#this was addressed like a question to the writer rather than to the characters so ive answered it as such

[ask-cueball]

Hi there. I've known about this blog for a while now, when I was looking on Tumblr for posts about Tribot. I haven't been following the overall plot of this blog, but I'm curious to know if you've ever considered utilizing Conebot in some capacity.

Hi!! Sorry for the radio silence on this blog, I've had a lot going on, plus with recent rumors I really gotta focus on protecting my old art instead of posting new stuff unfortunately.

To answer your question, I have indeed considered! However, I'll only ever add a new character, especially a new shapebot (as they're very clearly not mass-produced like say, an Egg Pawn) if I find a way to bring them in and keep them in a way that's plot relevant and engaging, as I don't want a flood of characters who are just here for no reason and don't push the plot forward in any way. So as of right now I won't confirm or deny the inclusion of any other shapebots, be them canon (e.g. Conebot, Cubot Prototypes) or my own OCs, but the other lesser-known shapebots have not been forgot about :) Thanks for the question!

#this was addressed like a question to the writer rather than to the characters so ive answered it as such #answered #pabsterthelobster #ooc #behind the bots

[feeder86]

Feeder 86: The Top Ten

Can you believe that the Feeder86 ‘Orginal Gainer Stories’ blog will soon be posting the two hundredth story? I thought of many ways to celebrate. But then I stopped and realised that I would probably be best using the time to address one of the questions I get asked about most frequently. Which of the stories do I personally like the most?

This was not an easy list to make as I very rarely go back to re-read my own work after I have finished editing and posting them. This is not because I do not like them, but because I always see bits that I want to change. Nevertheless, this project was the perfect opportunity to revisit a few oldies that I remember being very proud of at the time. 

Hopefully you will see this list for what it is: a glimpse into how I write, my motivations and drive; rather than just a self indulgent pat on the back for myself. Yuck!

So, with that being said, let us begin...

#10 The Feeders’ Formula: This tale certainly had to be placed into the list. After all, it is the one that kicked off ‘Original Gainer Stories’ all those years ago. There are many amazing examples of instant body weight transformation stories out there. I felt that I needed to write this one as my contribution to the genre. It went down well at the time. I swiftly wrote a Part Two, then followed it up with others (The Feeders’ Formation, The Feeders’ Formalities, The Feeders’ Foreclosure, The Feeders’ Forecast, The Feeders’ Former Years), becoming something of an ongoing saga in recent years; focusing on the different Feeders from that very first meeting. As a writer who sometimes struggles to find the ending, these are wonderful to write as they all have the same inevitable conclusion. There is also so much freedom to be had when you’re working with characters who are pretty much pure evil. I know so much more about the Feeders than I’ve ever written down, so it is great to tease out those little details with each new installment. The newest of these tales (The Feeders’ Foreplay) was the darkest yet, but seems to have provoked a very favourable reaction from many. Who knows what the Feeders may get up to next? I do! And you can find out too, once we start a whole new sweeps season of stories this April! Come with me into The Feeders' Fortress!

#9 Only One: Where do I start? Only One has my absolute favourite type of feeder. Ben is big, sexy and very in control. He’s one of those rare types of guys who always stays on top and is a step ahead of absoultely everyone he meets. Who wouldn’t fall for him? I certainly did! In fact, I loved him so much that I wrote an entire prequel for him (and none of you even noticed!) Check out Rewire if you want to see how Ben became the man we know and love.

#8 The Wright Boys: The idea of a weight gain that cannot be stopped or controlled is a tempting one for many. How much easier would it be if you didn’t have to second guess your choices or face the pressure to lose weight? This was the first tale of what I see as ‘The Curses’ saga that eventually bled into many other stories (including another one on this list!) and culminated in Wright vs Beckett. However, this story remains my personal favourite of these. If you’re a fan of looking for crossovers between my stories, these are some of the most explicitly linked. I followed it up with a spin-off tale (The Wright Boys: DNA), but continue to have ideas about how I could go back to these boys in the future. Watch this space.

#7 Making Monsters: The title of this story really does give away how I felt about it at the time. This is quite the saga, spread over into not just two, but three parts! It began as a story that was very similar to Blackmailed; a tale that I had written previously about a guy voyeristically enjoying seeing his friend fatten up her boyfriend. However, this story evolved even further for me, with Tommy’s love of eating and gaining weight being both his greatest love, and his biggest shame. His denial only heightened the tension for me, and, when he does eventually give in, the gains feel all the more satisfying as a result.

#6 The Pig Feed: It’s not easy to write a gainer story where there isn’t another character spurring the events along and encouraging things. In this tale however, that role is given to a very tasty and surprisingly addictive pig feed mixture that Steve gets himself hooked on. It’s a story that I really enjoyed writing and still feel very happy with. I have considered writing more stories around this interesting feed. However, I am yet to do so; deciding (for now at least) that things are perhaps best left as they are. But, feel free to let me know your thoughts on this.

#5 Farm Boy: Whether you grew up in a big city, or a small rural community, like Hayden in this story, we can all relate to having desires and attractions that those around us don’t understand. And, thanks to how well connected we are these days, we now know what it’s like to realise that you’re not actually alone, and the whirlwind of excited emotions that follow. I enjoyed writing this story because I, quite simply, fell completely in love with Hayden. As kinky as he was, he still retained that fresh faced innocence throughout. If any of my characters were destined to be together forever, I imagine that these two would be my top choice.

#4 Keeping a Crush: This is one of those stories that I wrote in a matter of hours, and I was so pleased with it when I was done. Getting the train to go to work is not necessarily something that many Americans have to do, and so the location had to be switched to the UK (quite refreshing, I thought!). For me, it’s one of those really rare instances where placing very solid restrictions on the structure of a story (In this case, having it all take place during the commute to and from work) and finding that it actually elevates the sexual tension and mood. All scenes take place in public settings. All conversations could, in theory, be overheard. These days, so many people meet online and flirt for weeks by messaging back and forth, before they even see each other for the first time. Nowadays, for better or for worse, the actual, real fantasy is finding a connection with someone you just see in the real world; perhaps with a person you literally just met on the way to work...

If you’ve not read this one, I really would highly recommend it.

#3 To the Max: Stories with a magical element to them are either loved or hated. However, I find that this tale walks that line very successfully. Ned gets his hands on a love potion and makes straight guy, Max, fall for him. I’m sure we’ve all been there with that fantasy! However, it is in the consequences of inviting someone into your life, someone that you actually know very little about, that the entire eroticism of this story is based. I won’t spoil it for those who have not read it, but believe me when I say that things soon start getting very interesting indeed…

#2 Tommy’s Two Hundred. Don’t recognise this one? Well, that's because none of you have read it yet. 

Now, I’m not just saying this because I want you all to come back for the two hundreth story, but this is genuinely one of my absolute favourites. For my big milestone stories in the past, I have written something specifically for that event (Wright vs Beckett, The Seven Feeders of Finn). However, this is just a tale that I adored writing and decided to hold back for you all, especially for this occasion. It’s a story of domination and submission within a fairly open, but very kinky, relationship. Strapping Hunter plays the part of a very controlling feeder, making me break many of my own rules and stretching my boundaries to the absolute limits. You’ll either love him, or you’ll hate him. That’s all I’m going to say…

Also, this story is going to be the first Feeder86 story that will be fully illustrated. It’s all thanks to the amazing talents of Spellwell9 who was given an advanced copy and asked to imagine the characters in four different scenes. I cannot wait for you to see this!

Put it in your diary. All will be revealed from Friday 5th April…

#1 F80 Control: This is perhaps a controvercial choice (especially as my #1). I have previously admitted that this story strays a little from its purpose of being a gainer story. In other words, I get very caught up in the background story that is being told. However, I feel that the science fiction genre is surprisingly underused in tales of weight gain. Yet, the combination of Aritificial Intelligence and submission seemed, to me, to be the perfect blend. It really is a beast of a story if you can follow it all the way through to its conclusion. 

With the advent of improved artificial intelligence software in recent years, I felt the time was right to develop the world further, with the addition of F80 Ctrl Alt Del; a spin-off tale set slightly before the main story. Then, unable to help myself, I followed this up again with another companion story, F80: Kidnap and Control. 

The reason I chose this universe as my favourite is because this is where I am happiest writing. With AI, I don’t need to consider the morality or motivations - I know exactly what their aims are and I can see multiple ways in which it will cause conflict with humanity (and their waistlines!) I would also love to write more for this world one day, and I even left a little unused subplot in the last story that I think would provide the perfect starting-off point for another chapter. Will I ever write it? Well, we’ll have to wait and see…

So, there you have it! The the complete list!

This was a much harder exercise than I expected when I first embarked upon it. Stories like: Jiggle the Jock, Meticulous, Rule Number One, Freaks, Leftovers I and II, Ethan: The Secret Feeder and, not fogetting The Consequences I, II and III all crept in and out of the list, unfortunatley missing out on the final cut. There are many, many others, of course. But this list cannot go on forever...

So, why not tell me which ones were your favourites? Feel free to write in the comments and post a link to any other stories that you have enjoyed from myself, or from other authors. Hopefully, if we all work together, this could become a great resource for people in the future, filled with signposts and reccommendations.  

Also, don’t forget the Feeder86 Contents page where you can find links and descriptions of all the 200 stories posted so far (as well as plot outlines for upcoming tales as well). Please continue to enjoy the vast catalogue of stories, and even have a go yourself! I love supporting the many new gainer fiction writers who contact me. So please do get in touch if you need advice, or to talk through your ideas. Let’s all encourage a whole new generation of people to get typing away! I’m sure you will cheer them on just as much as I will.

Thank you to everyone who supports the stories blog here on Tumblr. Keep checking in every Friday througout April for a whole new sweeps season to celebrate this milestone. Stories will include: Tommy's Two Hundred, Train for a Gain, The Feeders' Fortress and The 1% (a companion story to The 5%). For now, I thank you all for taking time out to sit and read the very bizarre tales that sprout from my mind. You are all wonderful.

Happy 200 stories!

Feeder86

#gainer fiction #gainer stories #gainerstory #gayfeeder #gainerfic #gainer story #gayfeedee #gay feedee #gainerstories

[cecilysass]

I always think the question with MSR isn’t so much who fell first or fell harder—mainly because I personally think it was pretty simultaneous / parallel—but rather who became self-aware about their feelings first.

In my take on this ship, they may well have gone years without fully admitting to themselves how they felt, or fully addressing the feelings head on. They were so distracted by the work and the Truth and the heady emotional power of Partnership and Trust. It was just really possible for them to stay in denial, these two characters in particular.

I tend to think Mulder faced the music first—that he was the first to accept the feelings weren’t platonic. Maybe I think that because he’s the believer, or he’s a doomed Romantic in a big R sense. I could see this realization coming as early as Scully’s abduction, but it could have been as late as Never Again or the cancer arc, too.

But I think @randomfoggytiger might argue it was Scully who understood her feelings first and waited for him to get his act together. I can be convinced of this, too, especially in fanfic. In The End, Scully has to have some awareness when she is stewing over Diana in that car. That could be her first realization, although it could have been earlier, too.

I listened to the XF Diaries podcast’s recent interview with Frank Spotnitz, and he talked about how he viewed Mulder and Scully in season 6 and the FTF near-kiss. He said they didn’t talk about it because they both thought it was something they shouldn’t have been doing. He said the show couldn’t spell it out for the audience because the characters didn’t have their own feelings figured out.

I thought that was striking, thinking about how all the way as late as season 6 the 1013 writers imagined them in this state of not fully realized feelings. I do get frustrated with this kind of talk because it seems so disembodied and unrealistic. I mean, six years, and they haven’t thought seriously about this?

But … also I admit to kind of liking this really repressed version of MSR. This version of MSR that just can’t get its shit together to admit what is happening. In other words, they aren’t exactly pining. They are more just in massive mutual denial. Fingers in ear, nah, nah, nah, I can’t hear you, no feelings here. That does make dialogue in season 6 episodes like Rain King and HTGSC and Milagro seem especially tense and loaded and fun.

And I do like fanfic that depicts them being forced to come out of denial; it’s much rarer than fanfic with one or both of them consciously pining. I mean, please. Do not mistake me. I like the pining fanfic very much, too, and I write it more. It’s just interesting to think about.

#meta #mulderandscully #MSR #x files #the x files #fox mulder #dana scully

[rosellemoon]

Well, I read Soman's post, and I have a few things to say.

First of all, fanfiction.

I'm not surprised to see another published author look down upon fanfiction, treating it as if all it's good for is providing new writers with training wheels. (Never mind the fact that writing someone else's characters is its own unique challenge!)

Fanfiction isn't just someone else's sandbox in which to hone your skills. It's expanding established lore. It's giving more voices and more life to pre-existing characters and worlds. Originality isn't just making something entirely your own, it's also putting your own spin on things, sharing your perspective through fiction that speaks to you and brings you joy on some level. Art is meant to be shared and engaged with and built upon. Art is a collaboration between you and others, and this has been the case for most of human history! I don't mean to offend, but belittling the power and importance of transformative works is just plain ignorance.

The obsession with originality can do more harm than good. Granted, I'm currently working on a novel that has a handful of inspirations yet seemingly no real comps, but that's not why I'm writing it! However, if someone does manage to find an actual comp, I won't care because I'm not writing to be original. That isn't why I write at all!

The real question writers should be asking themselves is: why do you want to be original?

Do you want to feel more special than others? Do you think being original increases your chances of notability? Do you want to go down in history as the Most Original Author of All Time™? These can be valid reasons, but let's be honest with ourselves. Honesty is good. We should embrace that more, even if it makes some of us look egomaniacal.

I'm afraid this emphasis on originality only feeds the stigma around fanfiction and ruins the true joy of writing. It's great to want to do something different because you're bored of the same plots and messages, or you don't find yourself or your perspective represented enough. But that shouldn't require you to give up the tropes or settings you love just because they're familiar.

I also want to address the common disregard for people with aphantasia like me. I don't have full-blown aphantasia, but it's enough that I can hardly visualize my own characters and worlds without external references. I've found my strength lies in "creativity outside the self," as Elaine Sturtevant put it. I'm most creative with things that don't come from within. I love mixing and matching (which especially shows in my digital collages) and seeing where that takes me.

So, fellow writers, ask yourselves: why do you write? What do you want to say? Could it be expressed through fanfiction rather than original fiction? Is being totally original more important than conveying your message/exploring creative what-ifs/simply enjoying the act of creation?

#the school for good and evil #putting this in the tag bc i feel it's important for readers of soman's blog to see this #as a reminder to NOT stress about originality!! #since i'm sure there are aspiring authors in this fandom #roselle rambles #long post

[goodluckclove]

Hey. Stop scrolling for a second.

You scroll through writeblr a lot, don't you? I get why. Lots of fun people, interesting concepts and prompts. But maybe you haven't taken that jump from collecting resources on writing to actually writing.

Once again, I get it. It's daunting if you've never done it before. I've been doing it for a while and I genuinely can't think too hard about the act itself as it happens or else I get all sweaty and confused. I flopped spectacularly at a game of Scrabble tonight because I just ran out of words to think of and I'm in the middle of my 13th novel. Writing to me is like side-eyeing the sun - but that's besides the point.

What I mean is that you should do it. That idea that you think could be, might be, maybe has potential. More than that, I think you should do it right now. Right now.

Ooh but Clove, it's one AM and I have to do open heart surgery tomorrow. Cool. Write three sentences and go to sleep, then see if you want to do more after you get your license revoked.

But what if it's not good? Okay. What if it isn't? But what if it isn't, and it GETS good later? Or what if it isn't, but then later in the story you find a way to make those three initial sentences make sense? Three sentences isn't a story, unless you're Ernest Hemingway or a Haiku Man. Moving on.

Clove, where do I start? Honestly if you've never finished a project, or really never wrote anything at all, maybe just start at the point that sounds the most interesting in your head. To find the process that works for you takes work and experience so maybe for now you get dessert for dinner.

But I don't have an outline/character sheet/world map/mood board/playlist/ECT! Cool. Maybe that's an issue. Maybe it isn't. There's only one way to find out.

But it's hard! It's hard at first and then it gets easier. It's a muscle. You work at it consistently and you'll get to a point where you struggle to remember what it was like to not know how to write.

But it's painful! Hah yeah. That's kind of the more honest issue, isn't it. It's easier to think that your idea WOULD BE GREAT rather than face the fact that you might not be able to MAKE IT GREAT. That fear isn't based in reality, though. People like different things. You might write a work that you're displeased with in one aspect and find that it's changed someone else's life for a completely different reason.

What if I'm not a good writer? I struggle with this a lot and I've been published. It doesn't really go away even when people cry at your work and heap praise on it. But if you like to do it, if you would still be doing it even if there was no end promise of fame and success, you should do it.

What if I'm not a writer at all? I used to ask myself that. There are lots of answers to this question so I can only give my own: you are a writer if you write - past, present or future. If you haven't written in a long time but you're trying to get back to the craft, you are still a writer. You just have to keep trying.

What we do is half-trade, half-religious act, and because of that it is easily one of the weirder passions. I don't really get why people romanticize the field but at the same time I guess it seems pretty magical at times. As a writer, though, our job is to be the proverbial Man Behind the Curtain. You have to know how the magic trick works enough to do it successfully, but you also still have to be amazed. It's weird. I don't know why I do it.

I still do it though.

Write three sentences. Right now. Why not, right? If you send them to me in an ask I'll read them, or you can send them to me at my email address that I posted a few posts back because I'm old enough to know online safety and choose to ignore it. Or just do it for yourself.

Make something. You deserve to be a source of creation.

#im a little drunk #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing community #writing #on writing #authors of tumblr #creative writing #write #actually writing #writing prompt #writing inspo #writing inspiration #i need more people actually writing

[boyfriendgideon]

as yr favorite local jason todd fan sometimes i get so fed up with the apparent inability of most dc comic writers to write a class conscious narrative about him.

and yes, i know that comics are a very ephemeral and constantly evolving and self-conflicting medium.

and yes, i know they’re a profit-driven art medium created in a capitalistic society, so there are very few times where comics are going to be created solely out of the desire to authentically and carefully and deliberately represent a character and take them from one emotional narrative place to another, because dc cares about profit and sometimes playing it safe is what sells.

and yes, i know comics and other forms of art reflect and recreate the society within which they were conceived as ideas, and so the dominant societal ideas about gender and race and class and so on are going to be recreated within comics (and/or will be responded to, if the writer is particularly societally conscious).

but jesus christ. you (the writer/writers) have a working class character who has been homeless, who has lost multiple parents, who has been in close proximity to someone struggling with addiction, who has had to steal to survive, who may have (depending on your reading of several different moments across different comics created by different people) been a victim of csa, who has clearly (subtextually) struggled with his mental health, who was a victim of a violent murder, and who has an entirely distinct and unique perspective on justice that has evolved based on his lived experiences.

and instead of delving into any of that, or examining the myriad of ways that classism in the writers’ room and the editors’ room and the readers’ heads affected jason’s character to make sure you’re writing him responsibly, or giving him a plotline where his views on what justice looks like are challenged by another working class character, or allowing him to demonstrate actual autonomy and agency in deciding what relationships he wants to have with people who he loves but sees as having failed him in different ways, or thinking carefully about what his having chosen an alias that once belonged to his murderer says about his decision-making and motivations, you keep him stuck in a loop of going by the red hood, addressing crime by occupying a position of relative power that perpetuates crime & harm rather than ever getting at the root causes, and seesawing between a) agreeing with his adoptive family entirely about fighting nonlethally in ways that are often inconsistent with his apparent motivations or b) disagreeing and experiencing unnecessarily brutal and violent reactions from his adoptive father as if that kind of violence isn’t the kind of thing he experienced as a child and something bruce himself is trying to prevent jason from perpetuating. because a comic with red hood, quips, high stakes, and familial drama sells.

it doesn’t matter if it keeps jason trapped, torn between an unanswered moral and philosophical question, a collection of identities that no longer fit him, and a family that accepts him circumstantially. it doesn’t matter if jason’s characterization is so utterly inconsistent that the only way to mesh it together is to piece different aspects of different titles and plotlines together like a jigsaw. it doesn’t matter if you do a disservice to his character, because in the end you don’t want to transform him or even understand him deeply enough to identify what makes him compelling and focus on that.

and i love jason!!!!! i love him. and i think about the stories we could have, if quality and art and doing justice to the character were prioritized as much as selling a title and having a dark and brooding batfam member besides bruce just to be the black sheep character are prioritized. and i just get a little sad.

#jason todd #jason todd meta #red hood #batfam #batman #dc comics #comic analysis #classism #tw: csa mention #maybe someday half of the most intriguing and nuanced aspects of his character will be touched upon #red hood outlaw 51-52 had some cool moments wrt jason + class + hometown friends + systems of power but. that was a two issue arc #and even then it was admittedly messy #GOD i want him to be three dimensional and well rounded and well used #even if a writer wrote a fucking. filler comic for an annual or smthn exploring what jason does outside of being red hood #keep the name if u want. have him have deliberately taken the name of his killer and twisted it until ppl from his city know rh #as a protector of kids and the poor and sex workers and so on. that WORKS. but show him connecting w his community #have him get involved in mutual aid. have him do something when he’s not out as red hood at night. let us see jason & barbara interact more #or jason and steph !!!!!!!! or another positive but complicated dynamic (he has a lot of those) #i just. i think that his stagnancy makes me fucking sad. i liked some aspects of task force z. felt like it ended too soon tho #FUCK the joker lets unpack his self concept & have him be a real person outside of vigilanteism (?) and vengeance #i liked some aspects of the cheer arc in batman urban legends mostly bc he had SOME agency and bc he wasn’t completely flat #even tho i hate the retconning of robin jason being angry and moody and so on #part of the problem is we don’t see him too too often for more than semi brief appearances so im so happy to see him i’ll just accept it #love the idea of a nightwing & red hood team up comic. hate that tom taylor a) wrote it and b) gave jason that stupid ass line abt justice #u think this man trusts cops ????? or the legal system !????????? BITCH. #get jason todd into like a sociology / gender and intersectionality / feminist studies class NOWWWWW #ok im done im sleepy and going to watch nimona. thx for reading to anyone who did #PLS anyone who reads this let me know what u think im frothing at the mouth rn #wes.txt #mine

[avelera]

The Curious Absence of Masculine Pride and Competition : Diagnosing Why Male Characters Sometimes Feel OOC in Fics

For all the mockery that's been leveled at male writers fixating on the sexiness of female characters with lines like, "she titted boobily down the stairs," (deriding how male authors have POV female characters thinking about their own boobs an absurd amount) I think it's worth noting that female* writers often do the same for male characters, just not for physical traits, but rather for emotional openness, humility, and vulnerability.

(*There's going to be a lot of sweeping generalizations in this essay, but the gender nomenclature is being used as shorthand and is intended inclusively. Likewise, any mention of "cultural norms" is from a US/Anglosphere perspective and not intended or expected to speak to all experiences.)

Men in female-written fanworks often cry a lot more than their canon counterparts. They're emotionally available and vulnerable a lot more often, especially with their romantic partner. They're more permissive about letting another person tell them what to do or letting someone else see them in an emotionally or physically vulnerable state.

This is not a criticism of works that do this. Oftentimes, what fic is specifically addressing is a desire to see something that isn't in canon, or isn't in canon as much as the writer would like, and that often includes a character opening up in an emotionally vulnerable way, especially to their lover.

But, if you've ever wondered why a male character in fic sometimes don't feel quite right, please feel free to read on. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, mostly to address OOCness in my own works, and I wanted to share my thoughts with those who might have puzzled over this question as a reader or as a writer.

(Some fandoms mentioned below the cut: Our Flag Means Death, Captain America, and Punisher.)

Let's start with a common scene: a male character has gone through an incredibly difficult time, fighting bad guys, losing loved ones, or going through a stressful experience. Maybe they're falling in love with another character but don't know if that love is reciprocated. Everything would be so much easier if they would just talk about their internal conflict!

Then the man gets drunk. Finally, while inebriated and crying into his cups, he admits he's in pain, or that he's in love, or that he's scared. This is an emotionally powerful moment that reveals a lot about the character and fandoms tend to eat that stuff up. Yet, when fanworks include this character, they include facts we learned from that time they were drunk, but they don't get the character drunk. The character just says the same things.

The vulnerability of that male character's confession has been included in the fanwork but the obstacles to him being vulnerable and the build-up of what it took for him to reach a point where he could be vulnerable have been largely removed.

I can give a few examples, like Steve in Captain America 1 going to get drunk to deal with the loss of Bucky, only to find he can't which means he's struggling to open up even with Peggy about what Bucky meant to him. Or the often derided need for war movies to put men into extreme scenarios just so they can hold their buddy as he dies. Women sometimes tease the emotional constipation of the need for a man to get drunk or be in an extreme situation before he can hug his male friends, but men I've spoken to like my partner find those moments more true and resonant than scenes common in fic, where male characters start weeping about their feelings the moment they're asked. That's because there are a lot of social restrictions around showing vulnerability to other people, especially other men. And as cathartic as those moments might be on screen, they're also rare. This adds to the power of the scene when an emotionally closed-off or intimidating action hero kind of guy suddenly opens up about the pain he's in, but it's not just a deliberate use of scarcity to make the moment resonate.

The thing is, you'd never know how rare it is for a male character to cry or open up about his feelings based on how often they do so in fic. To go back to Steve Rogers in the MCU as a character, I think the man gets maybe one scene per movie where he has a short, stilted dialogue with someone very close to him about the pain he feels or the fears he has? Those moments are heightened because they're rare but they're also kind of realistically rare. A lot of guys just don't go "bleeding" all over the place. It's kind of a huge problem societally, actually.

To go to another example, I've seen a lot of fics for Our Flag Means Death predicting Season 2 and a lot of them have Ed as an emotionally shattered mess because of Stede's perceived abandonment. Now, OFMD is a very unique story in how often it does allow its male characters to be vulnerable. Fic writers can point to moments on screen of the characters crying and being vulnerable with each other, not the case with every fandom source material. But, I think what's being overlooked is that in Ed's "blanket fort" scene and in the final shot of him sobbing in Stede's bed, he is alone. He has hidden himself rather than be seen crying in public. When he does come out of the cabin to sing about his feelings, he specifically notes how scary it is to be emotionally open like that and Izzy as the voice of Masculine Restrictions shuts him down because of it, showing that there was a reason in Ed's mind that was confirmed by the narrative for why he might want to hide those feelings and that vulnerability from the world. It's not right, it's not fair, it's not the way things should be but that's not the point. The reason Ed opening up was powerful and a singular moment was because it was in spite of those societal restrictions and norms.

Men in general aren't being constipated with their emotions and their emotional truth because they're being deliberately difficult. They do it largely because there is a lot of cultural pressure put on the need to do so and a lot of social punishment leveled at those who cry in public or admit something hurt their feelings. This is where masculine pride comes in to, the need to be seen as strong is a huge social imperative thrown at men. The need to be the best at what you do, to not show weakness, and to show constant strength and mastery are enormous burdens they're expected to uphold.

On the one hand, it's why moments where those restrictions shatter are such catnip to fic writers, but on the other, I think it should be noted that they're catnip scenes because they're very rare. Works written created by men spend a lot of time building up to those moments and earning them, not letting a guy cry until his buddy dies in his arms, not letting him say what's going on or that he feels weak unless he's impaired with alcohol or in some other extreme situation like locked up in an elevator with another character until they finally admit what's going on inside them.

Now, let's get into the craft of writing for a second. One thing writers, especially newbie writers, struggle with is obstacles. Obstacles are what stand between your character and their goals. They can be emotional or physical or mental or symbolic. How a character deals with obstacles is what makes us get to know them and get to like them, it's how we learn about who they are as people. Stede and Ed from OFMD, or Captain America, or any other character you can think of would all approach a locked door in a different way. That locked door is an obstacle to what they want: what's on the other side of the door. How a character approaches the locked door tells us who they are. Do they shoot the doorknob? Bash through it with their shield? Test the knob and sigh comically when it's locked? Pick the lock? Do they go around back and look for another way in? When the character gets through the obstacle, the audience experiences a certain amount of catharsis and pleasure, if the creator has done their job right.

Now, masculine pride and social restrictions are an obstacle to the characters getting what they want. A really delicious and tantalizing one for many, especially if you're writing romance: what will it take to get this guy to admit he's in love? Some fic writers though want to skip cracking open the hard outer shell and just go straight to the juicy vulnerable center. And that's ok! Maybe you don't want to write an entire novel about Frank Castle, the Punisher, or any other macho tough-guy character getting worn down to the point he breaks down crying about the pain he's in. Maybe you just want to write the scene where he sobs in the arms of his best friend about it, just go straight for the catharsis.

But, if you're writing a longer work and you can't put your finger on why the Punisher feels out of character, well, it's because a tough guy character like that usually doesn't want to open up. It's gonna take some intricate rituals for him to be allowed to touch the skin of another man or a woman for that matter. These obstacles to him opening up tell us more about the character and they also serve as the meat on the story for the audience, who wants it to feel special when this guy finally does open up. If he was bleeding his innermost feelings and emotions all over the place, those moments wouldn't feel as special, or realistic, or important. Fic writers who just want more of that moment understandably write fics that just go straight for the pay-off, but the wait and the rarity of that moment is what makes the character, especially a male character, feel in character and plays to the traits like being the strong, silent, stoic type that attracted people to that character in the first place. Therefore, keeping or including or simply being mindful of those obstacles to a male character being emotionally vulnerable also plays to why people liked those characters in the first place and will make your story feel more authentic.

Aside from emotional vulnerability as something men avoid showing, there's also male pride as a motivator. A guy who sets out to be the very best at something probably has a fair amount of masculine-typical pride motivating him or as a trait the creator of that character keeps in mind while writing him.

Stede from Our Flag Means Death is a fairly effeminate man and that's actually a pretty big plot point. It's a plot point in how it makes him lash out at those like Nigel Badminton who don't take him seriously enough, and his wrestling with what it means to be a man is a huge part of his emotional journey in the show. If he just wanted to go to sea, he could have run off and joined someone's crew, but instead, he built a ship and styled himself as a captain, and worked as best as he could to be worthy of the title of "Fearsome Pirate Captain", often to hilarious results, but again those obstacles to him being what he wants to endear him to us. But make no mistake, he wants to be those things. He wants to be his own version of the masculine ideal of a powerful leader, killing with kindness instead of weapons, but he still wants to be one.

Conversely, Ed in the show wants to be soft but it's a jealously guarded secret for him, because he has succeeded in the masculine ideal of being a fearsome pirate captain, and felt incredible pressure to hide that he wanted softness in his life. Even as he was trying to overcome those masculine restrictions he was intensely aware of them.

If one were to write these characters without them being aware of masculine desire to be a fearsome pirate captain and masculine fears around being seen as wanting softness in their life, that makes them behave a certain way to hide this about themselves, they'd be missing a huge chunk of what makes these characters tick.

Again, I don't want to tell people how to write fic. But for those this resonated for with an eye towards their own writing, keep in mind the qualities of masculine pride and competition when writing male characters, as something they're at least aware of even if they're not concerned about it within your particular story. These societal imperatives and obstacles are minefields in the lives of many men and are built-in as expectations for many male characters, especially those by male creators. To ignore these qualities and expectations will make the character somewhat OOC, it might make them behave differently in your story than they might in canon, if canon-realism is what you're going for.

Consider talking to a man in your life about how another man would react to a certain situation, what it would take for them to be vulnerable, or how they'd react if another man saw them in a vulnerable situation. Cis male writers aren't the only ones who get other genders wrong and while it doesn't have to be a consideration your fiction takes, it can help one write more realistic male characters to ask these questions and include these common emotional and societal barriers to vulnerability in your work.

#writing #maggie rambles #ofmd meta #long post #I could go on but this essay is long enough as is

[cantsayidont]

I think setting STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and STRANGE NEW WORLDS in the TOS era was a questionable idea for a variety of reasons, but one of the more troublesome is their treatment of Spock, which opens some cans of worms I don't think there would have been a good way to handle even if the writers weren't intent on making bad and reactionary creative choices in other areas.

In TOS, most of the Enterprise crew, and really the majority of the Starfleet characters we're shown, are exceedingly racist to Spock with disconcerting regularity. Of the regular cast, I think the only ones who aren't overtly nasty to Spock at least some of the time are probably Uhura and Sulu; they get frustrated with him at certain points, but generally because he's a difficult and inflexible supervisor rather than due to racial animus. A lot of the rest of the crew is openly hostile, and McCoy routinely addresses him with slurs in front of the bridge crew. Kirk tolerates and sometimes participates in this racist abuse, and the only times he seems to take it very seriously are when it threatens to become an operational problem (as in "Balance of Terror"). The main feature that comes to characterize the bond that develops between Kirk and Spock is not that Kirk is significantly more tolerant, but that he will usually (not always) at least listen to Spock's point of view, which the rest of the crew is very reluctant to do (most pointedly in "The Galileo Seven"), and can be persuaded to respect his judgment, which Spock values even though Kirk's attitude and behavior still often make him uncomfortable.

This kind of space-racism toward nonhuman Federation citizens is not necessarily a structural element of STAR TREK (unlike anti-indigenous racism, which definitely is), but it is a structural element of Spock's character. Spock spends a lot of TOS teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and it's tempting (though not canonical) to read his decision to pursue Kolinhar in the beginning of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE as a response to the stress of being on the Enterprise (fleeing to become a monk!). Even where Spock is not enduring racial slurs and constant microaggressions, you can see how that treatment, both in his youth on Vulcan and as an adult in Starfleet, has shaped his personality. Indeed, this is something I think to which fans of Spock have responded strongly over the years, because his alienation and stress are very relatable for LGBT people, people of color, Muslim and Jewish people (despite STAR TREK's canonical antisemitism and Islamophobia), and autistic people. This doesn't mean STAR TREK stories necessarily have to show Spock being tormented, which is often painful to watch, but if Spock had not been tormented in these ways, he would be a very different person than the character viewers know and love.

Making Spock a regular in DISCOVERY and later STRANGE NEW WORLDS thus presents the writers with a problem: Treating Spock the way he's treated in TOS would be uncomfortable, but avoiding it creates a tension with TOS that the newer shows obviously don't know how to resolve.

Prior to ENTERPRISE, the general presumption about the TOS era (which is stated as fact in some of the novels) is that having mixed-species crews is relatively new for Starfleet, and that the problems Spock faces stem from his colleagues never having lived and worked with an "alien" before and not knowing how to not be weird about it. (ENTERPRISE essentially transferred that idea to Archer's era, where T'Pol gets similar treatment.) In DISCO and SNW, however, we see that many Starfleet vessels have mixed crews, including officers (like Saru) who are much more obviously nonhuman than Spock is, and have for a while. So, how are we to read the events of TOS, with which DISCO and SNW still want to (uneasily) coexist? Is Kirk's Enterprise just a lot more racist than Pike's? That's possible, I guess, but how many STAR TREK fans really want to canonize the idea that Kirk and his crew are unusually intolerant by Starfleet standards? Are we to presume that SNW means to soft-retcon the hostility and constant microaggressions Spock experiences in TOS, shifting the entire onus for his twitchy alienation to his upbringing on Vulcan and to Sarek (who DISCO reiterates is a tremendous dick)? That would be sadly consistent with the disdain with which modern STAR TREK media treats Vulcan (and with the antisemitism of the modern shows), but it's a pretty bitter pill for anyone who thinks Vulcans are neat or cool, which used to be an uncontroversial majority opinion among STAR TREK viewers and writers.

The more sensible answer would have been to just dodge the issue entirely by staying further away from TOS and the period in which it takes place. There are other periods of the TREK timeline that are still largely unexplored (like the early 24th century era of the Enterprise-C), and there's always the option of moving further forward in time, as DISCOVERY eventually did. However, CBS seems very insistent on making heavy-handed appeals to nostalgia that require riding the coattails of TOS, even where that just doesn't seem like a good idea creatively.

My sense with DISCOVERY and SNW is that the producers would really like to simply redo TOS in a manner more consistent with their current vision, but that the decidedly mixed reactions to the alternate timeline JJ Abrams movies has made them gunshy about just declaring that openly. So, it seems they're instead trying to back into it with a kind of death-by-a-thousand-retcons approach, seeking to sand off both the uncomfortable aspects of TOS and stuff the producers and/or the network don't like (like Spock's gay-coding — SNW's determination to no-homo him is pronounced, albeit unpersuasive). I think I would find that vexing even if the producers' vision weren't frequently more jingoistic and racist than TOS, which it often is.

#teevee #star trek #star trek tos #star trek discovery #strange new worlds #st:tmp #star trek the motion picture #spock

[aspoonofsugar]

A Cat Most Curious And A Caterpillar Most Done

Some thoughts on the episode. Not many original ideas, but it is fun to revisit what we got this week.

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT, BUT SATISFACTION BROUGHT IT BACK

This saying is the CC in a nutshell:

Curious Cat: Please, please hurry... I have many many questions!

Which in itself is interesting for 2 reasons:

They have a rather peculiar role in the Ever After

They are an embodyment of change

The Curious Cat's Role

What is CC's role in the Ever After? Obviously it is to be curious and to ask questions. Not only that, but they can move freely through the acres, rather than being tied to one, like the Hunters Mice or the Red Prince. Finally, they claim they can easily reach the tree:

Curious Cat: You do not go to the tree. The tree goes to you. Unless of course you are me... you see?

Let's use for a moment our meta-lens and let's recap everyone's probable roles:

RWBY are the protagonists

Neo is the antagonist, who might make herself a writer

Jaune might have lost himself in the role of side-character (The Rusted Knight)

The Tree is the protagonists' final objective

What is CC, then? Which role are we lacking? Who is the one who can jump to the very end of the story and move freely through the pages of a book? Who is the one who keeps asking questions and wants to always get new things and to discover how the story goes on?

CC: There is just so many characters to keep track of! Wait, what was my original question?

Yep, that is the reader (or the viewer in RWBY's case). This might be why CC hilariously embodies the fandom with all the theories, the impatience, the confusion... Their questions and thoughts are our questions and thoughts because like us, the CC can engage with the story freely, with no particular stake. They can follow the protagonists around or jump to other stories, series or characters they like.

Time changes and so do we, when it's our time to change

The CC can't stay put, their questions keep changing and they have the attention span of a goldfish... They are also introduced in an episode where a mysterious butterfly is shown flying around:

Butterflies are symbols of death and rebirth. They represent change and the CC is often shown following them around. Basically, the CC may be linked to change, transformation and evolution. Because of this, it is not surprising they state the theme of the episode out loud at the very beginning:

Curious Cat: So why would I ever want to go back? Not sense in seeing a sight scene.

Younger Yang: You don't have to go forward, you know? You could go back!

At the end of the episodes the protagonists are asked exactly this. Do they want to go back or to push forward? Do they want to keep growing and developing or do they prefer to regress? Like the Red King apparently did?

The Herbalist: This is how a King winds up a Prince

And here we come to the third episode that explores the inner child archetype:

Episode 2 shows us a positive embodyment of the inner child in the form of Little > they are sweet, pure, hopeful and idealistic

Episode 3 shows us a negative embodyment of the inner child in the form of the Red Prince > he is selfish, rude, unable to deal with his feelings

Episode 4 is a synthesis and asks us the question... how can you make use of the inner child without regressing?

In other words, how can Ruby grow up without losing her childhood innocence? How can she push forward without giving up her hope? How can she combine the quick and safe route (pragtmatism) with the beautiful one full of flowers (idealism)?

Can she even do it? Or will she be undone?

I AM THE HERBALIST... UNTIL I AM NOT ANYMORE

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly. “Explain yourself!”

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself, you see.”

The Herbalist is clearly a revisitation of Alice in Wonderland's Caterpillar. In general, the episode takes several lines and concepts of the Caterpillar's chapter and re-arranges them differently to fit RWBY's story. Just like in the book, WBY want to get back to their normal size. Except their physical problem is clearly a metaphor for a more existentialist one. Alice doesn't know who she is because her size keeps on changing and her thoughts and emotions keep transforming, as well. WBY want to get back to normal, but their size doesn't matter that much:

Curious Cat: I don't see what the fuss is about. Most of my best friends are six inches tall.

What's important is who they are inside:

The Herbalist: We all have our titles, our roles to play, but in order to help you become whatever it is you need to become, you really should have a better understanding of what you are now.

This misunderstanding is why their meeting with the Herbalist doesn't go so well. RWBY want to simply have a remedy for their size, but the Herbalist wants to help them find their role.

The Herbalist themselves, though, are clearly struggling with their purpose. In this, they are a clear foil to Ruby (our girl foils all the Ever After's characters :P). The Herbalist earnestly wants to help RWBY:

Yang: Look, can you help us or not? The Herbalist: I am trying, but you are making it more complicated that it needs to be!

Their role is to help people find their purposes, but it is clear this duty has started to weigh on them. Everybody goes to them for help! And people even refuse to listen, just like the Red Prince! Why can't people understand the process is important? Why won't they answer earnestly to the questions? Why won't they self-reflect a little?

The Herbalist is tired. They keep trying to help, but people are their own worst enemies and so things keep going wrong. Isn't it exactly what is going on with Ruby?

Younger Ruby: It's up to you to make things better, isn't it? Everything... all depends on you! Your sister needs you, your friends need you. The whole world needs you to keep fighting forever and ever against an invincible monster that took your mother!

She has been trying SO hard to help everyone, but people lose hope, they get divided when they should stick together, they are selfish and betray each other. They give in to fear and control...

Ruby is just so done as the Herbalist is. This is why both characters have slowly lost touch with what they should do. With the true essence of their roles:

The Herbalist: And what exactly does a Huntress do? Ruby: Fight monsters, I guess? I'm sorry, I don't understand why this matters...

Huntresses do not fight monsters, but save people. And yet Ruby can't even get this right. Similarly, the Herbalist has forgotten that asking questions makes sense only if one is willing to listen. And they are not clearly. If they did, they would know all RWBY wants is simply to get back to their regular sizes. They don't want an acide trip or a theraphy session.

The Herbalist misunderstands their own purpose and their actions almost lead Ruby to give up on herself. They should help people to find themselves, but they almost had Ruby lose herself. This is why the Curious Cat calls them out:

Curious Cat: Oh Herb... Look at yourself! You are done. You're supposed to be helping others find their way, but you've lost your own. Please, let me help and take a little bit of my heart. You'll feel much better.

And as a result, the Herbalist "falls" and disappears within the Earth:

Are they going to be remade? Has the acre absorbed them because they are not "useful" anymore? Or is there some other explanation? We will see in the next episode.

HUMANITY, PURPOSE AND IDENTITY

Ruby's answer to Little's "What are you?" question sets up 3 thematic axes to explore:

Humanity (I'm a human)

Purpose (I'm a Huntress)

Identity (I'm Ruby Rose)

The Ever After is a more simplistic place than Remnant. Each acre is done for its inhabitants and everyone has a purpose, which is expressed by their name. The question about identity is then simplistic, as well.

It is not who are you, but what are you? So, what are your purpose?

However, for humans the question of identity is more layered and complex.

First of all, there is a question about "humanity" itself. What it means to be humans? Are humans really such good creatures? The Ever After's inhabitants do not seem to think so.

Secondly, there is a question about one's role. What does one do? What is their purpose? The protagonists are Huntresses, but what it means to be a Huntress? Is it about killing monsters or is it about saving people?

Finally, there is a question about who you are as an individual. Who is Ruby Rose without her purpose? Who is she deep down, behind the mask of a hero?

Obviously, these 3 questions are intertwined, but so far it seems we are slowly building up a climax. Last episode, Ruby said they were humans, which sets the Red Prince off. So, this episode, Ruby opts to say they are Huntresses. However, this brings new difficult questions. I wonder if in a later episode, she is simply going to say her name, which will mean she will have to go even deeper within herself.

RWBY'S TRIP

Fittingly, this scene calls back to Mt Glenn, RWBY's first field trip. Well, they go through another kind of trip this episode :P and I loved it!

In general, the scene of RWBY in the smoke makes full use of the weapons' symbolism, which is at the core of this season:

The girls are asked to affirm they are Huntresses, so it is very powerful Yang, Blake and Weiss take out their weapons and point them to their younger selves. Not to hurt them, but to show who they are:

Yang's arc is about accepting asymmetry vs wholeness. So, she shows her younger self her mechanical arm.

Blake's arc is about accepting there are not simple answers to complex problems. This complexity is difficult to deal this, but it also makes Blake rich. Just like her weapon has so many forms.

Weiss's arc is about accepting she is Weiss Schnee no matter what. No matter the SDC, no matter Atlas or her father or her family or her legacy. No matter even if all these things are gone. So, she wields her sword, which is almost empty, just like all the things that made up who she was are gone. And yet, Weiss is still herself.

Ruby is the odd one. She has yet to find her weapon because she has lost her sense of purpose and doesn't even know who she is anymore. So, she can't affirm she is a Huntress. She can't wield her weapon with pride. She doesn't have it anymore.

On another note... each girl's Q&A moment can be commented also through the metaphor of their fairy tales:

Goldilocks is asked if she wants to be whole, if she wants to be "just right" because this fairy tale has no resolution. It lacks a proper conclusion. Yang, however, states she is going to push forward and find herself what she is missing.

Beauty&Beast is asked to give up her duality. Blake can choose to be either beast or beauty, either human or animal, either black or white, either darkness or light. And yet, she chooses this complexity which makes her Blake. Which makes her fairy tale so resonant.

Snowhite is asked to give up being Snowhite. She is asked to leave the title of her story behind. A story which is about a girl growing up. Weiss refuses this and affirms proudly she is and will always be Weiss Schnee.

Once again, Ruby is the one who fails thematically this episode. The point of her allusion is that she is both Little Red Riding Hood and the Hunter. And yet, she is not sure she can call herself a Huntress anymore. And in the end she is tempted to give up even being Little Red (Ruby Rose).

WHAT ABOUT GRIEF?

Does this episode follow the pattern of the Five Stages of Grief? So far we have:

Episode 1 > Denial (maybe)

Episode 2 > Bargaining

Episode 3 > Anger

What about episode 4? I think it may deal with the stage of acceptance, which is embodied by Blake, when it comes to the characters:

This episode our Cat-Girl's foiling with Ruby is especially evident:

Blake: Huntresses are heroes! We protect those, who can't protect themselves.

She is the one who comes up with the right answer to the Herbalist's question. Ruby instead gives a confused and simplistic one. Not only that, but Ruby ends up repeating to her younger self Blake's words in volume 1:

Ruby: But... life isn't like a fairy tale

When it comes to the episode itself, the theme of acceptance is rather evident. RWBY is asked to accept their past selves. They must look their child selves in the eye, aknowledge their mistakes and their losses, accept them and move forward. WBY are ready to do it in a healthy way, while Ruby isn't. Her "acceptance" borders in depression. She isn't ready.

Finally, like in the previous episode, the Curious Cat gives up a little bit of their Heart. As a result, the Herbalist "accepts" their own death, in a sense. They are given comfort, admit they have always been a workhaolic and then they disappear in their acre...

MISCELLANIA

2 random thoughts in the end:

This episode seemed like an attempt to alchemy, which fails because the right process isn't followed. Interestingly, this is evident also when it comes to the colors. RWBY are in the yellow stage and should move to red. So, they wake up on the beach (yellow) and then move to the Red Prince's acre (red). Still, they can't go on with the set-up journey (Alyx's) and take a detour. This leads them to an acre which is rainbow-ish. However, the rainbow phase in alchemy is at the very beginning of the white phase. So, this means they are regressing and losing themselves to chaos.

CC's lines to Yang and Weiss are interesting:

CC to Yang: Well that is your problem. It's a matter of perspective I'm afraid.

CC to Weiss: Looking at you, Wise Huntress...

I think they might hint to important parts of their arcs. Yang's struggle is about learning to see things from multiple sides. So, it is important she gets called for not doing so. Weiss is instead linked to the idea of anima/animus (Knight + Queen). The anima/animus gets refined and reaches its perfect state in the idea of "Sofia" aka Wisdom. So, it is interesting Weiss gets associated to this concept directly.

#rwby #rwby volume 9 #rwby spoilers #rwby meta #my meta #team rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiaolong #curious cat #herbalist

[ask-serendipity-sky]

Jk's DAZED Interview

"Jung Kook holds the instinctual and the intangible in high regard: the former is what guides his present, but his future is cradled by the latter, at least in terms of how he sees himself as an artist. But more on that later, because Jung Kook – who recently turned 26 and has been very, very famous for a decade – is thinking about who he is at this very moment. “I think I’m the type of person who is honest with their emotions,” he says. “I change quickly. I have to do the things I want to do right now.”

He was quiet then, too, though he emanated a fidgety restlessness, mentally and physically. He still has an inner itch that he can’t quite seem to scratch but it’s tempered by a new boldness and self-assuredness that he feels was missing before, traits he’s long embodied on stage yet didn’t follow him into everyday life. “When I go on stage, my wandering thoughts and feelings die down,” he says, and he’s always performed so much that the gap between his worlds didn’t seem all that vast.

“Ever since I changed my perspective, I’ve found more positive traits within myself. Rather than dwelling on missed opportunities and blaming myself for being lazy, thinking, ‘Why couldn’t I do it when I was capable?’, I accept who I truly am and focus on what I can do. There’s more to gain from doing things at my own pace. And if I want to stay in bed or watch TV all day, why not spend a day like that?”

Jung Kook debuted aged 15, and although pop culture is generally unkind to its child stars, he grew up under the watchful eyes of his bandmates who pulled him into line when needed. He is attentive, unfailingly polite, curious and wields a mischievous humour.

When recording “Seven” with writers/producers Andrew Watt and Cirkut, he was eager to do well with a genre he’d never tried before, visibly nervous at the mic and, just as evidently, chuffed when they showered him with praise.

“I want to do as many genres as possible to test myself on what kind of music I can do with my voice,” he says. The success of his debut solo single, he adds, has no bearing on what his upcoming music sounds like. “When I hear the music and it’s good, I just proceed with it regardless of the genre. It feels really good to hear people say, ‘Oh, he can pull off any genre,’ so it’d be really fun to surprise people.”

“I live thinking ‘The main character of my life is no one but me.’ No matter what environment I’m placed in, no matter who’s around me, to safeguard myself without being swept away, having the mindset that I can hold control of myself. I live trying not to forget it.”

Jung Kook, the youngest member of BTS, knows his original bunny-ish, baby-of-the-group image still prevails. “You really like that about me,” he said to fans while in London, during one of his now-frequent livestreams. “Pretend that people like that. And I only follow that. What is something that I can change? Myself, it’s my life. I need to change. I need to tell people who love me, ‘I am like this.’ I’m not forcing anyone. I always look for something new. I want to make that new thing fun. And I want to be accepted by Army at the same time.” He also addressed those questioning why he felt the need for an explicit version of “Seven”, in which the line “And that’s why night after night, I’ll be lovin’ you right” becomes “And that’s why night after night, I’ll be fuckin’ you right”. “If you felt [it] like that,” he said, “there’s nothing I can do... And if you think about it, how old am I?”

In recent years he has taken up boxing, pierced his eyebrow and lip, and added more hardware to his ears. He’s grown out his hair, and got heavily inked. “I like extreme things,” he says with a laugh. “People always tell me I look round and soft. I want this sharp, powerful image.” His debut single, Jung Kook says, “wasn’t [me] trying to break away from my image”. In his eyes, the evolution has already occurred, making “Seven” a direct reflection of who he is now. And so he was steadfast and frank during that pivotal livestream. “It was important for me to show how much I’ve grown as a solo artist through taking on new challenges,” Jung Kook explains, “rather than staying in my comfort zone or settling for the things that I was used to. I wanted to fully explain that to my fans.”

In Jung Kook’s mind, then and now, ‘more’ translates as “becoming a better and cooler singer”, he says intently. “To me, I’m not that singer I imagined myself [to be], that specific image that I had of a singer, that’s why I’m aiming higher.”

The Jung Kook of 2023 is OK with the not quite knowing-ness of that. He tries to live in the present and keep things simple, even if that’s easier said than done. “It’s impossible to not think at all,” he sighs. “You know when you think of something and it just goes on and on, down this deep rabbit hole? That can lead to positive conclusions but, for me, sometimes it led to negative ones. But now that I’ve gained some self-confidence, I’m more able to exclude those unnecessary thoughts.” In teaching himself how to quieten down his brain, he finds himself “worrying [less] about things that haven’t happened yet or thinking, ‘What if I don’t meet my own expectations?’”

But, with the power of hindsight, Jung Kook, who is working on more music with an eye towards a debut solo album, knows how far he’s come. “I trusted my gut [with my debut single] and thought, ‘Will I be able to reach the audience, and a lot of them?’ And I sort of proved that I could.” And rather than being that ambiguous grey hexagon, Jung Kook – who smiles, the widest smile his face is capable of – says, “I’d be white, and I can colour it in whatever colour I like.”"

My impressions

This interview is a confirmation to the discourse we've been having lately.

Jk lives his life in phases. He changes quickly according to his vibes on the situation and let's himself be guided by things that he cannot see.

At this point, he is revealing what he had kept from fans. Things that he already did but weren't public. I suspect it's because of where he is in life at the moment (BTS hiatus, solo career, about to enlist, just turned 26).

Perhaps, his vibes told him it's time.

Jk's words seem contradictory but a person isn't just one truth. We all have many.

And for years, Jk has been squished into a box with labels and cute nicknames. We've only seen one side of him constantly because that's what we were shown.

In the interview, they describe him as introverted but then he comes out without a shirt for the photoshoot. He wants to be extreme but he also has that one pose in the photos that scream "zero hetero here". We read about him wanting to be sharp while he just did a cute jump at the airport. I guess Jk hasn't realized that he can be all those things at the same time. I think he will realize it with time.

What stands out to me is that he wants to break free from these labels and image that the fans have of him, but he's the one labeling himself new things. Maybe he does it to get his point across? Or maybe he think that by reiterating these new things he's shown us, we will let go of the old things? In this fandom?....hmmm.

Although Jk is very much a person who enjoys being a softie, he is also someone extreme and free who wishes to do as he pleases...because everyone should he allowed to do so. Without policing.

He says there isn't a big difference between the Jk on stage and Jk off stage, which is why he was comfortable with Seven. Not because he is the het macho guy, but because he is bolder and more confident. That song is more upbeat, sex oriented, and energetic than anything he's done in the past. So all those people thinking he just said he is straight...read carefully.

I find it amusing how this article comes out just right after everyone made such a big deal out of him smoking because he states "I am like this (at this moment)." He wants to be accepted by army being "like this" but there is no way that will happen because this is a fandom that believes they have ownership of the members and have become some sort of morality police and parent entity.

I'm sure he knows of the things that were said during the smoking pictures and Seven.

Jk was harshly critiqued for saying he wanted to be better and cooler a while back and many wondered if Seven (Scooter) had gotten to his head. But I think this article shows that he's just aiming higher...like any artist does. He still comes across as someone humble and genuine. Although, he was still genuine during those other interviews where he said he wanted to be the "one and only".

It's all about your perception of his words.

Overall, I think that Jk is still searching for his true self, as one does during that age. But based on this interview, which is probably one of the better interviews he's had, old Jk is still there...but now, we have new side of him to observe. With time, we will see if this is truly what he wants or he will move on to something else.

#jikook #jungkook #dazed interview

[writingquestionsanswered]

I'm honestly rather new to writing.

English isn't my first language but I've been pretty much teaching the language to myself through interacting with other English speakers and so on.

I feel like I'm missing a lot of words in my vocabulary that could lift a story up to a better level of reading.

And, probably my biggest problem, I don't know how and where to start writing. How to come up with a plot or how to find inspiration. I'm incredibly motivated but I feel like I don't know where to start.

Since I want to write horror, as it's probably the thing I read and watch the most, I bought a few English horror books to study the ways of writing, words and plot build up. I also started watching analog horror Videos on YouTube to improve my plots yet I often feel like my head is empty despite all those attempts at improving.

I know this is a lot and I'm really sorry for it, but is there any way I could genuinely try and get more into writing as well as to improve the things I mentioned above?

Want to Write But Head Feels Empty

I want to start by saying I never would have guessed English wasn't your first language if you hadn't told me. You have a better grasp on it than a lot of native speakers, so I don't think you have to worry a whole lot about your vocabulary. You're not further behind in that sense than most other new writers. You can check out my posts Improving Vocab and 10 Tips for Improving Your Grammar Vocab for help with that, though.

Since where you're really struggling is with coming up with ideas and plots, what I would recommend is starting with writing prompts. You can find writing prompts all over--on tumblr, various web sites and forums, and even in books. If you Google "horror writing prompts" a ton of options come up.

Writing prompts are a great way to ease yourself into writing when you're struggling to come up with ideas and prompts. Much like fan-fiction (which is another option I'll get to in a minute), writing prompts are almost like training wheels for writers. They let you do the actual writing without having to worry about the initial ideas. And prompts are super flexible... you can interpret them figuratively or literally, you can combine multiple prompts together, or use what you like from a few different prompts. Whatever works for you. The key is to just open your mind and let it carry you wherever it wants to. Don't stress about it being good or making sense. You're not worried about quality or form, just taking those ideas and forming them into *something*. (And, side note: there are also plot generators that will give you more than just a writing prompt, so that's worth trying, too.)

I do also want to address fan-fiction as being another great way to practice writing when plots and ideas escape you. Since you want to write horror, think of a favorite horror movie, TV show, book, or video game and write a story set in that world. Flesh out a scene or moment that you liked that didn't go far enough in canon. Give a character a different moment or ending. You can even create an original character and drop them into the story to see what happens. Once again, this allows you to focus on the actual writing without having to start from scratch with ideas.

I hope something here works for you! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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#writing tips #writing help #writing advice #wqaadvice

[beloved-blaiddyd]

“You might've heard of me as a textbook writer on Tome Mastery: A Guide To Advanced Reason Spells. As you might have guessed, I'm also a Blue Lions alumna... That, and I am the current chairperson of the Department of Reason Magic— so I'm plently capable to guide you around the Officer's Academy!"

"Sorry, I'm newly promoted. I nearly forgot that I'm no longer just a professor.”

“But before that, I need to know a few things... You must be...”

18+ years of age. [Minors: Do Not Interact];

And respectful of different ethnicities and other walks of life [Racists/Homophobes: Do Not Interact]

“... to enter and read its contents. I can't guarantee your safety otherwise. Oh, and I'm a rather busy woman, and I don't tolerate nonsense either. Perhaps it comes from being a tactician in the last war. If you have any questions, send a letter. I'll accept inquiries about..."

Greetings and other formalities;

Profile analysis [character brainrots/fic ideas];

and news updates & relevant fun facts about the library to share [irl and fandom related]

“However, I will promptly BURN your letter if it involves...”

Carnal desires [NSFW thirst asks. I'm ace and uninterested in matters of the flesh. Please send that to another fellow fan instead.];

and childish and irrelevant content [copypastas and overall spam is not tolerated.]

“That is all. If you believe I'm rather strict, that stems from years of experience handling groups of people. Failing to lay down groundwork tend to incite attacks on boundaries among members.”

“... Three thousand five hundred men have died because of this on the Fodlan Wars. Let's not repeat those mistakes.”

How to send asks...

Mutuals/off anon: send as usual.

For anons: please make up a realistic fake name. It's for the sake of the theme. Example:

Dear Brynlee,

I can't stop brainrotting about Zhongli like what if he's a prince- prince au zhongli with princess consort reader go brrrrrrr like wtf i can't stop thinking about morax girl i need help

Ms. Sophia Pendragon

Honestly, it's not that hard. Why are people failing this? It's just a realistic fake name.

I won't entertain "can I be 🗣️ anon" asks. This will let me know if an anon read the rules. Plus, I prefer using names rather than scrambling to find emojis instead. I quit my old one despite being a decently "successful" blog because anons do not respect personal boundaries on my asexuality despite it being explicitly written down. This is just an act of self-preservation.

When sending asks please note that this blog is following Three Houses' worldbuilding. Claiming to be a God or some Diety in the asks will certainly follow confused responses as majority of the cast believes only in Sothis. Modern inventions will likely confuse "Brynn" as well. That is all!

P.S: if you wish to talk to me as a creator, address me as Beloved/B rather than Brynn so I know when to break character. Ty!

Anon List...

Riley H. Goodheart

Steven Sterling

Bremen

Lia Tostyava

Reli

Crow

J. Fisher

What kind of comics/fiction does Beloved write?

Editor (Veritas): She writes mostly dark content. Obsession, cannibalism, aphrodisiacs, kidnappings, sexual assault— you name it. Where does she get those ideas from? Unsure. Perhaps they're stories she personally witnessed when she joined the war. She does not romanticize these concepts. In fact, she seems to emphasize how uncomfortable it is to be in that position.

Editor (Veritas): That is the reason as to why she personally does not depict any sexualization of what occurs in her work. It's meant to be disturbing. Not romantic.

How the blog tags posts...

$ ooc: out of character/setting ramblings (casual talk)

$ brynn's manuscripts: for writing

$ brynn's papers: for art

$ support conversations: for ramblings and general interactions, both fictional and otherwise.

$ A-Support = _____: for mutuals/characters

$ C-Support = Mx. ____: for anons/new friends

$ S-Support = ____: for (romantic) self-ships...

- Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

- Dainsleif

- Oda Sakunosuke

- Gepard Landau

$ auxiliary missions: ask games or participated events

$ abyss revisited: in-case-you-missed-it reblogs

$ traded tomes: fanfic recommendations

$ traded papers: fanart recommendations

$ traded news: important irl news or other fandom related posts

#$ table of contents #$ about the author == true #$ rules and regulations == true

[madcatlad]

I doubt Jesson intended it but... why do I keep running into this really heavy theme throughout mcd.

Hear me out:

Children turning out to be monsters despite their parents efforts.

Let's start of with the obvious red flags

Zenix.

It is implied that he was very young when he was taken in by Garroth. It is also said outright that he was a shadowknight even before that. The dark implication of this is that Zenix became a shadowknight at a young age (children becoming shadowknights is rarely mentioned within mcd, it notably is only implied with Zenix, and Alexis.) Garroth took Zenix under his wing, so much so the kid was literally described as like a son to Garroth. But despite his efforts Zenix betrayed Phoenix Drop. The way they address this issue stands out to me as multiple characters seem to describe Zenix as "already gone" from his arrival to Phoenix Drop. Even Laurence. Now one could chalk this up to Jess being unable or unwilling to truly address Zenix as a tragic character, and simply paint him as the conniving villain the series needed at the time (before Zane). And i think there is some truth to that. However the fact that Zenix' motives have remained notably undefined and his actions seem to contradict from what we are told about him so insistently. Even for Jessica this is a clear sign that something is up. "Already gone"... because my writer brain loves parallels I automatically connected it to (again) the only place that this idea is brought up in the series: Zane.

Zane.

Zane in mcd is evil, his motives also seem a little unclear at times, but this is because he characterized to be power hungry, unpredictable, and- undeniably evil. But was it always this way? Zane would prefer to watch the world burn than rule it. He seems to just hate people, so what terrible event caused such a terrible person? Nothing apparently. As said by Zianna, he was "always that way".

Zenix' "Already Gone" hits far too close to Zane's "Always That Way" for me. And the parallels don't end there, Zenix and Zane mirror one another in interesting ways. Both have familial-like attachment to Garroth, and their nature/motivation seems to torment and confuse him endlessly. They both became shadowknights (both were chosen by the shadow lord despite being outside of his usual "type" - Zane:At twink, Zenix:A child.) And they both seem to be obsessed with power, yet both have some kind of trauma surrounding people in power (Zane:Garte, Zenix:Implied to have been wronged by a lord in some way.) All this being said I have to point out Zenix and Zane both start with Z. They are the only ones aside from Zoey with a Z starting name, and since they already share so many qualities I can see this being a way for Jess to foreshadow this.

Garroth, like he did with Zenix, he questions what led Zane on his path but Zianna seems to put this idea to rest entirely, and her word is taken as fact. Which is fair the idea isn't too shocking, considering the kind of person Zane was. But the fact that even Garroth thought to question the cause of Zane's nature and is immediately shut down by Zianna, and then it is never mentioned again. It's just to reminiscent to how Garroth compartmentalized Zenix' downfall and never mentioned it again. It's just too close.

Zianna at the end of the day is Zane's mother, which one could argue that she knows him best, however parents can be blind to the trauma that young children might face and the results that this may cause. Important to note is that Zianna is likely a victim. A constant state of fight or flight could absolutely block her from realizing or addressing the effects of prolonged trauma in her children. In her mind she was taking the blunt of the rather, a shield between harm and her children, but as in most cases, and as shown in both Garroth and Vylad this was not the reality, so it would be easy to connected that this would be the same with the middle son, Zane.

But in the misfortune of her situation Zianna did the best that she possibly could. But Zane ended up the way he did anyway. The way that Zianna is characterized in her short time on screen really encapsulates the backbone of this concept. Her guilt, and her grief are so compelling, and the manner in which she rationalize her traumatic experience is very believable... but identifying a child who was raised in a household that actively encouraged cruelty as just "always like that" is very suspicious to me. And the strong thematic intersections aligning between Zenix and Zane makes me believe that there is something going on here.

Brian

Last but not least.

This reveal was unexpected but impactful. It was shocking because of this concept. Despite Molly's best efforts Brian became a traitor anyway.

It came alongside Zenix' in a way which I think is interesting. It was implied that they had some kind of relationship. And they both ended up betraying Phoenix Drop.

I wonder where this guy is now...

But some honorable mentions since this concept is interesting to me. (Most of the arcs were put aside so it is interesting to think where they could have gone considering the circumstances, so I'm connecting it to this mini-theory.)

Season 1, when Baby Alexis was turned into an adult SHADOWKNIGHT! She was returned to normal of course but still... is that a possible destiny for her to be weary of?

Leona. Kiki is so sweet, and a great mom, bit... there is too much mystery and unanswered questions surrounding this child of her's. (Why did Zane even do this?) She is somewhat implied to kinda-but-not-really be Zane's? Regardless of the reality one way or another she is a result of Zane, a pawn in his plot, maybe one that died with him, maybe one that returned with him, we don't know.

Considering this thematic presence throughout MCD I wonder where this would have led in season three. It would be interesting if this heavier side to the series continued. Especially since Aphmau is raising the heir to a destroyer's relic. If this theme is to be believed then where would that lead to in Alina's destiny?

"Minecraft Diaries: Son and Daughters"

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46724815

#aphblr #aphmau #zianna ro'meave #zane ro'meave #garroth ro'meave #zenix mcd #brian mcd #leona mcd #shad the destroyer #mcd #minecraft diaries

[guacamoleroll]

𝖆𝖓 𝖆𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖋𝖞𝖔𝖉𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

author's note. i apologize for the post being made much later that i intended. i won't delve into the details, but these past weeks have been either busy, stress-inducing, or both. it's been difficult over on my side of the screen, but with the time on my hands, i wanted to finish these thoughts, so here it is!

There are many details of Fyodor Dostoevsky's supposed "death" to theorize about in a canonical way, with plenty of creators using that approach to speculate. However, that is not the main point of my discussion. Rather, I wanted to explain my thoughts as a writer and the importance and relevance Fyodor's "death" could have on the plot and series as a whole.

There will be a series of questions throughout this post, so be prepared to think!

Here is my first question: does Fyodor's death seem anticlimactic, sudden, or out of place?

If your answer is "yes," you're not alone! It might be hard to put your finger on the why. Weird, isn't it—that a moment that had seemed so built-up to seems so strange. If this is the moment that is meant to serve as Fyodor's final scene, the end of his character arc, why does it not feel right? 

Those questions are where a writer's lens can come in handy.

And there's a fairly simple answer—it's not supposed to feel right. Because this isn't an end, though, there are different paths the narrative can go down (but I'll speak to that in a moment). 

As an audience, we have been left with more questions than answers and more loose threads than ever before. What is Fyodor's ability? What is Fyodor's background? What is Fyodor himself? And the reason these questions are so important is because Asagiri has indirectly shown us their importance. We observe characters speculate these questions time and time again, only to come up inconclusive. It causes us to speculate. And neither the characters nor ourselves, as the audience, has come to any answers. 

This series is not known for leaving loose threads at the conclusion of a character's arc. When a major character officially dies or has retired from the spotlight on the screen, it has always followed a conclusion to the questions that surrounded them. And if a major character dies, it always serves a greater purpose. But because Fyodor has not been concluded properly as a character, his "death" feels wonky.

This leads to a split decision to make—whether to conclude him following his "death" or to conclude him while he is alive. I'll address the latter first.

There are multiple ways to approach an official Fyodor death, whether that is to reveal the answers to his identity through characters like Sigma and the next antagonists or something entirely different. But that does lead me to my next question. If he is dead, what is the point of revealing the answers to these questions? What would be the point of revealing an ability if it had no effect on the narrative further down the line? The answer is there wouldn't be one. It would be pointless, like slapping duct tape on a crack. In many ways, it would seem like a rush job, a last-ditch effort to conclude a character that has no point in the plot going forward.

So, in some way, Fyodor will have an effect on the rest of the plot, even if he isn't alive to see it.

But I'm a bit biased, and personally, I don't find that to be the most dramatic, nor the most satisfying conclusion to his character. So let's discuss the path if Fyodor is alive—not how, but why would he be?

To clarify one point, on the surface, Fyodor's death makes sense. It is the peak of the Meursault battle between him an Dazai, with perfection versus spontaneity, and trust versus suspicion. It makes sense for this to be the mental conclusion to the philosophical arguments these two have been having over the course of several chapters and episodes. But Fyodor isn't simply tied to Dazai's character—in proper character, he is tied to many other plot points and people. So he isn't done just yet.

The question here is why would Fyodor be killed off in the first place, only to be brought back later? Why not have him escape, but still evidently be alive?

And I have a question of my own: wouldn't an audience grow tired of having the same villain for many consecutive volumes and seasons? The answer is almost always yes, even if the villain is a fantastic character. 

The answer to the former question, the question of why, could be quite simple—intrigue. If he's alive, for the sake of the story, he still needs to be offscreen. To kill him is to allow him to become a background player once more, looming over the world while we stare into every thread of the plot, wondering if he's alive and if he's involved. It's almost like the scenario of Schrödinger's cat, you don't know whether he is truly dead or not, and until Asagiri opens that box, we may never know. But we keep guessing. We keep speculating. And the story remains within our minds. 

There are only two situations where a major character has died or has faked their death—when they have served their purpose and completed their character arc (Oda), or when their death was faked in order to lead the plot in a new direction (Kunikida, Dazai). 

The former has not been done with Fyodor yet—he hasn't been concluded properly. 

We don't know too much about some of the characters that have officially died, like Oda. But with those characters, we were indirectly introduced to questions when they were introduced, and those questions were often directly or indirectly answered at their conclusion. That isn't to say that it isn't fun to learn about smaller questions and speculate about their backgrounds, but we are firm in who they are, even if we don't know where they came from.

That is not the case with Fyodor. We don't know who he is, and we barely know where he came from. He is such a fascinating, but hard character to write personally because those are foundational to his character. He is hard to grasp. And there is so much emphasis surrounding both who he is and where he came from, that we are left with only a fraction of a character. As an audience, we can theorize, but he still remains an enigma.

And an enigma is only one more reason to keep watching and reading, is it not?

I hope everyone who read this far enjoyed my little ramble, and that it was cohesive and easy to understand! I'm interested to see if any of my other fellow writers have any thoughts on this. Have a wonderful day! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

taglist: @atsquie

#₊˚ପ notes from muse .ᐟ #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd 112 spoilers #bsd spoilers #bsd thoughts #bsd theories #fyodor bsd #fyodor dostoevsky #it's here .ᐟ

[bettsfic]

betts do you have advice on finding your way to narratively satisfying endings? i struggle to end stories in ways that don’t feel abrupt or dropping the ball plotwise in some way

i have bad news for you: almost no one is good at writing endings. i would say less than 10% of what i read has a decent ending. and around 1% has a good one. i'm looking at my bookshelf right now and the only one i can see with a great ending is lord of the rings. the rest of them either have bizarre endings (the english patient), actively terrible endings (white oleander), and endings i didn't even get to because the story lost all structure and conflict at the halfway mark (a lot of them). in fact bad endings have disenchanted me so thoroughly that this year i've only read nonfiction.

that doesn't mean you shouldn't aim for a satisfying ending, but that you're not alone in struggling with them, and you shouldn't feel too much pressure to nail the landing. there are some stories where the ending isn't as important as the beginning.

the reason, i think, that so many endings suck is because the personal stakes of the characters are weak. i don't necessarily prescribe to the obligation of character motivations, but i do think what often repels me as a reader is that the characters don't really care about anything, and therefore neither do i. if your character wants something, then you have a naturally occurring ending: they get what they want, they don't get what they want, or (my favorite) they get what they want and there are consequences.

another reason i think endings fail is that a lot of stories i read are missing a third act or a final escalation. they reach the first climax and resolve, rather than reaching the first climax, addressing the aftermath, and escalating to an even higher climax. not all stories are set up this way, but a lot of them can be improved if the writer asked themselves, "and then what happens?"

that said, here's the theory as i see it:

because narrative is innate to human nature, there are natural instincts we have to types of endings, namely happy and sad. comedy and tragedy. it's a binary, yes, and i generally avoid those, but for me anyway it's often the first question i ask myself when i start plotting a story: will this have a happy ending or a sad one? do i want to invoke emotional satisfaction or cathartic sadness? if neither, do i want to aim for something complicated or bittersweet?

i try not to obligate myself to any particular direction, but in having a rough idea of the answer, i can at least begin forming a conflict. the big difference between a happy ending and a sad one is whether or not you're asking your audience to root for the success of the characters' plight. for example, let's say your story involves around the development of a romantic relationship. if it seems like the characters, after completing the obstacles of the story, have a chance to have a healthy, happy relationship, then your audience will be eager for them to get together. but if you write it in such a way that your audience thinks, "oh no they're awful for each other," then your audience will be waiting for the breaking point*. either way, you're establishing the anticipation of your audience. if it's a little of both, then your ending is going to be somewhere in the middle, which is fine. the point is, your characters' motivations are being addressed. that's all an ending really is.

*there are genres where the delight is wanting two characters who are toxic to each other to stay together, like darkfic. but i think that's a different conversation, because that's a specific lens through which to read.

okay, now that the big picture stuff is out of the way, here are some general tips/ways i help writers figure out their endings:

process of elimination. write down all the ways it doesn't end. then write down all the ways it could end. then narrow that list into one that works.

extreme stakes. what is the greatest possible ending? does the character die? does the universe end? these probably won't be the right ending, but they'll at least help you aim high.

start with the ending. personally my best work has always come from stories where i know the ending before the beginning, and therefore everything that happens in the story is actively driving toward that ending. and by "know the ending" i mean i have the final image in my head. (most of the time this doesn't end up actually being the ending, but i like having something to work toward.)

harmonize your conflicts. the resolution of all conflict is its opposite: harmony. that doesn't mean a story necessarily has to end that way, but it's at least a good question to ask yourself. how do your characters return to a state of peace?

stack your conflicts. the more threads you open, the more that needs to be tied up at the end, the longer and more satisfying your denouement.

take your time. my favorite endings are ones that slowly slide down the falling action because the stakes reach such intense heights earlier on. a lot of people seem to believe that rising action is more important, building tension and whatnot, but i also think it's good to interrogate that, and try to see your work in the opposite light. what happens if your protagonist gets what they want asap, with no trouble at all? how do they handle success? success is a complicated thing: the good always comes with some bad. what does that look like? (this is the reason lord of the rings has such a great ending. it really honors the characters and the story.)

let your characters do what they want. if you build strong enough characters, their choices will eventually lead you to an ending. give them agency to fuck up and force them deal with it.

work toward an illuminating moment. an illuminating moment is a reveal at the end of the story that casts all the rest of it in a different light, so that when you reread with the illuminated context, the story becomes something new. doing that involves working in a mystery of some kind. shorter stories tend to rely on the illuminating moment, where longer ones rely on the reader knowing what's going on in order to be invested for the long haul.

outside input. have a friend read it and ask what they care about most and what they're expecting to happen. maybe you want to address those expectations or maybe you want to subvert them, but either way it'll help you see more clearly what you're tasking your reader to care about.

steal from shakespeare. everything i learned about how to end my stories i learned from shakespeare. that doesn't mean his endings are how all stories should end, but that i admire them and those are the sorts of endings i want for my own work. it might help to reread/rewatch your favorite things and pay particular attention to how they end.

what do you want? if you're emotionally invested in your own story, how do you want it to end? what would make you most satisfied with your own work? often what drives me forward in my own writing is wanting my characters to be happy but starting them in a place where happiness isn't even a real concept for them, and so they have to go through the process of addressing the things that have happened to them and fight for themselves and what they want.

my big caveat here is that a "good" ending is subjective. people think Lost had a good ending but i'm still angry i spent five years of my life waiting for a payoff that didn't come. in workshops i almost always hear the advice, "you don't want your ending to be *too* neat." bitch yes i do. i want it to be a neat, tidy bow, every single thing accounted for, every thread woven back in.

but that's me. your taste is different and your readers' taste is going to be different. you're never going to satisfy everyone, so it's best to honor your own aesthetic and hope your reader understands where you've come from.

#writing advice #endings #structure #conflict

[thagomizersshow]

I said a few days ago that I’d share my criticisms of Jurassic Park, so here goes. At its core, JP is a movie that has one message in the text and another in the subtext, and this all comes down to why of the park’s failure.

The film’s dialogue famously ascribes the failure of the park to hubris; don’t mess around in god’s play place (aka genetics) because you don’t know what will happen. Ian Malcolm’s "life finds a way” criticisms of the park are portrayed by the characters as correct. Malcolm even says that “he hates being right all the time.” It’s also worth mentioning that Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg have both been interviewed on the message of Jurassic Park, and they both said it is about the misuse of science, in agreement with Malcolm.

That is the text. This all-too-common sci-fi story about humanity meddling in the domain of the gods. Which, BY THE WAY, did not originate with Frankenstein as I said in one of my earliest videos. I’ll argue now that lumping Frankenstein in with JP and other “man’s hubris” stories is an oversimplification and possibly even a straight up misreading, but that’s a WHOLE ‘nother post.

Now, when we look at the events of the story, rather than the dialogue, a different message is revealed. Looking at the actions that actually lead to the failure of the park, it’s clear scientists failing to account for something has nothing to do with it.

Yes, the dinosaurs turn out to be breeding, but this has zero effect on the events of the film. Maybe if they had included the raptors changing sex, like they do in the novel, this argument would have a leg to stand on, but as the film exists the discovery of breeding dinosaurs makes no difference to the plot. You honestly could cut this scene out and the film wouldn’t miss a beat.

The real reason for the park’s fall is much more mundane: Hammond didn’t pay one of his workers enough.

Dennis Nedry is honestly one of the most disgusting portrayals of a “disgruntled employee” ever put to screen. He’s written to be the least sympathetic character possible; he’s messy, annoying, gluttonous, physically inept, and to top it all off, of course he’s fat, a trait most often given to characters who are either comic relief or villains. So, when he complains about not being paid well enough, the audience is already primed to think of him as unworthy of sympathy.

This in spite of his clearly incredible feat of automating the entire park single handed. Nedry’s decision after being fucked over by a multi-billion dollar company — like anyone with a backbone — is to try and fuck them right back. In this case, it was by stealing their shit, which may not have been the best choice (workplace organizing, man, c’mon), but I honestly can’t fault him for it. He deserved better than to be the audience’s hate sink, and we can put full blame on the writers and director for creating such a vile representation of a worker.

All this to say that the theme park’s failure, and all the deaths it caused, fall on John Hammond’s shoulders. Not because he “didn’t stop to think if he should.” Not because “life finds a way.” But because he treated a worker like shit who knew more about the thing they made than he did.

Now, finally, I want to address the fact that I’m not the first person to make a Marxist analysis of JP. In fact, Idea Channel made a video on this topic forever ago, and there are literal academic papers on this topic well worth reading. The point I want to make is not just that JP says something about capitalism, but that the subtextual message about capitalism is at odds with the textual message about the hubris of scientific advancement, AND this degrades the film’s quality massively in my eyes.

If Nedry was portrayed as sympathetic, if Hammond’s abuse wasn’t glossed over, if someone called Malcolm out on how he isn’t right all the time, then MAYBE this movie could be an actual good commentary on capitalism. But as it stands, it feels like it ignores the questions its own story brings up, and even worse, is really mean spirited towards fat people and workers who’ve been wronged.

As much as I love SO much about Jurassic Park, including acting, cinematography, effects, editing (honestly SUCH good editing), the script itself falls apart so badly at the seams I struggle to enjoy it the way I used to. This, combined with the fact the series has turned into a nostalgia driven sludge machine, and I just can’t bring myself to engage with this franchise in a positive way anymore. 

#jurassic park #movies #crit post