#actual decent advice

[uncanny-tranny]

I love love love when trans women* give advice to trans men* about """manly""" things and when trans men* return that kindness with advice about """womanly""" things. I love the intracommunity commitment to supporting each other <<3

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #mtf #nonbinary #obviously it's better when that advice and guidance is consentual #if you ever want to give that advice do be sure that that person is even seeking that out #i have made advice posts which i try to state as neutrally as possible to ensure that whomever wants the advice can read it #but by no means are those posts intended to force you to change or to do things outside of what you want y'know? #ANYWAY thank you to trans women for unironically teaching me how to shave when i didn't know how #(i read the book Nevada partway and that was how i started to learn how to shave my face) #(and i've gotten a decent-ish close shave though i do admit i'm not that good at it. i'm kinda lazy actually LOL) #chin stubble is genuinely one of the worst sensory things for me and i'm so grateful that i was taught by trans women about it :)!!! #genuinely me when other trans people: 🥰

[yellowocaballero]

Character Work

Got an ask the other day that asked me how I developed a character, and there was no room to go into it on that ask at all, but I did want to note something. As a fic writer I feel pretty unqualified to write on how to create a character, but I do have something specific I want to say that I've been thinking for a while. I'll keep it just to that. I'll also say that I'm talking exclusively about writing, and not how you engage with fandom. It is, in fact, extremely fun to make an endless series of meaningless headcanons for random dudes. I'm just talking about in terms of how you approach the character from a writing perspective. Which is...

Your OC makes a bad character.

I mean your Dungeons and Dragons character. I mean the character you have a character sheet for, the character you've thought about for years, the one that you are extremely fond of and who feels like a real person to you. The character that is the character, and to change them would feel like changing a person.

Characters should feel like real people to the reader, but as the writer you cannot think of them as people. They are plot devices and a function of the story. They don't need to be fleshed out before you start writing. The actual creation of the character should take place in the outlining and drafting process.

I'm not saying you aren't allowed to stop and think about their favorite grilled cheeses or their sign. There's a few lists of good questions to ask yourself about your characters before you start writing them, such as their desires and their home lives, but the list of actual questions you need to answer are short. And you should try to stop there, because otherwise you're going to over-develop your character and it's going to get in the way of the story.

Assuming you're writing a character focused story, the character's journey is the plot's journey. But the character and the plot exist in relationship to each other. I think of them as two interlocking gears - some things in the plot just can't happen because Character A wouldn't do that, but some things need to happen for the plot to work, so Character A needs to be the kind of person who would do that. Both the character and the plot are in service of what the story is about (Theme, moral, message, etc). These three things have to line up, and they can't overpower each other. You shouldn't try and make round pegs fit in square holes. If a character doesn't fit in with what you want the story to be about (if the story's about vanity and your character doesn't care about vanity) then you need to change one of those things. You can bend the entire plot and meaning of the story around the character, but damn you better have a character who makes a really fantastic story.

You need a character that makes a good story. Some characters don't make good stories, and you need to work super hard to create a story that fits them. That's fine - that can create a unique and great story. Your character has to be consistent and work along their own internal logic. That is shit you absolutely have to stop and work out in the outlining process. Your character needs to make decisions that feel right to the reader - really good stories have the character making the worst possible decision, but in a way that makes the reader understand that they couldn't have done anything else and still been that character. And, like, obviously, give your characters faults and have them make mistakes. A character who does not do that cannot carry a plot.

Fic writers struggle with this. Of course you...shouldn't...be me and completely disregard every characterization, but I do think you can run into the same problem with your blorbo as your D&D character.

Your blorbos aren't actual guys.

This feels kind of obvious, but sometimes I think people don't feel that way. We write fanfic because we like the characters, and we'd rather use these characters and this setting than use our own. I see people projecting on these characters a lot. Like, a lot a lot. It gets to the point where an attack on the character feels like a personal attack - where people defend the character as if they're a real person because they ID so much w/the character. We all know this is dumb, but it also makes for some really shitty fic. The writer becomes completely unwilling to bend the character at all. And they don't try to make the character good for a story, because that kind of involves a lot of faults and mistakes that they don't like seeing their blorbos make. I sound dismissive but it's pervasive. The character becomes a character who makes them feel good instead of a well-written function of the story. The story suffers. Which is alright for some stories, but if you're writing a heavily character focused story like a lot of fic, then nothing is really propping up this story or making it engaging.

None of that is how I develop a character but that is what I wanted to say about characters lol (fwiw, how an OC is created for me is: "I need a character in this spot or representing this thing. Yoink!"). Of course I spoke hyperbolically and took a hard stance on all of that, haha, and of course all of this is rule of thumb. I'm sure your OC is wonderful. Just don't get caught up in them, okay? Go write. The best possible OC is an OC who is born from a good story. That's how you get rich and real characters.

#this is also true for worldbuilding. #my writing #my asks #writing #writing advice #kinda obvious if u follow me that I can go ON and ON and ON about what the fuck is up with some of my characters #and I can kinda promise that for every single one none of that was decided ahead of time #long time readers can see my understanding of the character grow and develop and change the more i write them #so you end up with someone super fleshed out and rich #and sometimes you keep on making so many swerves fifteen degrees to the left that you end up with f101 jon #that being said keep the silly HC coming i fucking love that shit #if no chip sw was an Actual Thing at this point i would go back and rewrite all of it #with what i now know of cody #and thats how the story would be decent lol #but I had to write ALLA THAT to actually get cody you know? #and I could NOT have figured that out just by thinking about him #i promise the advice was solicited this time jalksdf

[selkiecoded]

to meee :3 akechi and sumire arent exactly friends throughout january, (they only get really close several years later) but as a side effect of neither having anything better to do and the two constantly haunting kichijoji i think they inevitably fall together more often than not. ren takes sumire out for darts and shes weirdly better than she was last time (sidebar but the fact that sumire and akechi both mimic your throws but sumire sucks shit at darts too much for it to do any good is so cute) and shes like oh yeah akechi-san has been teaching me. oh wow i got a forty! unaware of the way she just blew rens mind.

#the clock chimes at midnight #its not all about you ren!!!!! #sidebar to the sidebar. of course sumire imitates your dart throws. of course. #again theyre too busy fighting for their respective lives in the time loop to actually become friends in january #but i do think in the years before meeting again they think of the time with fond bittersweetness of what couldve been. #theyre not really going out together but more mutually keeping each other company lol. its generally a pretty quiet affair. #sumire doesnt really ask him for advice as she puts herself back together (he tends to get acerbic if she tries) #but he can be a pretty decent sounding board for either really simple (red or blue glasses) #or really philosophical (do you think my time as kasumi irrevocably changed who i am and if so am i still sumire) questions. #he does not tell her anything concrete about why the other thieves are so tense with him and she doesnt ask outright #but she able to glean a bit more about him through these discussions. and sadly for both of them they both actually sort of like each other #they get food. play darts. practice mementos on their own a few times (THEY GET A SHOWTIME STOP LYING TO ME!!). #and i sort of think akechi smokes either hes always done it or very recently picked it up now that he no longer needs to be personable #and sumires like well. im going to remain myself but i still want to do smth self-destructive. smoke me up man. #(also all her clothes smell like kasumi and its freaking her out. she doesnt mind smelling bad if itll distinguish her.) #idk. akesumi smiles gently.

[the-trans-dragon]

I miss forums. I used to be able to find forums for specific topics, like sensitive skin, and find advice for what lotion to buy.

Replacing those with "review sections" was a terrible idea. The review sections are often moderated by someone selling the products being discussed, and that's never going to be trustworthy.

I miss when forums weren't so easily manipulated into being gigantic billboards.

#sorenhoots #i just want a lotion that has minimal ingredients for minimal risk of irritant. i would even make my own. i know a lot of *very good* things #simply cannot be marketed because its impossible to mass produce some things without adding preservatives or having to prioritize #shelf-stability over efficacy. i hubristically have been using garlic as bug repellant all summer and it literally works better than any bug #spray ive ever bought and actually keeps me from getting any mosquito bites but it couldnt be marketed because it will indeed mold once #i prepare it (adding it to petroleum jelly. this is not advice lol. dont do it just bc i am doing it). i would totally make lotion in the #same way if i had a decent recipe. i know theres like...oatmeal recipes? idk i cant find anything. ill keep looking but like. #its frustrating that i look it up and all i get is pages and pages of ads.

[ladyshadowqueen]

having a health issue that is affected by medical misogyny sucks because not only is there not enough research but absolutely every single doctor i talk to has a different opinion and absolutely none of them help me in any way

#to be fair at least half of them have been nice and sympathetic #but i don’t want sympathy i want to have an actual decent quality of life #i just have no idea what to even think tbh #one doctor says na you don’t have PCOS the next says yeah you probs do the one after that says idk bestie #i want to screammmmm #anyway i asked to be referred to a gynaecologist maybe they will know what they are talking about but likely not #:) #btw if you have been diagnosed with either PCOS/PMS/PMDD pls send me an ask with advice or anything #i’m in the pits

[kjzx]

An important thing to remember as an artist that started out drawing characters crudely and then started learning the fundamentals, at first your art will not look nice.

At first, drawing faces and bodies in different positions will make your characters look weird, then poor perspective will make your characters look weird, and finally when all the kinda things I mentioned above will be dealt with, just the hype of finally knowing how to draw anatomy will bite you in the ass because you can do all these things, you can draw them correctly or close to that, but whether that's figure drawing knowledge gaps, or awkwards poses/composition, or just not a very harmonious combination of realism and stylization in facial features or in general, but your before and after pictures might get this look of "clear objective technical improvement but many would consider it a downgrade"

That's a very common thing. I used to be in this before/after art community, and it was so toxic it was a meme within the community that no matter how much you've improved there will be people that will say that the before is better. There's a seed of truth to these words though, what they fundamentally get wrong is this implication that you "ruined your art"

That's a big example of why you shouldn't listen to non-art people for art advice. Keep going. You're closer to your art dreams than you ever were, you just need to look into all these things like the remaining knowledge gaps or personality to your art you might've lost as you were on your anatomy grind.

Keep creating, keep looking at art that inspires you and try to think of how to make yourself like your art better. Don't get stuck on it, if it begins being unfun, please do take a breather. Also, none of that is objective, people will still prefer things different to what you find beautiful. It's alright, create what you like, that's what this post is about. If you don't wanna, don't focus on aesthetics, just the process of creating art is fun and will eventually get you in the right place, that's what I do, I just occasionally throw in things I like and sometimes they work. Take care.

These are my current thoughts on the topic. I wouldn't take them too close to heart, this is just a blogging site and I'm blogin 👍

#Art #Art tips #Art community #Art advice #Technicality wise I have a very very long way to go #But as someone who finally started seeing and incorporating what I genuinely Like in my art it's a bit like opening my art #folder or sketchbook and kind of getting a feeling like I'm on a page of an artist I like and would actually follow #(Not bc of how I currently handle posting my art and how I choose pieces to post but I'm talking about my art archives so regardless) #An insane feeling #Also!!!!! #I chose not to include it in the post because it stood out against the main point of the post #but what the so-called Tumblr art style is all about is kind of related to this #Most of the people you'll see if you google Tumblr artstyle would have 'passable' or even 'decent' art #if they sticked to drawing thin anime girls with Eurocentric features #Current art idea floating around or almost like an unspoken rule: #If you wanna draw fat people/non Eurocentric features/disabilities or any minorities you gotta be a level above the people drawing today's #conventional beauty standards to be considered an equal to them among *gestures vaguely* #I hate that but that's something you have to keep in mind as you deal with art criticism #And as opposed to that #By harmonious in this post I mean very vague ideas and the many many ways you can stylize a real person #These are two ideas you can't detach from each other entirely but I do believe that we can discuss them separately #Just because a good drawing of an ethnic minority is going to be judged harsher than an opposite of that doesn't make it the worse drawing #Again that's why you gotta dismiss opinions of people who don't draw well and by that I'm obv talking artists better than me #Just getting that out of the way #//rambles #My thoughts on this whole topic inspired by this tweet that called the Tumblr art style too ambitious for the artists' skills and that #if anything that's something that should be praised in people #I thought that's a very interesting topic in a wider sense #I strayed away from it but as you might've noticed I wrote a post on the topic in the tags anyways #Sigh

[paleode-ology]

spent the last solid couple of hours going through my old tumblr likes in order to have things better archived... unfortunately didn't make a note of how many I started at but it was probably in the mid 2000s and I've only cut it down to 2000 now. this is gonna take so long

#ode by ode #spring cleaning ig #there are so many things I should be doing instead!!!!!! #but I've been trying to just get more into my computer and browser setup #we started off making sure calibre was set up the way i wanted since i'm 100% gonna be an anna's archive bitch now that i've heard about it #and then I've been making reading lists #and organizing my bookmarks and bookmarking all of the sites i had saved in liked tumblr posts that i wanted to actually look at #set up my rss reader but haven't put anything in it yet #idk the onset of me realizing how much i do love archival management #and then the fact that my gf is sharing her vpn acct with me #sort of added together into this internet weirdo vibe i'm actively cultivating #and i mean i already lowkey had it going on #like i've been a firefox girlie since high school #and i def do a lot w privacy and the firefox qol extensions #plus i've been... how shall I say... well versed in the usage of shadow libraries for a couple years now as well #but fringe web things haven't been on my radar NEARLY enough #and i've been meaning to make actual lists and compilations of advice and book and game recs for eons #so just. continuing with that #even if i don't do anything else for a couple months i'm glad i made a decent dent in the tumblr likes bc they've been eating at my soul

[713-4th-ward-g]

.

#fucking swear i hate my dad so much #I'll never forgive him for how he was when i was a child #and right when i was starting to see him as a decent dude #he goes and acts like a child #youre 54 years old and raising your voice at me when i did nothing wrong #his stupid ass was the one who cut the pvc pipe and he thinks me telling him how to properly fix it is me criticizing him #and i told him you want me to criticize you ? fine. why were you cutting below the water lines to the washer? #theres clearly an opening showing the pvc pipe and you were the one who cut there still knowing it was there so why did you do it ? #you want me to criticize ill fucking criticize #all he has to say while screaming at me like im the one who created the problem saying shut the fuck up an go to sleep i dont want you here #he gives a stupid bullshit fix for it talking about using glue 😮‍💨 like dude you need pvc primer and glue to seal it correctly not fucking #elmers glue and tape wtf i was giving him an actual real option to fix it and he cusses me out like im the one who cut the damn pipe #i tried writing in my journal but my hand keeps cramping up #i cant stand how much of a child he is #he has no emotional control he takes his anger out of my mom and i and i fucking hate having to be the one to back away and apologize #when its his fucking issue not mine he was the one raising his voice when all i did was give him sound advice to fixing the broken pvc pipe #and i get cussed at and screamed at being told im criticizing when all i did was offer a solution to his own fucking problem he made worse #on his own accord and now hes breaking shit and kicking doors and slamming them all the while cussing over something #that can be fixed its cool to be like fucking shit i fucked up and get that energy out but to fucking throw a temper tantrum and break stuff #is fucking ridiculous it fucking takes me back to my childhood and how fucking horrible he was to my sister and i.. #we walked on eggshells around him cause any little thing would make him erupt into anger and physical bouts... #lord forbid he has to do something around the house and he breaks something he will cuss and scream at us for no reason like we did it #but im in the one who has to apologize thats fucking bullshit #i really want to kill myself rn im so over the edge rn i just keep thinking of my mom and why i cant kill myself yet #not until she passes away i cant kill myself.. #i long for the day i die im so tired of living here

[sainamoonshine]

The whole thing about Sudowrite is like…

get out of here with your “but you already posted your work for free on ao3, why are you mad that an AI is using it without asking?” bad faith takes.

Posting fanfics on ao3 is like bringing a dish to the neighbourhood potluck. I know what to expect there, everyone is nice and polite, and if they like my dish they can ask for the recipe or take some leftovers home or whatever. There are implied, understood social rules that the entire community understands and follows.

The fucking AI is like entering my kitchen at 2 am to find out some asshole decided to follow me home and is eating the leftovers with their fucking hands. Not only that, but they’ve been doing it for a while and stealing my ingredients and bringing them to Greta from two streets over. That’s why all of her dishes are too sweet because she’s been using MY maple syrup without knowing how to properly pair it up with other flavours or anything. I made that maple syrup myself, I know it’s a grade B from late in the season and not a grade A, so I would never put it on pancakes and I’m also adjusting the amount from what the recipe says. Greta doesn’t know any of that, she doesn’t even know where maple syrup comes from!

These two situations are nothing alike! And just because I agreed to bring the free food to the potluck, it doesn’t mean that I agreed for some automated system to take it without asking behind my back!

Some things I’ve heard people say and my bitchy answers behind the cut, as well as actual ~professional writer~ advice because I felt bad about being bitchy:

“Oh but you would have talked someone through the recipe if they asked, so why are you pissed that the robot reverse-engineered the ingredients and gave them to other people???”

The. Robot. Did. Not. Ask.

But also it’s just fucking ridiculous to think that an AI can just sample a bunch of finished stories and extract turns of phrases and stylistic elements or what have you from them and offer them up to another writer as if they have any value outside of their context. It would be like tasting turmeric in a dish and then telling the next person that turmeric is the great solution to fix their flavour profile when you’re missing the part where I also added black pepper and the exact timing of when to add both of these things for full effect. Knowing about metaphors — or worse! Being suggested a metaphor by a software that doesn’t even know what your story is about and what themes are relevant — is not the same as actually knowing when and how to use the goddamn thing.

“Why are you so angry, just let other people have their ~process”

This sudowrite thing is both unethical (stole my stuff to train it’s dataset), fucking rude (stole my stuff to train it’s dataset) and a tacky, amateurish crutch that will harm those writers who use it in the long run. This process of yours is bad and you should feel bad. Asking an AI to help you generate a story won’t help you learn how to write one — and worse, it will actively teach you bad habits that will impede your ability to write creatively in the future.

“Oh but it’s just to fluff up a couple of sentences”

If those sentences aren’t important enough to merit your full attention then don’t include them in the novel to begin with. The best thing you can learn as a writer is that sometimes, if the words for a scene won’t come, it’s because you need to rethink the scene. Or not include it at all! Tolkien hit Bilbo on the head and made him miss an entire battle, and it worked a lot better for the ~themes and tone~ of the book than if he had witnessed said battle. If you just say “he took the train” instead of describing the entire ride, it’s fine. You don’t need to ask a robot to describe the train for you.

“Oh but I have a story in mind, except that I can’t write very well, so I need extra help. Not everyone is a good writer!”

It’s called hiring a ghostwriter. It’s one of the unspoken foundations of publishing. Look it up. There is no shame in doing it and it’s been done for so long and for so many people that there is an entire structure already in place around the practice. Which means it’s easy to find out how to do it, how much to pay and how to handle crediting (or not, depending on contracts) your writing help. Also these people are goddamn professionals and you will have a much better end result than if you just cobbled a story together piecemeal via a talking robot.

“Oh but I just want something to help me brainstorm, I’m not using it for actual writing, or if I do I’ll rewrite a lot of it. It’s fiiiine!”

Find a beta. Join a writer’s group. Do a manuscript swap. Sorry about the required social aspect of these things but seriously. It will do so much good to your creativity and inspiration if you just talk to another human being about your craft. They can offer suggestions about what you actually WANT to write, not just what you have written so far.

“Oh but I have writer’s block”

We all do. You’re not special.

I don’t have any actual advice on this one because my usual advice is to stop thinking of writing stories as some ~sacred unknowable feat of creativity and inspiration~ and realize that it’s just a craft, and like any craft you can practice and learn to do it pretty reliably.

To go back to my earlier cooking metaphor: some days you don’t have the mental energy or ~*inspiration*~ to make a really fancy meal for dinner. But you still gotta eat. The moment you learn which boring but easy and functional recipes you can make on those days instead or giving up and ordering in, that’s the day you can really say you became serious about being a home cook. (Disabilities notwhistanding etc this is a metaphor).

Similarly, you become a ‘real’ writer when you learn that you can still do writer shit even if you’re not ~*inspired*~, like working on outlines or making a bullet point list of what should go in a chapter so you can come back later or even take a break or create marketing material. Writing is an art, yeah, but it’s also a skill. Some days you’re gonna bang out 500 really boring words without a single hint of divine inspiration and that’s just a thing you gotta learn to deal with.

But in this case I’m not sure if the advice applies because if the fictional person I’m talking to is using an AI software to combat writer’s block, then they probably have already achieved the cynicism required to apply my anti-creative block method of “put aside the naive idea that creativity is a talent and realize it’s just unglamorous work.” So yeah I got nothing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“It’s just a more advanced version of autocorrect, chill out”

Autocorrect sucks. It’s only good for changing ‘fuck’ to ‘duck’ and making funny screenshots.

#sudowrites #sudowrite #ai writing is bad and you should feel bad #long post sorry not sorry #some actual decent writing advice under the cut you should check it out

[pinkfey]

the trouble is. i don’t know how to get a job. lmao

#my other two serious jobs were ‘applied’ to informally. i approached my neighbor and then the parents approached me. #the school district just handed me the sub job but that’s not working out bc i need permanence #and that’s the trouble. genuinely how do you get a job in 2023. i don’t know how to apply #i need a letter of recommendation for every single position i apply to?? seriously?? #that just seems so unreasonable and unrealistic. i can’t ask my former boss to write a bunch of unique letters #i’m so lost like. it’s not like indeed actually works. #i don’t know what to do it’s so difficult to even find legitimate positions let alone apply for them #i’m a college dropout so i have no skills only experience (and experience in a very niche field) #and when i tell ppl i haven’t gone to college they’re like oh :/ #they have no other advice bc you only get decent jobs via a degree or word of mouth #and i don’t know anyone #it’s just frustrating. i feel like there’s some big secret i don’t know #anyways.txt

[heartspoon]

why is hair care so complicated why can't i just have naturally amazing hair 😭😭

#seele.txt #i actually used to have pretty decently thick hair but. it was never like that amazing #bc i never did more than wash it and use conditioner #now ive extended my routine a bit and it looks a lot better but it's still thinner than it used to be :/ #there's so much different kinds of advice. 😭

[platonic-prompts]

Reminder to anyone that if a guys reaction to you accidentally telling him you're sixteen instead of seventeen is 'Oh, we'll just need to be careful then' and isn't immediate back-pedaling because he's in his twenties, that's not a good relationship

And neither is a seventeen year old and a twenty-two/ twenty-three year old if I'm being honest.

I was just thinking about this because of my last post, and...yeah. I'm twenty, and its like seventeen year olds are babies.

#thank god i broke up with that guy #and thank god I'm ace-spec because finding that out made rejecting him a SECOND time easier #like he's a nice guy and ness im talking about tea btw #but i sent him a thing for dnd and his response was basically 'i smile like im seeing a schoolyard crush when you text me' #me giving actually decent life advice who knew huh

[vogelmeister]

common act 2 L

#im so deranged tbh that act two is becoming impossible to write #just write is becoming awful advice tbh #okay firstly its way too long and a lot happens #it actually covers a month of time #because it goes from the party scene where dirk-jan gets the text and ends roughly the day before the tuesday night which is one month #so act two is hideously long because it covers one month of time and in that time a lot happens #and i could change the ending scene and move it a bit later but that ruins the cliffhanger and i like the fact that act 1 ends with the tex #because at that point its not revealed until act two that anne-fleur was Not the one who sent the text and it was kim pretending to be a-f #which gets revealed pre quickly in act 2 anyhow but its a nice leaving point #so like i can do that but will i? nee. unless i can find a better ending for act 1 #and then i was like oh yeah lol we can remove the phone thing but i think it reveals something important about a-f #bc deep down she knows it was not her that sent that message. yet she still goes for it. #she still is like 'hmm yes lets see if belgium changed our chemistry" while dating merel. oft #ALSO i was worried that a-f would be too likeable bc her motivations are decent but i realised she still betrays merel and cheats on her #and thats unforgivable #anyways yeah act 2 is niet een slay and i just can't because theres so much i want to explore with it #we should all be like act 3. nice. gets to the goddam point. #idk fam #dutch language found dead

[navree]

“alicent took me through the worst of my grief, she was a calculated distraction” wow sounds like the person who let himself get distracted is a real fuck up and just as much responsible for it wouldn’t you think viserys you stupid piece of shit

#personal #house of the dragon #the thing is otto as a person is reprehensible #otto as an adviser is actually really good #he's been pretty decent at offering good advice and seeing viserys through crises of his own making #so now i'm on his side in this fight because viserys is awful and otto is actually intelligent

[j-nightingalesb1tch]

guys there's a problem... i think i like shelda now

#bugsnax #shelda woolbag #she's actually alright once she stops pretending to be god #and her one liners are funny #and she actually has decent advice #and good banter with floofty #so yeah she's pretty alright

[lonesomedotmp3]

thinking about buying tix off someone but I don't go to a lot of concerts and I'm kind of stupid so I don't wanna get scammed or something lol

#idk. like i would do human sacrifice to go but at the same time everything in life scares the shit out of me #so even once I've got tickets it's like I'll have to travel there on my own because the closest venue is still not that close #and no one else would want to go with me. the only ppl i could potentially convince to go physically couldn't #because they're at home not at uni where I'll be. and that's so far away from ANY of the venues it's ridiculous #we don't get ANY decent concerts here it's SICK #so even though for some people that sounds like nothing. like getting on a train by yourself going to a concert than heading back #that is all TERRIFYING for me. and obviously I'm bad with crowds i literally had a panic attack at the mall yesterday #when i complain about not going it's not even just about tickets it's about that my brain and other #circumstances won't let me go either yk!! #I'm so geographically challenged too. if i actually went it WOULD be like going off to war #hm. well if i go for it do you guys have any advice on not getting scammed