onceuponanaromantic

[onceuponanaromantic]

A couple years ago, I was staying with a friend for New Year’s and we’d decided to drive down to this adorable strip of locally-owned small business shops and check them out. The bakery was particularly crowded and since I wasn’t planning to buy anything, I waited outside. It’d been snowing, and since moving I’d picked up a “Californian-experiences-true-midwest-winter-for-the-first-time” habit of making at least one (1) tiny snowman every opportunity I get

so I built a little snowman on one of the small tables on this strip. 

after about three minutes of cramming ice together, I hear, “Do you want espresso beans for the eyes?” and I turn around and there’s this gal leaning precariously far out the window of her coffee shop, surrounded by her coworkers, holding out her hand and said espresso beans.

I think of those strangers often. just the thought of them all looking out the window to see this random stranger on the corner in the snow building a tiny snowman and deciding to join in, make it special for no other reason than that they wanted to. people are so, so precious and I’m never going to forget that moment.

[onceuponanaromantic]

the first day of my hand drafting class in my senior year of college, after the prof taught us how to frame up on the drafting table and went over how to use the tools we'd bought, he had us all take our pencils and make a mark on the top right corner of the vellum. then he walked us through the setup steps - the border, the title block, etc.

and he told us to erase the mark.

when someone - rosie, i think - asked what the mark was for he smiled.

"if you give a novice student an expensive, blank piece of paper, they panic. they think if i start using that i will ruin it. so the first thing i want all of you to do, any time you stare at a blank piece of paper, is to ruin it a little and take the pressure off yourself. pencil erases. anxiety has to be managed."

i hated that man for a myriad of reasons, but that was some of the best advice i've ever been given.

[onceuponanaromantic]

Got my physical copy!!

[onceuponanaromantic]

Darcy's first proposal is a clusterfuck on so many levels, and I love it, but I think my favorite is how much shit he talks about the Bennets. None of it is untrue, but also, real bold words for you to say to a woman who is currently being forced to spend weeks on end socializing with your insufferable aunt, Fitzwillaim. That's a nice glass house you got there. Would be a shame if someone... threw stones.

[onceuponanaromantic]

The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol

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You know, it's kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of "saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon". Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there's a reason he's over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.

Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.

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• Cape of shaded ribboned silk.

Date: 1937

Designer/Maker: Charles James

Place of origin: United States

Medium: Silk

[onceuponanaromantic]

writing exercise I think of as "poem scaffolding": pick a poem of manageable size that evokes a strong emotional reaction from you. off to the side, generate a single image or association for each line or two, and use that ordered list of images as the basis for a story. do this multiple times with the same poem. every story will be different, which is good. every story will nonetheless bear certain similarities to each other and the poem itself.

[onceuponanaromantic]

love it when a fantasy world mixes adult themes and tragedy with fairy tales and themes of human compassion

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Zuko is like comically bad at being a brother, a friend, and a boyfriend. There are complex reasons for that relating to his upbringing and life, but that's not what I want discuss here. Instead, I want to point out that there's a massive comedic potential here that I have almost never seen exploited, surrounding Zuko not understanding the most basic elements of being an OK sibling/friend/boyfriend.

[onceuponanaromantic]

rb this and tell me what ur accent is. this has no purpose except the fact i just realized i could have like... mutuals with cockney accents or newfoundland accents or something and thats just wild

#Singaporean #this comes from a lifetime in a household with a mother whose accent is so Singaporean #she was once accosted in the middle of a danish supermarket by a random guy #who pointed at her excitedly and said to his girlfriend that ‘that’s the Singaporean accent. There’s a whole country of ppl who speak #like that’ and then she was like ‘hah?’ And the guy was like ‘EXACTLY THAT’ #this was like 20 years ago and her response was mostly ‘… I’m going to find my family and leave you weirdos to figure things out yourselves

[onceuponanaromantic]

leitmotifs never get old to me like holy shit dude there’s this melody that corresponds to this one guy and if you hear the melody it means the guy is there. holy shit. and sometimes it refers to ideas too not just guys. has anyone heard about this

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One of the side-effects of having written about making out culpable homicide and murder charges is that I now am unfortunately familiar with the progression of various potentially lethal injuries. Such as stab wounds.

#please cheer me on as I use my understanding of medical complexities to win a prize in criminal law #syl’s thoughts #that’s how law school is going these days #for reference the answer to if stabbing someone is murder is where did you stab them #did you intend to kill them at the time of the stabbing #and how did they actually die

[onceuponanaromantic]

Yay, unsolicited advice time! Or, not really advice, more like miscellaneous tips and tricks, because if there's one thing eight years of martial arts has equipped me to write, it's fight scenes.

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Fun things to add to a fight scene (hand to hand edition)

It's not uncommon for two people to kick at the same time and smack their shins together, or for one person to block a kick with their shin. This is called a shin lock and it HURTS like a BITCH. You can be limping for the rest of the fight if you do it hard enough.

If your character is mean and short, they can block kicks with the tip of their elbow, which hurts the other guy a lot more and them a lot less

Headbutts are a quick way to give yourself a concussion

If a character has had many concussions, they will be easier to knock out. This is called glass jaw.

Bad places to get hit that aren't the groin: solar plexus, liver, back of the head, side of the thigh (a lot of leg kicks aim for this because if it connects, your opponent will be limping)

Give your character a fighting style. It helps establish their personality and physicality. Are they a grappler? Do they prefer kicks or fighting up close? How well trained are they?

Your scalp bleeds a lot and this can get in your eyes, blinding you

If you get hit in the nose, your eyes water

Adrenaline's a hell of a drug. Most of the time, you're not going to know how badly you've been hurt until after the fact

Even with good technique, it's really easy to break toes and fingers

Blocking hurts, dodging doesn't

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Just thought these might be useful! If you want a more comprehensive guide or a weapons edition, feel free to ask. If you want, write how your characters fight in the comments!

Have a bitchin day <3

[onceuponanaromantic]

[onceuponanaromantic]

and is your shame helpful? is it inspiring goodness and change? or is it keeping you frozen in time unable to move on and be everything you have expanded to be?

[onceuponanaromantic]

Episode 220: The Fan-Journalist

On Episode 220, “The Fan-Journalist,” Flourish and Elizabeth welcome one particular fan-journalist—Kayti Burt—to discuss her recent article for us on the specific challenges of covering things you love in a very precarious industry. Topics discussed include Kayti’s journey from youthful fandom to pop culture reporting, a step-by-step rundown of how an article goes from idea to finished product, and the many ethical questions journalists have to weigh when writing about fans or their objects of fandom.

Click through to our site to listen or read a full transcript!