he could be napping instead??? Yeah, no thanks. They can continue to be the reigning Super Smash Devils champion for all he cares.

Buuuut even he has to admit, it’s pretty relaxing to watch the MC play something in the background... There’s a certain sort of satisfaction to watching someone who’s good at a game just play it straight through.

If they’re set up in Levi’s room or the Common area then Belphie may come over, set his pillow up on the floor, and watch them play. He may even throw in a comment or two like, “You missed a health pack,” or “Better save now,” but other than that he likes to just let them do their thing.

The MC has had many an all-nighter with Belphie spectating until about 4am or so. Then he’s dead to the world and they have to work out how to get his not-exactly-light demon ass onto a couch…

Or they can just leave him faceplanted and snoring on the floor. Up to them, really cause he did it to himself. 🤷‍♀️

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me requests #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons

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slightlyrebelliouswriter23 · 3 years

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Writing smut without cringing the whole time? How do you do it.

Writing Smut 101: Overcoming Smut Shame

CONTENT WARNING: NSFW RELATED CONTENT BELOW.

The short answer, nonnie, is: you don’t.

That is to say, writing smut is always kind of cringe—especially if you’re new to it, or simply “not in the mood” to write.

But rest assured, feeling embarrassed is completely natural. The trick is learning how to overcome the cringe when it does happen, instead of letting it deter you.

I’m going to break this up into a few sections: 1) Why you might be feeling this way, 2) How I, personally, combat the issue, and 3) Some more tips that might help you get the ball rolling.

1. Why You “Cringe”

It’s important to find the root cause of any form of writer’s block so you can pull the weed out instead of just trimming it back. Smut writer’s block is its own special brand, and generally, the main issue writers have when it comes to smut is stigma.

Speaking openly and honestly about sex, in Western society, is still very much a taboo.

No matter how “progressive” we like to think we are, the inherent shame surrounding pleasure-seeking experiences, and the detailing/consumption of them, has been ground into us since we learned how to understand the concept of gratification.

And I’m not just talking about sexual gratification. This applies to everyday things, as well. Eating, shopping, relaxing (or doing virtually anything in capitalist society that does not directly contribute to capitalism).

So it makes sense that you would feel any amount of embarrassment, awkwardness, or “cringe” when writing smut. It’s something our society teaches us is wrong to want. Unfortunately, that shame translates to writer’s block when we sit down in front of the computer.

A lot of this blockage might stem from not giving ourselves permission to write the thing.

We’re staring at the blank document, knowing we want to write smut, and suddenly the thoughts start streaming in: This feels wrong, is this wrong? What if someone comes in and looks over my shoulder while I’m writing? Am I describing this right? Is this too unrealistic? I have NO idea what I’m doing, and everyone is going to know it.

These are all perfectly normal thoughts, and definitely ones I still have from time to time. But they’re also probably the direct cause of why you feel so blocked. Luckily, I have some bits of advice to give you on how to unblock yourself.

2. How I Combat Smut Block

✦ First, when the intrusive thoughts occur, instead of ruminating on them, think of each one as an impermanent object. You can use any metaphor, but I like to use the imagery of leaves:

Each negative thought is a leaf floating down the river of your mind. If you focus only on the leaf, you’ll exert a lot of energy running to try and keep up with it, consequently miss everything else around you. But if you acknowledge that leaf as a temporary part of the scenery, and let is pass, you can process and appreciate the beauty of your surroundings a whole lot better.

Remember: you are separate from your thoughts. You are not defined by them. The things you think sound stupid might be incredibly exciting to someone else.

If you can string a sentence together, you can write smut. This is all part of giving yourself permission to write the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable.

✦ Second, I’d suggest giving good thought to how you personally experience embarrassment, how you experience excitement (of the sexual variety), and how those two might sometimes commingle or feel similar.

For me, they are very comparable, like different shades of the same emotion—but there are differences which are important to note.

If I’m making myself blush from excitement, this is a very good thing for writing smut. It means that what I’m writing feels real enough to evoke something in the reader, even if the reader, like me, knows what’s going to happen.

If I’m making myself cringe, however, it may be time to take a step back and readjust my perspective.

✦ Third, ease yourself into it! Don’t jump straight in the deep end and expect to know how to keep your head above water if you’ve never swum before.

The way I eased myself into smut was first by writing “Steam”—a category of fic I made up because the current vocabulary lacked an efficient term for fics that straddled emotional romance and explicit content.

Essentially, steam is smut-adjacent but not explicit, and here’s a step-by-step example of how I transitioned myself smoothly from one genre to the next:

I first wrote my fics Wicked Game and You Are (both of which feature either a heavy make out session or teasing + lots of sexual tension) with this “steam” concept in mind.

I wrote the first chapter of Fine Line, which has brief but explicit descriptions of fantasies, framed by a very sexually charged scene.

I released my fic Crashing, which is probably more of a bridge between Steam and Smut, and features soft-focus fingering. Nothing in it is explicit—it focuses more on the emotions than explicit detail—but it’s very clear what is happening.

After I wrote those, I felt just confident enough to make that final stride over the threshold into smut. I wrote my fics Holy, King, and the second chapter of Fine Line all within weeks of each other.

And trust me when I say, once you get the momentum going and receive that validation from people who’ve read your work, it becomes SO much easier to sit down and start writing.

You just have to finish that first piece.

✦ Finally (and I know I’m going to sound cliche when I say this), just like any other skill, the more you practice the more confident you will feel and the better you will get.

So practice, practice, practice!

If you’re nervous about posting smut for the first time, have a trusted friend/mutual Beta read it for you. It’s the online equivalent to someone holding your hand before jumping off the cliff, and works wonders for the nerves.

3. Keep The Smut Rolling

Now that you have some tools to help get you past the blockage of writing smut, here’s how to keep the inspiration flowing.

✦ Start by incorporating smutty fanfiction/erotic fiction into your regular reading rotation-

Of course AO3 is a fantastic resource for smutty fanfiction.

If you’re a fan of TFOTA or ACOTAR and want some of my personal fic recs, visit my fic rec masterlist.

In terms of erotic fiction, my personal favourites are anything Anais Nin (specifically Henry & June and Delta of Venus), The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone, The Godwicks series by Tiffany Reisz, and The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz.

There are also sites like Literotica and sexstories.com, which play host to explicit short fiction (not fandom based).

✦ Next, I’d recommend having a designated digital space for smutspiration-

This can be a list of “smutty” words/phrases kept on a separate document on your computer, for those days when you just can’t think of the right way to describe something.

Or you can create a private side-blog or Pinterest board for your favourite smutty fanart or other kinds of visual smutspiration.

✦ For that matter, try following some smutty/18+ blogs (ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+) here on Tumblr-

Many of them have a plethora of what I like to call “lemony snippets”, a.k.a. short text posts that describe (usually in conversational language) explicit scenarios.

This is useful because it will normalise the concept of sexual fantasies in your brain, making it less weird for you when you try to come up with ones of your own to write into smut.

Not to mention, your dash will be rife with inspiration.

✦ I would also suggest checking out 18+ ASMR on YouTube (AGAIN, ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+).

My favourite account is Professor Cal Official, but Auralescent also has some good content.

Headphones are highly advisable for this, as their stuff is very dangerous for work.

So, nonnie, I hope this has provided you with at least one helpful tip. Whether you took anything away from this or not, just know that the feelings of embarrassment when it comes to writing smut are entirely normal. And the best way to keep those feelings at bay is to confront them head on.

-Em 🖤🗡

Writing Advice Masterlist

Writing Masterlist

2K Celebration!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #smut #fanfic #writeblr #ao3 #writer things #em's 2k celebration #smut 101: overcoming smut shame #fluff #angst #writer's problems #asked and answered #em answers #nonnie #anonymous smut cringe

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