#i've had this drafted since september send help

[prettylittlelyres]

Hi buddy! Its Athena, I'm sending this out to all my mutuals - what got you into writing, what inspires you, who inspires you and what music inspires you to write? what do you love about writing?

Thank you so much for asking! I'm finally getting around to answering now, but I've had these questions in my head ever since they arrived in my inbox. I knew this was going to be a long post, so I've put it off until there's been a good time, which is today.

What got you into writing?

I learned to read when I was three, and we've always had a house full of books. Most of my collection is digital now, as I've moved house (internationally) too many times in the last ten years to keep a bedroom full of paperbacks, but books have been a huge part of my life.

It's hard to say what exactly got me into writing, because I don't really remember not writing... but I think my biggest inspirations have been Hilary McKay (author of the "Casson Family" books, and my namesake), Anna Godbersen (I love the "Luxe" series!), and the "My Story" series that Scholastic released (various authors, but I think Alison Prince and Valerie Wilding are my favourites!) in the early 2000s.

We had some Creative Writing lessons in primary school, with a teacher who then discouraged us from writing creatively (sheer peculiarity of that person), so I took up writing defiantly, and got good at hiding paper up my sleeve, in my pockets, in my socks, anywhere I could be sure it wouldn't be found. At one point, I was carrying around probably 5,000 words at a time! My friends used to help me break into the teacher's desk to get my confiscated work back, and I'm still so grateful to them for doing that.

Through secondary school, I kept writing for fun, and wrote several drafts of what has become "This Still Happens" during my GCSEs and A' Levels. I was lucky enough to take Creative Writing A2 with AQA before the government shut the course down, and I still use the techniques I learned from those extremely kind, encouraging teachers.

What inspires you to write?

My creativity always seems to kick in when I'm on the train. Whenever I travel, I take my phone with me, and if it's likely to be a long (more than 15 minutes, in my book) journey, I take along my Bluetooth keyboard as well. I bought it when I was seventeen, when I had some "treat" money leftover from my summer job, and I started taking it with me to Sixth Form that September. It was so much easier, not to have to lug my laptop around.

This was 2016, I think: the glorious days of LitLift, which was a bit like Scrivener, but web-browser based, and fizzled out in 2018, after about six months of patchy service. Luckily, I never kept anything exclusively on LitLift, so I didn't lose anything. There was one chapter of "This Still Happens" (in an earlier version) that I had to rewrite entirely, because LitLift lost it before I could back it up, but that was at least half my own fault, for not saving as I went! (No harm done in the long term, anyway. I completely rewrote the book the following year!)

Having my Bluetooth keyboard feels like a good compromise between a desktop/laptop computer and a typewriter. I can set my phone up at a distance, and make the font big enough to see from the other side of the room, and bang out a few pages of my story without much temptation to edit while I draft! As I say, it's so portable, and makes writing so much easier. I used to take it to work and write in the kitchen during my lunchbreaks, but, now that I work from home, I'm just as likely to use my laptop.

There is something very inspiring about graveyards, and I want to write a story set in one - in the vein of Brookwood or Highgate - one day. They're not spooky for me, just extremely beautiful and peaceful. And, of course, I take a lot of inspiration from real life. "This Still Happens" is inspired by my own experiences - not exactly mirrored in the book - and "Curls of Smoke" has a lot of roots in the time I spent in my local Gang Show. I wish I could dance like Florian and Rhiann can (though I'm content to wiggle in my swivel-chair)!

Who inspires you to write?

"Violins and Violets" character Katharina Schmidt is inspired by Maria Anna Mozart, older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus (who inspired Hans Schmidt). I learned about her when I was twelve, studying for my Grade 4 piano; "Allegro in F" from the "Nannerl Notenbuch" was on the syllabus, and I was immediately intrigued. For one, I just like the name Nannerl (how do you get that from Maria Anna? (not that my family's nicknames make any sense to outsiders)). Then, when I looked her up, I found out that she was probably just as good a composer as Wolfgang, but forbidden to make music because she was a woman?! What did the world lose when it shunned her? That's the question "Violins and Violets" asks, and tries to answer... and more to the point, "What might have been?"

"Vogeltje" as a whole novel was inspired by one conversation I had with a friend in a coffee shop one afternoon in 2017. We're both Disabled, in very similar ways, and we've always been frustrated by the prevailing idea that being Disabled makes us in some way tragic, or less deserving of the spotlight. So, I decided, I would write a novel where the main character was Disabled (in the same ways as we are!) and she does get the spotlight, and she does get to be the lead, and she does get to be sexy and attractive and have agency. I love drafting it - it's been on hold for ages now and I want to get back to it - because every time I do, I get to know Marianne Stafford a little bit better, and it's like I have yet another friend I can relate to.

What music inspires you to write?

I have lots of playlists for my writing, usually inspired by a character or a pairing, but sometimes serving as a soundtrack for the whole book.

I like to save pieces of Baroque music that remind me of "Violins and Violets", especially if they remind me of something the characters would compose, and for "This Still Happens", I have a playlist of all the songs I was listening to when I wrote it.

Over about seven long drafts, it's a long playlist, with music from when I was still at school! M83's "Midnight City" features heavily, and appears in the soundtrack for "Curls of Smoke" as well.

What do you love about writing?

The best bit has to be getting to decide what happens next. So little of life is in our control, but when we write stories, we have absolute say. We can make things happen just for fun, because we think it would be nise, or because, yes, it would be horrible if XYZ happened, but we can rewirte it and change it later on, if we want.

I'm a big fan of the 1999 film and 2016 series "Frequency" for the same reason; the characters get to decide what happens in their lives (but I don't like the consequences they suffer, so I'd rather be a writer than a "Frequency" character!).

#heavensfallenfaction #writeblr #blog #answer #answers #athena anna rose #ask game #ask games #music for writing

[mazykeen]

You wouldn’t think it ‘cause I’m so upbeat, but up here - a lotta darkness

#luciferedit #ellalopezedit #dcmultiverse #ella lopez #dailylucifernetflix #fyeahlucifernetflix #heavensentnetwork #chewieblog #bbelcher #lucifer #cinemapix #cinematv #queenmay #merlinsprat #*mine #*graphics #i've had this drafted since september send help #bc everytime i go to post it i find something i don't like about it

[ofcloudsandstars]

Hey, dear! I've missed seeing you on my dash, how are you doing? What would you say your summer has been like? Sending lots of love and good vibes!

Ahhh this is so kind! I hope you have been well too. I am working on September’s forecast but I have been a bit slow since I am tired with some stuff going on. I am working on a sacred geometry virtual gallery for the plant alchemist mentor so I have been dizzy with motion sickness throwing this gallery together before the full moon haha. 

Last week I just got back from the most insane adventure that I may probably get around to writing another endlessly long post about haha. (editing this post, it turns out that THIS has become the endlessly long post about it haha so I am having a read more added). CW: sex details. It may be TMI but I added a warning before lol 

  Anyway I was having this mutual attraction with this italian guy I met through work who ALSO has a venus in Scorpio like me. We were going to go on a date but the world succumbed to The Plague. He returned to Puglia to be with his family as he quit the company and his apartment so he can just chill and live for free while he figures stuff out, but he was flirting with me through text all throughout lockdown and begging me to visit him when it was safer to travel so I was like: Oh yeah?!?!?! And I booked a 5 day long first date/vacation to Puglia to be with him lmaoo. Venus in Scorpio is intense as hell but we just be like that. My close aries witch friend moved to Southern Italy with her BF too for the time being so I was like ok if stuff goes south she can come save me but this guy like took me FARRR AWAY on the southern coast like 3 hours from her omg. He booked beautiful places like old medieval stone villas (omg one place had a wooden four poster bed, a stone fireplace with a cauldron and a huge color-changing hot tub jacuzzi next to the bed lmaoooo) and we ate endless seafood and went to the beach everyday. Only set back is we were NOT SEXUALLY COMPATIBLE at ALL and it’s really sad cause yeah I got his star chart and over analyzed it before going over there but sometimes I doubt myself like ohh not everyone is their starchart to a T, like you should give people a chance. But he was  e x a c t l y  like his star chart.

First he has A LOT of trines like a lot of fire energy which is great. He’s super passionate, but the trines means he is too chill and positive which is nice but it means he has little motivation to do anything. (Think when there are great trine transits happening, it’s FANTASTIC for doing magic and manifesting things but those days the energy is so chill and harmonious you don’t even want to do anything and they can easily pass you by.) Meanwhile my chart?? It’s fucking SQUARES ALL DAY BABEY like Squares, Oppositions and more Squares. I have something called the grand cross on my fucking chart lmao. So that means I overthink, I can get stressed easily, my life soundtrack is just this long anxiety ridden drum and base background music as I fucking parkour through endless obstacles of racism, sexism, gender identity, fleeing the states cause it’s becoming a totalitarian government, learning a bunch of european languages and skills in case I gotta flee england next, thinking about the future, thinking about my actions in the present, thinking about how I can learn from the wounds of my past, lmao everything is thought about at least 1000 times. I also have a lot of Saturn energy my chart is Saturn dominant so there is a lot of planning, structure and organizing to me. Meanwhile since he is hosting he never has a plan and is always ‘go with the flow’ so sometimes it makes me nervous cause the first place he booked was some GHETTO sex motel that looked like sex traffic was happening in there and I was in the middle of no where with him and I was nervous like praying to the Spirits of Nature and Venus to help me work this out haha. But it was ok. 

His life is so easy cause he’s like a handsome italian man with a mom that wants him to live at home with her until he finds a wife to mommy him. He never has to do any house work or really any work at all cause his parents will support him cause that’s normal in Italy. Honestly if I got with him I would never get that same treatment I would also be hauling ass in the background to cater to him and our kids until the day I die. He also doesn’t really understand what it’s like to be of a group of people ostracized by society. He is a hot cishet white man and has a whole community of good friends and a mom to support him with whatever he does.

He’s also like really traditional and was raised Christian. I told him I was a witch and he was like ohhhhhhhmyGOddddddd and thought it was fucking weird haha and I was like: YOU NEVER NOTICED ME AND ROXANNE (my aries witch friend who moved to Italy who literally wears massive metal pentagrams everyday) ARE WITCHES?! And he was like: I do not know about this haha. 

Lastly about his starchart which worried me when I first reviewed it is that our natal mars are at a square. I mean I have had sex with someone’s Mars in Aries before and it was great but his sex?? Was TERRIBLEEEE!!!!!!!!! TERRIBLEEEEEEEE OHHHH MY GOD. I am going to add a CW for some sex details in case you want to scroll but like: 

--

My Mars is in Cancer so I do like it to be sensual and cuddly with some oral action but he was like so terrible and disgusting and I feel like he probably only slept with girls in his country who may have been traditional like him and never said anything to him cause I am like I dunno how you got away with this for so long having terrible sex like this. Like so grabby and aggressive it fucking hurts like he would have left bruises and I hate that shit like sex is supposed to feel good!! I don’t mind if you grab my ass cause it’s just sacks of fat lol but my boobs have shit in them like glands you can’t be grabbing that!! And sorry this may be TMI but like I’d communicate with him all the spots I’d like him to go to cause they are the most sensitive ones and he’d just ATTACK THEM like some type of police dog sniffing hidden cocaine I am like BITCH CALM DOWN I literally would have to stop him so many times so he wouldn’t hurt me. And he once said: Oh but I like that (being aggressive in bed) and that annoyed me so much I was like: Oh so if you like aggression do you want me to grab and twist your balls in the same way? And he was like: no. lol 

And then his kissing was tErrible. He wouldn’t even start out sensual he would literally just shove his whole tongue in my mouth and it’d be slimy and terrible and tastes like the ash from the weed he’s always smoking and once during sex I bent down to make out with him and he literally just stuck his tongue out in preparation I paused like: NO!!! Like omg he got me so heated I am so heated just typing this lmao. I am also really sensitive with like sensory things and have misophonia so sometimes if certain stimulations are stimulating me the wrong way I get more put off than the usual person and sex is so intimate like every time he grabbed a sensitive part of me I wanted to slap him the fuck back haha. The funniest part though is when I’d give up on him trying to pleasure me (everything was terrible, the fingering was like someone who is in a rush to get the elevator and is jamming the button impatiently; the actual fucking was like.. off beat?? And he could NEVER LAST; he gave me head once but that was interesting I felt like he was trying to karate chop my clit with his tongue lmao I was like please stop omg) I was like fine ok just lie down and I will give you head and we can get this over with.. And when I gave him head for the first time he did not moan or anything he would just say: Mamma Mia!!; and FUCKING HELL it would kill the mood but also I couldn’t concentrate cause I’d be fucking laughing just choking on him laughing like I could NOT. 

-- End sex detail mention lol 

Anyway I am always wary of sex with Mars in Aries people but this experience is going to make me avoid them and have trust issues haha. Anyway I got a lovely free vacation in a beautiful region with incredible food. His friends were nice though my Italian is really terrible and nonexistent (omg also speaking about communication, he forgot most of his english so it was a challenge speaking to him haha). We were both wild as hell to do this even though we didn’t really know each other but whatever that’s the Scorpio in Venus. And in a perfect Scorpio fashion we may never see each other ever again because he may not return to London, I mean we pretty much fell out of infatuation with each other cause of the terrible sex chemistry and the only reason I have to return to that region of Italy is to see my witch friend there but there is a chance she is going to move to London again and she lives in a different city from him lol. 

So yeah I have been quiet over here but this is my current life. If you want to look at the gallery I am working on it’s in it’s rough draft form but you can find it here! 

https://www.artsteps.com/view/5f4946b290389d2f7d705e86

#personal #seiokona #back at it again with me never having a moment of chill lol

[cancerbiophd]

Hey there...I've decided I will apply to PhD programs...help! Am I too late to apply for fall 2018 admission? What should I be doing? What resources do you recommend for getting my life together and applying? In case you can't tell, I'm panicking!

Hi!! 

You’re definitely not too late! The majority of PhD apps are due in the winter. But we gotta go! So here’s the battle plan. Let’s see if this works for you ok? (Also, disclaimer, this is highly biased towards life sciences.. I can not speak to the requirements for say, the humanities. If this isn’t helpful, please let me know what field you’re applying to and I can point you in the direction of gradblrs in that program).

What you’ll need:

The application. This is unique for each university (no commonapp here). You’ll need to create an application/account (with a unique username and password) for every program you’re applying to. You can find out more info about this on the program’s website. 

The GRE. Scores take a while to be sent out (a few weeks), so this should be your Top Priority. Find a testing station near you and sign up for a date. Then get to studying. You don’t need the subject tests unless they’re a) required by the program, or b) will strengthen your application in any way (say you didn’t get stellar Biology grades in college, but you’re applying to a Bio program, so acing the GRE Biology subject test would show the admissions team you know your Bio)

Letters of recommendation. It’s best to give your recommenders at the very least one month to write the letter (I like to give them 2 months), so contact them asap. It depends on the program, but 3 letters of rec is usually the normal. 

Personal statement. This varies between programs (some require you to talk about your experience in the field you’re applying to, some tell you not to, etc). Find out the requirement as soon as you start an application and start working. 

And, going off of that, your experience. This is key. If you don’t have experience in the field you’re applying to (eg. lab experience if you’re applying to anything research-based), then I would hold off on applying all-together until this requirement is met. Usually 1-3 years is good. Schools invest a lot into PhD students, and they need to know that this is what you want, and the best way to show that is by working in the field already. 

College transcripts. Once you finalize your list of programs you’re applying to and have started the application process, contact your undergraduate colleges to send your official (or unofficial.. depends on the program) transcripts to the correct place (the application will tell you where). This usually takes a while, and may require money. Also be sure if you have transfer credits, that you get the original college to also send those transcripts (eg. I took physics at a local community college over a summer, so I had to get that community college to send the transcript separately). 

Your CV. Ok I have really shit memory so I can not remember for the life of me if this was actually something you needed to attach to your application, but I have a million revised files of it saved in my Grad School Apps folder on my computer, so it must’ve been needed somehow. Some tips on CV’s here. 

Tips on some of those requirements, including how to organize everything here.

So, battle plan:

Finalize a list of schools/programs you want to apply for by the end of this week.

Create an application on the programs’ websites (if they’re open for cohort of 2018 applications). It’s free to start an application. And then on an excel sheet, record down all the necessary requirements per program (# of letters of rec, due dates, how much the application costs, etc).

Contact people who you would like to write you letters of rec. Best to do this sooner than later, even if it’s just to ask and give them a head’s up. 

Plan to take the GRE no later than August/September if applications are due in November/December, because this still gives you just enough time to study some more and retake the GRE if necessary (I think it usually takes 2-3 weeks for official scores to be released). However!!! Please double check this with the official GRE website. But yeah, start studying now too if you feel like you need it. Kaplan’s my favorite test-reviewing company, but you can use whatever works for you. The vocab section was probably the trickiest–so I recommend picking up some flashcards and just learning as many words as humanly possible. 

Start writing your personal statements now too. It takes A LOT of revising to get the best one, and since every program may have different requirements, you may need to write like a bunch of them. A good timeline is to have a few first drafts done by August. And plan on having others peer review (especially if they’ve gotten into grad school themselves, myself included if you’re comfortable with me reading your statement (with personal things like names and places taken out of course). Send me a private message if you’d like that!)

As for the applications themselves, work on a little bit every day. You can always go back and change things until you submit, so things like “describe your extracurricular activities” can be revised over and over. 

As with all applications/submissions, try to submit a few hours or days before the actual deadline. Ya know, just in case things happen like the wifi goes out or whatnot. 

Eyyyy! So, how does that all sound? Doable? Let me know! And please let me know how else I can help (again, I’m totally down for reading over your personal statements if you’re comfortable with that; just PM me). As someone who once had to go through the grad school app process, I know it can be suuuuper stressful, but I was lucky enough to have friends and other grad students guide me, so I’m more than happy and humbled to offer the same help to another grad-student-hopeful. 

Good luck, and keep me updated!!

#gradblr #advice #Anonymous #grad advice