#because it's such a massive show with so many authors and not just writers but you tell a story through costuming and lighting and props as

[cy-cyborg]

Disability Tropes: The disabling change of heart

When a character in a story becomes disabled, they'll sometimes experience a trope that I like to call "the disabling change of heart". This is when the character goes through a massive change in their outlook, their personality, their goals or even roll in the story, specifically because they became (or are about to become) physically disabled. Sometimes, this will be in relatively small ways: the happy-go-lucky comedic relief character might become bitter, angry and jaded after getting into an accident that caused a spinal injury, or the severally depressed and nihilistic character might suddenly start acting more cheerful and hopeful, stating that loosing their leg has "put things into perspective and showed them what really matters". In other cases though, the impact is much larger, the heroic character you've been hearing about looses an arm thanks to the main character's actions, causing them to become consumed with anger and self-loathing which they take out on everyone else, eventually becoming an antagonist as they seek revenge for what the main character did to them. The morally grey or even villainous character is injured by their own scheme, giving themselves a permanent disability in the process, which prompts a change of heart and leads them to turn their lives around and become better people, maybe even deciding to team up with the heroes.

Now, having a character go through a personality and goal change due to a major life event, such as becoming physically disabled, isn't inherently bad. A lot of writers are told to tie major shifts in your character's development to major life events, because realistically, something like becoming newly disabled will at least impact how you view the world around you. I very frequently talk about how if I didn't loose my legs, I would have become a vastly different person, but the issues with this trope depends on how it's used and the reasons behind these developments, and whether or not the change suits the character in question.

Before we get into things, I would like to specify that in this post, I'm only going to be talking about how this trope is used with physical disabilities and other easily visible forms of disability. It does show up with characters who develop disabilities under the mentally ill and neurodivergent umbrellas, and is actually a bit more common than what I'm talking about today, but the specific ways its utilised are so different that it's more or less a separate trope, and one that deserves much more attention than I could give it here as this is already going to be a pretty long post. So for today, I'm keeping to it's use with physical and visible disabilities, and we'll talk about how this trope is used with neurodivergence and mental illness another day.

The main thing you need to be mindful of is ensuring that you, as an author, are not including your ingrained biases about disability into the reasoning behind the change. Let's look at one of the examples from before, an evil character who, after loosing their arm (because it's almost always loosing an arm for some reason) becomes a villain and wants revenge against the main character. In a story like this example, the character who became an amputee often views this new disability as something that has ruined their life. It's something that has caused them to suffer, and they want to make the main character (or whoever has "wronged" them) suffer like they did. Stories like this example portray disability as something that is not just horrible, but life-destroying, especially with villains who become all-consumed by the misery this disability has brought them. Many stories that utilise this version of the trope also often perpetuate the idea that if you become disabled, you'll have to give up all the things you love and your goals, even when this wouldn't necessarily be true for the character in question.

Let's say your character was a knight, and the main character cut off their arm in a training accident. obviously you can't be a knight with only one arm because you can't fight anymore, so they left their order. Now this character has become a villain and has found power that "makes up" for their disability, perhaps magic or some other force that doesn't exist in the real world, and are back to get revenge on the character for ruining their lives. Here's the thing though, the loss of a limb, or at least, the loss of an arm specifically, often isn't the career ender people think it is, even back then. In fact, there are many historical records of real amputees continuing to serve as knights and other similar military roles after loosing an arm or at the very least, continuing to fight in other ways. One such example was Götz of the Iron Hand, a mercenary knight who lost his arm to a cannon. Götz had fought as part of the Roman empire's military in 1498, but shortly after left to form his own mercenary company. He lost his hand in 1504 and continued his career as a mercenary with the help of an iron prosthetic capable of holding his sword and the reigns of his horse, among many other things such as writing, for another 40 years. Götz wasn't unique in this though, several suits of armour from the same time period have been found with integrated prosthetic hands, though the names of their owners are unknown. There was also Oruç Reis (aka Aruj Barbarossa), A privateer admiral who served the Ottoman Empire in and around the Mediterranean who lost his left hand - earning him one of many nicknames: Silver-Hand, thanks to the colour of his prosthetic. Oruç, like Götz, continued his career for several more years until he was eventually killed in 1518.

My point in bringing this up, is to highlight how important it is to double check that the reason your character's whole motivation for turning to villainy, isn't just based on your ideas about what a disabled person can or can not do. Actually double check it, research it, especially if it's important for your plot.

Even in the cases where the disability in question actually would stop someone from being able to do something, the incorrect assumptions can still occur and cause issues in different ways. For example, a character in a more modern setting who looses their arm due to an accident the main character was responsible for while serving in the military would be discharged, ruining the character's plan to become a general some day. This absolutely would be devastating for a character like that, and they realistically could struggle to adjust, both in terms of getting used to their disability and finding new goals for their life. They may well feel anger at the main character, however, if you are portraying just living with a disability, in the case of this example, living with an amputation as inherently "suffering" for no other reason than they are disabled, it is still perpetuating those really negative ideas about disability. I've said this a few times in other posts, but villains who are evil or even just antagonists purely because they're disabled or are trying to avoid becoming disabled is a trope all its own and one that is best avoided if you yourself aren't disabled, as even outside of spreading these negative ideas about life with a disability, it's just an overdone and overused trope.

But what about when this trope goes in the other direction? when you have an antagonistic or even just morally grey character who becomes disabled and this is the catalyst that turns them into a good guy?

For the longest time, I knew I usually disliked this version of the trope too, but I couldn't put my finger on why. With disability being the reason someone became a villain, the underlying reason it's there is often able to be boiled down to "I, the writer, think being disabled would be terrible and life like that is inherently suffering, so this character is angry about it," which is obviously an issue (the "inherently suffering" bit, not the anger). However, when a character becomes good due to becoming disabled, the reasoning is usually more along the lines of, "this is a big change in a character's life that has caused them to reconsider and revaluate things" (or at least, that's what I thought). This isn't bad, nor is it necessarily unrealistic. Hell, as I already said, I do consider my disability to be a catalyst that made me into who I am today. I also know plenty of people who, after becoming disabled later in life, did have a big change in how they viewed themselves and the world, and who consider themselves better people since becoming disabled. It's far, far from a universal experience, mind you, but it does happen. So why did this version of the trope still not sit right with me?

Well, I think there's a few reasons for it. The first being that there's a tendency for non-disabled people to think real disabled people are just incapable of evil deeds, both in the sense that they aren't physically capable of doing them (which is bad and not even always true for the reasons we already discussed), but also in the sense that there's this idea that disabled people are, for some reason, inherently more "good" and "innocent" - As if breaking your back or loosing a limb causes all evil and impure thoughts to be purged from the body. This is a result of many folks viewing disabled people as child-like, and thus attributing child-like traits (such as innocence) to them, even subconsciously. This is an incredibly common issue and something disability rights organisations are constantly pushing back against, as this mentality can cause a lot of unnecessary barriers for us. With how often I and many other disabled people are subjected to infantilization, I would be honestly shocked if it wasn't at least partially responsible for people thinking becoming disabled is a good reason to kick off a redemption arc.

This infantilization isn't unique to physically disabled people by the way, in fact it's way, way, more commonly directed at people with intellectual and developmental disabilities - or at least, people are more open about it, but as I already mentioned, how that is reflected in tropes like The Disabling Change of Heart is vastly different and deserves a post of it's own.

That's mostly just speculation on my part though, since that infantilising mindset does show up a lot in media, but not usually as part of this trope specifically.

However, it's not the only reason I wasn't a fan of it. When the disabling change of heart is used to fuel redemption arcs, I think, once again, that the disability itself being credited with causing the change directly is another factor. When this happens, it's usually because "it put things into perspective for me and showed me what really mattered."

This sounds better than our previous example on the surface, but stories that use this logic are often still portraying disability as an inherently bad and tragic thing, something so bad, in fact, that it makes all the other (legitimate) issues they thought were massive before seem so small by comparison. This is a type of inspiration porn: content made to make non-disabled people feel inspired or just better about their own situation. It's the mentality of "well my life is bad, but it could be worse, at least I'm not disabled like that!"

In a fictional story, this might look like an athlete character who dreamed of making it big so they could be famous and get out of poverty. They were a dick to anyone who got in their way but only because they were worried about not being able to make rent if they don't constantly win. One day though, they overworked themselves and got into a car accident on the way home because they were too tired, and now they're in a wheelchair and can no longer walk, which is (supposedly) absolutely tragic and way worse than anything else they were already going through. But they end up becoming a better person because it has put things into perspective for them. Yeah they were struggling to make ends meet, but at least they weren't disabled! Now that they are, they know they shouldn't have cared so much, because money doesn't matter when compared to not being able to walk, right?

As well as portraying disability in a negative light, these kinds of stories dismiss and diminish the other struggles or challenges the character is experiencing, placing the status of "not disabled" above all else.

There's also the fact that, when a lot of real people say their disabilities had positive impacts on their lives, they don't usually mean the disability itself is directly responsible for the change. There's exceptions of course but for myself personally, and most of the people I know who say they are better people because of/since becoming disabled, the disability has been more of a neutral catalyst than the actual cause of positive change. Meaning, it opened the door to allow those changes to happen, but it wasn't the direct cause. For me personally, becoming physically disabled at a young age didn't make me a nice person like people expect, I was still a little judgemental asshole for a lot of my childhood. However, because I was disabled, I had to travel a lot, initially because I needed medical treatment that my local hospital wasn't equip to provide, and later, because I started competing in disability sports. because of both of those things, I met people I never would have otherwise who made me reconsider what I'd been taught on a wide range of subjects, and made me question where those beliefs had come from in the first place. When I say my disability played a part in who I became, it wasn't because my disability itself change me, but it helped me meet people who were positive influences on me and my life. but when creatives make characters who experience arcs like this, they ignore this, again, defaulting to the "this was a bad thing that just put all my other problems into perspective" reasoning.

Some iterations of this trope also use disability as a kind of "karmic punishment" where the disability is portrayed as a rightfully deserved punishment for an evil character's deeds - usually something relating to the disability they acquired but not always. An example might look like an evil tyrant who punishes the rebels they captured by cutting off their hands. Eventually, this catches up with him, maybe the friend or a child of one of the rebels is able to capture the tyrant and cuts his hands off as payback so that he gets a taste of his own medicine, a taste of the suffering he imposed on others. Now facing at least one of the same realities of the people he subjugated, he realises the error of his ways. With some pressure from the main characters, he has a change of heart and surrenders himself, steps down to let someone else take his place, or perhaps he decides to start changing policies to be more in-line with these new morals until some other character usurps him, becoming an even bigger threat than the previous former tyrant.

Once again, stories that use a disability like this are still portraying the disability as an overall inherently bad thing, but there's the added layer at play in this example. The thing is, there are a lot of people in real-life who actually believe disability is a punishment from God. I remember one time when I was over in the US, an older lady came and sat down on the seat beside me on the bus and started asking me about my disability and specifically, how I became disabled. This isn't an unusual interaction, it happens fairly regularly whenever I use public transport, but on this particular day, the conversation suddenly shifted when I told her I became disabled when I was very young. This woman, despite the bus-driver's best efforts to get her to stop, ended up lecturing me for an hour and a half (during which time I couldn't move due to how my wheelchair was held in place) about how my disability was punishment from God for my parent's sins. She then tried to convince me to attend her church, claiming they would be able to heal me. And the thing is, this isn't an uncommon experience.

A lot of disabled people are targeted by cults using this same method: they'll convince people their disabilities are a punishment, make them believe they deserved it, that they just weren't good enough, but don't worry, if you repent and come to our specific church we can heal you. There was even a case in Australia recently that uncovered a cult called Universal Medicine, who taught that disabled people were reincarnations of evil people, and that being disabled in this life was their punishment, as well as that parents who have disabled children were being punished for other sinful behaviours. They were found to be operating a disability care service named Fabic that was being paid for by the NDIS, a subsection of the Australian government funded healthcare system that specifically aids disabled Australians by paying for and subsidising treatments, technologies (such as mobility aids) and other services relating to their disability. Fabic was found to be stealing excessive amounts of funding from their disabled clients under the guise of therapies and carer services, but was not actually helping their clients at all. Whether it's just taking advantage of them to get their money, or actually using this logic as a justification to mistreat them, this mentality of "disability is a punishment" actually gets real disabled people hurt or worse, and so seeing it come up in media, even if there is no ill-intent, can be very distressing and uncomfortable for disabled audiences.

So with all this being said, is the disabling change of heart a trope you should avoid in all it's forms and versions? No, but it does need to be handled with extreme care. I do think it should be avoided as a reason for a character becoming evil for the most part. If that really can't be avoided in your story though, at the very least, ensure that you foreshadow the change. Your happy little ray of sunshine, embodiment of sweetness and innocence type character probably isn't going to turn murderous and want revenge for an accident for example. A character who is likely to be driven to that kind of extreme of wanting revenge for their disability, so much so that they become a villain, probably already had at least a few traits that would predispose them to that line of thinking already, before becoming disabled. As for when it goes in the other direction, and you have a character becoming a good guy, avoid using the reasoning that "the disability put things into perspective for me". Instead, if you must use this version of the trope, use the character's new disability as the reason they encountered other people and situations that challenged their views, things they wouldn't have encountered otherwise. No matter the reason though, be very careful to avoid inspiration porn, and as always, try to find a sensitivity reader to give your story a once-over, just to make sure something didn't slip under your radar.

[Thumbnail ID: An illustrated image showing the same elf character twice. The picture of her on the left shows her laughing evilly, two tiny horns protruding through her brown hair. She is wearing a black dress and red shoes. On the right shows her in a yellow dress, sitting in a bright pink wheelchair with her head held eye and her eyes closed. The horns have been replaced with a glowing halo. In the centre is text that reads: "Disability Tropes: The disabling change of heart." /End ID]

#Writing disability with Cy Cyborg #Disability 101 #Long Post #Disability #Disabled #Disability Representation #Writing Disability #Writing #Writeblr #Authors #Creators #Writing Advice #Disabled Characters #Disability History #Language #On Writing #Disability in Media #Tropes #Disability Tropes #The Disabling change of heart

[avelera]

It sounds so self-obvious when you say it aloud, but the key to writing romance is that the characters need to be into each other.

I've seen so many so-called "romances" in mainstream movies and shows that somehow fail to achieve this very simple principle. Usually they're het romances but not always. I've also seen established lgbt+ couples who we're told are married but who never show any particular interest in one another to confirm this supposed love in a show-don't-tell manner.

Below the cut I want to explore how to write love (romantic or otherwise), what makes it work in fiction, and the important difference between why characters fall in love vs. why they choose to pursue or stay with the person they fell in love with, because those distinctions matter.

Let's quickly touch on failed fictional relationships before moving onto functioning ones. Because the thing is, it's important to flesh out relationships and romances if they are written into the story even if they aren't the focus of the story or they are doomed to fail as part of the plot.

I see it a lot of times in fictional relationships that are clearly plot points and so the author doesn't bother to invest in them. If a relationship is established with the protagonist just because this current partner is going to break up with them, thus launching our actual romance plot, then there's a temptation not to fully flesh out that doomed-to-fail relationship.

But to skate over the failed relationship is a missed opportunity for a writer. Relationships reveal a great deal about us, as do failed ones. Even if the relationships don't work out, we get the chance to learn what the protagonist is looking for in a relationship, what didn't work in the failed one, and we get to learn more about their love language. This also requires that we see these romantic partners are into each other, or were into each other, and how, before it went sour. Even if it's one sided and doomed to fail, we need to see what the infatuated side of the pairing was into about the other person. Even if it's just physical, that too is revealing.

Romeo was in love with Rosaline before he fell in love with Juliet. But we don't skate over what he loved about her. We learn that Romeo frequently falls in love, he's often impetuous in love (which we will see carried forward later in the famous balcony scene with Juliet). We learn that he is poetic about that love. We learn how much he loved Rosaline, and whether or not we believe he was in love or think that love is wise, it is important for establishing later, when he meets Juliet, the order of magnitude difference between his love of Rosaline and of Juliet. One left him broken-hearted when he lost her, but he quickly recovered. But Juliet? He was willing to die for love of her. The love of Rosaline set up the contrast in how Romeo loves that would be massively important to the impact of the story later.

I bring up this example because many years ago in a high school lit class, the teacher said that Shakespeare never explains why characters fall in love, and so writers don't have to explain why characters fall in love.

It didn't quite sit with me right, because I think it's only half true. The full maxim, and what writers today can learn with regards to romance is:

You don't have to explain why characters fall in love. You do have to explain why they stay together and/or pursue that love.

Actually, it's often better to not explain why a character fell in love. It's ineffable. It just happens. How often have we met or been introduced to someone who is, on paper, perfect for us with similar interests and compatible families or lifestyles, only to not feel any sort of spark? How many grand romances, in contrast, are about people who on paper are terrible for each other but just can't seem to quit one another and keep being drawn back together?

This doesn't just have to apply to romantic love, by the way. How many people are inevitably drawn back to toxic or abusive parents, even though they know this person has a negative impact on their life? How many people stick it out for friendships that damage their health and self-esteem, all out of love?

Again, you don't need to explain why someone loves, but you do need to explain why they pursue it or stick with it. The reasons can be societal, they can be because of guilt, they can be because of adrenaline, or because of long history together, or if it's a successful romance, it can be because they don't just love each other, they also really really like each other!

Now, this might seem somewhat inherently self-contradictory. I'm saying you have to show that people are into each other but that you don't have to explain why they fell in love??

But showing that people are into each other is actually about why they pursue it and stay with the person. The falling in love itself is simply the gravity between them, the magnetic bond, what draws them together. In fiction, we want that to be powerful, overwhelming, inevitable. If the story is about love, we need to see why these people can't walk away, or can't walk away for long, or are miserable when they do. They are drawn to each other, powerfully, destructively or gloriously.

But you can be drawn to someone without having a single conversation or knowing anything about them. We initially fall in love with our image of a person, what they mean to us, what we think they will be in our lives. Real love is about learning who the real person is and continuing to love and to like that person. Real long-term love is loving that person even when they change from the one you first met, and they love you too as you change. But the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. The love is the pull.

Why characters are into each other, or why they like each other, is the force that makes them continue to pursue that person. The love itself can be the thing they're into, by the way! "I can't get this person out of my head, I can't put it in words, but they haunt me and I'm into them for that," is a totally valid way to build a romance or character relationship without any other things that they like about each other!

But as said, it can and probably should be more than that in a successful love story. The construction of the love and like of the relationship can also be Love + Long History + Physical Attraction + Deep Understanding. Gomez and Morticia Addams love each other, they'd love each other if the other was unconscious, they'd love each other to the grave and beyond. But they're also into the fact that they're both incredibly extra romantics who love demonstrating their fascination to each other, in ways presumably no other partner could keep up with. They waltz at odd hours, engage in thrilling sword fights, raise a family together based on their shared worldview, and stare deeply into each other's eyes at every opportunity. They don't suffer one another, they adore one another's presence and quirks and foibles. They are seriously whackadoodle into each other and we see it in the joy they take in one another, how much they like each other in addition to that love.

Characters who are in love should be obsessed with something about the person. Remember, these aren't real people, I'm not giving real world relationship advice. This is fiction. You can write a tepid relationship but it will be sort of boring to read. That might be the point! The tepid relationship might be in contrast to your protagonists, for example!

But my point is that in all fictional relationships there should be something in which the characters are each other's biggest fan. In mother/daughter familial love, they might love one another's outspokenness on what is important to them, we can see their eyes shine when the mother or her daughter gives that big important speech, filled with love and pride for them, and encouraging their outspokenness at every turn, inspired by it.

If the love is between two brothers, related or otherwise, we might see that love in darker times. A brother has to pick up the other from jail. It is painful, heartbreaking, but he can't turn away, he can't not do it. That's love. But, maybe the brother he picked up cracks a joke on the ride home, makes the other laugh despite himself, and suddenly, he remembers the good side of the love too, that his brother can always make him laugh. This is important because it shows us not just that these brothers love each other, but why they continue to interact with each other despite the pain and disappointment. That might actually be tragic rather than happy. One brother might not be able to escape because of the other's ability to make him laugh. That too is love, not just the magnetic attraction of it but the reason it continues to draw them together inevitably, that ability to understand one another and make the other laugh, when he really should probably walk away for his own sake.

The reason so much slash shipping exists in fanfiction is because very often, platonic love is fleshed out in the mainstream more often between two same-sex characters with greater depth than romantic love. A mainstream show might present us with a couple who we are told are attracted to each other and from there the writers assume that is enough to explain why they got together. Nothing deeper. No spark of liking one another in addition to wanting one another.

But in a buddy cop film, the buddy cops are usually obsessed with each other. They stand up for one another when the chips are down, they save one another in moments of peril, they look into each other's eyes and discuss what is important to them in life, like solving the mystery they're working on, and in doing so find understanding with one another's worldviews. That is infinitely more satisfying as a love story than simply telling me that a beautiful Barbie and Ken of main characters have slept with each other and therefore are dating and "in love".

Obsession is key. But don't get too bogged down in how the love exists. It exists because that's love. And we are fascinated in fiction by powerful love of all sorts. We love characters who don't just suffer each other but are into each other, ludicrously, obsessively, even tragically. Turn up the love to the whackadoodle maximum and break off the knob and I guarantee, you will at the very least have characters that people will watch with interest. We love characters who are obsessed with something, or someone. Their love reveals to us what is lovable about that character or thing, it makes us love them.

And then, because love alone is not always enough, show us the joy that keeps them coming back to each other. Show us some good times mixed in with the bad, tragic as they might be for how they prevent the cutting of ties that maybe should be severed. Show us why they can't give up and walk away. Show us too why they like each other. That is what draws a good love story together.

#maggie rambles #writing #writing advice #on romance

[oddballwriter]

HEYAA. I’ve been so obsessed with ur MK stuff lately it’s insane. Wondering if I could request a little blurb with Steven? 🙏 Maybe artistic reader who uses Steven as a muse of sorts? 🎨 Maybe Steven finds reader’s sketches of him and Reader is like embarrassed 😨 that he may be uncomfortable with it? Add and change up anything you’d like!! 😽 ur my fav writer thank you 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼❤️❤️

Your Drawings Look like Heaven to Me

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Summary: Steven always enjoys your drawings and art, big or small, painting or simple sketch and doodle. But he's a bit surprised when he discovers that you have a habit of drawing a certain muse that you have. 

Warnings: There's nothing that I can actually thing of other than it's mentioned that the reader draws Steven when he's unaware, but I don't think it's that bad. Also 'Y/n' is used once. 

Author’s Snip: This was meant to be just a little blurb but I got the writing equivalent of zoomies. You asked for a cookie and I made you a cake with layers, frosting, and toppings. This is insane how did I do this. I think it's because I've been drinking a monster while writing this. I have paused the video that I was previously watching in the background because I am so focused. I'm not even joking this shit is 1517 words long and that is before I proof and grammar checked it. I think this might be the longest writing I've done thus far. Enjoy your free cake, anon.

Notes: This is written in the lens of a world where it's just Steven, so none of the actual events in the show happen.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Steven always knew you drew. You met at your jobs at the museum, at the time, you were working the front desk while he of course worked at the gift shop. The two of you weren't all too familiar with each other since you only saw each other in passing. You knew him as Steven from the gift shop, and he knew you as Y/N from the front desk. You did learn more details through others. Steven was a chatty guy who had an impressive knowledge about Egyptology and mythos. And you were the person at the front desk who did nothing but sit there and draw all day when not granting visitors entry, or in most cases, taking a second to scan a preprinted ticket and check the schedule.

Steven heard talk that you were really talented in your art. You were able to draw what were basically pictures of things you saw or even made up. He hadn't seen your actual art till one day he found you sat where he usually did for lunch, drawing the statue man that he talked at everyday. And wow, were they right about how well you could draw. Though while you talked to each other you laughed "Well of course I'm able to draw him perfectly. He doesn't move.".

That lunch break was a long time ago. You two started dating between then and now. Steven managed to leave the museum for a new one that actually let him be a tour guide. You eventually managed to find work that let you use your skills in art instead of using it to beat the boredom of your job. And you also moved in with Steven in his little flat, in which he cleared out some of this clutter to make a space for you to work and make your own.

You would draw little doodles for Steven to have. Like Gus swimming around. An Egyptian god that you made using his books as a reference. You even drew him a little alligator with a speech bubble saying "Later" on a sticky note. He still has it by the way. He laminated it using clear tape and has it in his wallet as a pick-me-up when he's upset or as a lucky charm of sorts. You always made drawings for him. But never once had he thought that you would make drawings of him. Let alone how many drawing you made of him.

Steven isn't a man who likes to snoop around regularly, feeling a massive sense of ruining someone's privacy. But you said that he could always look through your sketchbooks and art pieces if he wanted, as long as it wasn't a commission that was still being worked on, which he respected. You, like any other artist, had a plethora of sketchbooks of different sizes that served different purposes. There were your personal sketchbooks, outline and testing sketchbooks, practice sketchbooks, a lot of sketchbooks with a lot of different things they were for. It amazed him just how many you had and how you were able to remember which is which.

He knew which ones were ones he gifted you though. Steven was never confident when it came to gifting you supplies. He wasn't an artist himself so he didn't know what was perfect and what was something you would say thank you for out of courtesy. One of the things he used as a safe play were sketchbooks. The bookstore he frequented had a section of art stuff and found that the sketchbooks were not only great quality but also had various designs on their covers. So he'd get you one almost every time he went.

When he looked at them on the shelf next to your desk he realized that he had never actually seen inside of those ones. He was a bit hesitant to grab one since he didn't know if you would want him to. It's not like he could ask you right now. You were out running some important errands and he didn't want to bother you. However, they were on the part of the shelf that you put all your regular personal sketchbooks, which he was allowed to look at so he took a one random from the collection and flicked through the pages.

Out of some coincidence, it was the first sketchbook he got you, which was admittedly one he got you before he learned what pages were good for actual art. The first few pages were doodles that were likely from testing how the paper held up with the actual process of drawing which soon stopped and the rest of the art was actually taped on like they originally belonged to another sketchbook.

Steven thought of that as a clever use for the pages. You would sometimes make art you thought was nice on miscellaneous papers and would simply take the piece with the art out and stick it somewhere else. But he soon notices a theme amongst all the doodles and drawings, which then follow into all of the other sketchbooks he gifted you.

Him.

Most of the drawings in these sketchbooks were of him.

They were all different. Some were him lounging around or taking a nap. Something that would have made him unaware of you creating a drawing of him. There was one that was him asleep laying in bed from what would be your side of the bed. His face was calm, the limpness of his arms and body was captured perfectly, the sheets drawn with the most accurate wrinkles, and the lighting gave the impression of the light of the morning that came in through the curtains. It looked like you simply took a picture of him while he slept but it was clearly a sketch drawn using a pen and pencil.

There was these bust and face portraits that spanned through out the books, of course of him. The first were already so good in detail considering these had to be drawings of him from memory. But they only got more detailed as they went on. You managed to get his amount of stubble right. You had the little baby curls that lived along his hair line. The crease between his eyebrows he had since he always had a slight anxious expression. That tiny little dimple that he had next to his nose that he didn't know existed until you pointed it out one time.

Steven's mind was boggling to him to see such detailed drawings of him that looked so carefully done even when they were simply quick sketches. They were life-like. They were him. They were Steven. To be honest, how could it not? You see his face all the time. So why wouldn't you have him completely memorized. It was just the fact that you had taken time and pages to draw him and him alone.

It was a bit jarring, for the both of you, when you walked through the front door with a hand full of groceries and other things from your errands and he was seen looking at all the drawings of him. You were embarrassed that he finally saw all your drawings of him and worried that he would think it was weird. He thought that he crossed a line and breached your privacy.

You two avoided talking about it till Steven finally did during dinner later that evening.

"You, uh, draw me... a lot." Steven spoke. "Yeah. I do." you blush as you avoided eye contact in case his eyes showed that your fear of him finding your habit with drawing him was strange was correct. "Why do you draw me so much?" he questions. You sighed, "It's sort of a habit I formed." you confess. You proceeded to explain how it started,

"I first drew you as an exercise to get rid of some art block. I usually draw faces of people I know as a means to do that. So I drew you. It was okay. But when I looked at it a couple days later I thought that I could do it again to improve on detailing some more. Then I used you as a study for lighting and colors.".

"Then, sometimes, I would just draw you when I thought you looked pretty or thought of you. And that's sort of what I've been doing." you explain further. "I thought you would find it weird if you saw all the times I drew you and so I just put them in the books you got me and hoped you wouldn't see them." you say in a timid manner.

"I don't think it's strange. I think it's actually quite flattering." Steven clarifies. "I was just surprised that you think of me as something worth drawing. Especially with such detail." he remarks. You breathe a sigh of relief at that.

"If I'm entirely honest, love," Steven spoke up, "Never tell me that you're drawing me from where I am. I'll get nervous and possibly ruin the position that you're drawing me in." he remarks.

#moonknight #moon knight #moonknight x reader #moon knight x reader #steven grant #steven grant x reader

[meenawrites]

Alchemy of Souls rambles

Spoiler for part 1 of the show if yall haven't watched but I need to vent some disorganized thoughts because I haven't stopped thinking about it for the whole day.

Jang Uk and Mudeok form a bond out of desperation early in the show, that's how their whole relationship begins. What I love about it though is that from the getgo of the establishment of this relationship, it's almost like they have a secret agreement to be completely themselves around each other. They don't have to. Just because they depend on each other doesn't mean that they have to be truthful or vulnerable with each other. And yet they consistently show their vulnerabilities to the other, open from the beginning, hurt and bleeding in front of one another and patching each other up that speaks to a trust between them that neither of them acknowledge out loud for a while. It's just so beautiful.

I love that Jang Uk is like.. a real person. They could have made him out to be this perfect guy who charms the assassin out of her life of violence, but he's nothing like that. He's a bit spoiled, a picky eater, can be petty and even lash out at times when he's upset. He's also confident in his own charms and funny and self-assured in the way that he doesn't care what many think of him, or at least acts like he doesn't. He's unafraid to get into a massive amount of trouble for the people he cares about and may seem childish at times, but also has a sense of responsibility that continues to grow throughout the show until his ultimate sacrifice of the energy he'd worked so hard to cultivate to the ice stone, all for the protection of Mudeok, his friends, and the greater good. He's an amazing character, protagonist, and male lead, and I love seeing all his facets.

All the characters are really fleshed out and as a writer, I am DROOLING at how they managed to represent the desires and motivations of each character and interwove it with the narrative. I started out disliking Park Jin for always being so harsh with Uk, but then we find out why, and really how desperate he is to protect Jang Uk in what he thinks is the only way, especially being in a position of great authority - balancing his love of Uk, his desire to keep him safe, and his duties to the people of Daeho. Just lovely.

I have a lot more thoughts but it feels good to get that down. I have to go study freaking math BUT I SHALL RETURN!

#I am forever changed #I will never recover #a beautifully written show #AOS #Aos part 1 #Alchemy of Souls #Alchemy of Souls part 1 #Jang Uk #Mudeok #Naksu #Park Jin

[tackytigerfic]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag @lettersbyelise. loved reading yours here!

How many works do you have on ao3?

63 under my tacky account and I think 2 under my brasstacks account.

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

On my tacky account: 358,302.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only HP so far (plus, inexplicably, one Witcher fic even though i wasn't even really into the show let alone in the fandom). I have an idea for a Steve x Eddie fic (stranger things) and an F1 fic (i don't know the fandom or the real life people at all but I am obsessed with the writing of @boxboxlewis and have, fatally, had An Idea for a galex fic as a result. pray for tacky, i can't afford another hyperfixation, the one i have is bad enough). but they will probably never get written, alas. i barely get my drarry stuff done!

4.. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I never check my stats - i don't have them blocked or anything, it just doesn't occur to me. I also think it's a really unhelpful way of judging the merits of a fic. Fandom is supposed to be fun, and a fic can be great in many different ways for many different people, and none of that can accurately be conveyed by how many hearts people leave. That said, I appreciate every reader i get so much - I never ever imagined people would read my fics so each person who does gets a whole lotta love from me. However for the purposes of this ask i did go into my stats section to have a look and here we go, it might be a surprising one as i suspect Modern Love is probably my most recced:

If It Takes All Night: quick oneshot i wrote for Lock Down Fest, forced bonding, quidditch buddies, friends to lovers.

A Lick and a Promise: My first long fic, a case fic involving an auror/unspeakable team who go undercover as Hogwarts professors to solve a crime at the school. oh and they also happen to be fuckbuddies already.

Modern Love: My own favourite, also my longest fic (so far, mwahaha). Muggle world Draco, depressed Harry learns to love himself and falls in love with Draco along the way.

Through the Window, Clear Skies: 1.4k of love story. so fond of this one as it's the first fic i wrote where i felt like i had finally clicked stylistically. it was the start of me learning to write in my own style rather than trying to emulate the fics i loved to read.

And One to Play: Gosh, i actually do not really remember what this is about. auror partners? Harry loves clothes in this one i remember. And it's about weather magic. I was so proud of this one when i wrote it and really learned a lot at the start of my fic writing journey.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Just like Elise, I would love to but I fell massively behind after Modern Love posted and never got my momentum back. I am currently about 3 years behind though i do try to reply whenever i can. i absolutely treasure comments and i really miss interacting with readers. at the moment it's a choice between writing new stuff and replying to comments. i also never ever mind when an author doesn't reply to my comments so i figure people will allow me the same grace.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Some people might say it's Last Offices as that's MCD, but my own choice would be The Quiver of a Heartstring because of the sheer hopelessness of it. Depends on your particular flavour of angst i think.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics are cheerful, I suppose Modern Love as there are two follow up fics so you get to see them happy in both of those, as well as in the epilogue?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not much that anyone tells me about! Someone did feature one of my fics (ironically, the one with most kudos) on some horrible mean-spirited blog about crap mary-sues, which was probably the most out-and-out horrid thing i've come across. i wasn't upset by it, but i did think it was a surprisingly shitty thing to do about anyone's fics! I also had someone leave me very very long comments on one of my fics asking me to explain why I made Harry so mean, and then went on reddit and posted some long posts about the same thing (naming the fics they had a problem with, including mine). bizarre! i have never had out and out hate comments, thankfully. just the usual WELL ACKSHULLY type "concrit" that really just means "i didn't like how you did this, so i'm going to let you know in detail about it". to which i say, off you fuck, buddy, and learn some self-awareness. and brush up on your grasp of fandom etiquette while you're at it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes i do, not necessarily all the time and sometimes it's more M or T rated hints. I read fic for the romance and sex is part of that. and i write what i want to read.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No i don't, though after chats with my resident F1 expert @sweet-s0rr0w I wondered about writing a racing AU where one of them crashes and ends up in a fiery inferno but walks out of it. only they've come back wrong.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of, i would absolutely hate that though.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

earlier fics yes, but now i ask that people not translate my fics. this is because if i need to delete all my works off AO3 at any point, i would prefer to have them all in one place to scrub them. i know it doesn't work like that but it's just one of those irrational worries i have and it gives me the illusion of control!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Body Electric with @shealwaysreads which is a Drarry bodyswap. And Dreaming Skies with @sweet-s0rr0w which was the Dron dragon-tamer getting together fic of my dreams. love a collab, what a privilege to get to work with such talented people!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Drarry absolutely 100% no questions asked. I've never had another ship and never will. my brain just isn't made that way. it's a pain but it is what it is.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

None, i have quite a few WIPs but I feel like I could go back to any of them at some point. I'd never say never on a fic tbh. if i started writing it, i had a reason. some WIPs i have from years back are: quidditch fic where Draco buys the team Harry plays for, Master of Death Harry fic where he is reckless after the war and Draco dies due to trying to keep up with him, and Harry has to go get him back... umm political fic about a corrupt Ministry where Dudley has a magical baby and Harry and Draco take the kiddo (and Dudley!) and go on the run. i probably have more that i've forgotten.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Not being disingenuous but it's harder for me to appreciate my strengths as I tend to be too immersed in my own writing to have any distance. I think maybe, going by what people have said, I am able to capture a mood? And i write love in a loving way.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

From my own perspective, my weaknesses are being too slow (it takes me ages to write anything), inability to focus for long, and not being a good plotter.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Yeah, I think that's fine! i'm not sure what this question refers to tbh 🤔😂 I mean, if it works in the story then it works. I have never done it myself other than in Our Little Life which is a multiverse fic where Harry gets visions of multiple other lives with Draco through space and time. In it they speak Middle English, Latin, Irish... i think that's all?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. i actually wrote an angsty Draco x Ron oneshot YEARS ago (it was called Take This Longing and i went by perfidia back then and i can see the link on the wayback machine but the fic itself is lost sadly.. or actually that might be a good thing) but then I never wrote anything at all ever again until i started writing fic in 2019. i have never been in another fandom and i don't think i ever will. i don't know why i've imprinted so hard on these two idiots but here we are. I have also started writing original work in recent years, again not something i ever imagined doing but it's lovely and satisfying in different ways to the way fic writing is! so i feel very lucky tbh.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Probably Modern Love. It is exactly the fic i wanted it to be, and people who read it seem to get what I wanted to give. and you can't say fairer than that.

Tagging @blamebrampton @boxboxlewis @citrusses @epitomereally @maesterchill @mintawasalreadytaken @porcelainheart3 @shealwaysreads @skeptiquewrites @sweet-s0rr0w @teacup-tai if you fancy it! and anyone who wants to play.

#drarry #drarry fic #drarry writer #writer ask game

[nanowrimo]

The Art of the Pitch

When submitting your manuscript to an agent, your pitch letter is the first thing they read. But with hundreds of emails pouring into agents’ inboxes every day, how do you get yours to stand out? Author Jeff Herman has some tips:

On any given day, there’s a massive surplus of desperate manuscripts clamoring to fill way too few opportunities. It resembles hordes of famished zombies ripping at the walls and doors where a remnant of agents and editors have found sanctuary. This helps explain why the barriers to your success seem to be unreasonably extreme, not to mention insensitive and discourteous. The harsh process is a form of self-preservation for the gatekeepers. However, access is possible; sometimes you just have to reframe what you’re seeing.

Countless manuscripts that merit publication will spend eternity in the clouds because the authors failed to get agents and editors to read them. From the perspective of the gatekeepers, unsolicited manuscripts are a burden until proven otherwise; they’re an ever-accumulating digital landfill that’s humanly impossible to process and cope with, or even think about. But it’s within every writer’s power to change the math for themselves. 

The following guidance doesn’t promise to be the cure, but it does promise to meaningfully elevate the odds that your manuscript will be requested and read. My advice is the consequence of reading more than one-million pitches covering everything you can imagine.

1. Don’t be boring. Boredom causes attention to shut down. The letter should be as entertaining, compelling, and alluring as the body of work you want to read. Too many writers treat their pitch letters like job applications; imagine having to read hundreds of those a day.  

2. Don’t waste space. Avoid filler. Keep to a single page with short paragraphs (eyes detest densely packed sections). 

3. Use lively and relatable descriptions. Make descriptive lines count with language that transmits visceral and dynamic images. Imagine movie trailers.

4. Get to the point by the second line. Don’t wander into the weeds or try to be a pen pal. 

5. Say exciting things about yourself. For example, “I’m a third-generation serial killer.” Or, “I’m a former President of the United States.” (However, only share things that are true!)

6. Don’t compare your work to bestsellers. It might make you appear arrogant or grandiose. Do a little research to find the titles that best match your work. 

7. Don’t reveal how many years you’ve been trying to get someone to read your pitch, let alone your work. Don’t reveal how many thousands of times you’ve been rejected so far. Don’t expect strangers to care about your aspirations from the goodness of their hearts.  

8. Be softly immodest. Show you're a winner in ways that say it for you. Highlight your accomplishments, don’t hide them. Success tends to gravitate to people who know how to personify a successful image. 

9. Don’t stereotype yourself in ways that could undermine your chances. For instance, there’s no reason to say your age unless it’s germane to the book. (Ageism is frequently an elephant in the room, and unfortunately, publishing isn’t an exception.)

10. Keep trying. Consistently showing up and doing the work regardless of how you feel will get you far. Writing and publishing is a game of long ball that rewards tenacity and resilience. 

Jeff Herman is the author of Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents, 29th Edition and coauthor of the acclaimed Write the Perfect Proposal. He has presented hundreds of workshops about writing and publishing and has been interviewed for dozens of publications and programs. His literary agency has ushered nearly 1,000 books into publication, including many bestsellers. He lives in Stockbridge, MA. His website is www.JeffHerman.com.

Based on the book Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents, 29th Edition. Copyright ©2023 by Jeff Herman. Published by New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com.

Top photo by Andrew Dunstan on Unsplash.

#nanowrimo #writing #editing #publishing #now what #by nano guest #jeff herman

[localguy2]

We know Dragons Rising is gonna be split into two parts, and I think it's safe to assume that part 1 is mainly gonna focus on World building and introducing Arin and Sora properly into the team, alongside Lloyd and Kai and Nya of course.

And I think it's also safe to assume that Zane, Jay and Cole (and probably Wu and PIXAL) are gonna show up in part 2 or at the very end of part 1.

So that got me thinking, did Quest For the Lost Powers have a hand in this?

Canon wise of course it did, 4 OG ninja get their powers back and all hooray ig

But did it influence the decision of the producers and writers? Mainly in the decion of not including Jay and Cole and Zane (and Wu and Pix) in part 1?

Heck, you could potentially as far as back as crystalized and ask if it also affected that decision?

Because like think about it:

Quest For the Lost Powers gave Zane, Cole, and Jay all small but satisfying stories, Zane Jay especially benefited from this considering how lack luster they were in the wildbrain era compared to Nya, Cole, and Lloyd (Kai is also extremely lackluster but I'm touching on that in a bit)

Nya had an awesome arc in Seabound, Cole had an absolutely fantastic story in MotM, and Lloyd had multiple small but great arcs across the all the wildbrain seasons, well until crystalized at least...

You see, crystalized sorta... Damaged Lloyd's and Nya's arcs, Cole was spared thankfully.

Lloyd's apprehension to accept his father's change and his anger towards his father, while great ideas, were done poorly at best, not to mention the ending where he forgives Harumi (which might I add absolutely Anhiliated his character)

And Nya's status was reduced to a slightly worse Samurai-X that kept being thrown around by all villians and mocked, especially with how they say she's nothing without her powers.

And worse yet the show sorta reinforces this by having her defeat the mechanic using her powers, and calling for backup from marlopia via her powers as well.

So yeah, Crystalized really damaged these 2.

Now, where does Kai fall into this?

Well... Unfortunately for Kai, he's been lackluster since... Season 7? Somewhere around there.

His arc in Season 11 was honestly just sorta sad with how small it was, what we got was great but it also left a lot to be desired.

And his character was only made worse when they made his entire arc within the book another retelling of his S11 arc, this time featuring Skylor.

It didn't help either that the arc itself wasn't great like the S11 one, and it only served to make his character less intertsing.

So you've got 3 characters now, 2 heavily damaged by Crystalized and 1 becoming even less intertsing.

But if you look at the other side, you've also got 3 characters, 2 of them benefiting massively from the book, setting then up for potentially great stories in the future, and 1 of them already being good enough from the start.

And as a writer, you want to improve those 3 previous characters so they're on par with the other 3.

But that suddenly become more difficult when the thing plaguing your show is the lack of change in the status quo, and certain demands having to be met, as orders from the higher ups.

What I'm trying to say is, you have to change stuff up, while also fixing up older messes, and while also working on meeting certain goals set by a higher authority, Lego in this case.

So where do the ninja fall into this?

Personally (only my opinion) I think that the reason the producers and writers behind ninjago chose to not include Jay and Cole and Zane and Wu and PIXAL in part 1 of Dragons Rising, is to give Kai and Nya and Lloyd emergency character development, to try and at the very least fix some of old problems and issues left by Crystalized, in what limited run time you have.

Because aside from fixing up old characters, you also have to set up new ones, and also explain this new world and it's many inhabitants and many areas, and you have to do all of that while also making Lego's set ideas work with the show, or basically make a fancy advertisement for their products work within the universe of the show.

So it's a lot to do.

Technically, you can do all of this while also making Zane and Cole and Jay stick with the team, but it's only gonna make things harder for you and your fellow writers.

And those characters are already great enough, they've got the development they need just for now at least, so it's better to just remove them from the picture for a while, until you've got a stable work frame at least, than you can introduce them later again.

As long as you give a logical in universe explanation as to why they're weren't there in the first place, while also shedding light on what they were doing before being reintroduced.

Kai, Lloyd and Nya need this character development because of how Crystalized and QFTLP left them, otherwise people are gonna be upset with how they're progressing.

But Jay, Cole and Zane?

Not really, QFTLP (and MotM for Cole) has already done wonders for them, they can wait for now in favour of saving other characters from bad writing fates.

Ultimately, do I think this is all exactly what happened?

No, absolutely not.

But in my eyes, to a certain extant in some areas, it serves as a logical explanation as to why the writers and producers of the show made the decision they made.

And you know what?

Even if all of this is wrong, even if all of this is just random rambling and bad theorising, I'm still happy with the decions they've made.

It's a nice change of pace.

Could have it been communicated better?probably.

It didn't help either that in the trailers none of the characters state what happens to Jay, Cole and Zane, or even Wu and PIXAL.

But that was most definitely an intentional move, and you can't really be mad at it in that case, plus this is the first time the team has been this open of us, so let's cut them and Lego some slack.

#ninjago #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #nya smith #cole brookstone #jay walker #zane julien #master wu #pixal borg #This turned into quite the ramble huh... #Well thanks for reading if you did #LGuy rambles

[ursafootprints]

*eagerly holds up microphone ;D

1, 3, 12, 13, 17, 22, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30

Sldkfjsdf 💖💖💖 THANK YOU FRIEND you're the sean evans to my weeping-while-answering-questions interviewee

1, 12, 24 have all been answered!

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer? Oh, gosh. That I can finish something longer than five chapters? That banking all my oneshot ideas is a great way to focus on a main project but means I will be extremely scattered from having too many WIPs in the aftermath? I feel like I'm much less thoughtful/self-aware about this kind of stuff than a lot of other authors, lmao.

13. What fic was the easiest to write? Cheating because it was by far the shortest, but it happens here every day (and its soon-to-be-posted Part 2, as they were actually originally written as a one-shot, haha.) I finished each scene in one sitting of CLAMP-fuelled brainworms.

For the ones that are on more equal ground wordcount-wise, Pyrite was the easiest! I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted out of it and didn't struggle overly much with any of the individual elements.

17. What were your go-to writing snacks? Salt & vinegar chips are my favorite snack, but I don't snack while I write! I don't wanna get chipfingers on my keyboard.

22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene I can't actually pick a favorite from the last two chapters of YNYD (Peter's talks with May? Tony and Peter's final date night before Peter moves for MIT?? the final scene?!), so instead, from Pyrite:

"I accepted that I had no fucking clue what Dad would let you get away with all the way back when you were three and I didn't revert to being an only child after you drew all over his Shelby Cobra with a screwdriver," he said, rolling his eyes at the memory. It's not like he'd at all wanted his baby brother to get slapped into next Tuesday, but— "For all I know you could blow Norman Osborn right in front of him and he'd just compliment your technique." "Tony!" Peter squawked with a peal of horrified laughter, twisting up out of Tony's lap to shove at his shoulder in protest. "'Hmm, excellent work, son,'" Tony intoned in a well-practiced imitation of their father, catching Peter's wrists. "'See how he's working the shaft, Anthony? Now this is how a worthy Stark successor sucks cock.'" "Oh my god," Peter wailed as he struggled against Tony's grip to try and shut him up, beet red and laughing.

Despite being wholly inappropriate, Tony was actually just being a big brother rather than trying to flirt with Peter here, and so this part actually struck me as being weirdly charming as a look into what their sibling relationship could've been like if not for… everything.

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? Oh finishing YNYD for sure. I've never written anything near that long or complex before (my next-longest work is only 37k vs YNYD's 166k,) much less finished it, and it felt like a massive accomplishment.

If we're talking something more specific to the writing process, coming up with the idea of using Hanahaki as the premise for the wicked love sequel was also super satisfying! I was pretty content with the idea of just letting the first part stand alone as a full-on tragedy, but I did keep rolling the idea of "but what would their relationship look like after that" around in my mind just out of sheer fascination with it.

I didn't think my answer at the time ("they'd get therapy but Tony wouldn't really ever open up to talk about it and things would never really be the same I guess???") would be that interesting to write or read, but landing on "Tony would be forced to talk about it because his son got Hanahaki" was immediately exciting!

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? I live in a constant state of buying myself a little treat, so I probably did that, but otherwise not really actually!

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? Lolll oh god. You and @shivanessa for sure for all the lovely gifts and for being such thoughtful and supportive readers and friends, my sibling for listening to me ramble about my fics, Rome for letting me bounce ideas off of them and being a wonderful friend and cheerleader, allllllll of my regular commenters…!! You guys are what makes being in fandom so fun 💖💖💖

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024? Lmaoooooooooo

People were sharing their WIPs lists in the Super Starkers server a while back so I threw one together and, well…

…We'll see what happens!!

#ursa asks #ask games #liliaaa 💖💖💖

[catgirl-catboy]

wait can you elaborate more on the lumity thing? i don't know anything about that show or fandom, i'm just nosy lol

Please do ask me this shit, I love to bitch! So Lumity is the canon ship between Luz Noceda and Amity Blight.

Luz (right) is canonically bisexual, and has expressed attraction to both men and women in the show. Amity is a canon lesbian.

I actually really enjoyed the ship, until it became canon. Then, it felt like Amity was reduced to a Luz Simp with no plot relevance, when she was one of my favorite characters beforehand. Since she basically became the deuteragonist of the show once they got together, it was really noticeable that the writers didn't really do anything with her?

I'll give the show the benefit of the doubt here. I imagine it'd be hard to write Amity plotlines if you didn't know you could get the ship made canon ahead of time, and plotlines centered around her could have been scrapped. But I dislike that she was in so many episodes, but very few episodes had her NEED to be there for the plot to work. In other words, she fails the Sexy Lamp test a lot of the time.

That being said, it doesn't excuse how fucking annoying the fandom got around the ship.

After Lumity's first kiss, but before they got together, the episode Hunting Palisman aired. In it, Luz spends prolonged time with an antagonist character, Hunter. The two of them were onscreen together before, but it lasted only a couple of minutes.

(I don't care what antis say, this counts as a canon ship tease in my book.)

The two of them had a fantastic, back-and-forth dynamic, that basically made Hunter a fan-favorite character after this episode.

However, diehard Lumity shippers were quick to declare the two siblings, despite the two of them meeting twice, and actually talking once. They share no parental figures at this point.

Many of them say its "Lesbophobic" to ship anything other than Lumity. Despite, you know. Luz being canon Bi. and expressing attraction to men in show.

Then, the Season 3 episode Thanks to them airs.

And we get Luz's mother making an offhand, comedic remark about having six kids.

Antis used this line to claim Lunter were "canon siblings" at this point, but... SIX KIDS MEANS THAT ONE OF THE KIDS IS AMITY. If that line makes Lunter incest, it also makes Lumity incest. I don't make the rules. Shippers will nitpick evidence to harass the 'rival' ship, expect it isn't a rival ship at all since 99% of the fandom is obsessed with Lumity and Lumity is canon. What are the 5 people that prefer Lunter going to do? Honestly.

Then, a voice actor does this.

Which I felt was really in bad taste, because it caused fandom harassment. Word of God from authors is annoying enough, but now fucking voice actors decide what is "canon" and therefore okay to harass others over? Zeno has no control over the writing of the show, his opinion does not reflect the intent of the creator.

It felt like a massive overstep of fandom-author boundaries.

The show ended with Hunter not moving in with Luz's mother, or Luz's adopted mother, but another character.

Canon siblings my ASS.

(that being said, HC what you like!)

#ask tag #the owl house #fandom history #fandom discourse #fandom wank

[secretmellowblog]

Valjean + 7 & 8 (game ask)

For this ask meme: #7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? And #8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Thanks for the ask!!

#7: a thing fandom does with this character that you like:

I love fix-its (I just want him to live!) it’s great when Jean Valjean gets to have a happier ending than his bleak passive suicide.  

Fics that explore Jean Valjean interacting with Other Characters (outside of Cosette) are also  great. He has such a narrow social circle in canon — he has basically no friends outside of his daughter— so playing him off other characters is really fun. It’s especially fun if (as is canonically accurate) he struggles very hard to interact with people and comes across as deeply weird. Jean Valjean tends to get “trapped in his own head” a lot, and exploring the relationships he could have with other characters– or just how other characters would be utterly baffled by him, while viewing him from the outside– is always great.

I also love fandom stuff that acknowledges how deeply strange he is. Any fandom stuff that features Jean Valjean breaking into people’s houses to give them money is always chefs kiss.

#8: A thing fandom does with this character that you despise:

I  was originally going to answer this with a whole passionate overlong essay about fandom tropes around Jean Valjean that bother me, but…I’ll keep it short lol because it's not really a big deal, haha. Like, I don’t want to be mean or unfair, and I like being in a fandom so large I can afford to be picky about characterization. I don’t like holding fanfic  to a higher moral standard than big “professional” media properties that are doing far worse. The most popular Les Mis fanfic on ao3 has maybe a couple thousand readers; BBC 2019, which is an utterly vile horrible conservative take on Les Mis and on Jean Valjean in particular, had millions of viewers. Fanfic writers have no budget and often no editors, so we don’t deserve to be held to the same level of scrutiny as massive projects like a tv show . Like I don’t want to overstate harm– fanfic is fine! Les mis fanfic is a tiny niche of a niche, and so small no one’s really being hurt by it. If I don’t like something, I don’t read it, and all that. I'm not here to be the fandom police XD.

And I really don’t like ever positioning myself as an “authority” on these characters or the person who does them “correctly,” because I’m not. 

That being said, if I were to be petty and summarize my personal Problems with the way Jean Valjean is often handled in fandom really briefly–

My core "pain" is that I feel like a lot of fans miss that the police are the villains of Les Mis. The police are the villains of Jean Valjean’s story and they’re the villains of Javert’s. Prison is evil. The carceral system is cruel and unjust, as a system. It is not a problem of Javert “not being nice enough to Valjean,” the entire system is fundamentally violent and vile and needs to be burned to the ground.  acab, and all.

I think part of why that gets missed is that many fans are laser-focused only on Javert–  and often on a highly specific musical-inspired fanon reading of Javert where he Did Nothing Wrong. (I'm not throwing shade, this was kinda also me when I was 13 lolllll.) And then they don’t analyze Jean Valjean anywhere near as deeply, if they analyze him at all, and don't pick up on the larger themes of the novel. And that's a shame, because Javert’s characterization will also suffer if you don’t have that wider context! I think the “problem” is just that if you acknowledge the complexity of Jean Valjean's character and his trauma, if you recognize how deeply Jean Valjean was ripped apart by prison,  how he has not recovered from his imprisonment and never will, and how he doesn’t view the criminal justice system with ‘total forgiveness’ but actually does have complicated overwrought repressed useless grief and rage over the system that abused him and the injustices he’s undergone, how he actually doesn’t like Javert on a personal level and only saved his life out of the same pity he would’ve shown to any other person in Javert's position–  it is much harder to see Javert as a Good Person and the police as a Good Institution. So as a result fanfic!Jean Valjean often  kinda has to be written as a bland saint patiently agreeing that Cops Are Great and Prison is Fine and Javert Did Nothing Wrong...because if he isn’t, the author has to acknowledge Javert has hurt Jean Valjean in ways he will never heal from, and question the morality of both  Javert and the police. 

 I think lots of people take the line “there’s nothing that I blame you for/you’ve done your duty nothing more” from the musical, interpret it as a sincere compliment, and then graft that interpretation onto the book— to the point of making it the entire core of Jean Valjean’s character. But Jean Valjean complimenting Javert with the Nuremberg defense (“it was all fine because you were doing your job”), and this being portrayed as Correct and Wise, is just not a compelling take on the character to me XD. I do not like it all. So I just don’t read fics that head in that direction. I'm not gonna content-police people, I just don't read it, haha.

I’ve been recommended multiple fics where Jean Valjean becomes Javert’s cop partner, or enthusiastically encourages him to return to the police, and it’s always a big “He Would Not Say That.” XD Jean Valjean, the most well-known victim of police brutality in the history of fiction, the character whose entire personality is built on the trauma of surviving incarceration and attempting to save others from his hellish fate, would never enthusiastically participate in incarcerating people–not even if they were  ‘bad’ people! It’s literally the core of his whole weird little Deal. it’s his whole schtick. 

And it's not that I hate Valvert either. I actually think Valvert can be very compelling-- and also funny, which is the most important thing. But part of the reason I’ve often stayed away from the valvert  fandom despite enjoying the Funky Weird Little Relationship is that I’ve had lots of trouble finding fic that gives Jean Valjean an actual life or character outside of Javert, or that also acknowledges the anti-police anti-prison themes of the novel.  But! There are a tiny handful of people who do it occasionally! And that's enough.

And again, this isn’t like the biggest deal or anything! I’m not a fandom cop trying to police what people write, especially because most people are just extrapolating from the musical/lots of people change their minds on characterizations over time/it’s hard to write without a team of editors to help you navigate things. These are just some fandom trends I personally don’t like, that I personally avoid,  and that I hope change over time….so that I have more fanfic to read that lines up with my own feelings on the characters XD.

But yeah those are my (abbreviated) years of spicy fanon Jean Valjean hot takes!!!

#les mis #ask game #jean valjean #fandom discourse!! kinda. XD #if anyone was interested I could write a masterpost on 'brick valjean things that arent in the musical' (that people could add onto) #im not positioning myself as an authority on these characters or anything #but!!! I think the changes to the character in the brick VS the musical and in a lot of fandom stuff are interesting #hes a funky little guy #blorbeaux from my book

[tinylilvalery]

people are taking matthews quote from a recent interview out of context abt tomgreg (he said he didnt play it as romantic but thinks it's fun that the fans see it that way) and claiming it means tomgreg is dead and he hates it... i'm so frustrated with this goddamn fandom smh...

It's interesting that he said that (I haven't seen the interview) considering how he acted Tom, but also people gotta realise

1. It's shipping... You can ship things whether actors ship it themselves or not. Hell, William Shatner has said time and time again that Jim Kirk is heterosexual, and yet you can watch TOS and see how Jim interacts with Spock and like... I really don't need to explain, I'm sorry sksnsk. So I look at Tomgreg the same way if it's really true MattMac doesn't ship it (again, idk what he said, but if he did say that these are my thoughts on shipping even when an actor doesn't). I have very close friendships and I don't behave in the way Tom does with Greg, but that's just me 🤷‍♀️. To summarise I'd say, it's like death of the author actor, because the performance itself transcends the actor's comments on it after the fact.

2. Actors aren't solely responsible for the character and the characters relationships W others, therefore they can't really take full credit of the character. Yes they embody and bring them to life, but there's also the script (multiple writers), the showrunner, as well as editing and direction as all the other massive contenders as to who creates the characters and the relationships on screen. As a writer myself, I do find it really um,, like very irritating¿ that people keep anointing actors as the sole creator of a character. They interpret script and bring it to life with direction but they didn't write the character and so they didn't create it. Kieran Culkin's acting practice is that he doesn't like to know where his character is heading, so he lives in the present and episode to episode when acting Roman. What I mean by this, is regardless of Kieran, there was ALWAYS a set path for Roman as to where he was headed in each season, and it didn't matter what Kieran was up to, his plotline still existed despite not knowing it. Does that make sense? My point is, whether an actor knows it or not, things are written in by writers, and I consider Tomgreg VERY MUCH a part of the text and subtext of the show.

So to summarise, if MattMac really said he didn't play Tomgreg as romantic and doesn't see them that way he basically achieves Death of The Actor because his performance speaks louder to me than his comments about his approach to acting Tom. Tom looks at Greg with such adoration that I've never seen him look at another character, he speaks to him in tones that he doesn't speak to other characters in, so again, his acting transcends his post comments. And SECONDLY, MattMac's comments still aren't a ship killer to me because he didn't actually create Tom alone. He interpreted the character, brought him to life, and definitely would have had say + freedom in his performance considering what we know of Succ's production, but he didn't CREATE Tom. That credit is owed to the writers who literally wrote Tom, and wrote Tomgreg's scenes how they did. The credit is also owed massively to editors in how they edited all the many hours of footage to portray Tom and Greg's relationship as we saw it.

We all know Succession is an incredible show. There's so many undercurrents happening all at once that surface at various times in forms of parallels and callbacks. I think it's funny to think that despite the pedigree of Succession, something as massive as Tomgreg was some sort of shared hallucination. It wasn't. Tomgreg is part of the sauce, and they're an intentional ingredient.

#Tomgreg #succession hbo

[picnokinesis]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Got tagged by the fantastic @wykart ahh thank you for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

32, most of which are Doctor Who!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

859,228!! (but it's gonna keep climbing until I finish posting part 6 of campervan sksk)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Pretty much just Doctor Who right now, but I have posted fics for Stargate Universe, Marvel and The Greatest Showman. And then I have written for other fandoms - most notably Venom, which I never posted anything for but I did get 40k into a multichapter one time.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In this order: Liminality, Tropospheric Disturbance, campervan part 1, watchfires and Renegades in the Ring (my TGS fic that I never finished, rip in pieces)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try and respond to comments!! Mostly because I love talking about my fics and also don't know when to shut up hahaha - but I also have some absolutely fantastic commenters who have such interesting things to say! And also like, idk I really appreciate people taking the time to comment, so I reckon it's polite to say thank you at least. The only time I don't reply to comments, mostly, is if it's a REALLY long comment and I just don't have the energy rip (but when that happens I definitely read and cherish the comment dearly haha)

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh. MOST OF THEM RIP. I'm genuinely not sure because I always try and end my fics on a vaguely uplifting note. Maybe Campervan Part 4, simply because of all the uni-era angst? But tbh the ending of Part 6 is definitely a contender, now I think about it. Canon-fic wise, though.......hmm I think it's got to be notches in your spine, since that ends with the Doctor just straight up leaving the Master without warning sksksk

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hm. I think I'm gonna go with In the Wind for this one, which is hilarious since I wrote it THREE YEARS AGO, but it's a multi-chapter mid-series adventure that rounds itself off in a satisfying way, with everything being resolved nicely, so I think that's a decent contender!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hm, no, other than people complaining about the show in an attempt to compliment my writing, but that's stopped for the most part since I got annoyed about it in my author's notes one time ksksks. I did get a weird comment recently that started out very complimentary but then turned really weird in a pretty upsetting way (and, frankly, it would have been very triggering if that sort of topic had been something that was something that affected me a lot? Luckily it wasn't, but the commenter did NOT know that). So I just deleted the comment because I didn't want that sort of thing in my comment section, especially when I know other readers comment lurk.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No I'm sex-repulsed lol

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I wrote a crossover that was The Greatest Showman crossed with the X-Men Comics one time SKSKSKSKSK (and it was specifically the comics not the films, I did so much research on historical terminology for mutants HAHA) which was actually SO much fun - I never finished it, but I do think back on it very fondly. But I'd class that as more of an 'x-men au' rather than a crossover tbh, bc it was wholly focused on the TGS characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't believe so

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! We never finished it LOL

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Currently spydoc, but this will probably change. I have a MASSIVE soft spot for rush/young from sgu, clintasha from the MCU, newt/hermann from PacRim, and symbrock from Venom.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Hmmmm there's a bunch, but probably The Grandfather Paradox? I genuinely love that one so much. But who knows, maybe one day. I feel like it would make a great pitch for a Big Finish audio sksk. Oh, and Deathless will probably never happen. I'm not going to put Trestle on this list because I am SO DETERMINED to finish it some day HAHAH. Oh - and I don't think I'll ever finished Trouble With Entropy, which was my unfinished Venom fic, or Renegades (aforementioned TGS fic) even though I love them a lot, it's just....very unlikely at this point rip.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Going off what other people have said to me, I'm good at creative immersive worlds! Which is mostly because I really want my stories to feel 'lived in', so to speak, and broader than what you actually see in the immediate plot. I think I'm also pretty good at pacing, and also writing narrative prose with a character voice! The latter one I definitely pushed myself with when writing part 6 of campervan, as well as my recent doctormaster oneshot, where I had to weave together both the doctor AND the master's characterisation into one seamless pov

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I definitely worry too much about making sure the reader DEFINITELY gets what I'm trying to say, and so sometimes I'm repetitive and I hammer things home a bit that can be more subtle. I also think that sometimes I can be a bit repetitive in my longer fics where I know a gap needs to be filled but I'm not sure with what sksksks. There are other things too. I definitely struggle writing shorter things and getting to the point and TRUSTING that the reader will come with me. I often feel this urge to make sure all the steps are there for the reader to follow where I want them to go.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Oooh so I actually did this in campervan part 5 with Gabriela and Jamila speaking a bit of Portuguese! And I think there's like, obviously nuance to it, but when I had the pov characters who understood portuguese (namely Jamila in the prologue), I had the dialogue in portuguese, but the translation in the prose, either literally just next to the dialogue or explained in the narration by Jamila. But then in later chapters, when Yaz is trying to talk to Gabriela, because Gabriela is upset she's occasionally saying things in Portuguese....but Yaz doesn't understand them. So they don't get translated. And so I think that works for the story in that context, bc what Gabriela actually SAYS is less important and it's more showing the emotion of it. Another case I can think of was in Force Over Distance by cleanwhiteroom who wrote a LOT of ancient into the fic (which is basically latin) and when it was on ao3 there was this sort of 'hover to translate' thing which worked REALLY WELL, bc the translation was there but it didn't disrupt the flow of the fic.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Okay so I wanna know what counts here - if it's like, the first fic i POSTED, then that's Marvel (specifically the Avengers). If it's the first fic I wrote when I actually understood what 'fandom' was, then...I think that was also Avengers....or maybe BBC Sherlock. If it's the first thing I actually WROTE DOWN properly, then it was Doctor Who (specifically Ten and Rose and my oc companion sksk). If it was the first thing I played with creatively for media that wasn't my own...then that was probably me coming up with elaborate ocs out of two unicorns on the credits for the My Little Pony vhs tape we had SKSKSKSK SO. I don't know. One or all of those.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh this is hard because I'm proud of a lot of what I've written. My gut reaction at the moment is actually Trestle, even though it's unfinished and no one has read it HAHAH but I'm just so proud of some of the writing in that so far. And I'm extremely proud of Campervan AU as a whole entity. However I do really really love see me bare my teeth for you - which I actually forget about a LOT because it's not one of my thoschei fics sksksk. But I'm super proud of how that one turned out. And then also and they did live by watchfires because that one just has such a special place in my heart.

THANKS FOR THE TAG LIV!!! I'm gonna tag hmmmmmmm @sunshinedaysforever @taardisblue @novantinuum @emptyofdust @strikingtwelves @walker-lister aaaaah basically anyone else that wants to do this! :D

#taka gets tagged #taka writes #ahhh this was so lovely!! #thank you liv <3 #long post

[seaweedbraens]

Yoyoyo i just reread wcwsthwas for the sixth time, in 7.5 hours, and i wanted to ask about your writing process. I think the thing that makes your fics incredibly special and high-quality is the fact you have a very high skill level for natural writing and dialogue.

Reading your fics genuinely feels like i’m reading a Riordan novel, but with even better pacing and emotional writing. The only thing riordan can do better is fight scenes. And he’s a massively talented and accredited author who makes millions from his books. You are a fanfic writer. It should not be close.

I wanted to ask if you use any references or have any inspiration for the way you write dialogue? Because it’s incredibly natural and well done.

THE SIXTH TIME SDFGHHJKL i snorted

anyway you hit the nail on the head! i've always been insecure about how i can't write pretty. d'ya know what i mean? i can't do lovely pretty descriptive metaphorical writing that just makes you think wow. but i do pay a lot of attention, like you said EXACTLY, to my dialogue and emotional writing.

for my emotional writing, i think that comes from being very introspective and attuned to my emotions myself. i'm an emotional person and it's taken me many years to really fully understand how i process things and how i function. i have had a lot of complex relationships with people who, while still close to me, are completely opposite to me in terms of how they process stuff themselves. percy and annabeth dealing with their emotions so differently in wcwsthwas is directly from me and my ex boyfriend: i'm very much like percy, and he's like annabeth in the sense that he needs to take a step back to really think about things before he acts on it. a lot of how i feel about friendships and love i've given to leo, and a lot of how i feel about my own culture was given to piper and frank. someone asked me this recently, but i've based piper on a bunch of my best friends, so that's probably why she comes off the way she does in my fic.

draw on your own emotions and experiences when you're writing a scene! emotions are complex and interesting. try to think about how you'd react, or try putting yourself into the shoes of that character. i also do a lot of observation about myself and other people around me. i see how people react to things, and how it shows up on their faces or hands or whatever. that helps me a lot while i'm writing.

for dialogue, i have no clue, honestly. i try to keep it simple as far as i can, i think. nobody's grandiose with their speech in real life (or maybe they are, and i hang out with a bunch of degenerates). i think i overuse the dashes in my dialogue (—) but that kind of stuff is important to me, because nobody's usually just rattling off a big speech in a single breath. there's always some hesitation, people talking over each other, stuff like that, punctuated by glances or gestures. try to play your dialogue in your head like it's a movie. keep it natural, and see how it would play out. for fics like ''cause you've been sinning in this city' i literally did not even attempt to have any dialogue make sense. when i'm talking to my friends, half the shit we say is just inside jokes that would not make a shred of sense to anyone else. stuff like that works too!

this reply turned into an ESSAY but the tl;dr is to keep it simple, write what you know, and trust your gut! but that being said, you don't have to be great at these things to be an awesome writer. i figured out my strengths as a writer the more i wrote, and you will, too. hey, you could be one of those writers who write all pretty that i so envy.

you always ask wonderful questions and ily for that!! also thank you sm for your support. i'd tell you to stop wasting ALMOST 8 HOURS rereading my stupid fic but i know you won't listen dfghjkldjn

i hope this helped a lil bit!

[lloydfrontera]

i can also see suho writing at least a few "what if the count and his wife never died and Javier kept his family" aus. Just for self-indulgent reasons lmao. Maybe even some "Lloyd still dies but everyone else lives" or "what if Javier's birth family (basically ocs) never died and he got to still go on adventures" lol.

oh. oh that's. that's kinda sad :(

but like if we ignore the massive self-projection and wish fulfillment going on, i think that would actually be a pretty popular genre of fic in the hypothetical "the knight of blood and iron" fandom (i'm just gonna write tkbi now btw i'm tired ajkshdk). like we know in the webcomic that when the author killed off sillurian people were really incensed because it seemed like javier was really Going Through It at that point. and we all know nothing makes fandom more motivated than feeling like their favorite characters are being mistreated aksjhdjksa

and while it's also said that part of the appeal of tkbi is that javier is a very sad and lonely protagonist i have to imagine there's at least a good part of the fandom who wishes to see him get some comfort to offset all the hurt he goes through. so i think there's probably a healthy and thriving fix-it and hurt/comfort community that dedicates itself to write some nice fluffy fics (while also inflicting all new kinds of pain upon him but shhhh it's all good it's normal nothing to see here-)

maybe suho would gravitate more towards the fix-it fics end of the spectrum, instead of the hurt/comfort ones. he'd write these very elaborate aus that explore "what if"s and "for a want of a nail" plots that vary in their degrees of fluffiness but that are almost always about avoiding the early tragedies in javier's life. (eg 'what if javier met count cremo when he was younger', 'what if javier had an imaginary elf friend as a child except it isn't imaginary', 'what if it had been the baroness that rescued javier as a child', 'what if lloyd hadn't been an useless drunk', etc etc)

his habitual readers are always amazed by how detailed his aus can get and how much world building he does and explores, they especially like the ripple effect all of his fics have, how the smallest actions can have many consequences down the line, even if they do think he focuses too much on the beginning of the book when he could explore the latter chapters more. he never does romance and always writes family and friendly relationships and only includes the romantic leads as friends too. but overall his fics are pretty popular within that side of the fandom.

some people do think he has a bit of dislike towards lloyd frontera's character, which showed especially in his 'lloyd frontera dies in the beginning of the book and everything is better because of it' fic but he's otherwise pretty good at hiding it so it's not too much of a flaw. plus, lloyd is a bit of human trash overall :/

his 'the baron and baroness never died and thank's to javier's heroics they were saved from debt' fic is his most popular work but the 'javier's bio family never died' one is a close second. his 'the family still lost the estate but no one died and they all went on adventures' isn't quite as popular but it has a steady following.

there's one that almost doesn't get attention but that everyone that does read it agrees is probably his best one and it's a one shot, 15k, character study, memories, flashbacks, major injuries, implied major character death, open/ambiguous ending, bittersweet ending fic, with a summary that just says "javier is tired. he wants to go home. he can hear them. everyone is waiting for him" and leaves everyone who reads it both in tears and also half wondering if they should ask the author if they need them to pay for a couple therapy sessions (please he needs them so badly)

dang it i got carried away again jkashdksa but yeah! i do love the idea of fanfic writer kim suho i think it's very funny. and also him being a fix it fic writer means he already got a little bit of practice before being isekai'd lmaooo

#hey i got an ask #Anonymous #tged #the greatest estate developer #lloyd frontera #fic writer ksh au

[ae-neon]

Honestly as someone in Feyre's age range I find the canon Feyre/Rhys so damn horrifiying, this is the kind of stuff you read in a horror setting novel. SJM claimed once that she only writes "healthy" romances, but if you look at her canon ships of Feysand, Nessian, Rowaelin, then I just think to myself "How skewed must her views be on boundaries/consent in relationships if she thinks that crap is very ok for men to do" and two years ago when I first entered the Anti SJM community "She really does write like a incel". It just makes me think.

But it does reveal a uglier side of her that she doesn't outright show (or maybe on a subconscious level doesn't even realize how bad it is)

Hello anon

I've heard it said that sjm deserves to be put on the men writing women subreddit and I honestly agree.

She's not the first author to have internalised misogyny skew their view on something they've literally lived and I don't think she'll be the last but she's a big influence on not only readers but other writers as well so criticism of her needs to be loud and clear in order to curb trends she sets.

SJM was a teen when she started writing so it would be understandable if there were some not so great moments in the past but her work keeps getting worse instead of better?? I think here it's fair to say her weird views on the world are seeping through the pages of her books.

And the worst part is that none of this needs to be a problem?? These books don't need to try and use mental health as a gimmick. She could, you know, try thinking up an actually cohesive plot instead of spending 600+ pages tearing women down so men who show them bare minimum affection look like gods.

As someone who devoured Twilight in the 7th grade and many of the similar YA's that followed - I worry about girls and women who unknowingly internalise sjm and similar work because for at least a majority of my YA experience, the love interest were (at least) mostly similarly aged and had no direct power over the female leads.

Nowadays the majority of books have these massive age and power gaps and stories have this very white feminist narrative of one girl being an exception and raised to "equals" with powerful men and a tendency to glorify power structures and monarchies.

Which fucking sucks. We need stories about girls who overthrow the king not to marry his dark counterpart but to change the world she lives in for the better.

Too vanilla? Want something dark? Then overthrow the king to enact personal vengeance, don't fuck the dark prince, spread rumours that turn the citizens against him until a mob comes to disembowel him.

#anon asks #anti sjm

[discowingapologistsstuff]

I've seen many people touch on why they despise the Nightwing issue in which he gets raped, but I've never really seen a proper explanation as to why it's so evil. When I first heard of the comic panel, I was confused as to why everyone was upset about this, seeing as it was just apart of a character's story.

In my point of view, what happened to Nightwing was bad and I didn't want anything like that to happen to him, but bad things happen to characters all the time. I didn't understand why the controversy surrounding the comic was so massive, but now I do, and I have some things to say about it.

The reason that what Devin Grayson depicted happening to Nightwing was so bad is because it was pointless.

Characters have, and will be in the future, been raped before. It's been apart of their origin and who they are as a character. Trauma helps to define a character and their growth, so something as traumatic as being SA'd is an opportunity to bring a character depth. Afterall, just because a writer writes about an issue doesn't mean that they're condoning it.

But when Nightwing was raped, it was never brought up again in later comics. It happened to him after a traumatic event occurred and he went into shock, leaving him in a vulnerable state that Tarantula, his rapist, took advantage of.

But it didn't need to happen. Devin Grayson could've easily ended the comic book in a different way, there were many conclusions she could've chosen. But she actively chose not to. Rape is such an evil thing aswell, it's arguably one of the worst things that could ever happen to somebody. It's a purely selfish and lustful crime. It's awful.

The rape did absolutely nothing for Nightwing's character and evolution. We didn't see him in pain because of it, we didn't see him struggling because of it, we didn't see him overcome it and all of its difficulties, we saw nothing. The rape in itself was pointless.

It's a shame too. Seeing as since Devin was intent on Nightwing being raped, she could've turned him into representation for male victims of rape. The community of male SA survivors is often shoved to the side or seen as unimportant, and having a comic character as popular as Nightwing go through the same thing as many other victims and push through would've been an awesome opportunity for that community's representation.

And in the fact that Nightwing's rape was shoved off to the sidelines, it diminishes the importance of what happened to him. It's like having a character lose their entire family and then act as if nothing happened, have nothing change about them or show them completely unaffected. The rape should've affected him, but it was handled in a way that made it seem like not even a big deal.

To make matters worse, the character who ended up raping Nightwing was a self-insert of the author of the comic book. Devin Grayson created a comic book character that represented herself and had said character rape Nightwing. What does that say about her?

Also, Devin Grayson's last name isn't even 'Grayson', she just changed it to that because of her obsession with Dick Grayson, Nightwing's civilian persona.

So in conclusion, Devin Grayson is a loser creep, Nightwing is wasted representation potential, and the traumatic event that occurred did nothing good for his character, it just got creeps like Devin off. What a waste of comic panels.

#Nightwing #Nightwing's rape is genuinely such a disappointing point in his character's evolution #batfam #devin grayson #batman #he deserved so much better #male SA #rape #sorry for ranting #had to get that out of my system #feel free to add counter points