#You got fantasy in my scifi

[sunderedandundone]

So for anyone who's interested, I've started *attempting* to organize my wonktastic UrSkek lore/worldbuilding material, including the backstories for the Twice-Nine and the fuckups that got them deported :-) , over at my AO3 pseud? Stay tuned for updates roughly at the speed of proofing/editing (i.e, whenthefuckever)

#You got scifi in my fantasy #You got fantasy in my scifi #UrSkeks #all the urskeks #dark crystal #age of resistance #tdcaor #heresy #all the heresy #utopias #dystopias #alien cultures #worldbuilding #wonk #RPG creator goobery #skeksis #urru #gelfling #EktUtt #AyukAmaj #SoSu #GraGoh #SkekEkt #SkekAyuk #Ekt/Ayuk #shippy urskeks #AIs #shippy AIs #photonic lifeforms #A03

[aroacehanzawa]

trying to decide what to read next

#i've got 3 more weeks of holiday i could binge read some webnovels #all my classic literature is on campus on anyway #i could also read the Real Books i have at home but that is not as entertaining #so. i could read another romance OR i could finally start either trash of the count's family or sss-class revival hunter #HOWEVER those are LONG #whereas i could read like 2-3 shorter novels in the same time #where's that tiktok of the guy calculating in detail which kdrama to watch next because that's what it feels like rn #you see i want to read The Earth Is Online but after the trainwreck that was Kaleidoscope of Death maybe i should #read something other than action fantasy for a change #so i could go with a historical political drama like Dinghai Fusheng Records OR i could read Silent Reading which is modern mystery drama #the latter which i have on my kindle but the former i would have to read on my phone from the website #but my mom doesn't like seeing me read on my phone because text too small #i could also read Can Ci Pin which is a scifi space opera #HOWEVER for optimal scifi reading i need to be in the middle of the semester studying physics or it wont hit the same #anyway. hope you enjoyed this insight into my brain when i try to pick something to read. will update

[honeyboyart]

me sending this to my dm: 👉👈idk if this looks like how the race is supposed to can you give me any notes? my dm: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN 'NOTES' THIS IS BEAUTIFUL

#character design #oc #oc character design #digital art #illustration #character portrait #fantasy #sci fi #this is my fucked up lil mad scientist character i play in my friends homebrew ttrpg system im play testing #i love him his name is Dae and hes a prodigy genomancer #basically the plot of this game is were all sorta space villians #you could probably not be villains but we all accidentally chose to be shifty bitches with agendas #my agenda is kidnap people and do fucked up tests to see if i can improve our genes #i am not even the most fucked up of the group by a long shot #im tame compared to these bitches #anyway dae is my problematic fav #the inspo for the race is apparently east Asian mixed with art nouveau and sci-fi and he said i got that down pretty good #like the curvy organic shapes from art nouveau and the harsh geometrics of scifi mixed together was what i was trying to do

[justaballoffluff]

I think I'm gonna -- take a bit of a break from Tari for a bit -- but if you want some fantasy, come find me at @comparofabulae

#Ryn rambles #nobody's from Forgotten Realms or Baldur's Gate 3 #BUT it's not that difficult to either just...drop them in or tweak them a bit #I doubt I'm gonna be let to have fun with Pillars of Eternity or Tyranny main verse but WHATEVER ITS FINE #I might put my BattleTech character there too just to be funny #like it'll all be fantasy than just -- SciFi battlemechs #well no. Amara's also got a Rogue Trader verse #so two very different scifi vibes but you know. that's not a bad thing

[rhyaxxyn]

a writeblr resurrection

my name is rhyannyn, and i'm looking to get more involved into the writeblr community after a lengthy hiatus of getting myself and my works in order. i'm always willing to follow new people, and reconnect with writeblrs i knew a few years ago when i was consistently on tumblr (going as kennedy :b)

if you write any of the following, are intrigued by any of the following, or just want to hang out and rip my OCs apart (i've got a list of where you should start, by the way) please feel free to follow and I will follow back. i'm really looking to find writeblrs right now who blogs are focused on writing, as i always love finding new things to read, and new stories to support :)

tragic characters--characters who see no way out, characters who are icarus coded and sisyphus coded AND antigone coded, characters caged by their duty and love and faith and it destroys them

in turn, complex characters with really rich backgrounds

stories influenced by slavic cultures (polish heritage plays a large part in one of my fantasy cultures)

queer fantasy stories by queer voices

FANTASY! CONTEMPORARY FANTASY! SCIFI FANTASY! DARK FANTASY! HIGH FANTASY! URBAN FANTASY! I WILL SCROUNGE THE FLOORS FOR FANTASY AND GORGE MYSELF ON IT!

stories that are anti-colonizer. i like seeing indigenous people win, and i love stories with irish, native american, sammi, and kurdish influences. i like seeing characters cling to who they are and old gods and kind ways while colonizers try to take it away, and i like seeing indigenous people prevail.

worldbuilding with a major focus on family values, religion, and magic.

any and all things dark

slowburn lovers, slowburn friendships, slowburn found family. make it teeth-gritting and loving and heart gouging. i will devour it.

characters who are hurt and traumatized and it isn't the end. characters in the dark who keep going even when there isn't any light in sight.

all things divine and demonic and grimy. i have a taste for violence as long as it serves a purpose to the story and isn't done just for fun

this is a list of things i write, and what i particularly love to read in literature, but i'm willing to follow any writeblrs and hopefully connect with some new and old accounts!

again, i've been off of tumblr for an official two years now (yes my bad, but alas i had the strangest hyperfixation on the job i despise and totally disappeared), but i am holding myself by the throat and forcing myself to resurrect because i am trying to publish a book right now!

oh and my wip page sucks. please avoid it at all costs while i try to edit it :3

#writeblr #writerblr #writing community #oc #worldbuilding #fantasy #fantasy writer #authors of tumblr #my teeth are rotten and my name is changed and I'm clicking my bones back in place #but i am resurrected #new writeblr #ish

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Making Humanoids Less Human

I did make a small post on this, but now I've got the art for a much bigger and more detailed post! so here we go.

I had several anonymous asks that all came in quick succession weeks ago. Every single one of them was basically just a variation on "how would you take (typically humanoid) fantasy being, and make them look less human?"

This blog does not exist for me to just give people original designs for free, my goal is to show off my own personal thoughts about fantasy design and help people figure out how to adjust their own designs to fit their vision better. That means when people ask me questions about how to do something, I want to give them things to think about so they can come to their own conclusion. I don't mind making original designs to illustrate concepts, but a whole flood of "show me how to make this specific thing look different" all at once like that was too much. I'm not answering them all individually, it's just not what I want to do.

But what I can do is show my own thoughts and ideas about how to take any fantasy design and push it further away from "human", and you all can look at my ideas and figure out your own way to do things!

So here are the main 4 methods I've come up with to make humanoids look less human.

(image description: a simplified drawing of a humanoid face surrounded by four altered versions of the same face. clockwise starting from the top left, they are:

Speculative, drawn as a cat person. Additive, drawn with horns, pointy ears, sharp teeth, and a second pair of eyes. Subtractive, drawn with blank eyes, no nose, and no eyebrows. Exaggerative, drawn with a long face and huge eyes, as well as a wide mouth, narrow nose, and big ears.

end description)

I am personally a fan of the speculative route, which means exploring an alternate root of evolution to create a new design. Through this method, I've created monkey elves, frog goblins, and pig orcs.

the additive option is the most common, I think. adding new feature or doubled features to a humanoid form is a very intuitive way to change the design and make it look less human. you see this in most fantasy and scifi designs, like star trek aliens and the dnd player races.

subtractive and evaggerative are the most common options for people that like the uncanny valley. it's really easy to make uncomfortable designs by removing or exaggerating recognizable features, and they're often used together. Slenderman, for example, removes all facial features and skin color but also exaggerates the limbs and body.

Combining the four methods will give you a really interesting design as well! So for practice I decided to explore an alternate design for Tieflings, the part-demon player race in dnd.

(image description: four examples of differnt tiefling designs using the previously described methods. the additive example is just offical dnd art of a tiefling woman with purple skin, horns, and a long tail.

the subtractive sketch looks very alien, with a bald head, empty eyes, and no other facial featuers aside from a small mouth. it has three fingers per hand and two toe per foot.

the exaggerative sketch shows a hunched humanoid figure with huge eyes and big ears. the neck, limbs, and digits are all long with claws at the ends of the fingers and toes, and the limbs are also quite muscular.

the speculative sketch shows a bipedal figure with features similar to a giraffe, including a long neck, ossicones, and hooves.

end description)

now, because tielflings have such a distinct look to them, obviously my new sketches don't really look like tieflings, do they? the only one that comes close is the giraffe. relying only on one type of alteration to the human form has left the designs rather empty and lacking in the more iconic traits of the original concept. so i tried a sketch that combined my ideas! it came out looking like a completely different creature lol, like it could be a kobold or something, still not really a tiefling.

(image description: a sketch of a creature with a giraffe-like head, long tongue, and sharp teeth. it appears to be roaring at something and stands in a half-crouch. it has long limbs with hoof feet and clawed hands, as well as a long tufted tail curled behind it. end description.)

didn't work out. too far into the animal side of the speculative evolution, I think. so I tried again and got a design I liked much better!

(image description: a digital painting of a tiefling leaping back and casting a glowing orange spell. she is wearing a tunic with a corset and detached sleeves, as well as several pieces of jewelry. Her skin is purple with dark patches like a giraffe's spots, and she has a giraffe's ossicones as well as hoof-like hands and two-toed hoof feet. Her tail is long with a tuft at the end. She has glowing eyes and a flat nose, and there is a single sharp tooth visible poking out of the side of her mouth. end description.)

Brought the face back into slightly more human proportions and that helped a lot. Sometimes designs just take a few tries! that's normal.

and hopefully this is helpful to all of you! there are so many ways to alter humanoid designs to come up with something original and unique to you!

#humanoids #making humanoids less human #altered humanoids #non primate humanoids #tiefling #long post #my designs #and btw ai cannot do this #does not matter how detailed you prompt it #it can't really get things to look this original and unique #it can't really blend different features like this in a way that makes sense #you have this power #the computers cannot replicate it

[nanowrimo]

5 Techniques to Help You Write Your Novel

Every writing project is unique, and the methods that help you draft one novel may not work for another. If you’re getting started on a brand new project this Camp, NaNo Guest Vee James has some suggestions for different techniques to help you explore your story. It took a few NaNos before I realized I was developing different techniques each time I sat down to the challenge. I think we all do this naturally, but it helps to step back and observe the process. If you’re strictly a pantster, you’ve been working on the story ideas in your head. If you’re a planner, you’ve set to paper the story concepts, characters, and an outline of what you are about to produce on paper. Some people take a hybrid approach to NaNo. Granted, the basics remain the same: butt in chair, accomplish the hourly/daily goal, and allow yourself to tell your story.

I discovered that each unique novel presented particular challenges, and I had to adapt my style and writing techniques in order to explore the story and keep the production happening. Some of these came from writing instructors and wonderful podcasters. Some came from “how to write” seminars and workshops. Others grew out of a feverish search for “more words.”

Here are five techniques I’ve found that helped me advance writing projects:

1. Research

It was a surprise to me to discover the concept of researching for fiction. I initially thought, “Just make something up.” But there are so many ways to broaden your approach. Plumb your memory, take a course in something related to the story, talk to an expert, and ask lots of questions. You could even become like the character in order to feel what they feel. If you’re writing a western, go ride a horse.

2. Write Scenes Out of Order

If you have a premise, you’ve already got scenes in your mind. Don’t wait until you get to chapter 18. Write that scene now. You can always revise it when you catch up to that point and it gives you something to develop toward. To expand on this technique, when you’ve written the scene, ask yourself, “What happened just before this?” or “What does this scene lead to?”

3. Put disparate characters together and have them have a conversation

Often, we write secondary characters who take a more subdued role in the plot. But what would happen if your protagonist’s best friend had a conversation with the main antagonist? Or if the antagonist’s agent of destruction came upon the protagonist’s love interest? In my experience, these conversations frequently produce more depth in your secondary characters and almost always it’s something you weren’t expecting.

4. Play with Genre Tropes

What have you chosen to write? Urban fiction? SciFi? Fantasy? You already know what your reader expects you to write, and what the plot ahead holds for them. How can you twist it? Sometimes the simplest thing you mentioned in chapter one can be the linchpin of a great plot twist.

5. Study Film

It’s no accident that some of the most astounding stories have been told through film. Quite simply, movie companies invest heavily in every aspect of their production and hire some of the best writers around. Yes, it’s a visual medium and has some advantages over prose. But the main lesson with movies is in the structure of the stories they tell. Here’s a good example: when I was writing a fairytale novel, I wanted to stay true to the classic story structure. One afternoon I was watching the comedy, Galaxy Quest, taking careful notes on the structure. I realized the story structure mapped very closely to what I was doing in the fairytale. It was comforting to see this, and it also gave me some ideas on how to approach the ending.

Most importantly: NaNoWriMo is a thrilling if exhaustive experience, and I urge you to immerse yourself in it completely. Write with utter abandon, delve deep for concepts that will give you the next 2000 words, and try new things like you’re a Mad Scientist in a hurry. We all know that what you end up with is a messy creation. But you will find you have given yourself a great gift.

Vee James is a cross-genre author who loves to write comedies, fairytales, and YA supernatural. He participated in NaNoWriMo for ten years in a row, writing over a half-million words, and it led to nine NaNo novels plus two more non-NaNos. Out of this work, he’s published four novels, with a fifth nearing completion. If interested, visit his site at www.veejames.com and leave a message. He loves to talk to writers of all kinds. Vee's photo by A. Roger Hammons Photo by Daniel Álvasd on Unsplash

#nanowrimo #camp nanowrimo #writing tips #nanowrimo experience #writer's life #by nano guest #vee james

[whereserpentswalk]

Thinking about how Harry Potter and Avatar kind of ruined the way Fandoms see certain works. Like, this was sparked on by a conversation with a freind about the undertale Fandom, and how the Fandom misunderstands a lot of things because it's not the type of thing they're used to. Fandom is so uses to action adventure stories, as well as stories where every main character in under eighteen. Undertale got misunderstood because it's really not action adventure (when you look at its plot is closer to scifi/horror), and most of the characters are very much adults with adult problems.

Like, a lot of why the undertale Fandom missreads important things is it just doesn't understand these two things. Like, Flowey, Asgore and Chara get missread as villians because the fandom tries to create a character to fill the fantasy adventure archetype of the dark lord, when undertale isn't a story that has that. Undyne and Alphys have their relationship misread because their conflict is one that only makes sense in the context of them being overworked professionals (like, realistically both of those characters are over thirty if monsters age like humans), it's why the fandom kind of ignored the complexity of papyrus and mettaton, it's why they don't understand why a mettaton neo fight wouldn't work. A lot of them don't even realize that frisk isn't the hero really.

Personally I'm kind of glad I had my undertale phase at the same time as my Gothic Horror phase. I was cringe, but it saved me from a specific type of fallacies.

This is a post about undertale but its about more then undertale. It's about a problem in a lof of fandoms. Its in everything from Dr. Who to hazbin hotel. When you're analyzing a work, you might need to ask yourself "is this about teenagers about a quest to save the world, and am I acting like it is"?

#fandom #discourse #fandom discourse #proship #undertale #chara #asgore #flowey #undyne #alphys #undyne x alphys #mettaton #papyrus #my thougts #196

[wiltkingart]

What queer books do you recommend?

oh honey i have a whole rec page here if you're up for anything, but i mostly read adult m/m fiction. lots of weird and old stuff with dark tones more often than not. if you want some specific titles as a flavor list, here's a few favorites! i'll link their storygraph pages so you can read their synopses too:

Fantasy: The Rifter by Ginn Hale (dark fantasy featuring a romance that spans years and time and space in decaying world with a destroyer god, and bones. so many bones. has one of the most interesting and well written story structures i've encountered. very moody and dark, hits just right).

Scifi: Body after Body by Briar Ripley Page (erotic adult scifi novella with transmasc and transfem MCs. dreamlike and grotesque, delicate and stomach churning, it's about a group of mind-wiped laborers tending genetically engineered mutant bodies.)

Historical: The Still by David Feintuch (my book series of all tiiiiiiime. it's fantasy too but mostly medieval military fiction. don't even talk to me about Rodrigo if you're not ready to be hit with a twelve page verbal essay i'm not joking, that is a threat. not a typical romance, expect heartbreak and plenty of it and to never recover.)

Horror: Hexslinger series by Gemma Files (planning a reread of this one soon to see if it still holds up but this series has stuck with me like a fly to molasses. it's a fucked up time full of desperation, Mayan gods and godessess, faggotry, blasphemy, and witchery) go with the Bound in Flesh anthology instead if you want good trans body horror, or Down by Ally Blue for deepsea suspense horror.

Contemporary: All for the Game by Nora Sakavic (you probably know about this classic but for me it still tops most everything else i've read. it's got sports, mafia drama, and trauma). for something a little different (but still traumatic) try Mo Du / Silent Reading by Priest (dark mystery set in China that follows several disturbing cases and the psychology behind them + romance between a detective and a rich pretty boy)

but yeah i talk about books a lot on my personal/main blog @wiltking (in lieu of updating my actual rec pages these days, it seems) if you ever want more real time recs! i'm a book guy. i like books a normal amount :)

#god i really tried to keep this list short i swear #ask wilt #if you want lighthearted recs i am quite simply not your guy 😶 #i mean i do have some lighthearted recs if you really want them. they're just not the ones that stick in my heart quite like these! #lgbt books

[hedgehog-moss]

do you ever read scifi or fantasy in french? i am trying to read more sff that was originally published not in english but it's not easy to find 💀

I do! It’s not my favourite genre but one of my friends loves it so I read a bunch of SFF books every year ahead of her birthday to try and find a gift for her. I’m glad I do this because it’s allowed me to discover N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy which was amazing, and I don’t know if I would have picked it up otherwise!

Here are some French-language authors I’ve read or plan to read (unfortunately English translations are few and far between :( I bolded the names for which I found English translations—if you read in another language you can check out the non-bolded authors, there are often translations available in other languages long before English ones)

When it comes to classics you've got Pierre Boulle (Planet of the Apes of course; also Garden on the Moon, which is (deservedly imo) less known), Jacques Spitz (La Guerre des mouches—it was translated but not into English), René Barjavel (The Ice People, Ravage, Future Times Three—I read them a long time ago but I remember them as very sexist even by French classic standards), Bernard Lenteric (La nuit des enfants rois), Alain Damasio (La Horde du Contrevent—maybe too recent to be a classic but it’s everywhere. I was surprised to find no English translation!), Bernard Werber (I feel like he rehashes the same 3 ideas again and again but some of his earlier stuff was fun), Alexandre Arnoux (Le règne du bonheur), Jules Verne of course, Stefan Wul (Oms en série which was adapted into the film La Planète sauvage—Fantastic Planet in English. I like the film better!) And some I haven’t read: Georges-Jean Arnaud, Serge Brussolo (I liked his Peggy Sue series when I was in middle school but it spooked me so much I haven’t dared to pick up any of his SFF for adults, like Les semeurs d’abîmes), Élisabeth Vonarburg.

Newer authors: Estelle Faye (L’arpenteuse de rêves, Un éclat de givre—I tend to like her worldbuilding more than her plots); Sandrine Collette (The Forests—if you count speculative fiction as SFF) (I didn’t like it at all personally but others might), Jean-Philippe Jaworski (I really liked Janua Vera; didn't like Gagner la guerre but it was mainly because I have a low tolerance for rape scenes in fantasy books) (he’s about to be translated into English according to his editor), Stéphane Beauverger (Le déchronologue)

More authors I haven't yet read: Pierre Pevel (The Cardinal's Blades—I've been told it's "17th century Paris with dragons"), Romain Lucazeau (Latium), Laurent Genefort (Lum’en), Christian Charrière (La forêt d’Iscambe), Roland Wagner (La saison de la sorcière), Aurélie Wellenstein (Mers Mortes—I love the synopsis for this one), Magali Villeneuve (La dernière Terre, trilogy)

And non-French, non-anglo SFF authors: Maryam Petrosyan (my review of the Gray House last year was that I understood maybe 1/3 of it but I liked it anyway!), Hao Jingfang (haven’t read her yet), Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (idem), Jaroslav Melnik (I’ve read Espace lointain (originally Далекий простір) but didn’t like it much), Andreas Eschbach (The Carpet Makers), Walter Moers (I read The City of Dreaming Books back when I was still learning German and found it very charming), Liu Cixin (I loved The Three-Body Problem but The Dark Forest was so sexist it made me not want to pick up the third volume), Lola Robles (El informe Monteverde, translated as Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist), Elaine Vilar Madruga (Fragmentos de la Tierra Rota), Tatiana Tolstaya (The Slynx), Karin Tidbeck (Amatka), Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water, The Moonday Letters), Angélica Gorodischer (I’ve read Kalpa Imperial and found it only so-so but it always takes me a while to warm up to characters or a setting so I struggle with short story collections. I’ll still give Trafalgar a try) Also my favourite fantasy book as a kid was Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, I was obsessed with it. I re-read it in the original German a few years ago and it was still great.

#ask #book recs #i feel like sff has long had a poor reputation in france. like it's seen as 'not real literature' #not necessarily by readers but by literary awards and mainstream outlets that promote books #the genre doesn't get a lot of attention from those so it's hard for authors to become well-known #it's often seen as a genre for kids and teenagers—i know i had an easier time finding sff books by french authors when i was younger #scifi for primary school kids like christian lamblin's le survivant or philippe ebly's space operas in bibliothèque verte #or sff for middle school kids: the peggy sue series; linus hoppe by a-l bondoux; more recently the nuées series by nathalie bernard #but yeah in the adult sff aisle of nonspecialised bookshops it's mostly anglo authors + always the same handful of french ones

[ahungeringknife]

slightly new and improved Writeblr intro

About me

I'm bb (bibi, and BB are fine but not Bb, that's a writing signature not mine), 30+, queer, she/they, and I like to write.

My fave genres are fantasy, scifi, and romance. Sometimes with historical fiction and slice of life thrown in too.

I have a probably unhealthy amount of OCs and I want all of them to kiss.

I write both fanfic and original stuff.

I mostly post my own writing, writeblr games, and posts that give me crazy OC thoughts to be tagged. I don't reblog a lot of writing advice or self deprecating writer posts because honestly? Couldn't be me.

I did a HUGE writing challenge this year that was an attempt to write 365 1-shots. One a day. I failed but that's okay. I wrote like 200 of them and that's great and I'm proud of myself.

This is a side blog. I follow from @xaz-fr

I love asks and tumblr messages. I do writeblr games but I could really use some writeblr friends to tag in the ones I do get :,D

I'd love to look at your stuff. You should def show me your writing in a reply or reblog :3

Main tags (that aren't WIPs)

#365 - the big year long project. It has some original stuff, and some fanfic. Lots of adult themes. Lots of original spooky stuff. Lots of 'horror and love are the same thing actually'. Things that are Very Adult are posted on AO3 with a link.

#Fey Alliance - catch all tag for my main setting, the Fey Alliance

#rattling - headcanons, world building, story thoughts, character questions, commentary. Mostly any original posts that aren't writing.

WIPs

The Zealous Servant - Dark high fantasy with lots of magic, necromancers, gods, and political drama. The main character Spayar needs to help his friend the crown prince kill the entire royal family before they turn around and do the same to him in order to claim the throne. Very queer, and is written for an adult audience not YA.

Entropy - My main fanfic WIP from the Destiny 2 fandom. Follows my OCs on their journey to bully the fuck out of Shin Malphur; resident Worst Guy Ever. Along the way he gets a hot girlfriend and I force him to have some actual friends because his lone wolf shtick is tired and stupid lol.

Lonos [working title] - This is a backburner one I need to really hash out a bit more. So I'll probably be posting a lot of rattlings about this one. Vaguely middle eastern appearance in setting about a traveling circus where all the players are also mercenaries for hire. Post a massive plague that wiped out almost all the magic users on the continent and the ones that are still around are viewed as cursed or unclean. (I swear I had this idea before the panny :,D) Gonna be a big long gay slow burn. For adult audiences.

Witchbane - Another backburner one I need to churn out some rattlings about. Steampunk set in a country called Ravthica where everyone thinks magic isn't real. When Spencer's parents go missing he's got to start believing in magic real quick when the hag that lives on his family's property tells him witches kidnapped his parents and the only way to get them back is to kill them. But witch hunting isn't exactly easy and he needs the help of some Wild things to find the witches that want his family and their witch hunting dogs all dead. For YA audiences.

#writeblr #writblr #writeblr intro #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writers and poets #creative writing #writers

[shadowpuppetteer]

Ok, listen. I got curious and did style swap of these two. These two series are so similar but also slightly on the opposite ends visually and writing wise. Visually, both are stylized but still keep anatomy and references in mind. In writing both are 7+ demographically that are action, dramedies with a mix of urban fantasy and scifi. Gargoyles is a bit more muted in colors (makes sense, they are creatures that turn to stone), pay attention to shading, and curved in line expression. Tonally it is drama first, comedy elements second. Genre it is urban fantasy first with scifi elements. ROTTMNT is more saturated in colors, have minimal to no shading (have bits of extra black inking in the linework) with rim lighting every now and again, and sharper/angular line expression. Tonally it is comedy first, drama elements second. Genre it is scifi first, urban fantasy second. Can you tell animation/comics is one of my special interests? Tell me your autistic without telling me your autistic 🤣

#shadowpuppetteer #fanart #fan art #style swap #animation style rant #Gargoyles #Brooklyn #TMNT #ROTTMNT #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #Leo #Leonardo

[gatoraid]

Anime recs for The Radiant Emperor enjoyers

I was watching the new Ooku anime on Netflix some weeks ago and I thought it hit that ”court drama dealing with gender roles and making me cry” spot that He Who Drowned the World has been occupying in my heart lately (even if it engages with some of these themes very differently).

Somehow that got me thinking about other anime that might align with the vibes and themes in The Radiant Emperor book series and eventually came up with this list.

Some of those themes include gender roles, queerness, disability, politics, oppression, rebellion, revenge, impossible and messy relationships and tragedy. Darker themes like war, violence, sexual assault etc are also often present. Please lmk if you agree or disagree with these choices and feel free to add more!

Dororo (2019)

Historical fantasy based on Osamu Tezuka’s manga classic from the 1960s.

An orphan who hides her gender in order to survive meets a young man who fights demons to claim back his body parts that his father traded away in a demonic pact. There’s tons of pain and tough moral questions and complicated family relationships, and the way Hyakkimaru deals with having lost and then slowly regaining parts of himself is super interesting.

24 episodes. Stream on Prime Video, Hidive

The Heike Story (2022)

Retelling of the historical epic Heike monogatari through the eyes of an orphan girl who gains the ability to see supernatural things after her father’s passing. Inevitability of fate, the impermanence of all existence, praying for your loved ones’ happiness in the next life, all of these things are beautifully woven in this visually stunning story. The story also hits different when you know that Heike monogatari was traditionally performed by blind musicians and singers.

11 episodes. Stream on Cruncyroll, Apple TV

Inu-oh (2022)

Historical fantasy. Two outcasts find each other and change the history with their music in this story that also pays respect to the Heike monogatari’s origin as a singing tradition. Focus on things like identity, disability, nonconformity, ghosts. Yes, the ghosts part is important. Also, the gender expressions and the bond between the two main characters is something I’ve seen a lot of queer/trans ppl relate to and Inu-oh is voiced by none other than the trans icon Avu-chan.

Movie. Stream on Hulu

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers (2023)

Alternate history where most men in Japan have been wiped out by a mysterious disease. Very much a court drama centered in the Tokugawa shogun’s residence where men serve the woman shogun as concubines (and sometimes have relationships with each other). Also, one of the main characters is a monk who ends up giving up his vows! Based on Fumi Yoshinaga’s acclaimed manga that has also been adapted to various live action movies and drama series.

10 episodes. Stream on Netflix

Toward the Terra (2007)

Scifi classic with two main characters who are at the opposing sides but feel inexplicably connected. There’s just so many insane relationships and emotions here, I still have not recovered from the ”I want to kill you but I will also protect you with my own life” thing…… Based on the 1970s manga by Keiko Takemiya. Not to be confused with the movie from 1980.

24 episodes. Available on DVD

Devilman Crybaby (2018)

Apocalyptic fantasy with demons and stuff. Based on the classic 1970s manga by Go Nagai.

I don’t even know how to describe the story, it’s just the tragedy, the queer yearning, the ”I killed the one I loved and then it was too late”, the ”things will get bad and then they will get worse” vibe that I think is very fitting. This one has the most extreme violent and sexual content out of the series on this list.

10 episodes. Stream on Netflix

Banana Fish (2018)

Gang wars, mystery drugs and complicated emotions set in New York. Based on the iconic 1980s manga by Akemi Yoshida. Deals heavily with trauma and CSA.

You guessed right, this one is also a tragedy. If you love Ouyang and/or Baoxiang, you’re probably going to love Lee Yut-Lung. That’s all I’m going to say.

24 episodes. Stream on Amazon Prime

#the radiant emperor #idk these made some sort of sense in my head at least #rec lists #he who drowned the world #she who became the sun #long post #anime recs

[aley-nag]

Bumpy road, pretty result

Whoaaaa. This one...

The next fanfiction I bound was Cinder and Smoke by @thelittleblackfox. I lover their work to pieces. They write incredible thought out Stucky!AU's with a lot of fantasy aspects or really good scifi and I wanted badly to do one of their fics, but waited til I was a little happier with my results and could make a pretty cover. We decided together on this one and I started formatting... And then I stopped for a long while because Word is the devil.

Cinder & Smoke is a western!AU and just about the most romantic thing I've ever read. It has yearning and a little angst and a very distinct vibe that feels like Fernweh and wilderness and change. Go read it!

I worked on it between June and December 23 and Christmas was the only reason I finished it this quickly, but I did not want to leave it unfinished for the turn of the year.

Sadly I don't have a lot of pictures, but when I'm finished with my copy I'll post some more.

Now we'll come to the journey it was to finish this!

It started out rather uncomplicated, because I thought I had gotten the hang of formatting and then, when I tried adjusting the font and overall look of the text body Word kept killing the italics. And I googled and tried and experimented and I just couldn't get it to stop. I was so frustrated, oh god. It put me off a little and I had to leave it for a while. When I came back around to it I found a slightly butchered solution, that works though so I won't question it. After that formatting went smoother and I was able to bind it. I used paper from that same supplier that fucked up my paper order for the covers from the notebooks. But only after I had it printed I noticed that it was cut crooked and wouldn't cleanly fold in half. I despaired a little, said fuck it and hoped it wouldn't be to noticeable. I think it's alright.

Binding went really well and I think that's the cleanliest job I did to this date.

Did the endbands by hand to match the color scheme I was aiming for. Because of the title I wanted to invoke fire and used primarily black and red for the coloring.

Then came the cover. First of all, don't use black bookcloth. You will see every. single. mistake. Also dust and glitter... I brushed this thing so often, you wouldn't believe it.

And I tried different vinyl. I couldn't find the right shade of red I wanted, it's a little hard to source it around here so I went an entirely different route and used golden glitter vinyl. What I didn't know until after I plotted the design: The glitter has texture. I couldn't see a single cut-line. I had to keep the picture open to work along the edges and not rip the letters. Still lost all of the i-points 😭

The flower was pretty easy though. Glueing it on was also quite hard because it just wouldn't hold and I got glitter everywhere. Which let to more brushing but I'm afraid mailing it destroyed all that work :D

Anyway. I am sooo happy with how it turned out I instantly forgot about all annoyances and was able to mail it before the end of the year and that was a really satisfying last project, so all is well :)

This was also the first time I had the idea of choosing a little icon for the author's penname because most of the time I don't have enough space for the entire name. I reworked all of the other books to accomodate that.

Binding Details

Body Text: Garamond, 11

Half Title/Chapter Heading: Gold Lines Trial, 20

Full Title: Carnivalee Freakshow, 48

Word Count: 57.197

Pages: 232

Paper: publishing paper A4, 90g, 1,5x volume (from the retailer from hell :/)

#fanbinding #bookbinding journey

[ojirocardigansniper]

Terra Ignota fucked up my whole brain (positive). I think it's either the deepest or most pretentious (more likely both) works of fiction I've ever encountered. Ada Palmer is my new god. These books are so gender and strange and interesting and horrifying and political.

My favourite genre is Scifi Where Your Favourite Character Is A Queer War Criminal (or other monster beyond comprehension) (Machineries of Empire, The Locked Tomb, etc). In this area, Terra Ignota is a holy book.

Canner and Sniper are my precious innocent friends who can do no* wrong.

*all

(I deeply love these books, I'm just very insane about them)

SAME SAME SAME SAME SAME SAME SAME. YOURE IN SUCH GOOD COMPANY. i first read too like the lightning in 2017, promptly shoveled seven surrenders in my mouth, got the will to battle for christmas, and then spent the next three-and-change years rereading them multiple times and collecting a small cadre of weird friends i could convince to attempt it. perhaps the stars permanently rewired my brain on first readthrough. terra ignota kinda one of the lenses through which i see most things cus it came to me at the right time. touchstone of my brain and heart. also MASSIVE UPS FOR MACHINERIES OF EMPIRE AND LOCKED TOMB ASWELL LETS GOOOOOO!!!!! also off the top of my head i'll point to ann leckie's imperial radch & related books, kameron hurley's stars are legion, seth dickinson's exordia which im reading rn, and on the fantasy side of the same trope we got seth dickinson's traitor baru cormorant, n.k. jemison's broken earth trilogy, fuckin, don't feel like going upstairs to remind myself of more but yeah. i slurp compellingly fucked up people with strong motivations/principles with a straw. And good god if you like those terra ignota has like fifty of them ! Yay! christ i love these books. if you want to marinate your brain in thoughts about them i have a "ti tags" tag which is a lot of stupid memes and also some very juicy thoughts..... things to rotate... i have been rotating it all for so many years in my mind

#chat #asks #terra ignota #ti tags

[entomolog-t]

GtWAC Day 13 : 3 Different Genres

Clawing my way to catch up (We late late, but we WILL finish) 😭

Today's Prompt is Fic Recommendations in 3 different genres💕

First up is an INCREDIBLE work of Adventure Fantasy : Wick's End

@eightyuh Does an a phenomenal job taking a wild and unexpected concepted and pulling it together into a poignant metaphor. While Wick's End is full of hilarious moments, the comedy never seems to overtake the weight that the story carries. While we can laugh at Glen's expense, there is something deeply relatable and vulnerable about him as a character, making it so easy to feel for him and sympathize with his predicament.

Frankly all of the main cast has incredible premises that are both so out there, yet when shown in the context of their world they feel at home. It's something about the combination of the characters being real enough that you're able to both laugh at them, but also take their issues seriously- A dog struggling to understand human society is a fun and hilarious concept, but theres the weight of his realness?? The wanting of acceptance when others can't see him for what he is??? Like the skill to pace a story where the reader can bounce from laughing to feeling swept off their feet by the reality of their situation??

Each chapter has left me hooked and foaming at mouth for the next release- just ??? JGSFJKDGFKJ

I COULD GO ON FOR DAYS???

NEXT UP IS THIS ABSOLUTE GEM OF A OF A SCIFI HORROR SHORT- ANOTHER GTWAC CREATION TO BOOT!!! I read this a few nights back and was on the edge of my seat!! I absolute love the voice of the main character. @creatorofuniverses writes Casper in a way that genuinely makes them feel like a person I would know. They really do feel like you're everyday person got shoved into the widest job, and I am HERE for it. Without spoiling too much- I LOVED the creature descriptions, both aesthetics but also the mannerisms??? My gosh it just left me feeling so on edge??? Just such a great concept executed in a truly fun yet tense way! I would love to see more of Casper if you ever decide to use the premise as more than a short 😭💕

Finally we have the category of Dark Romance, with none other than @bittykimmy13 / @kendsleyauthor and their amazing fic The Clandestine Queen. Now this made for a wonderful read!! The premise is both so unique and also so uneasy??? There's a palpable tension throughout that just scratches something deep in my brain. Fantastic dialogue, wild premise, and a wonderfully competent female lead?? What more could a gal want? The interactions between Lorelei and the much more cold Andres are truly Dark Romance Magic (especially in the follow up piece) 😭 This just ticks every box for me and I cannot recommend this highly enough. The style of writing is captivating, the characters are intriguing, and the premise wonderfully unique!! The delivery from @kendsleyauthor as always never disappoints!!💕

#THIS FICS GIVE ME LIFE #SDJKWJFEHL #LOVE THESE SO MUCH #READ THEM #I COMMAND IT #g/t #giant/tiny #g/t community #g/t prompts #g/t writing #GtWac