#i've run out of creative ideas this year so enjoy these instead

[nur-ein-amor]

Hi I heard you do monster AU things!

I've been looking at those monster au 141 team things, and I was wondering if you could do a Percht!König and Survivalist Werewolf!Reader! (pref male)

Essentially the reader has been camping in the dense forest in just a tent and uses the forest to their advantage, hunting, scaling trees for shelter if dangerous creatures are nearby, using an axe or machete of sorts to help harvest materials or break their way through the underbrush. But one day the reader runs into König in Percht form (Percht can be pretty territorial) and ends up in a tall tree, König circling them. Eventually night comes and König returns to his den, little does the reader remember it's a full moon. Before the reader knows it their gaze is trapped on the full moons hypnotic glow as the Werewolf curse takes effect.

Upon hearing the sound of something violently thrashing near his territory, Percht!König finds a large werewolf(The reader), feasting on a dead moose. It's rather appalled because uh, moose can take a hit from a semi-.

I'm running out of ideas to add to this so I guess get creative- also can the werewolf have soft but spiky looking fur?-

[I'm all in for interspecies stuff :D]

To be honest, I'm not a writer and probably the last time I wrote anything was 5 years ago.

You would need to contact any authors who write anything on this fandom, etc.

I say right away, everything is translated through a translator. And instead of Y/n, I use a Reader because it's easier while writing.

And to tell the truth, I was bored when I found this query and eventually decided to write it, so, yes.

Sorry if it was turned bad. Nothing romantic or fluffy. Just if you really want what you need just write to someone else who can normally write.

Percht!König and Survivalist Werewolf! Male! Reader!

Maybe part 2 . But if someone want or ask about that.

The sun was setting, bathing the dense forest in a warm golden light. The air was filled with the smell of pine trees and the sounds of birds chirping. The Reader, an experienced survivalist, has set up camp in a small clearing, and his only shelter is a simple tent in the forest.

But for him the forest was home. He knew every inch of it, from the tallest trees to the smallest animals that lived in the forest. The dense forest was an ideal place for such a person (okay, half human, you could say) like the Reader. He lived in various forests for many years, relying on his hunting, gathering and survival skills.

Surviving in the wilderness was not easy due to some possible dangers, weather and seasons, but the Reader learned to adapt. He foraged for food, hunted for animals, and climbed trees to seek shelter when dangerous creatures were nearby or while hunting to spy. He also always carried an ax with him, using it to gather materials or while making his way through the forest.

The reader has lived in this forest for a long time, enjoying the freedom and solitude that the forest provided. But little did he know that their peaceful existence was about to be disrupted. One day, while doing a routine hunt in the winter forest, the Reader came across a creature unlike anything he had ever seen before, although this creature stood with its back to him, perhaps not even paying attention to the Reader's presence. It was tall and imposing, with a twisted and gnarled body, covered in tufts of matted fur and large, twisted horns on its head. It was König, the German monster known as Percht, and he was in his terrifying bestial form.

Perchts could be very territorial. The Perkht were a race of creatures that lived in the forest, and they were not known for their friendliness to humans or other creatures. Watching from a safe distance, the Reader saw and knew that he needed to be careful of possible approaching danger. The Reader quickly retreated back in order to return to his camp, hoping to avoid confrontation.

But Percht, known as König, caught the scent and began tracking him down. The reader could hear his heavy footsteps and low growl as he moved closer and closer to him. In a panic, the Reader grabbed an ax and climbed a nearby tree, hoping to wait out König's presence. But the fact that it’s already getting dark and it’s winter doesn’t help.

Watching from his place, the Reader saw König circling at the foot of the tree he was on. His eyes glowed in the darkness of the evening sky, creating an eerie feeling. You could hear his powerful breathing and the sound of his hooves scratching the ground. The Reader was sure that the monster was simply waiting for the Reader to come down to attack. The Reader knew that he was safe now, and hoped that Perkht would eventually leave. What the Reader didn't know was that there would be a full moon that night. As a result, after some time, König left, emitting a menacing growl, realizing that he could not get enough of fear and flesh. König, returned to his den.

And so the Reader, having checked and waited, still came down from the tree, first throwing his ax down into the snow, and then he went down himself. Taking the ax in his hands, he began to run from that place, being careful of the nearest and possible danger, not paying attention to the crunch of snow under his boots. Not paying attention to the sky, he continued to run towards his tent. As the moon rose higher in the sky, the Reader felt a strange sensation come over him. At night, one could feel the werewolf's primal instincts take over.

The reader was no longer in control of his actions, and his mind was clouded by the desire to hunt and feast. Transformation was always painful, but the reader got used to it. What they weren't used to, however, was the insatiable hunger that came with it. As werewolves, their senses were heightened and they could smell fresh animal blood from a distance. He could not control his body as his limbs began to lengthen and his skin became covered with fur and the feeling of blood and thirst swept upward while shreds of tattered clothing lay in the snow and an ax somewhere in the snow.

**Thirst** Only thirst controlled him at this moment.

The once peaceful forests are now filled with fear. Sniffing the air, the werewolf's heightened senses detected prey nearby. He followed the scent of elk for miles, his stomach growling with hunger. The elk, unaware of the danger lurking in the shadows, continued to graze peacefully. But the graceful creature was no match for the ferocity of the hungry werewolf. Suddenly, the werewolf jumped out of the shadows and attacked the unsuspecting moose. Its massive jaws clamped down on the moose's neck, drawing blood and causing the creature to let out a deafening scream.

But the Reader did not limit himself to one bite. With sharp claws, he grabbed the elk's flesh, tearing out huge pieces of meat. The moose, writhing in agony, struggled to escape the werewolf's powerful grip. But the werewolf's grip only tightened, his primal instincts took over, and he furiously charged into the helpless animal. The sound of bones cracking was heard above the deafening roar of the werewolf and the cries of the dying elk. As the elk's life slowly slipped away, the werewolf let out a howl of victory, raising his bloody muzzle to the moon. The moose now lay in a pool of his own blood, his body mangled and torn apart by the werewolf's merciless claws.

Percht Koenig was resting in his den deep in the forests when he was suddenly awakened by loud sounds echoing through the night. He stepped out carefully, his hooves clicking on the cold ground as he scanned his surroundings for the source of the disturbance.

A disgusting smell suddenly filled his nostrils, causing him to curl his lips in disgust. He followed the scent, his keen senses leading him to a clearing where the full moon shone brightly, illuminating the gruesome scene. A huge elk lay on the ground, torn and lifeless, its body mangled and covered with deep claw marks. A werewolf stood over the corpse, his muzzle covered in blood.

Perkht let out a loud, guttural growl, and the Reader responded in kind, preparing to attack. König's claws extended and muscles tensed, ready to defend its territory. The two creatures surrounded each other, their eyes meeting with a deadly gaze. The reader felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins as his wolfish instincts urged him to attack. But he also knew how important strategy was in such a battle. As König rushed at him, the Reader quickly dodged to the side, stabbing him in the side with his claws. The monster howled in pain, but quickly recovered and responded with a devastating blow of its claws.

The reader felt the sharp pain of claws on his fur, but refused to show weakness. He responded with a vicious bite, sinking his teeth into Percht's flesh. The creature let out a bloodcurdling scream and retreated. The battle continued, Reader and Percht König exchanging blows. With one last burst of energy, the Reader pounced on Percht König, pinning him to the ground. He let out a howl of triumph as the creature let out a sigh, defeated at the hands of the werewolf.

#x male reader #cod x male reader #male reader #x reader #cod mwii #cod #call of duty #könig call of duty #könig x male reader #könig #könig x reader #könig cod #könig mw2 #cod mw2

[roodles03]

The Owl House Mermay Marathon: Huntlow (6/6)

Welp, I'm sure this isn't a surprise to any of you who follow me. Finally, it's Huntlow's turn, ending this marathon with my absolute favorite ship in the show.

Fun Fact: I drew these in order from the ship I liked the least to the ship I liked the most. Made the process more fun in the long run.

This one is definitely my favorite one I've drawn, and no, it's not because it's huntlow. I just feel like this one I drew the best.

Willow was a nice change from how I drew pretty much every other mermaid. And its all because of her body size. I have drawn Willow as a mermaid before, but I feel like I didn't do her body size justice in those old drawings. Part of this is I originally drew more Willow mid-sized to match how they drew her in the show, but over time, I slowly began drawing her bigger on purpose to celebrate her body type. (Body postivity is very important!) This is especially prevalent in this drawing. I drew her tail to be shorter and fatter, and made sure to give her some belly fat. I also decided to draw her hair down instead of the braids because I felt like that would be more practical for being underwater. Also, it allowed me to play with underwater hair physics a lot more.

Moving on to Hunter, he was definitely the most complicated mermaid I had to draw for this marathon. (Darius being the second.) And it was because I had to figure out how to incorporate his new scar map into the tail and fins. I have also drawn Hunter as a mermaid before, however, that design was much easier because his scar map was much simpler at the time. The notches were easy to design (although it still made drawing him more complicated due to the layer manipulation required to get the notches and the veins to look right.) But the real challenge was the scars on the tail itself. I do have a headcannon scar map I drew of Hunter for referening, but that didn't help much when having to transfer the scar map from his legs to his tail. I pretty much had to guess. I am happy with what I came up with, though. However, that was only half the battle. In the previous mermay, I used the exact same color scheme for the scars on his tail as the scars on his skin, but I decided to be more creative this time and make the tail scars their own color. Finding the right colors definitely took a while, but I'm really happy with how it came out in the end.

I might make even more Huntlow mermay for mermay this year. We'll see if I come up with any more ideas.

Also, fun fact: I was actually planning on doing some of the most popular non-romantic relationships for this marathon, too. Them being Dadrius and labyrinthbros, but I had pretty much no ideas for these, so I scrapped that idea.

I hope you enjoyed the marathon! Because I definitely had a lot of fun making these.

#the owl house #the owl house fanart #the owl house fan art #toh fanart #toh fan art #the owl house hunter #hunter the owl house #hunter toh #toh hunter #willow the owl house #the owl house willow #willow toh #toh willow #willow park #hunter park #hunter noceda #hunter deamonne #the owl house winter #winter the owl house #winter toh #toh winter #wintery junk #huntlow #hunter x willow #willow x hunter #pansexual #bisexual #mermay #mermay 2023

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

I'm sure a lot of people are going to gasp in outrage at this one, but after following the pattern for long enough it deserves to be said: 9 times out of 10, fandom-popular mainstream artists are GOD AWFUL roleplay partners, and it's because they refuse to adapt their approach to this hobby in any way whatsoever. A lot will parrot the old line of 'only create for yourself!!' because that's what they've been living by for the last 20 years, but that does NOT work in a fundamentally collaborative hobby where the recipients are a PART of the experience. Roleplay isn't just a creative hobby, and it's not a solo act. It is, first and foremost, a GAME you are PLAYING with OTHER PEOPLE. Your approach and expectations should reflect that. If they don't, the other party getting fed up with your selfishness isn't the problem. Your refusal to adapt accordingly is.

Being expected to care about your partners should not translate to 'how DARE you expect me to compromise my grand vision???' when your 'grand vision' clearly isn't as grand as you think it is. Cool ideas, cool plot, cool muses, good writing… Wrong medium. This applies to ANY kind of interactive artform; if your art is something that requires outside interaction to function, it CANNOT be an afterthought that gets tacked on at the end. Everyone will know it, and nobody will like the result. If you feel like you're playing tug-o-war with your partners over the cool plot you put together, maybe you should consider WHY that is happening instead of taking your control issues out on other people. The answer is generally that you didn't bother to create it with interactivity in mind, and now nobody knows what's expected of them because there WASN'T anything expected to begin with.

Your partners are not an 'audience' or 'consumers' or 'fans.' They are participants in the process, and should be treated as such. They don't exist to clap for you, they're here to contribute and build onto it.

This gets WORSE when so many insist on taking 'artistic liberties' with the rules of the hobby itself and openly cheat, godmodding and metagaming and the like in order to brute force the result they want, despite claiming to be against all of these things. THIS IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE OKAY. And if you don't understand why, let me ask you this: if you were on the receiving end, would you be okay with THAT? If the answer is no, don't fucking do it. THIS is the stuff that I've seen kill community after community. Double-standards ruin the game for everyone involved, and it WILL wear people down over time.

So, now that I've focused on what you should NOT do, I'm going to give you a bit of advice: this does not mean you should create things you don't enjoy making, but that you need to look at it from multiple perspectives at once. Create a work that you enjoy making, definitely, but also ensure it's an experience you'd enjoy PLAYING. If you wouldn't have fun as a member of the plot you're running, that should clue you in pretty quick that something's wrong. You don't need to cater to everyone. That's absolutely impossible. But you should at least be catering to SOMEONE. If your target audience is (N/A) then yeah, that's a problem you should probably work on.

This phenomenon is the most glaringly obvious with videogames as an artform; an ambitious creator designs this whole big game with beautiful art and a story they enjoy writing, but the gameplay itself is a boring, frustrating, and/or glitchy slog that was never designed to be played, and thus completely overshadows the experience they thought they were creating. Nobody plays it all the way through, their story is left untold, and the creator just screams and bawls about how nobody appreciates their 'art.' No, people appreciated your art. That was what got you in the door. What they don't appreciate is that nothing else about the experience was worth their time-- because apparently it wasn't worth yours, either.

Roleplay has far more in common with a videogame than a fanfiction, despite what most of the RPC today would like to claim. Neither one can tell its story if the audience refuses to engage with it. You need partners no matter what, so do your best to ensure they enjoy being there. Otherwise they won't stick around long… And you'll have no one to blame for that but yourself.

#general #confessions

[autumnslance]

Do you have any preliminary headcanons for your character going into Dawntrail? If not, have you ever had ideas for your character(s) based on upcoming expansions and how did they morph/change as you played through the story?

I actually, really don't!

I don't plan out how/why my characters pick new jobs up; I want to see how the new job plays and what it's lore and story actually is before deciding how and why my gals might get to it, or if I want to tweak it at all. I'm not spending too much effort on baseless plot and NPC speculation and making intricate plans that will be jossed by level 93 and how MSQ actually does unfold.

The closest I ever came to pre-planning anything for an expac was "we're going to Thavnair; I'll finally get lore to flesh out some of Aeryn's family stuff and decide how to fit in my headcanons for them" (as I purposefully made them a minority ethnic group in Thavnair for the reasons we had only a little lore for so many years, and no nation is a monolith anyway, and then the writers' discussion at previous FanFest 2023 panels really drove home how they tried to make Thavnair a diverse melting pot culture due to its history and trade position, so that worked out). But even then I waited until I actually played through MSQ to really decide what to adjust or keep.

A reason I go through with Dark Autumn first is to just enjoy the story (or not) as it comes, to get my own knee jerk reactions and feelings out of the way. And then I go through again on Aeryn or C'oretta and see how the story's constructed to reach the finale, and consider my WoL's reactions, thoughts, and feelings, and where that takes her story. Sometimes my opinion on certain things may even change, or I get a different idea for how it looks and works when seeing it again and considering the IC angles on that new run.

I might still do so when going through my 3rd or 4th time on alts or in NG+, even years later, as I've changed since then and also seen later storyline and how they go together now.

And then I probably spend a few years playing within those lines and scenes and ideas in my fanfic. But I also tend to keep my WoL fairly close to the canon storyline for the most part and with as close as I can get to the canon depictions of the NPCs. Other, own story stuff tends to happen based on interactions with friends and their writing, or random ideas at random times and deciding if they work or not (like Corran's history and Avengret hitting me out of nowhere based on prompts).

Also it's kinda nice to just open the expac on Day 1 with no real expectations or preconceptions, just letting story and gameplay roll in and sweep me along with them. Frankly, I think more folks really ought to give that a try, instead of pitching fits over how the expansion wasn't all they hoped and dreamed and so was a giant disappointment based on...what? Fanon? Headcanon? Speculation? Hopes for complicated plans they made for their OCs based on out of context lines and screens from FanFest and the trailers?

Just try experiencing a story for what it is and what it's trying to do, not self-hyped preconceptions, in any direction.

I dunno. A lot of words to say that I just like seeing how the world is written and presented, as it hits my characters and determine their plots that way, not ahead of time. I want to be inspired by the gameworld, not try to twist it into something it isn't (and will never be) when I can just write in my own original settings for that. My creation in FF14 is fanfiction on the story and characters presented.

Also I really am just tied up in my original writing at the moment, new MSQ will be a break and brief bout of new fandom creativity.

#final fantasy xiv #Lyn Prompts #about me #blogging #speculation #planning

[not-poignant]

How much does money effect how and what you write? If money wasn't an issue would you write more or less? Or would you still write but go with different ideas?

As a professional artist myself I sometimes ponder what projects I'd choose to do if I wasn't worried about finances. Because sometimes the things we want to create aren't financially viable, and that can really put a limit on our creative freedom and potential. But it's sometimes nice to daydream right

Hi hi anon,

Tbh I don't know how to easily answer these questions, because I do need money to live, and that's tied into my writing, so it's hard to imagine exactly how things would change.

Generally speaking, I'm quite a... rebellious writer, in the sense that I work hard to find readers who like what I do, vs. writing to market or writing for broad or wide audiences. The former would net me more money, faster. But I don't really do anything the 'right' way, I do it in the way that is the most fun for me.

So wherever possible, I am actually trying to do the things that best explore my creative freedom and potential. I tried writing more to market with Perth Shifters and while I don't regret writing those books, I don't love them like others do and I can't reread them, and didn't really enjoy the process. It actually taught me a lot about the costs of like... trying to do things the 'right way' because it makes more sense from a business perspective.

It didn't make more sense for me. Having unmedicated ADHD for so much of this was definitely a part of that!

Otherwise though, there are things that would change. For a start, I'd work less and take more breaks. I'd also have more nights to myself. I actually sacrifice a lot of evenings (particularly early evenings) to put up chapters in a timezone that's most user-friendly to the majority of people in the northern hemisphere. For many years that actually meant I could never go out and see friends or family on a Friday night.

Now it's Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (not always, but at least always Thursdays). So when I'm organising cathcing up with people, there's a lot of 'I can't do it that day.'

I'd say money most effects how much I write. I wouldn't have a monthly word-count to hit, if this was just a hobby, for example. I definitely wouldn't write as much! But honestly, I already write less than I used to. Over time, I've realised the things I want/need the most are the things I should be working into my career anyway. Part of being your own boss is not being as much of a cunt to yourself as your other bosses were ;)

And I'm a pretty terrible boss to myself! I'm working on being less of that, lol.

I don't think I'd really write that many different ideas. I'd probably write more fanfiction.

I've been quite lucky, because in many respects, I have altered my writing career to suit me, instead of altering myself to suit a generic writing career. I think the latter is a really great path to permanent burnout, and I've been doing this for almost 10 years, and I feel like I'm figuring it out more and more as time goes by.

I write very self-indulgent stories! I didn't think Falling Falling Stars would be successful, anon. I thought people would hate me for it, I thought I'd lose money for it.

My writing career is running a line between 'I think this will earn money' and 'I think this won't but I'm so obsessed with this project I think others will get obsessed with it too so it might not be as big a risk as I fear it is.' If anything, anon, Mallory & Mount feels like probably the biggest risk, along with Vexteria, anything that isn't Fae Tales. But I'm going to take those risk/s, because I want to trust that they'll pay off.

I like to think that one of the reasons many of my readers trust me and my writing, is that they know I'm writing the stuff I love the most, in the way I love the most - hurt/comfort and trauma recovery and BDSM in serial format. I'm not forcing myself to be a more typical writer. The downside to that is I don't yet make a liveable income. The upside to that is that I make a steady income with readers who really get this writing, and who are wonderful people.

When I used to work as a professional artist, I pretty quickly started refusing commissions. I don't do writing commissions either. There's so many things I don't do that I could do purely for money. I've made a lot of choices for quality of life, keeping my health in mind, which means the only thing I'd really change anon is nothing really to do with the content, and everything to do with just the amount.

If I had a secure income, I'd write, but I'd write less. And a bit more of it might be fanfiction. But who knows! I hope you can find more ways to make the things that seem like financial dead-ends into something viable. Falling Falling Stars looks like a dead-end from the outside in, it's an 800k novel about a boy learning how to be nicer, and that's it. It has no huge epic plot, it has no especially dense worldbuilding, it's 9-10 times longer than a standard novel. It should never have been financially viable.

Yet it was one of the more successful things I've ever written, and plenty of newcomers into the fandom these days get here via Falling Falling Stars and not Game Theory. Isn't that wild?

Sometimes it's the thing that breaks the rules that still does well. I like to think that's a combination of me really loving the thing, and it having a lot of authenticity in it, which means there's a lot for other folks to resonate with and feel personally. And maybe some skill to pull it off!

I'm very lucky to be where I'm at. But I'm also pretty realistic that I don't think I could be successful if I only made 'financially smart choices' because I would have so little of my heart left in it, that I'd eventually just abandon it entirely.

And frankly, I think a lot of viewers / readers etc. can tell when someone doesn't love something. Or at least, some of them can. It's more fun when we all get to love the same thing together, vs. me writing stuff while thinking 'but I really wish I was writing this other stuff' and my readers loving something I don't. The latter is pretty crushing, and I can't do that. I'd rather work retail, instead of turning a creative career into that.

That's my biggest flaw as a creator, frankly, that I'm selfish enough and indulgent enough that it has to be very much on my terms, and therefore that only appeals to a narrow bandwidth of readers/folks. That doesn't mean I don't work really fucking hard, but I could only work this hard for something that feeds my soul and allows me creative freedom, I'm too sick (literally) to consider any other options.

And if 'money at the expense of creative freedom' was my actual goal, I would do literally any other job that guaranteed an income, because you can make way more consistently doing retail, than you can doing even 'commercially viable writing' in many cases!

#asks and answers #pia on writing #pia on publishing #i didn't start out writing original fiction for a career #i was already following my bliss #so the readers i started with #were the readers who loved what i loved #and over time that's mostly stayed the same #and you know what - when we all kind of love the same thing #even to different degrees #idk... we see writers sometimes in writing groups like #'how do i guarantee an income' and it's like #if you want a guaranteed income get another job #and then work on this on the side #in the meantime #but i'm in a weird position salfkjasd #i tried making choices for 'financial reasons' and i just #found it too crushing to continue #when i continue Perth Shifters it will be on my own terms and it won't be in the constraints of a #'standard novel format' anymore

[askanaroace]

Am I aplatonic? I don't have any feelings on having friends. Yet I know I need them. There have only been 3 times at the most when I felt that someone was important to me. Maybe Demi-platonic? I don't know if it's autism, having a very isolated childhood or something else. Every time I've tried to go out and meet new people it's never worked. I'm worried that I won't get anywhere in life because if I can't make friends I won't be able to succeed at anything.

Aplatonic, like any other label, is something intensely personal. Something only you can decide to use or not use for yourself. Aplatonic isn't some diagnosis someone can prescribe you. It's just a word to help you communicate your feelings to yourself or others. You don't have to perfectly fit it. You don't have to have always perfectly fit it. (I knew about the label aplatonic for years before I ever considered ID'ing as it.) The label is open to anyone who wants to use it or otherwise feels it would be useful.

As for why - that's always a very difficult question and one you're unlikely to narrow down a simple, singular answer for. It could be autism, having an isolated childhood, and something else that all contributes to your feelings. :) Humans are a mess of nature and nurture, and it's more rare than not that you can pinpoint a feeling to one, specific action/event/reason.

You don't need friends to succeed at life, and there's tons of skills out there that have nothing to do with the skill of making friends. And heck, tons of people that enjoy and want friends really struggle to make friends. It's a hard skill, and if you don't really want friends or don't value friendships that much, it's really hard to hone that skill!

It sounds like a good idea to discard this focus on something you don't want/possibly aren't good at and instead focus on things you do want and things you are good at. Do you enjoy writing? Creating? Sculpting? Math? Running? Climbing? Music? Building? Organizing? Public speaking? Learning? Playing? Fishing? Birding? Sparring? Joking? Fashion? Interior design? Baking? Cooking? Skateboarding? Gardening? Volunteering? Bugs? Crocheting? Weight lifting? Movies? What are you good at? Making people laugh? Innovation? Creativity? Strength? Emotions? Puzzle solving? Helping others? Listening? Caretaking? Did you get good at these things with no work or did they take some time, patience, and effort to foster?

All kinds of skills are needed for all kinds of things. And not knowing a skill right now doesn't mean you're incapable of improving it. What are some goals you have for your life? What do you need to help yourself achieve these goals? How can you access what it is that you need?

Something else you can do is look back and appreciate past successes. What are things you've done that you're proud of? What are things you've done that others are proud of you for? What are things you've done that you weren't sure you'd be able to do? This could be things like: passing a test, graduating, learning how to take care of a pet, baking a delicious cake, perfecting your mascara game, learning a new language, landing a new job, finishing a long book, etc. From the day we're born, life is all about learning new things: learning to talk, learning to listen, learning to crawl, learning to walk, learning fine motor skills, learning to feed ourselves, learning to put on our own clothes, learning to use the toilet ourselves, etc. It's all about learning things at a pace that works for us. Learning a skill and then building on it (like learning to sit up, then crawl, then toddle, then walk, then run). And these aren't skills accessible to everyone, but there's also adaptations (for example, learning to wheel yourself in a wheelchair rather than walk) and just plain other things to learn. You have already succeeded at so much. There's so much success to come.

Just don't give up on yourself.

#aplatonic #apl #aplspec #friendships #life #self acceptance #self positivity #diamondshapedcat #ask #self sabotage #self hatred #self esteem

[nanowrimo]

Back to School: Interview with Mike Fillbrandt, Young Writers Program Educator

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program helps over 85,000 kids, teens, teachers, and families set creative goals and tell stories they care about. We asked some of our amazing YWP educators to share how they take on the NaNoWriMo challenge in their classroom. Today’s advice comes from Mike Fillbrandt, who teaches 9th grade English at a charter school. 

Q: What grade/ age level do you work with? What type of NaNoWriMo group is it (whole class, club, homeschool, elective, etc.)?

A: 9th grade classes, 8-12 grade club

Q: How long have you been doing NaNoWriMo with your students?

A: 5 years

Q: How do you structure the entire project (for example, do you start prepping in October and write in November, do you have kids work on it all year, etc.)?

A: Prep in October (or March depending on the year), and write in November (or April).

Q: What does a normal NaNoWriMo day look like for your students?

A: Brief self-check questionnaire, then the rest of the period to work. Some days are set aside for students to discuss their projects in small groups, to share successes, struggles, and get suggestions. Some days I hold one-on-one conferences with students to give feedback on excerpts of their projects and make suggestions for improving their writing.

Q: How do you set and manage word-count goals?

A: Students need to complete 4500 words for full points. Students who exceed 10,000 can earn extra credit. For students with special needs, I coordinate with their case manager to determine an appropriate way to adjust word goal. Students who do not reach their word count goal receive a prorated portion of the word-count points.

Q: How do you manage grading? Do you grade?

A: Yes, I grade. Grades are based on two required excerpts submitted for feedback, along with their final word count. The first excerpt, students can choose to be graded either on setting descriptions or on character building. For the second excerpt, students can choose to be graded either on plot development or on their use of dialogue. Each excerpt is worth 30 points (60 total), and the word count is worth 40 points, with a possibility of earning 50 by meeting the extra credit goal.

Q: How do you approach revision/ publishing (if at all)?

A: In my most recent classes, I have only been able to give students post-writing suggestions/materials from the packet. In previous years, we were able to use an excerpt for practice with editing/revising skills.

Q: Any NaNoWriMo tips or tricks to share with other educators? Hard-won lessons? Ah-ha moments?

A: Don't try to read every word of every student story - you'll drive yourself crazy. Instead, find a way to get a snapshot of a student's work.

Begin the process of brainstorming ideas well in advance.

Be vigilant for signs of plagiarism and/or cheap tricks to pad out a word count without actually doing any work.

Q: Have you ever run into resistance from your administration about doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, how did you manage it? What do you say to people who don’t see the point of having students write novels? 

A: When I first began, there were concerns over word count goals, which I adjusted in later years.

Q: What are the most meaningful things you or your students take away from the project? What's your best NaNoWriMo memory?

A: Confidence, belief in their own abilities, a stronger sense of time management.

My best memory was the smile on a student's face during an excerpt grading, when I told them how wonderful I thought their writing was.

Q: Anything else you'd like to add?

A: I love this project. I've been doing NaNoWriMo longer than I've been a teacher.

Mike teaches 9th grade English at a charter school. He has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2005, and has had his students participate since he's been teaching. He enjoys reading, writing, video games, disc golf, and attending a weekly writing group. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, daughter, one snake, two cats, along with an imaginary dog and an imaginary raccoon.

#nanowrimo #ywp #nanowrimo ywp #back to school #by nano guest #mike fillbrandt

[lilypheria]

Ask Game~

2- How do you come up with your plot ideas?

7- How do you handle writer's block or moments of creative stagnation?

19- What's the most unusual or unique setting you've used?

35- What do you enjoy most about being a fic writer?

2. How do you come up with your plot ideas?

It really depends. I get ideas when I just think about stuff a lot, just run through different scenarios and what ifs in my head. I'm also really easy to be enabled to write 😂 some things just are born out of my desire to write a specific AU. But my favorite stories are those that blindside me out of the blue and possess my brain for three months lmao

7. How do you handle writer's block or moments of creative stagnation?

Thanks to a lot trauma I have with writer's block and writing in general, I get super anxious every time I can't write. The beginning of this year has been like this. I forced myself to stop trying, to force it, and moved to do other stuff: reading, playing video games. I still write a journal by hand, and I list a lot my ideas and scenarios there; that also helps when I feel stuck. But the most important thing when having a block is (for me): do not force it. You will hate everything you put out if you do. Now I broke through my block with starting a multichapter fic that is solely written as an outlet to vent my anxiety, and it has helped a LOT.

19. What's the most unusual or unique setting you've used?

Hmm... I think my Fae AU (Marked by Fate) and cyberpunk AU (Neonlights) are the more unusual/unique ones. I love fantasy and science fiction, so these days, instead of an original story, I usually tend to write them as sns fics lmao. I also have a desire to write a horror fic with backrooms theme (I adore backrooms horror games) but I'm still only vibing it. I also have more fantasy and scifi things in the brain I wanna try at some point 😂

35. What do you enjoy most about being a fic writer?

Telling the stories. Letting the words pour through me, see the story unfolding and coming to life. Having the power to make familiar, extremely dear characters do what I want, reveal new sides of themselves. I also love and cherish my readers and other writer buddies - the community I've learned to know in these two years I've been in the fandom has been wonderful 🥺💕

#replies #lavender-long-stories #thank you!!

[sing-you-fools]

I've been struggling lately with writing. Or, honestly, not just lately.

It's not the writing that's a problem. It's everything else. I can't figure out how to be both a writer and a person. I can't figure out how to balance living in the real world with the world I made up going on in my head. Any time I'm not writing, some part of me is furious at whatever I'm doing instead. It's taking time away from writing. I have ideas I need to get down before I forget them. I was in the middle of a scene and it was going well and I want to get back to it, dammit.

It's either that, or it is the writing. I manage to pull myself enough into the real world that I don't resent everything and everyone around me for taking up my attention, and then when I sit down to write again, I'm completely empty of ideas. My characters are gone from my brain, and I can kind of remember what they were supposed to do, but it's like watching shadows moving around in a forest and trying to understand what's going on. And then I'm miserable and resenting my real life for making me unable to write.

I can't read when I write. It's been years since I was really able to sink into a book. When I'm writing, my brain just wanders back to my world instead of enjoying the one I'm reading. And I've been avoiding acknowledging how much this has sucked for me, because I Wanted To Be A Writer.

Now I'm asking myself, did I want to be a writer? Or did every adult in my life when I was a kid see me constantly reading and making art and say, wow, you love books and you're so creative, you should be an author? Or did my English teachers tell me so many times that my stories were so good and I should be a writer? Or did I need to pick a major and I said English and she asked lit or creative writing and I picked writing on a whim? And now I'm an adult and realizing that all that stuff has lodged itself so deeply in my brain that I'm pushing myseld to fulfill these expectations of people I mostly don't even know anymore instead of wondering if it's right for me?

I was excited about the world I was building. I was so excited about the format I was working it into. I love my characters and my footnotes and my ridiculous little ideas. If I could run off and be a hermit, live in my own little world and not have to deal with real shit ever, oh the books I would write! But I can't do that.

I'm reading again, paper books and not just to my kid, and it keeps making me tear up a little from how much I've missed it these past few years. I never felt like me without a book in my hand.

And painting. Gods, painting. I'm having full-on sobbing breakdowns about this one.

I don't know if or when I'll write again. I'd like to find a way to write without it consuming me. But I'm looking back on my life and feeling like maybe this is right. I was always a reader; I almost never wrote for fun. Painting was my creative outlet and I only stopped because I got too used to my aunt's professional materials and didn't know how to use the ones it was reasonable to buy for a high schooler, but now I can buy the good stuff, and I'm no longer too bogged down in perfectionism to do anything.

For now, at least, this feels good.

#personal #writing #painting #reading #sing-you-fools

[commanderjuni]

[ OUTDATED ]🦋CHARACTER TALK | MESMER SRABBA

ok to anyone who knew laff for like. upwards of just a few days. IGNORE HER. HER NAME IS BENCHED FOR NOW. in her place i'd love to introduce.... drum roll please.....

MESMER SRABBA! (or well. personal story through living world season 2 srabba anyways)

as i mentioned in a previous few posts, srabba actually was an older character that has the prestige of being my FIRST toon i levelled, pain stakingly, bowls of apple sauce and crafting balls of bread dough and all, from level 1 to level 80. i remember trying to spec virtuoso on her, but for whatever reason not even i know i must've gotten fed up and deleted her

over time i was a little upset about that choice so i tried. MANY MANY MANY TIMES to remake srabba. she's been through

being made an inquest lab rat (failed)

being made a thief (not really a fail but she sure aint one now)

being made a thief. again. (i wanted a pink spectre. didn't work out.)

positive i made her a necromancer at least ONCE.

being made a ranger? i think?

and many few other attempts. but by some declaration of fate, srabba is back and here to stay as my mesmer and fated commander.

however, since i'm going through story in chronological order and haven't gotten past living world season 4, she very much so has some growing to do! (literally, kinda)

i've also picked and tossed a few things about laff out as to give myself some more creative freedom with srabba: i've realized recently i have this weird habit of constricting myself and forcing myself to go with the same idea, but for now i think it'd be better for me to just. do whatever! improv! toss things in and fish things out!

I'm mostly pulling elements from Laff's story, since she's kinda being repurposed into Srabba! Thus don't mind any parallels yaknow /lh

aaannnyway....

MAJOR RAMBLE BELOW THE CUT!! no spoilers whatsoever, but it's gonna be a long post x)

Srabba, during Personal Story, is about 13 years old. Like most asura her age, she is smart, crafty, and markedly intelligent. Before applying to the College of Dynamics in LWS1, Srabba is a ward of the Progeny Protective Service.

Her parents perished in the infamous Thaumanova Reactor meltdown when she was only four years old; Srabba only escaped after they had to yell and urge her to run away to safety with the masses fleeing to escape, which she did, and it is still something plaguing her to this very day.

Srabba not only faces the challenge of lacking a direct guardian to care for her, but also has to navigate the difficulties of being hard of hearing in a society that revolves around discussing and debating scientific theorems and gizmos… Which isn't exactly easy to do when you can't hear much below normal talking- and all the background noise: the buzzing and humming and clinking of asuran society- it makes it even harder to understand what someone is saying to her.

Srabba relies mostly on lip-reading and making educated guesses to understand what others are saying to her. Although she had experimented with hearing aids in her younger years, as she approached her teenage years, she grew less interested in the idea of being "dependent" on the creations of others.

Instead, she aspires to create her own hearing aid device to assist her. This challenging project is a main motivation for joining the College of Dynamics. She is eager to improve her creative thinking skills and enjoys the freedom of starting from nothing to bring her own ideas to life, which is quite different from the, in her humble opinion, dull livelihoods of Statics students who merely tweak existing designs.

In regards to her personality, Srabba is best described as the following:

Witty

Smug

Crafty

and Stubborn

Very, very, very stubborn. Srabba is a very independent person, who finds that despite not having a primary caregiver, she has strong footing when it comes to operating solo, and takes great pride in it.

... Perhaps too much pride.

Because of this, Srabba never has been the most inclined to working with others or, Eternal Alchemy forbid, collaboration. The idea of having to depend upon others is... a frankly scary thought, and one she doesn't like submitting herself to. If she can do it herself, she'll do it herself- no matter how long it'd take.

And the 'Mesmer' part of her name isn't just for show. Srabba is a certified, bonafide mesmer.

Her abilities sprung to life very recently, when she was about 11 years old. She's had only two whole years to really acclimate herself to the intricacies of mesmer magic, but she has a surprisingly great grasp at it. It may or may not have something to do with, oh, y'know... Being born on top of an Inquest lab experimenting with chaotic energy and all. It happens!

Srabba primarily follows the Chaos specialization. As the quote goes: "Where some see chaos, I see opportunity". Srabba views the tragedy of the Thaumanova Reactor as a unique proposition. Although the reactor exploded, it showed the potential using chaos energy actually had. It could transport people place to place, it could disorient and befuddle one's mind, and most important to Srabba: it could bend time and space.

Because of her close connection with chaos magic and energy, Srabba finds that among other factors, she'd fit in well in Dynamics. Her project aside, Srabba has a bright passion for studying chaos magic and energy, and seeks to be the "big leader" on the subject. She not only wants to know how to use it, but how to conserve it, and contain it, and master her own control of it so well, she could figure out how to either revert or lessen the damage in the Thaumanova wreckage.

As for Srabba's actual manipulation of mesmer magic, she's adept in confusing people: with or without actual conditions. She can be here, or she could suddenly be there. She could be right in front of you, or you could just be talking to a clone of herself and you wouldn't be too much the wiser unless you paid close attention. Her illusions are fueled by her innate psychic ability like most mesmer's, and her innate psychic ability is... frighteningly powerful for her age.

Let's be thankful she doesn't know too much about her potential at the moment.

Between the three signature mesmer masks, Srabba follows the Phantasm of Sorrow: she doesn't actually brandish this mask, but rather wears it on her face. Her sad, droopy eyes and thin-lipped frown and big, down-turned ears makes it easy to think she has something troubling her... But for all we know, she actually could be laughing in her head about how moronic some of her peers look. Nobody is the wiser to what goes on in her head, and she very much so likes it that way. It fuels her ego a little. (Light-hearted)

While she rarely finds herself in need of physical altercations, she always keeps two swords at the ready. She finds manipulating her magic through them surprisingly easy, and she is currently studying the art of mantras and phantasms. She especially hopes to start learning all the cool space and timey wimey magic, too.

She's a girl with a lot of plans, aspirations, and irons she wants to start putting in the furnace.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #writing #gw2 asura #gw2 mesmer #gw2 fan submission #mesmer srabba #i have a lot of thoughts about this girl but i'll get to it after getting past living world season 1

[thevindicativevordan]

Any thoughts about the recent Dawn of DC announcements ?

Let's see if the new DC is the same as the old DC.

DC's official press release says that 20 new books are coming, and they only revealed 10 (one of which was last year's Round Robin winner), so 10 more books are coming that have yet to be revealed. Let's take a roll call:

Unstoppable Doom Patrol by Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham - Burnham has me excited, Culver has me skeptical. All of Culver's DC work thus far has been lousy. His Justice League Incarnate book with Williamson was the weakest of the Infinite Frontier trilogy, his Future State Gotham book was really bad, and Doom Patrol is a great team that demands unorthodox writing. Rooting for Culver to surprise me here because God would I love to have a good Doom Patrol book with Way never coming back at this point. Can't believe it took DC this long given the success of the DP HBO Max series. Jane having a new alter that places her in the role of the Chief is a cool idea at least.

Superboy: Man of Tomorrow by Kenny Porter and Jahnoy Lindsay - I voted for this, I'm glad it won, I've enjoyed DC Mech, I expect I will enjoy this. I'm praying Lindsay gives Conner a new costume, it's time to ditch the 90s look for something new. No more looking back for Conner, that terrible Fitzmartin YJ mini was right about one thing: we can't live in the past. He needs a new modern costume, and a story that reestablishes who he is in a post Jon Kent world. This and PKJ Action are seemingly going to accomplish that, both in terms of who Conner is on his own, and who he is in the Superfamily. Given the long wait between when this series was announced as the winner and when it is finally coming out, there shouldn't be any delays at least.

Green Lantern: Hal Jordan by Mariko Tamaki (Artist TBA) - Tamaki is mostly good with a few misses, her Tec, Supergirl: Being Super, and (apparently I haven't read it) Crush & Lobo books were good, her Wonder Woman run not so much. In fairness that was blatant movie synergy and didn't leave her much freedom to work with. I liked her Tec run and this appears to be aiming for something similar. Hal back in Coast City on Earth, rebuilding his life here is exactly the kind of thing they should have done after the Johns era's nonstop cosmic epic. Give me revamps of old Hal Earth villains beyond Hector Hammond that we haven't seen in a while, Hal struggling to make friends with the neighbors the way Tamaki had Bruce do in her Tec run, and put Hal and Carol back together again, and I'll be happy.

Green Lantern John Stewart by PKJ (Artist TBA) - Now this has my attention. Giving PKJ another book means they trust him, giving him a John Stewart book - who may end up being the main DCU Lantern if that HBO Max GL series actually gets made - means they view him as one of their up and comers. He's expressed a lot of love for and desire to work in GL before, he's set up plot threads for GL such as the Revenant Queen threat that would give John his own Rogues which John desperately needs, and I obviously am a huge fan of the cosmic storytelling over in Action which I fully expect will be repeated here. DC Cosmic has been crying out for a worldbuilder to flesh it out more for ages, this is an exciting choice. My hunch is that John will be dealing with another Aspect of Olgrun, since there are six more out there unaccounted for. Inject some of that Warworld Saga storytelling into Green Lantern, let's get John a love interest, and maybe Stewart will finally get that equivalent to Johns run on GL with Hal which his fans have been begging for. Sampere is a huge GL fan who has history with PKJ before, I would say he's a natural choice for this book, but he likes Hal more so I could see him ending up on Tamaki's book instead.

Cyborg (Creative Team TBA) - Wish I could be more excited for this, but I have to know the team and the pitch before being interested. Too many Cyborg stories rehash the same "am I a man or a machine?" crap for me to pull this sight unseen.

Batman: The Brave & The Bold by Tom King and Various Artists - King got robbed of his 100 issue Batman run so I guess he's going to make up for it by doing secondary Batman books forever. Does Batman really need another team-up book given World's Finest already has him teaming up with Superman and the rest of the DCU? I'll be reading this so I guess I'm part of the problem, but I really wish King would take on another of the A-Listers. All he does is Batman books, C-Listers, and the occasional dabble in the Superman sphere. I want to see him tackle another Justice Leaguer's ongoing, give him an Aquaman or Martian Manhunter book since everyone else seems to be claimed. Apparently he's shifting back towards the mainline DCU ongoings after spending a couple years doing minis of dubious canonicity. Looks like creative teams will rotate and since Rob Williams is here and he's a writer not an artist, guess he's next up after King.

Green Arrow by Josh Williamson and Sean Izaakse - Williamson has been building up to this since the start of Infinite Frontier, cool that he's finally announcing the book. I'll admit I'm annoyed it's opening with a "we have to find Ollie who is lost out in the Multiverse!" arc, I'm sick of the Multiverse and I'm tired of DC "building up" to doing what everyone is asking them to. Just write a damn Green Arrow back where he's in Star City/Seattle interacting with the Arrow Family! Maybe Williamson doing a Multiverse story with a smaller cast will be more palatable, I did enjoy his Flash run after all.

Shazam! by Mark Waid and Dan Mora - Other than Superman proper this is probably the book Waid has been dying to write the most. He, Morrison, and Gail Simone pitched to take over the Marvel Family way back when, I bet he's got loads of ideas on how to revamp the character, and his ideas will probably be better received than Johns' revamp was. Solicit sounds great, Mora on art (and apparently still doing art for World's Finest, dude is a machine) is perfect, and Waid's handling of the Fab Five over in WF has shown he can handle younger characters still. Should be fun in the same way WF is.

The Penguin by Tom King and Stefano Gaudiano - Hah that's a pretty great team for a synergy book. King's Penguin in his Batman run was... well he seemed to be teasing that Penguin had sex with actual penguins, so clearly his take on Penguin is untraditional to say the least. Pitch seems interesting enough, Penguin back in crime because the government forced him back in as their agent is intriguing.

Steelworks (Creative Team TBA) - On one hand hell yes a new Steel book! Tell me Greg Pak is writing this and I am there day one. If it's not Pak however then I have qualms. The brief description in the press release makes it seem like John Henry is giving up on being Steel and handing over the role entirely to Natasha, and I've got no interest in that. S&L make me into a Nat fan but I love John Henry more, and I am not going to be happy if DC's idea of celebrating his 30th is him handing over the role to his niece. He better be the main protagonist and he better get to suit up and be Steel. Glad that DC has enough faith in PKJ to start spinning new series out of what he's doing.

Only two Bat books so fuck it, let's call it a win. Satisfied overall with the creative teams announced, for those that were actually announced, DC is playing it safe but after Infinite Frontier took risks and bombed that's exactly what I expected to happen. I guess the next event is going to be called Knighttime and will be another Batman event. Ugh. Also is that red circle with a bird supposed to represent Penguin, because it sure looks a lot like Hawkman’s symbol. Maybe a new Hawk book will be announced as part of the second wave? For the second wave I want books for Zatanna, Aquaman, Vixen, Justice League Dark (use the Shadowpact name if we're keeping the JL on ice for a while), Suicide Squad, and Legion of Superheroes, but as an opening lineup? I'm pretty happy with this!

#dawn of dc #doom patrol #superboy #green lantern #hal jordan #john stewart #green arrow #batman #cyborg #shazam #the penguin #steel #john henry irons #natasha irons #dennis culver #chris burnham #kenny porter #jahnoy lindsay #mariko tamaki #phillip kennedy johnson #joshua williamson #sean izaakse #tom king #mitch gerads #guillem march #gabriel hardman #dan mora #rob williams

[v1olentdelights]

grace no need to apologize i love hearing about your college experience so far and all your opinions on everything!!!

i get that math is a subject that most people don't like or enjoy but is needed in life. i'm excited to hear your input on them!!

i think i have an idea since mys sister had her first year of college so i kind of get it but probably never experience it personally through college. i'm starting to get a little bit of a feeling like that through my high school and i'm not even physically in school! grace i get that 100% you have all these assignments but you just want to sleep and forget life. oh really that's not terrible but no great either it seems walking that distance will give you quite the exercise oh no that's terrible to hear that you might be getting sick!! i get that feeling as well like i hate it and never want to go back but i lowkey do really well in it.

i am the same way!! i think that the things they assign are so boring and uninteresting to me that i can not focus on them which then makes me put 10x the amount the effort into it. i did more planning of the stories and just recharging my creative mindset since school will probably destroy that than school it was just like 4 assignments anyway i hope you got to just relax a bit!!

oh my skunks are kind of intimidating i get feeling on edge all night!! my family once a possum inside our shed it was terrifying for my mother. oh damn why are the cute ones always so shitty immediate turn off if you see him again give him the biggest side eye imaginable if i were you i would've strangled him but that of lead to probably getting kicked out and we do not want that. keep me updated on any boy encounters or crushes!!

i'm glad to hear about it being chill!! great idea i don't want you freezing or turning into an icicle out there in the winter!! i understand the math hatred math is totally not chill at all. grace that amazing to hear!! same here for me 4 days off as well!! i'm really happy you're enjoying college right now grace!! there'll probably be a few bumps in the road in college but overall i hope it all goes well for you!!

:) thank you, it's nice to share it with someone. I know, math really does suck, and like you said it is needed in life. But sometimes it is hard for me to understand why we can't use calculators and such when we will have access to those. Also I have dyscalculia, its kind of like dyslexia but with numbers instead. It sucks. But I've lived with it for 18 years so I think I can push through this. It is just a matter of doing it.

Oh wow, good on her! I think college is a great idea, but only if you want to go for something big. It is a loooooot of money for some education and papers. I get that, school and just living in general is exhausting. I hope you can find some ways to rejuvenate your energy! Yeah, I think I'll get used to the walking, it is just going to take a bit. Thankfully I have enough time between classes to not have to run to them. Yeah, being sick isn't fun. I think at first it was elevation sickness, however I need to reach out to my allergist now. Exactly! School sucks, but you're good in it, but it sucks.

YES!! I 100% agree! I think it is just better when you decide what you are learning and at what pace you are learning it. Oh yay!! I'm glad, I know how hard it can be to balance that personal enjoyment of writing and then the school work aspect.

They so are!! We haven't seen it since, thankfully. And I'm hoping we don't ever see it again. Ahhhh! Not a possum! Those things are terrifying sometimes!

No for real!! I literally wanted to choke him out. My roommate and I have this plan to like evilly stare at him and do the mock laugh? Though he probably won't remember when we do see them again. I most definitely will!

Lol, I am hoping to figure it out very soon, it is just a matter of getting on the bus! I know! Everything seems to go by so quickly. I mean my birthday is this week, and it was 8 months ago that I lost my brother. But it all feels like just yesterday, you know? I think this whole college thing is really good, and like you said, there will definitely be some bumps. But I'll overcome them!

#mackie ♡

[emcscared-whumps]

WiJ 2022 - 01: (Re)introduce Yourself

WiJ 2022 Navigation Post

Intro!!

Hi, I'm emc, and I write whump of original characters in original settings! I've had this blog since some time in August last year (2021), and in these short few months, I've come a long way in the whump community. Everyone I've met here is wonderful and friendly and I've enjoyed every second of whumpblr and whump discord.

I've had at least a vague awareness about my taste for (fictional) blood since I was a kid around 5 or 6, but I first remember seeking the whumperflies in my teens (I'll get more into that in tomorrow's post :3c), and later still, I discovered Whumpblr posts through Pintrest, and joined a whump discord server a few years later, and then made this blog a year after that ^-^' . Getting into whump is the best thing I've ever done tbh, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

(I can now run off whump derived dopamine instead of trying to be happy!! /j/j/j/j)

Some fun facts are... I'm Australian, I do karate, I'm in the Danny Phantom fandom, I have an interest in cutting gems and other semiprecious stones, I have three cats, I love plants and gardening, and my favourite colour is unironically a deep, cool red. I also draw!

Project Updates!

Since joining the community, I have made tremendous progress on my nearest and dearest project Shifting Phases! Not only do I now have a rough idea of how to get everyone to the end scenes, I've actually started writing it!!! I'm super excited! I want to get it beta read in its entirety before I post it though, so it's a long way off yet. (As a byproduct, this means that I'll never post the fic unfinished lmao)

This story has spawned an AU that somehow manages to be darker. It's still in the ideation phases (brainrot spam to all of my whump friends on discord, rip them), so it'll be a little while before you see much posted about this one :3

My friend I recently made a lot of progress on Satanus Magus! We have basically the whole plot figured out, it just needs to be beefed up with some scenes. I look forward to writing that all out in the word doc void :)

My friend and I actually hope to publish this irl one day, so, That's A Thing!

It's an older idea of mine, it spawned in around 2018... But getting out of school and into this community has really boosted my creativity (bouncing ideas around is a powerful tool). It's like an action movie, but instead of guns and explosions, it's elemental magic and explosions!! It's not an outright whumpy fic, but ofc bc I'm involved, there are definitely a lot of whump themes.

Lastly, I have a new fic idea kicking around in my head involving a vampire and a human. It's still veeeerrryyy early days for it, but I'm already in love with the concept, and I have been sorely lacking in vampire whump for many years. I look forward to working with Malté and Corwin >:3c though I'm sure the same eagerness is not extended back -rubs my evil little handses together-

My Favourite Whump Tropes! Oh man...

Collapse

Especially when they try and fail to get up again

A whumpee getting tangled and/or ensnared in something they can't get out of

A painful mobility impairment as a result of a traumatic injury

Delirium and panic where they don’t recognise their friend/caretaker, maybe they’re waking up from a nightmare, and they lash out at their friend/caretaker-- most fun with nightmares/night terrors ;DD

I'm recently getting into fucked up mental health shit >:)

Ab00se (but like, not romantic relationships)

Nonhuman whumpees (mer and vampire/demon whumpees are where it's at tbh)

Painful transformation (and the aftermath, especially if the whumpee ends up Different than they were Before)

Bonus points for terrified, horrified, and very uncoordinated bb getting used to their new body and having an awful time

Secret based whump where bad things happen if anyone ever finds out whumpee's secret

An injury jeopardising the secret-- the secret needs to be revealed it to treat the injury

A whumpee going stupidly far to hide a secret, leading to a dramatic collapse and injury/scar reveal :D

A secret reveal gone badly never fails to give me whumperflies <3

I love it when circumstances are what leads to the whump. Not all of my whumpees have whumpers at all times, and where the whump comes from often fluctuates, but a common theme of my works is that the whump is primarily a product of circumstance that enables my characters to be whumped, whether by another person (whumper), or otherwise.

A happy, or at the very least, a bittersweet ending

#These are a few of my favourite things#

Also, Tumblr just fucking ate this draft when I was 99% done, and I was a fool who did not frequently save, and now I'm starting from nothing but a (shit) memory so... I'm not angy, I'm just sad and tired lol, apologies if there're any dumb phrasing/grammatical errors lol I can't even think straight anymore gkjdhfg

(The beta post editor may be easier on my poor eyes, but It has a habit of eating things on occasion...)

@whumpmasinjuly

#wij #wij day 1 #wij 2022 #whumpmas in july #whumpmas in july 2022 #whump #whump community #whump intro #wij22day1 #whumpmasinjuly2022

[marshmallowprotection]

okok here's my lil matchup request 🥺💕

i'm a 19 year old bi transmasc dude, looking for either a romantic or platonic matchup, either works, whatever is easier! i'm a cancer and an INFP-T and both me and my friends say those are really accurate. crybaby things ✌️ no but literally i watched finding nemo again recently and bawled my eyes out. i'm serious 😭

in past romantic relationships i've been a bit obsessive, wanting to spend every minute around my partner even if it's just hanging out in the same room not saying a word. i would get paranoid easily from me overthinking everything, so i'd end up getting jealous and insecure.

but to be honest if someone were to let me be that possessive and like it and just reassure me it'd be amazing HOWEVER i know people don't usually work like that. such is life. so i've been working on handling things in a healthier way

i had a lot of really bad shit happen in my past and i spent too much time hating the world as a teenager to keep living my whole life in a bad mood. it was exhausting. so i started joking about everything and i'm a lot happier now for it, even though it took a lot of faking it to make it

i lead with jokes with people and keep everyone at arm's length — too many people have gotten close only to rip my heart out. so i like to crack jokes and make everyone laugh, i wouldn't be surprised if people usually classify me as the funny one. i'm content with that. i love making people happy

i like to draw, write, voice act, anything that can let me be creative. character design is one of my favorite things, making a whole character just with a couple concepts is so fun to me. i make my friends a lot of gift art, either of us together or their characters if they're an artist as well.

i also really love video games! i'm not very good at most of them myself, so i usually turn to twitch or youtube to watch other people play instead. i like watching my friends stream their games through discord too, i think it all started when me and my big brother were kids and he would let me watch him play zelda and halo and all that.

but ya i hope this is everything you need!! sorry if it's really long i talk a lot ;;;;

I match you with...

Yoosung!

Basically, you're the kind of person that gets overwhelmed with the idea that your emotions might be too much for people to handle. You think too long and hard about what could go wrong instead of letting yourself enjoy the moment and that can be what messes up everything that you've been trying to work on. So, what you genuinely need is somebody who can be there to level out your emotions and help you to live in the moment instead of thinking about what could happen or what happened before.

For that reason, that’s why your match is Yoosung. You need a relationship that is genuine and sincere. You need somebody that's going to love you for who you are without any pretense. It's easy to have a relationship with him because he doesn't have any pretenses. He doesn't think about things that you're afraid of, he thinks about the things that you've done with him and for him and how much they mean. You give so much of yourself to him that he only feels it's logical to devote himself back.

It's not even your shared interest in video games that really brings you together. It's the way that you experience emotions. It's how genuinely obsessed you can become with another person in a healthy way. It's running to be close to somebody and knowing that you can be without being afraid of it being misconstrued.

#ask #anon #mod kait #matchup

[oddlybigoceans]

I'm going to try to record next back to my creativity. When I was in grad school, I was making so much art and at first it was really hard. But when I figured out what I was doing and shed my self consciousness and doubt, I started working consistently, zealously. I was constantly looking at art by others too, and talking about it with enthusiasm.

But since then, I've had a hard time enjoying any part of the process. I feel stuck, and instead of finding joy in the things others make, I only identify its faults. Now that I'm teaching, I see students come in with the same five or six ideas and it's exhausting to constantly provide the support to help them find their originality while I'm running on empty.

God is art, and creativity is a prayer. It is a part of each of us, whether we know it or even accept it. Before the written language humans were painting on walls and carving beads from wood and stone. We were leaving handprints on cave walls to say "I was here too." Without ever being taught, kids draw pictures to express ideas and work through problems. And they never stop to wonder if it's good, at least not until someone tells them to.

Making is also healing. It can clear the mind, release tension in the body, allow new ideas in. This year, I hope that I can let go of my inner critique and reengage with my creative practice in a way that is gentle. I want to love art again.

#thinking #diary entry #personal #blog

[marblealphabetsoup]

It's been hard to draw lately.

I just came from my first year getting to study in the field I've always dreamed of. It was amazing. I won't say I loved every second, but I will say I would do almost everything all over again given the chance. There would be a few obvious changes, but I'm glad it was as great as it was.

I'm learning how to be an animator and a better artist.

Part of that is actually doing the things.

Lately though instead of doing alllllllll the things, as my friends and family would say, I've been doing a lot, just, not a lot of what I hoped to be doing.

That's something I've noticed happens between busy periods. They're still busy, but in a different way. During the busy period I'm wall to wall booked with different kinds of work, but I'm squeezing in my own things anywhere I can fit them; I'm doodling during lectures or before different events, I'm starting comics on weekends, I'm writing in the middle of the night because I can't stop thinking about an idea.

Then the time that's supposed to be a break rolls around and it's weird. It doesn't feel like a break because I'm still running all over creation going to a heck ton of events and spending time with people I don't get to see as much when I'm working. During this time I still have a million things on my mind, but by the time I'm sat down to do them, all I want to do is scroll on here, watch YouTube, or- I was gonna say fall asleep, but it's been the opposite really, the middle of the night is the time I don't have any people wanting my attention. There are a few who do, but not in a way that can't wait till morning. So that last point on the list would be playing videogames, mainly Minecraft.

There's this illusion of sooo much time, and yet it's still full in the same way with something different, but instead of squishing in creative stuff whenever I get a chance it's just consuming things other people have had to say or make. By itself that's not a bad thing. Ideas don't come from a vacuum and I'm alright with the amount of reading I've done this summer too, but instead of looking for art that I enjoy I feel like I also should be making some which I haven't been doing nearly as much if at all.

The other day I was at a table with my dad, a family friend of his, and some strangers (who were fine until I learned a little more about them, yeesh). Anyway, I was at this table with them and there's this girl next to me probably closeish to my age, but I... maybe I should have talked to her. I didn't really want to talk to anyone there so I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing since I had been having trouble getting myself to do that and the amount of background noise was kinda nice. We were in the middle of an outdoor restaurant with a concert nearby so a lot of noise which was perfect, never really liked when it was too quiet. Heck! My ears finally stopped ringing when I went to live in a bigger city for a little bit with MORE noise!

So I'm sitting there doodling and I just start drawing hands. Mostly my own, but any I can see. I start out realistic, get kinda, annoyed, then make them more cartoonish. I... enjoyed doing that. I liked doing that a lot. So why then whenever I sit down with the intention to do something similar all I want to do is let my brain shut down?

I like things that make my think, but it's also nice to just zonk out for a bit. There's a million things I want to do, I just need to get myself to do them.

Gotta find a better balance.

#artist issues #late night thoughts #lack of motivation