#like there is so much literature all around us the real advice is to be purposeful in how you’re engaging with it

[compacflt]

I have to ask because I'm just too curious! How is your writing so good? Like, holy hell, your prose, the flow from one sentence to another, how you tell Ice and Mav's thoughts and the yearning and pining and angst and everything. You made me cry so many times reading their perspectives, and it's such a unique take and so relatable and sad at the same time.

I'm just wondering if you've taken any courses, what you do to improve your writing, or maybe any references and ideas for when you get stuck on a scene. I'm not much of a reader of western media, so maybe you have some recommendations?

Thanks in advance! You're one of the best writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading!

See here for my regular writing advice :)

yes, i am a double major in journalism & english so I’m taking basically all writing classes at school. but as i said in my previous advice post, i haven’t learned anything in any of my classes that you couldn’t learn just by reading attentively and writing on your own. the benefit of a structured program is Having Deadlines and that’s about it imo

I don’t have a ton of recommendations for precisely this reason—my recommendation is to literally read everything you can get your hands on, AND to treat Everything you read/watch/experience like high literature. Advertisements in the subway have a theme & a message & employ certain literary tactics to deliver that message to you. They’re worth learning from. So are the nature documentaries on tv—which stories are prioritized and why? What story techniques do documentarians, for instance, use to make us, the viewer, relate to animals and experiences that are otherwise unrelatable? Can you find examples of foreshadowing & symbolism in your own real life? Fiction is just a reflection of the dynamics of our own world—if you can find the rhythm of an overheard conversation on the street, you can find the rhythm of fictional dialogue

(Which is why i continue to stress, keep a journal or a diary. one of the most instructive exercises i ever did was when I was in a creative writing class at like 14 and they had us just follow strangers around and write down exactly what they said. So you get a lot of “so he told me, like, he was, like, like, um, ‘I’m not cheating on you,’ or whatever, and I was like, bitch, what?” —But that’s how people talk! It’s a good exercise lol.)

my one actual craft recommendation is basically mandatory assigned reading in many western english/writing classes—for good reason: Thomas c foster’s “how to read literature like a professor.” He summarizes about a hundred classic western texts and explains how they use various english-canonical symbols (“if characters eat together they’re taking communion,” “if a character gets wet and doesn’t drown it’s a metaphorical baptism,” “literally everything you read is somehow related to sex… except sex which is usually about something else”) and it’s written really well for both readers and writers. Basically my bible. a great primer if you don’t know where to start with western literature/if you don’t know where to start with writing symbols and stuff

anyway to summarize, life is literature, living is reading, we all still have so much time to learn, read “how to read literature like a professor,” and keep a diary

I also forgot to mention this in my last advice post but don’t use epithets please 😭 idk if you use epithets or not but this is just general advice, it’s my most snotty literary opinion and it’s very common in fanfic for some reason (it’s like so specific to the fanfic genre it’s insane) but i am extremely convicted about it i feel very strongly so im telling you. epithets make your writing sound very obviously fanficky. “the blond man” “the taller man” etc… just don’t use them it’s so unspecific!! WHICH blond man???? WHICH tall man? why can’t we be specific here?? have we been suddenly struck with amnesia?? just use his name!!

Also you say you don’t read a lot of western literature—I am not sure where you’re from but don’t feel like you HAVE to read/write only western literature to be successful. That’s only true if you want to succeed in the gatekept western lit market—and even then, the gatekept western lit market is literally currently foaming at the mouth to hear other perspectives right now. Who you are & where you come from invariably affects how you see the world & write about it, so lean into that if you can!

unfortunately my advice for getting stuck on a scene is “just write it.” Just sit down and get SOMETHING on the page. Spoiler alert, those tend to be the scenes i (and most of the writers i know) dislike the most, when coming back to reread my/our own writing. like there are many scenes in my fics that i have published where i think the lack of passion is unfortunately pretty obvious. But that’s kind of the way it goes. Some scenes you will like/want to write better than others. Shrug. at least they’re there on the page. as they say: don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough.”

#not to be snooty or anything but i personally value specificity sooo much when reading #cadence & flow is all poetry #read poetry; follow the rhythm #but like advertisements can be poetry too #does that make sense #like there is so much literature all around us the real advice is to be purposeful in how you’re engaging with it #there is something to be learned from every experience and every little moment #sorry i know you asked this like three months ago. I’m clearing through my drafts in advance of leaving this blog 😎 #writing tips #❤️❤️❤️

[soapoet]

W.I.T.C.H. pick-a-card reading

Irma Lair; your gifts

like & rb if it resonates ♡

01.

Shufflemancy: John my beloved by Sufjan Stevens

you probably already know this, and have heard it time after time, but you're very sensitive. not in a bad way, except when it overwhelms you and drains all your energy, but you are insanely intuitive. you may struggle a lot with your faith in humanity. one day you're snuggled up in bed sobbing over compilations of human kindness, then the next you log on twitter and declare humanity irredeemable. and worst of all you feel so alone. it's frustrating feeling like those around you go through the motions of life seemingly unaffected by the constant eldrich horrors around every corner. you know that it's not that they don't care, but sometimes you might secretly wish you could have a sip of whatever it is that's numbing them down. finding supportive and understanding friends to surround yourself with is important to your well-being because harsh words and criticism can bruise you harder than most. this sensitivity may sometimes feel more like a burden than a gift, but i assure you that there's a lot of positives to it.

you are naturally inclined to do well with energy healing and may develop clairvoyance on top of your already prominent clairsentience, and quickly learn how to wield these abilities. your compassionate nature makes you a very good source of comfort and support for others and you're able to gently guide others in a way that isn't intrusive, so many would flock to you for advice if you opened up shop as an emotional support human of some kind. be sure to safeguard your own energy and do as much or as little as you want and can when you hone your skills should you decide to practice any kind of divination or spiritual practice. even outside of more spiritual things you'd make good use of your gifts in teaching, psychology, or medicine. you put people at ease and it's easy for others to get attached to your energy, and you just as easily get a little too invested from time to time, so be sure to keep your boundaries clear and take plenty of time for yourself to recharge and ground yourself.

02.

Shufflemancy: Brittle bones Nicky by Rare Americans

some call it chaos, you call it fun. you have a knack for entertaining a crowd. even if you're shy around people you don't know well enough, those closest to you know you best for your creative genius. you're an engaging communicator and storyteller, and have a lot of ideas swirling around your brain. you really should get some of it out before you get dizzy. you'd make a terrific writer, artist, a performer, or public speaker. yes, even if that last one made your stomach churn a little. you're very likeable and fun, and you'd draw a lot of attention if you just put yourself out there. lots of people could use your zest for life and learn a lot from the stories you could tell, whether real or fictional.

music, cinema, theatre, story driven games, and literature may be things you find a lot of joy in. you're inclined to develop clairaudience, and you may already notice auditory cues and coincidences more than most, and find a lot of guidance and motivation from the music you listen to or from your own inner monologues that lead to aha moments. are you afraid of the spotlight? not sure where to start? if what's stopping you from pursuing your wildest dreams is a jumbled mess of what ifs and lists of things you need to perfect and reconfigure and practice until your face turns blue, stop. you're already good at cartwheeling your way through life, talking yourself in and out of things and thinking on your feet, so you absolutely got what it takes to just go, and figure out the minute details along the way.

03.

Shufflemancy: Pavlov's daughter by Regina Spektor

people usually hire staff to do all that you're able to do all on your own. you're very well-rounded. a jack of all trades, perhaps? you're intelligent, practical, and very creative. you'd make a great entrepreneur because you're such a hardworker once you set your sight on something you want to achieve. you seem to have a deep trust in your own strength and abilities. you're emotionally strong and very independent. freedom is likely a big motivator for you, and being your own boss sounds very appealing to you. you're claircognizant and just seem to know what needs to be done and also get things done. you're an incredible taskmaster and do well with organising your thoughts and ideas and solving problems that pop up.

manifestations must come easily to you, unless your ties to the 3d and a distinct flair of realism and tendency to 'believe it when you see it' holds you back from having faith. but there is nothing you couldn't do, and those limitations should be easy enough for you to clear. i mean, look at everything you've already done and what you're capable of when you decide that what you want is what you get! make sure to rest plenty, though. you're often at risk of burnout because you strive when you have things to do and may have a hard time kicking back to relax when you could be spending that time doing something. even your hobbies align with your goals or fit right into your resume, so do try to find something to do that isn't so much about chasing accolades as it is simply enjoying yourself for the sake of pure enjoyment.

#pac reading #pick a card #pick a picture #w.i.t.c.h. #spiritual guidance #tarot reading #pick a pile #pick a card reading #soapy.post #shufflemancy #spirituality #energy reading

[puddingyun]

Hi sweetie 🥰

After reading the prompts i would like to ask for hongjoong

"there are some things that no one teaches you, love."

Thank you so much

Have a wonderful day/night

❤️

joong x reader

: 1.3k words, fluff, domestic :

a/n: thank you for the request! ah i really loved writing this (╥ᆺ╥；)♡ i hope you have a lovely day/night as well! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Hongjoong had been learning all his life. First the alphabet and all the different sounds that animals made, lessons that carried the smell of apple juice-boxes and the sound of building blocks tumbling down. Then literature and algebra, formulas for essays and equations that he'd long since forgotten in lieu of the memories of studying them, powered by energy drinks and instant ramen. Most recently came the ins and outs of music, composition and writing, subjects that were infinite and that he would no doubt go on learning about for the rest of his life. 

All the different things he'd learned over the years had come in stages and all carried with them their own special shine, holding special spaces in his brain like boxes full of beloved bric-a-brac stacked in the sunlit corner of an attic. The other kind of lessons came and went with his experiences – how to show his friends he loved them, how to move past disappointments without lingering for too long, how to keep himself from burning out. These were things that came without a learning system, things that advice and his own sore heart had taught him. Regardless of how the lessons came about, he was sure for a time that he had learned all he needed to get by. That was, until he met you.

No classroom and chalkboard had taught him how his heart would skip a painful beat when he saw you smiling or laughing. No late night talk with his brother or mother had warned him to watch out for how he'd ache when he caught you trying to learn the recipes for his favourite foods. No lecture or book held the knowledge of how to deal with the urge to call you at random times of the day to tell you about an oddly-shaped stain on the pavement or the way the sun shone through an overcast sky. 

There seemed to be so much to you. You were vaster than the space beyond the Earth's atmosphere and deeper than the Mariana Trench, holding in every blink of your eyes more knowledge than every encyclopedia and research paper combined. If he could, he'd watch you for the rest of his life, casting aside everything else he'd learned so that he could learn the secrets of the universe just from being in your presence. 

Waking up beside you on a Sunday morning, Hongjoong felt the first breath of the day get caught in his throat when he turned over and saw you laying beside him. The skin beneath your eyes was speckled with mascara from the night before and you were still wearing the jewellery you'd worn out to the bar (a ring your best friend had given you as a graduation gift and a necklace he'd given you last Valentine's, a pairing of the two people you loved most you'd told him when you were putting them on). Slowly, so as not to disturb you, he pushed himself upright and reached out to touch your forehead with a shy knuckle. The action reminded him of a priest baptising a child, but he was surprised as always by how he felt as though he was the one being blessed by you rather than the other way around.

He padded through your apartment, taking note of his possessions scattered around on every surface. Some of his bracelets left next to your house keys in the bowl by the door, a few notebooks nestled among your collection of novels. In the kitchen his favourite mug was upside down next to yours, drying by the sink in a pool of water, and when he glanced at the coffee table he saw his hoodie left on the loveseat, worn by him and used as a blanket by you when you fell asleep watching TV. All of these items seemed to him like displays in a museum, so amazing that he hardly viewed them as real objects. He smiled and let out a soft, awed breath.

After the cocktails and beers you'd shared last night he wasn't sure you'd want breakfast this morning, but still he went about making coffee and slicing bread for toast. He'd make you breakfast every morning if he could and would never complain if you didn't take a single sip or bite. He was satisfied just at the thought of putting food on your table for you to eat, satisfied that he knew how many sugars you liked in your hot drinks and satisfied that you liked to brag to your friends that he knew just how much butter to put on your toast. Nobody had taught him these things, nobody had quizzed him on them, and yet they carried the weight of the world in a way that nothing else did.

He hummed softly as he put out two plates on the counter, the morning chill inviting goosebumps to rise on the skin of his forearms. Steam rose from the coffee as he filled your mug and then his (always yours and then his) and he bathed in its warmth like it was steam in a sauna. He had been through this routine many times, making coffee for his group members the morning after a harrowing schedule and soaking in the silence of an apartment before the day began, but standing in your kitchen it all felt brand new. The view from your window, as mundane and familiar as it was, still seemed awe-inspiring as he watched passerbys going about their lives. He wondered where they were heading, and if any of them knew all of the things he'd learned from being with you.

Buttering toast and tipping teaspoons of sugar into mugs of coffee, Hongjoong found himself sinking further and further into the quicksand of his life with you and never once felt the need to struggle against its pull.

Your figure filled the doorway to the living room just as Hongjoong set down your two mugs of coffee on the table. A smile played on your lips, eyes still sleepy as they watched him walk towards you. Without a word he wrapped his arms around you, both of you swaying languidly from side to side, dancing to music that nobody else could hear. You smelled of toothpaste, lingering perfume, and salty lime wedges. He breathed you in like he was coming up for air. 

"How'd you sleep?" he asked, smoothing a hand over the top of your head. You hummed softly, leaning into his touch.

"Like a rock," you answered, kissing his chin. He smiled at the feeling of your lips on his skin, knowing he'd carry it with him for the rest of the day, his wandering fingers always coming back to touch the first spot you'd kissed that day. "What about you?"

"Just fine," he mumbled.

The two of you parted, though your fingertips lingered on the small of Hongjoong's back the way he'd learned they loved to do. You saw the coffee and toast on the coffee table and smiled once again, this time laughing softly. Leaning into him, you kissed his cheek with a smile still on your lips. 

"Smells amazing," you hummed. Hongjoong followed you as you threw yourself onto the couch, landing with a happy sigh. He sat beside you and watched as you took your first bite of toast and then your first sip of coffee. He sat and watched you while his own coffee cooled, eyes taking in everything from the way you licked crumbs from your lips to the way you breathed in the smell of the coffee before you drank from it. Everything was endearing in its own way, and he noted each and every action down to keep with him. He pressed a kiss to your temple and thought to himself how appropriately named the warm spot on your head was – temple. 

He looked at your empty ring finger curled against your mug and wondered when it would be right to put his impression there. Just like everything else, he supposed he'd figure it out in time. Maybe love just wasn't something meant to be taught.

#pirateeznet #kim hongjoong x reader #kim hongjoong fluff #ateez x reader #ateez fluff

[androgynealienfemme]

"The main justification for invalidating butch-femme is that its an imitation of heterosexual roles and, therefore, not a genuine lesbian model. One is tempted to react by saying "So what?" but the charge encompasses more than betrayal of an assumed fixed and "true" lesbian culture. Implicit in the accusation is the denial of cultural agency to lesbians, of the ability to shape and reshape symbols into new meanings of identification. Plagiarism, as the adage goes, is basic to all culture.

In the real of cultural identity, that some of the markers of a minority culture's boundaries originate in an oppressing culture is neither unusual nor particularly significant. For instance, in the United States certain kind of bead- and ribbon work are immediately recogniziable as specific to Native American cultures, wherein they serve artistic and ceremonial functions. Yet beads, trinkets, ribbons, and even certain "indian" blanket patterns were brought by Europeans, who traded them as cheap goods for land. No one argues that Indians out to give up beadwork or blanket weaving, thus ridding themselves of the oppressors symbols, because those things took on a radically different cultural meaning in the hands of Native Americans. Or consider Yiddish, one of the jewish languages. Although Yiddish is written in Hebrew characters and has its own idioms and nuances, its vocabulary is predominantly German. Those who speak German can understand Yiddish. Genocidal Germanic anti-Semitism dates back to at least the eleventh century. Yet East European Jews spoke "the oppressors language," developing in it a distinctive literary and theatrical tradition. Why is it so inconceivable that lesbians could take elements of heterosexual sex roles and remake them?

*

It is June 1987, and I am sitting in a workshop on "Lesbians and Gender Roles" at the annual National Women's Studies Conference. It is one of surprisingly few workshops on lesbian issues, particularly since, at a plenary session two mornings later, two thirds of the conference attendees will stand up as lesbians. Meanwhile, in this workshop the first speaker is spending half an hour on what she calls "Feminism 101," a description of heterosexual sex roles. Her point in doing this, she says, is to remind us of the origin of roles, "which are called butch and femme when lesbians engage in them." She tells us the purpose of her talk will be to prove, from her own experience, that "these roles are not fulfilling" for lesbians. She tells us that the second speaker will use lesbian novels from the 1950s to demonstrate the same thesis. And, indeed, the second speaker has a small stack of 1950s "pulp paperbacks" with her, many of them the titles that, when I discovered them in the mind-1970s, resonated for me in a way that the feminist books published by Daughters and Diana Press did not.

I consider for several minutes. I'm well versed in lesbian literature, particularly in the fifties novels, and don't doubt my ability to adequately argue an opposing view with the second presenter. I am curious to see if she will use the publisher-imposed "unhappy ending" to prove that roles make for misery. I also decide I'm willing to offer my own experience to challenge the first presenters conclusions- though I'd much rather sit with her over coffee and talk. She is in her midforties and, although she claims to have renounced it, still looks butch. Even if she speaks of roles negatively, she has been there and I want to hear her story. Then I look around me. Everyone is under thirty. There are a few vaguely butch-looking women present who'd very likely consider themselves to be as androgynous as everyone else, and not a single, even remotely femme-looking women besides myself. I recall Alice Walker's advice to "never be the only one in the room." Quietly, I get up and walk out. I go to no other lesbian presentations at the conference."

“Recollecting History, Renaming Lives: Femme Stigma and the feminist seventies and eighties" by Lyndall MacCowan, The Persistent Desire, (edited by Joan Nestle) (1992)

#the persistent desire #Lyndall MacCowan #Joan nestle #lesbian #lesbianism #butch and femme #butchfemme #butch and femme history #butch lesbian #femme lesbian #butch history #femme history #lesbian history #lesbian culture #lesbian feminism #lesbian feminist history #lgbt history #queer history

[kilometresrufflefuck]

hey. you went to law school because of ace attorney. would you recommend it? because I've been y'know. Considering. and if it was a terrible idea I will Stop Considering

hi! great question!

ultimately the reason i went to law school was because i realised i had a great passion for justice and social welfare - which, yes, aa helped me discover, mostly because law wasn't an avenue i'd considered before aa turned my attention to it. my interests in law have shifted around a lot over the course of my time in it so far, but even in my lowest moments there was something that felt very right to me about being in it. law requires a very specific way of thinking and i just felt it click. even if i swerved from the path now and never became a lawyer, i wouldn't regret my choice.

however, studying law is really, deeply grueling. not just because it's substantively difficult (it also is substantively difficult), but because so much of it just does not feel rewarding at all. the achievements feel good, but the study itself is not nearly as fulfilling as anything i felt studying, say, literature or linguistics or philosophy. it is a real slog. the community is also kind of bad and you will meet a lot of very shitty people, both peers and teachers. (there are of course also many good people!) it can be very demoralising and WILL be very boring and time-consuming, and you will see the very worst of people, a lot, because case law only happens when things go wrong.

so my advice is - studying law will never be a waste in terms of the knowledge and the unique analytical skills you'll gain. it's intensely valuable to anyone trying to exist in human society. it is one of the most rewarding learning experiences, but it's only really rewarding if you have a legitimate passion for it. for anyone doing law for the prestige or the money, or because you don't know what to do and it seems like a sensible choice, or (yes, this is coming from me) just for a joke, it will be a hundred times harder, just because of how often you have to just sit down and remind yourself to keep going and how much harder that is when you don't have a driving passion. not impossible! just harder. i'd be remiss to imply everyone in law is passionate about it, haha (far, far, far from it) but this is the same advice i give irl when im trying to save my young relatives a bit of needless suffering lol. if you think you might have a more fulfilling path somewhere else you shouldn't take law just as a "safe" or prestigious option because it'll just suck for you. i'm not saying don't do it, though, even if you're not sure! just think it through first. you can always change your mind (it might be an expensive change of mind but it's always possible).

if you think you might be really interested in law, of course i really encourage you to go for it. it will never be wasted information and it's incredibly practical for your day to day. honestly, if it weren't such an Ordeal i would advise everyone to study law because it's just SO useful to being a person. i never really want to dissuade anyone who's interested in law from trying it out, because as much as i whined and cried and screamed my way through my degree... if you sent me back to remake the choice, i'd do it again.

#rookposting #blanket arm-opening to anyone who has questions. happy to chat #just dont ask for legal advice. #and this is all of course only my personal experience!

[tiredmamaissy]

Writing smut about Neteyam is just wrong. Even if he is aged up, doing that so you can write it is still weird. Stick to Jake Sully and adults, but this isn’t right. Don’t ignore this.

Aging Up of Characters

All characters in my literature are adults, in terran and human years. Meaning, when I'm writing them I see them as adults. Therefore, I will portray them as such - mentally, physically, culturally, etc. Although my blog is an nsfw blog, I include their character development outside of smut. Moreover, age isn't really counted on pandora. Na'vi age quicker than humans do and experience a plateau until their senior years (which they can live for well over a hundred years). What really matters to the na'vi is passing their iknimaya - that's what makes them an adult (ready for a mate, etc).

Anyways, this isn't necessarily my main point, but it's something to keep in mind going forward.

Now, I know James Cameron did such an amazing job at portraying these aliens in a light that us humans can really relate to them, didn't he? To the point where perhaps we could start applying our own laws to them. I guess that's why it's so hard for people to really differentiate the two species sometimes :) but, you know, the na'vi are humanoid aliens, after all. aliens that have their own way of life and biology? that live on another planet? that doesn't exist? are we forgetting that these are fictional characters or something?

Most importantly, their actors are of age, yes? Yes. So I don't personally see the issue here. I can distinguish that characters and actors are not synonymous, but my point is, if their actors were underage that would be a different story. Yes, I am also aware of their age when avatar was filmed. But, they grew up - much like their fictional characters will in the next movie. Everyone was once a child - everyone grows up.

I do my upmost best to tag my fictions properly and thoroughly. If there are any fictions that you feel I may not have tagged correctly, feel free to let me know. I have no issue with being corrected, I would honestly love to be corrected. My intention is never to cause harm to anyone. If you don't like this type of content - which is totally fine and your right - I strongly recommend you avoid consuming it. Especially if it's triggering. You'll have my respect if I have yours.

Anyways, I do hear you, though. I understand it, even. You're entitled to your opinion, as am I. I mean no harm to anyone, and thankfully because the characters I'm writing about are fictional - fake, it won't harm them either. No pressure to look at my (extremely nsfw) blog or to read my (heavily warned) content - you definitely have a choice here.

But here's my (also unsolicited) advice:

Remind yourself that these are fictional characters. They don't exist :) Meaning no one here is being hurt or harmed in anyway. Take a deep breath and find comfort in that. Please also remember, that there are much bigger, and better things to worry and advocate about. To be clear - yes, pedophilia is a serious issue. But, throwing around such a word when regarding aged up fake characters from a movie really dilutes it and is disrespectful to the real life victims of pedophilia as well as other victims of sexual abuse, child porn, human trafficking, slavery.. unfortunately the list goes on. These are the people that need to be advocated for. So, I would strongly encourage you to channel your passion to advocate for real life matters - not blue, fictional aliens. Because truthfully, me and my blue alien fictions should not have this magnitude of an effect on you for you to seek me out and take time out of your day to message me about it.

To conclude, I will not be engaging in any further discussions relating to this topic. This is my perspective. If you don’t share a similar one, that’s fine. Do not engage with my explicit content, especially if you are under 18. I feel very strongly about this. My content is intended for adult consumption only as it contains explicit adult themes pertaining but not limited to - pregnancy, birth, sex, dub-con/dark themes, heats/ruts, etc. If you are a minor messaging me about these things you should not be here in the first place. All further comments & messages will be disregarded and blocked.

'nuff love,

issy.

--

[adrianasunderworld]

Hi!!! Okay girl, this is realll random but there's something that's been rotating in my mind and Ms. Rosehearts was stressing me out fr so I was like WAIT BUT HOW BOUT THE OTHER COOLER NICER MOMS and I think you'd enjoy the situational chaos so

Hear me out

The moms have a book club.

But it's really just a front for the REAL Yuu protection squad and also gossiping about their children LMAO.

I really love twisted wonderland mothers! They all sound like strong, compelling individuals (save for some Ms. Rosehearts PLS sit down maam😭😭😭)! Like, Mrs. business -woman-married-her-divorce-lawyer-owner-of-the-best-resturant-of-the-seas-girlboss Ashengrotto????? Ms. loving-caring-badass-single-mother-i-care-deeply-about-my-son-and-he-knows-and-loves-me-back-so-much-so-that-he-constantly-strives-to-be-a-better-person Spade???? Mrs. breaking-social-social-norms-marrying-the-man-i-love-probably-been-in-a-war-or-at-least-had-cool-sword-training-the-CROCODILE-FAE-HERSELF Zigvolt????? I like to think that over multiple breaks/events Yuu tags along with one (some?) of the boys and mom/grandma/aunt/whateverlmao just, just loves this kid and is like aw hi hon nice to meet you is my son being troublesome at school?😊💕💕💕 i hope not😇😇😇 and

...wait

ur alone??? w/o any resources or connections??? being taken advantage of by a scheming, fugly crow??? (and if it's Ms. Yuu, BBY UR A MAGICLESS GIRL IN A PRESTIGIOUS ALL BOYS MAGIC ACADEMY???) basically queen Asha but then add in mom authority and multiple mothers lmao

Like, there's a PTA meeting or a parents week lmao and Ms. Leech, Ashengrotto, Zigvolt, Spade AND YOU KNOW WHAT. EPELS GRANDMA, MAMA LILITH, AND QUEEN ASHA TOO BC SLAY MALLEUS' GRANDMA TOO???? etc... come over to check up on the prefect and they're all like

Thus begins the OP Yuu protection squad and they use a Mom's book club as a front (maybe they were a book club at first anyway???? Lmao idk logistics) and its just like

Mrs. Ashengrotto: Heyyyy bby, do you need a job over breakkk aha cool bc the restaurant has an opening and OOP oh no! the ice cream machine is broken :(((( looks like you can't do your job :((( oh, sweetie don't worry about your paycheck it wasn't your fault you'll still get paid, aw, these ice cream machines really need to break less :((( sighhhh, it's okay love, anyway do you wanna go shopping with me???

AND I THINK MAMA ASHENGROTTO WOULD BE HILARIOUS IN PARTICULAR BC THINK OF THE POWER WE'D HAVE OVER AZUL

Azul: AHA! You're now indebted to me and owe me all your robux AND a lifetime of indentured servitude whhhAT ARE YOU DOING

Yuu: CALLING YOUR MOM BITC-

Power. Yuu'd be the most powerful person on campus. Think of the baby photos. The childhood stories. THE BABY PHOTOS. Meanwhile they'd also be getting advice from this circle of wise, beautiful women who also can give the smack down on any poor teenage boy that breathes incorrectly in Yuu's direction. I also think this could be absolutely incredible for a Ms. Yuu, who would suddenly have female connections all around twisted wonderland after being deprived for so long. Maybe free period stuff. A heating pad. Handmade dresses instead of our sad, overworn uniform bc we literally dont have any other clothes😭😭😭 Like, just,,,, female advice about survival in this new world while maybe also having tea, in depth discussions about literature, and teasing their boys. A comfy circle occasionally held in ramshackle dorm about art and gossip and caring for a kid who hasn't been cared for in a long time

Ms. Spade: So ladies, what's the schedule over spring break?

Queen Asha: I will have them assist me in court for the final two weeks. I belive that perhaps Zigvolt...?

Mrs. Zigvolt: Yuu inquired about dental practices in magically structured locals such as Briar Valley. My family will take them in during the first weekend of break.

Yuu can be in the bookclub too. Just to rant and snitch about their classmates. Bestie deserves it. There can be a group chat. Love it. And if this ever takes a romantic direction...

Mrs. Leech: You know, Yuu would make such a fantasic in-law.🤭😇😊😊😆💕🌸🌸💕🥺🙂

Queen Asha: Indeed.

Queen Asha Internally: leonagetyourSHITtogetherleonaliterallyplsleonailovethemsomuchboymovebeforeimoveFORyouomlLEONA-

Like, Mrs. Leech and Ashengrotto would totally tag team this bc theyre besties and if one of their sons wins they both win meanwhile someone like Mrs. Shroud (maybe? Idk how to feel about the Shroud parents LMAO) would be loosing her MIND

And speaking of

🎆women🎆

Yuu: GUYS.

Yuu: omf-

Najma: what

Yuu: You will not believe the SHIT your brothers pulled today istg---

Yuu:

Sebek's Sister: DJDJDJDHFJGJDJSJSJD

Yuu: its the second time this week

Najma: PLS

Sebek's Sister: babe it's literally tuesday????💀😭😭😭😭

Yuu: save. me.

Najma: no <3

Sebek's Sister: how are you still alive

girls Yuu's age ready to make fun of their brothers at any given moment???? yes??? hello??? the rants??? the insults??? the hilarity??? the 3am memes??? sign me up. Najma is literally RIGHT THERE and she's only had less than one chapter of sceen time total and i would still die for her

Anyway

Yay women. At this point I honestly dont care about the boys just let me be besties with their moms and sisters and we can get starbucks or sth

Yay women.

Lmao thats it thanks for all you write for us its appreciated love ur humor thank you for reading this far hope all is well in life byeeee <3333

You're right, I love everything about this. 🥰

There is just just much potential to unfold here. With exception of event characters like Granny Felmeir and Najma, all female characters are all off screen. So we kind of have to fill in the blanks of who these women and how they act, and that is where the fun comes in.

Especially for a Miss Yuu, because by default the whole situation raises many questions and concerns that all the mama bears come out. Yuu gets more care packages than their sons. "What do you mean why am I sending her things? You have everything you need and she has nothing. Now be sure to ask if she liked the cookies I sent." Yuu went from barely scraping by to being in want of nothing in just a few months.

We all know Asha, we all know Lilith. I just know Deuces mom is so nice and offers to have her over for breaks if she ever needs it. "Does she have any family? No? Invite her for the holidays right now!" Or Sebeks mom, I like to headcanon that Mrs. Zigvolt is more or less twisted from Fauna, so she is the sweetest lady alive. Her children are her everything and she cannot stand the thought of Yuu being all alone. She will not stand for it.

Mama Ashengrotto and Mama Leech are instigating each other, I just know it. They both like Yuu and love having her around. Theyre going to set up some Kiss the girl type scenes for their sons and hope it works. If Azul or the Tweels win they both win.

I feel like they all have a friendly competition to see whose son Yuu ends up liking. The race to be her mother in law if you will.

Mama Ashengrotto: What's that land saying? We all have a horse in this race.

Queen Asha, thinking about Leonas shitty love letters: I think my horse is broken.

---

Meanwhile Yuu is having a blast with the sisters. Having everyones mom around means having their sisters pop in, and Najma and Sebeks sisters are pretty much the closest in age to her and are fun to hang out with. They want all the info on wtf their brothers are doing and laughing at all the phots of their fuck ups.

Anyway Yuu needs more female friends.

#twisted wonderland #miss yuu #twst oc

[ohbother2]

hi! so like, i might try writing smut soon enough (because why the hell not amirite?) so like, is there any advice you could give me? like DOs and DONTs, tools that could be useful to avoid orthographic errors etc etc (im used to using chat GPT to look at my horribly, horribly written texts and correct them, but i've got a feeling it will straight up censor it, and english's not my first language, so anything that would make my dirty dirty texts into dirty clean text would be dope)

Hi!

I'm sorry but because you're an ageless blog I'm not going to give actual smut-writing advice, but ig it's okay to give general writing advice?

Just a reminder to everyone, if you're a minor please do not interact with me or my posts!

In all honesty I don't really know what I even do when I write, the words just sort of appear and I'm like 'yep, that works', but that's not the most useful advice, lol

I envision the story I want to read, and then I write it how I want to read it. I hope that makes sense

I guess my main advice would be to find your own niche, like, are you a dialogue or an 'action' based writer? Ofc it's good to be good at both but people have their own strong suits. For me, for example, I'm much better at descriptive writing than dialogue so that's what I focus most of my writing around

People also have their own unique styles and formatting to their writing - I feel as though mine is pretty distinctive with certain types of vocabulary and paragraph spacing/grammar/etc - so I guess it would be good to find a style that works good for you! For example, don't stick to lengthy paragraphs of immense detail if that doesn't come naturally to you, etc

My absolute top priority when writing is to not tell the readers what's going on, but to show it. Sometimes 'They felt X/Y/Z' is a useful tool for emphasising a particular point, but sometimes it detracts from the writing overall.

As an example: 'He felt as if his heart was going to burst from his chest...' (This can be good when used in the right moments, but if that's the only descriptor the writing loses a bit of life to it)

Compared to: 'His heart hammered painfully against his taut ribs as he gasped uselessly for breath...' (This is showing rather than just simply telling, and is how I personally prefer to write a majority of the time)

It's also important not to repeat yourself unnecessarily - it can be good to repeat when you're really trying to emphasise a point, but sometimes writing can stagnate and become less engaging? It's very difficult to find the right balance but it makes a world of difference to a piece of text

For dialogue (arguably my weakest skill) the best piece of advice is that you cannot write accurately how people in real life talk. When we talk we mostly fill out thoughts with nonsense and fluff out the main point - you can't write this because the readers will become disengaged. There's an important balance to find between being too formal for speech, maintaining the main point of the conversation, and ensuring the characters still sound like themselves. I tend to really try and put myself in the characters heads, think about what they'd actually say, and then 'translate' it into a written format that works whilst keeping that characters traits.

The way I 'learnt' to write was through reading, and I'd really recommend you read in your desired writing language (I'm guessing English from your ask) to see the typical structures and vocabulary of that language when written down. Direct translations don't always work, especially with literature, because there are phrases and sayings and common slights-of-tongue that are language specific, so I think it's really useful to get used to that language in its own written form, yk?

I forgot!! But it's also important not to tell your readers everything. Let them fill some gaps in on their own - they don't need to be told how a line of dialogue was said if it's obvious in the speech and context, and they don't always need to know how a character moved across a room or what their hands are doing 100% of the time. Sometimes the best parts of stories are the bits that go unsaid :)

Sorry, this is rambling and probably not very useful, but I've never given writing advice before.

Writing really is all down to the author finding their own 'voice' within their texts, and I'm sure you're writing will be great!!! I hope this helps! :))

#writing advice I guess? #im really not qualified for this #sorry if this makes no sense

[whumpshaped]

How do you write gore? I am interested in this process.

alright okay so. this got long and i also mention some brief examples of gore in there. i hope its somewhat helpful?? or at all?? im not sure. im not great at giving advice im sorry

gore is something very precious and intimate to me. i feel like i approach it in a way people would approach a tender smut scene. because its the same to me. its being able to peel back someones little layers. to be inside them. to know them. to know them better than they know themselves, because honestly, when was the last time you took a peek at your own kidneys? yeah i thought so. gore too takes two or more people because whatever gore you can inflict on yourself is Nothing compared to the tender intimacy of someone else digging around in your stomach. its vulnerable. its beautiful.

as for literal descriptions, i always try to get very visceral with it, because i feel like it deserves detail and long drawn out paragraphs of description. there are so many sensations and sounds and sights and smells to describe. i cant write super detailed smut but i can write the exact way someone would reach inside someone else's ribcage and slide their fingers under the bone to caress their lungs. its just so much more comfortable to me. it feels like home.

i look at tons of images of specific elements of gore i want to write, real images, drawings, medical illustrations etc. when i can, i watch surgery videos on it. i want to know what it's like so i can write it as best as i can.

i like to relate it to my own life too. shout out to my 5th grade literature teacher who said "whenever i think about being burned at the stake, i like to imagine how much it hurts when i accidentally burn my hand on the clothing iron or stove. and thats just a moment, and a small surface." she was so real for that. breaking every bone in someones body? think back to that time u broke the tiniest bone in your wrist at age 11 and your entire arm went numb. putting needles in someones fingers? blood draws, or pricking yourself while sewing, but times ten or a hundred. and if you really cant relate it to yourself, read about it, read the symptoms, read the accunts of ppl who HAVE gone through it, try to really imagine it.

and dont forget about shock. shock is one of the best parts of gore to me. because you will probably go into shock when you see your severed arm (shout out to the medical instructor who taught us first aid on my drivers course).

idk. gore is something so precious and important to me. it just sucks me in, it feels like writing a long unhinged love letter as an obsessive lover. every time.

and that doesnt mean i condone gore or think its morally awesome to dismember someone. but you can write it that way from a whumper's perspective. but you can also write whumpers who dont really like it but have to do it for whatever reason. whumper pov is good if you dont want to try and explain how itd feel. some things i like to consider: is this the first time whumper does this? does it make them giddy with excitement? or is this the thousandth time and its just work to them? do they like what theyre doing? is it a means to an end or is it for fun? do they have any medical knowledge?

then of course you can write it from whumpee's perspective, which might be good for not going into anatomical detail. whumpee doesn't really see whats going on, most likely. and there's so much blood! it's their blood! theyre not thinking about anatomy, theyre thinking pain pain pain pain PAIN PAIN PAIN. some things i like to consider: has whumpee ever gone through something like this? is this the first time they're seriously hurt? is it the thousandth? and if it is the thousandth, how does it compare to the previous times? how is whumpee's pain tolerance? are they afraid of dying? do they have any medical knowledge, can they kinda gauge how bad the damage will be?

you can bring in a third observer, write it from their pov. itll be vastly different every time based on that character's own feelings towards gore, towards the two or more people involved, etc. there are so many ways to depict and explain what gore looks and feels like.

when i write gorey stuff, i like to just get it all out in a first draft, then go back and do some "realism checks" (this might not be smth you want at all and thats okay :) ). not medical accuracy or anything, but i like to go back and think okay, this character is getting their eyes plucked out, would they really be snarky during the process? maybe not! lets take that out. gore is smth that is usually rly far removed from your life/experiences, so it takes effort to write it in a way that feels authentic.

in any case, just have fun and remember fantasy gore hurts no one :)

#asks

[saints-who-never-existed]

Rereading The Terror

Okay, I've had a couple of days to process it since reading ahead last week. I'm still not over it but nevertheless I persist.

Suicide is, of course, a prominent theme in this chapter so I'll put everything under the cut again I think.

Chapter Fifty: Bridgens

Bridgens reflects on how, over the years, he's often likened his life to different works of literature. He compares his youngest years to works like Canterbury Tales which implies perhaps a search for meaning and identity with Bridgens casting himself as various characters, both heroic and otherwise.

In his twenties, anxiety and indecision again seem to come to the forefront as he compares himself to Hamlet: "...suspended between thought and deed, between motive and action, frozen by a consciousness so astute and unrelenting that it made him think about everything, even thought itself."

More specifically, this unsurety, this 'to be or not to be', centres around Bridgens feelings about his own sexuality and his thoughts about suicide. Unhappy with his life, unhappy in pretending to be something he was not, Bridgens contemplated ending his own life but seemed to have overthought his way out of doing so in the end: "...miserable that he could only think about ending his own life because the fear that thought itself might continue on the other side of this mortal veil, "perchance to dream", kept him from acting even toward quick, decisive, cold-blooded self-murder." I think this is very much worth noting. That he's contemplated suicide before but was always stopped essentially by the idea of not knowing what was on the other side.

In his middle-age, Bridgens compares himself to Odysseus and comes to think of his skill and knowledge as a Steward as a kind of shield, a means of self-preservation - "He used his craft to become and to stay invisible."

Back in the present, Bridgens compares himself to King Lear and around him, the march continues. They intend to follow the southern coast of King William Island, set up another camp, and watch the strait to see whether the ice will break up enough or whether they'll have to haul across it toward the mouth of Back's River. Bridgens does not intend to join them in this.

As mentioned in a previous post, he sets his own journal away inside his sleeping bag and carries only Peglar's with him as he gets ready to leave. :(((

Interestingly, Goodsir is aware of his leaving and aware, at least in part, of Bridgens' feelings and his intentions in setting off into the landscape. He makes a rather Classical sort of reference to suicide: "You sound like a Stoic, Mr Bridgens. A followed of Marcus Aurelius. If the emperor is displeased with you, you go home, draw a warm bath..." Which is just gut-wrenching all round as - I believe - that refers to the death of Seneca, who drew a warm bath and cut his wrists in it at the behest of Emperor Nero. And, again, it's interesting too given the manner of death Goodsir himself chooses later in the show... :(((

There's great beauty though as well as great tragedy in the understanding and connection Goodsir and Bridgens have clearly come to share. Goodsir brings things full circle in many ways by referring back to Hamlet: "...I just wish to take a walk this evening. Perhaps a nap." "Perchance to dream?" said Goodsir. "Aye, there's the rub," admitted the steward.

He then encourages Bridgens to stay, but doesn't belabour the point too much, simply expresses again great understanding and respect: "There are other men who can help you, sir, and who have hands far steadier - and stronger - than mine" "But no one as intelligent," said Goodsir. "No one I can talk to as I have with you. I value your advice." :'))) And right enough, Bridgens imparts an important bit of advice as the two men part ways that's really stuck with me since: "I've always agreed with St Augustine when he said that the only real sin is human pain."

Bridgens makes his way out into the wilderness and stops before it gets dark. His last meal is a stale ship's biscuit - "it was one of the most delicious things he'd ever tasted.". And if ever we needed further proof of the peace and tranquility that's overcome him in his final hours, we know that he thinks of a comforting past more than a miserable present as he enjoys his final sunset - "the kind of sunset that Odysseus, not Lear, would have seen and enjoyed."

He reads through Peglar's papers one final time, reflects again on "one of the most intelligent human beings he'd ever known". Whatever fear Bridgens might once have had about the Great Unknown that follows death, it's gone now and replaced, I think, with a certainty that whatever the afterlife may bring, Harry Peglar will be a part of it. At that, he lies down for his final rest. "John Bridgens was asleep before the last of the grey sunlight died in the south.

#The Terror #The Terror AMC #Observations #Random Observations #Meta #Rereading the Terror #Terror Spoilers #tw Suicide #cw Suicide #Suicide #John Bridgens #Harry Goodsir #Henry Peglar

[l0vegl0wsinthedark]

heyy <3

can i get some writing tips??

like how to describe something without seeming too much?

oh and how tf do i write smut 😭 i always cringe and end up deleting it

thank you 💙🤍

p.s. have a lovely dayyy

Okay look i usually never answer these asks with any real advice because i just don't think i am qualified to teach anybody how to write. I'm so sleepy and tired rn so obviously I'm going to give you advice. I will tell you what i try to bear in mind while i write which is never haha. Please don't read this more than once:

When describing:

People:

Don't describe clothes/outfits in intricate detail unless the details matter/contribute to the story/plot. Or if the clothes themselves help describe something else (eg. Her blue shirt made hear eyes appear bluer than ever.)

While we're on a person's appearance, try to describe a character in a way that tells us more than just about what you're describing (eg. His sweet smile was directly at odds with the malevolence his eyes always gleamed with.) Two birds, one stone.

Please refrain from having character stand before a mirror and describe themselves in painful detail to the reader. Just please no. (Case in point: nicely separated breasts. iykyk)

Describe a person's nature/character using their actions. Actions similar in style/motive etc will go on to form the character's tendencies. This is how the reader can then go "ah shit, he's about to fuck around and find out isn't he thE IDIOT NOOO I KNEW IT!!!". Additionally, this can also be a way to surprise the reader "great she's gonna work late AGAIN and miss the— SHE JUST BROKE HER BOSS' FACE?!?!!?AHSHSJSJHSHS"

Setting:

Describe what is pertinent to the scene you're writing. If you describe one particular thing in rich detail, it's gotta play an important role at some point.

The curtains don't have to be blue if the character is sad. They can be any colour you want them to be. Use instant instinct to draw details; if you overthink you might end up pouring a whole lot of meaning into stuff that you never intended to and this might distract from the actual story.

The more details you provide, the clearer the picture in the reader's mind (also the more you need to remember if you're revisiting the room). It's a fucking gamble.

When providing descriptions in general, less is more. I struggle a lot with this because i want to tell the readers about every flower in the upholstery and every lamp post on the street. When you read the old classics you'll find all these detailed descriptions and they're just so charming. Something about the way literature has evolved since then has prompted professors to teach us not to bore the reader with too much or something. Like, honestly, i don't think any two writers can describe something in the same way. It all comes down to style i think??

On writing smut:

I am the opposite of an expert just please don't listen to me.

Please just say cock.

PLEASE DON'T SAY CUM.

Please let them sweat and smell like it; let them make dying whale noises instead of musical moans; sometimes people have kinda funny or weird sex faces and that's fine i think.

Body parts dangle and sag and bulge and jiggle.

Bodies have hair.

Write what you think would feel good. Chances are that others might think so too.

No he cannot last that long, make him come.

No she did not squirt like a fountain.

No he does not taste like fucking mango sorbet or some gourmet shit; his cock tasted like a dick because it is a penis.

No her vagina did not look like a rose spreading its petals and did not taste like a strawberry; it smelled and tasted like a vagina.

Sometimes sex is awkward.

Not everyone is an expert.

I think it's safe to say that one does not usually have fourteen consecutive orgasms.

Look i can go on and on. Keep smut real and stay in character and things will sound hot because the people having sex in scene think it's hot.

Everything i have just written is complete bullshit. Kisses!

#going to go burn my master's now bye! #writing

[perilus]

Hey Tina, hope you're doing well :)

I don't usually do this, but I thought I'd ask for your opinion given the fact that we're of similar age and you seem really smart :)

So I'm turning 23 in 2 weeks and I feel.. stuck

I feel like I can't separate myself from my family (who aren't very supportive haha) and subsequently, I feel an intense need to leave and be independent. But I can't grow in the things that I love because I feel like a song as I don't do what they want me to do, then I'm not entitled to the things I want to do. Besides that, I suffer from anxiety and depression, and I just can't bring myself to develop in any way.

I feel like I'm stuck in my own little dream world that I created, and the biggest problem is that you don't want to leave. I wonder if you have ever been in a similar situation or if you just have any advice

Thank you either way (even if you don't have time to answer ♡ I know it's kind of a heavy question)

Lots of love♡ stay safe :)

Hey :)

I’m not usually this vulnerable/open about my personal life online either, but:

Funny enough, (hardly funny at all actually), I am in the exact situation as you are 😭. My family is not supportive of my growth at all. They don’t know much about my dreams, and what they do know, they use against me. They reduce my interests in things like literature and music to signs of immaturity and lack of real discipline. What my family wants is obedience. They care about me as a daughter, but do not care about me as a person. At all. I cannot be my full self around them. I cannot share my dreams with them. I have learned to avoid sharing myself with them, to keep them from gaining more ammunition to use on me when they want to belittle me, call me unrealistic and incapable, punish me for being some way that disagrees with them, etc. They definitely do not know about my blogs/vlogs, haha. I feel like I’m more myself here than in everyday life.

I feel stuck too. All I can do is develop my mind in my free time through literature and media I find online, at night when I’m finally alone and no one expects anything from me. I suppose if I had any advice it would be to stay curious, keep learning, and keep discovering the things you like and want.

It’s hard. You love them, you want them to love you, you’ve done so much for their approval but they’re never really satisfied, you’ve never done enough, maybe you have a sibling who is half as disciplined as you are yet is effortlessly favored whereas you are not, despite having put in twice as much effort for that approval they so effortlessly receive 🙄😔. They might have more freedom than you do, because maybe you were born as a gender you cannot control, and despite how smart you might be, you cannot control that they will only ever see you as a woman, who should perform the “female” duties of the house, stay at home, work remotely, whereas your sibling is conveniently male, granting him freedom that you can’t have, because he does not have the responsibilities that were forced on you. By “you” I meant me. Yet, I don’t want to sever myself from my family, they are all I have. Ugh. Anyway, I have to help take care of my family because they’re the only people I have, but it inhibits me from growing. It’s such a confusing place to be in. And depressing and unfair and it makes me feel so so alone. I know I said in a previous Q&A that you should leave the people who don’t appreciate you at your most authentic, but in the case of family, it’s a bit different. It’s complicated.

I really wish I was in a position to give advice on this. I need it too.

But, I hope a window opens up for you soon; some opportunity to help you out of where you are in life, if that’s what you dream about. If that opportunity takes a while, I hope things aren’t too hard on you in the meantime. I see you, you’re not alone.

Much love,

Tina

#tina e answers

[simlit]

Judine 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 18, 22, 25

What architectural or design aesthetic would best suit them?

oriental; I think Judine works best in his canon elven aesthetic. The only equivalent to this in the real world, in my opinion, is the architecture and layout of traditional Chinese and Japanese homes and temples, with their walled courtyard, gardens, and indoor-outdoor features: one | two | three

What character from myth or fairytale best represents them?

The Most Foolish Traveler in the World; I heard of this story from the anime Fruits Basket, but I’ve seen online that it might have origins in Buddhist stories (I can’t say for certain, there is likely similar stories/fairytales like this but I don’t know of any). The story goes that the traveler was so kindhearted and generous, that he was constantly fooled wherever he went. People would tell him all sorts of made up stories and lies, saying things like “please, spare money for medicine, my son is sick” and always the traveler would agree, smile and say “I wish you happiness”. He gave away his money, he gave away his clothes, his shoes, until he wandered naked into the woods. There he met goblins who wanted to eat him, and so they told him a story to trick him until he allowed them to devour his body. I think, in the same way, Judine is a terrible fool. He’s foolish because he is genuinely kind, and can be easily tricked by those around him, because he will never refuse them. He’s the epitome of the fault of being too nice for your own good. And yet he remains so, no matter how others may hurt him. You can find a better/full recounting of the story here.

If your OC was a character in a novel from literary canon (doesn’t have to be western canon), who would they be?

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes | Gone with the Wind; I had to reach to find an ultimately virtuous character in literature. Apparently, I haven't read many books about stereotypically "good" people. But actually, Melanie is a great example because of how much I never liked her lmao. I didn't like her as a child, the first time I saw GwtW, and I still don't really like her 25 years later. But I can at least appreciate her somewhat. I think Judine had a very similar trajectory to Melanie, having been generally well-liked his whole life and outwardly popular, even if behind closed doors people were envious and hated him out of jealousy. Melanie's personality always bothered me because in being good, she was often naive, and only skated by on the fact that others respected her too much to be cruel. I think Judine, like Melanie, often knows the true hearts of those he interacts with, and even meeting evil people, greets them with forgiveness. In the end, Melanie is an all-around self-sacrificing person, and gives to much too the point where she loses her life. In the same way, I think Judine foolishly puts others first. But inevitably, I think Melanie is the stronger person, as she was capable of making the difficult decisions Judine often shies away from.

If your OC could meet any historical or past figure, whether in the real world or in their own canon lore, who would it be and why?

The first kings of Kehl’Lorrania. He’d want to meet his forebearers and learn from them how to be a better sovereign, but only because he doesn’t know the depth of their corruption. 

If your OC were to live in some other time period, which era would they be best suited for?

Regency; the era of gallantry and romance. As I imagine him in most eras as one of those obnoxiously philanthropic socialites who uses his social status to guilt other nobles into being excessively charitable.

What is their character theme song and why? If it has lyrics, which line best fits them?

“Go Do” - Jonsi

What is one thing that they only let those closest to them see?

His intimacy. Judine is open with all other feelings, but he absolutely only shows those private romantic displays to Anora.

What is some advice or guidance they received that had a big impact on their lives or outlook? Was it a positive or negative impact?

One of Judine's biggest faults is letting others have too much sway over him. Whether that guidance is well-intended, or malicious, he considers other's opinions. He wants to be fair, to be open and listen to different points of view, but in doing so, leaves himself vulnerable to manipulation. Most advice came from his father, and despite knowing the sort of person Aseris was, he still struggles not to paint his perspective with that tainted brush. Maybe the most impactful thing he's heard, which wasn't intended as advice at all, but he treated it as such, came from Taryn, who told him he was weak to let himself be controlled by circumstance. Since then, Judine has actively tried to control his own destiny, more than being controlled by it.

Which “tortured artist” does your OC share the most similarities with?

None. Judine is the antithesis of a tortured artist lol.

#jade babbles #ask game #ec: judine leandelle

[olderthannetfic]

[This is for a person with whom I have quite a contrary opinion. And I want to get it off my chest]

You. Have. No. Idea. What. Fanfic. Is.

For you, quality literature has to have the qualities you demand of it. Yes, I agree that you need a minimum of quality in all areas, but a lot of fanfic is written by people who spend their time (for free) to give you a story with characters you already know and want to read in that context.

"But you shouldn't write about real people." You're missing the point of fanfic.

"But you shouldn't use non-LGBTQ+ people/characters for LGBTQ+ stories." You're missing the point of fanfic.

"Sex scenes with real people are disgusting". For you, but not for everyone.

"I hope one day the 14 year old girls who read this kind of fanfic will realise that writing about real people is wrong and move away from the dark and toxic side of fandom." Don't say what people can read or not.

"I hope you grow up and leave your fanfic era to read worthwhile literature." Honey, I can read fanfic and I can read books that were Nobel Prize winners, one thing doesn't take away from the other. Oh, again, you're missing the point of the fanfic.

So please, stop throwing all the bad stuff at fanfic writers and thinking you're mature for reading Stephen King (I guess he can talk about Beverly's boobs because it's not fanfic). And I hope you never leave Wattpad, because if you go on ao3, first you'll faint and then you'll cry about the "atrocities".

You're good at giving writing advice and encouraging new writers, but stop talking about a subject you don't understand and don't want to understand. If I vent here it's because I know that if I write it in your comment box, I'll be the hater and I don't want arguing with people.

[Sorry if I made a mistake. English isn't my first language and I'm really upset right now]

--

There's an interesting thing I read as a kid about language acquisition. It was specifically about vocabulary acquisition among native speakers. The researchers observed that parents, teachers, etc. thought kids should read "good" books that "challenged" them because this would improve vocabulary and comprehension...

But in fact, the thing that most improved reading skills was reading books that were just barely hard. They might have learned only one new word per crappy Nancy Drew, but they read thousands of them and learned thousands of words. The kids reading "good" literature that was much too hard for them learned much less.

Needless to say, I waved this in my mother's face and went back to reading Nancy Drew.

Mom absolutely suffered from Buy The Child Boring And Depressing Literature syndrome, like many intellectual adults. Also, she was terrible at judging a book from the cover blurb and was always buying things she thought would be fun pictures of some cultural moment that were actually about the horrors of war and teenagers fleeing their countries.

I find it hilarious that this person is a Stephen King fan. Nothing wrong with King! He's rightly beloved and famous. But in the minds of Real Literature snobs, he's also fun trash, not Serious Books For Serious People.

That's the danger of snobbery: there's always someone who can show you up.

The only way to win this game is to be completely secure in your own tastes to the point that you don't even care about defending them when people attack.

For me personally, fic made all the difference in my writing ability. I was surprised a few years ago to realize I'd turned into someone who could write the kinds of things I actually want to read. I never used to reread my own work, and I never used to be able to live up to my own standards. Lack of revision was part of it, but that wasn't most of it: I just wasn't very experienced and thus I wasn't very good.

After a decade of writing Yuletide fic and the occasional other thing as the mood struck me, I apparently gained enough experience while not paying attention to level up.

Those 14-year-olds dicking around with Jungkook readerfic or Taekook or Minecraft dumbass RPF or whatever has this person's panties in a twist will probably turn into good writers one day if they just keep writing.

It's a question of stamina as much as anything, and nothing kills stamina faster than elitism.

[adarkrainbow]

The Mother Goose Mystery (2)

So… what about Mother Goose in fairytales? And what’s her relationship with France? And where does she come from?

You see, before the English reused Mother Goose for nursery rhymes in the second half of the 18th century, she was known only as a fairytale figure.

The real apparition of “Mother Goose” in the world of literature was through the most famous French fairy-tale author, Charles Perrault, who published at the very end of the 17th century his set of fairytales under the title “Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités” (Histories or tales of past time, with moralities) before renaming it afterward “Contes de ma Mère L’Oye”.

“Mère” is mother. “Oye” is the old spelling of “Oie”, the French word for “goose”. “Contes” literaly means “tale” but also means “fairytale”, as in a “fairy tale” is a “conte de fée” in France and by extension “conte” became a word synonymous with “fairytale” as a whole. So the title of this book could be translated as either “Tales of my Mother Goose” or “Fairytales of my Mother Goose” depending on the level of anachronism you wish to have. When Perrault’s tales were first translated in England in 1729, the title chosen was a mix of the previous two: “Histories or Tales of Past Times, Told by Mother Goose”. So Mother Goose did hit the English shelves BEFORE the apparition of the nursery rhyme book. But Perrault’s translated text would only be published in the United-States in 1786 – around the same time the nursery book was published.

Another interesting fact about the long history of the “fairytale mother”: Charles Perrault was not the only fairy-tale teller of France at the time, and he was not the only “most popular and famous one”. There were two famous and popular fairy-tale tellers: the other was Madame d’Aulnoy. She was much more prolific and just as well-known as Charles Perrault in her time, but then history kind of forgot about her and she became lost to mainstream media and public knowledge, while Charles Perrault took the entire spot (again, another woman erased from history – even though today everybody works to bring her back to the spotlight). Now when HER fairytales were translated in English, mysteriously, for a strange and obscure reason, they were translated as the fairytales of a certain… Mother Bunch. Mother Bunch, a fictional folkloric archetype of the old woman that told youth all the traditional secrets and advice to find a husband or a wife, or the grandmotherly storyteller of pleasant humoristic stories or folkloric tales – based on a legendary alehouse keeper of Elizabethan London renowned for her great age and very strong ale. Why this transposition? For two reasons. One is that when Madame d’Aulnoy became very popular in the English-speaking world, historians looked at her life which was one hell of a ride (basically she tried to murder her husband because he was a violent piece of shit, had to flee with her mother through all Europe to avoid prison, and there was much more scandals at the time that made her a very extravagant character). This led people to compare her to the folkloric “Mother Bunch”. The second reason was that, as she was paralleled to Perrault, they needed a counterbalance to “Mother Goose” – and so they used Mother Bunch. Mother Goose and Mother Bunch were the “fairytale duo”. There’s also a lot more reasons analyzed and studied by university articles, but I’ll let you search these on your own.

Now, if we return to “Mère l’Oye”, the original French figure… Where does she comes from? A Wikipedia search won’t help you much because you’ll find that the expression “comme un conte de la Mère L’Oye” (like a tale of Mother Goose) did appear in French chronicles in 1650, several decades before Perrault would publish his fairytales, proving that la Mère L’Oye was a common expression in 17th century France and already associated in common culture with “contes” (tales/fairytales). Fun fact: “Mère L’Oye” doesn’t exactly translated as “Mother Goose”. If you want to be hyper-precise, you’d have to translate as “Mother The Goose” because that’s what the “L’” stands for. “Mother Goose” would be “Mère Oie”.

Anyway, so as I said, a quick Wikipedia search won’t help you at all because it lists ALL the theories people had across time about the so called “historical identity” of Mother Goose, with nothing conclusive.

In the 19th century, Jacob Grimm (of the Grimm Brothers) identified Mother Goose with a series of goose-grannies and swan-women often called “Bertha” or a variation, found across German, French, Latin and Italian culture, and being a good German-centric folklorist, he claimed that the root of this figure was an old German legendary figure: Perchta also known as Berchta, who shared all the characteristics of spinning/weaving (I’ll come back to that later), being close to children and being close to geese. However Perchta was a much darker take on this archetype: Perchta was an old goddess of the Alps, from German and Austrian culture, whose name meant “the bright one” (or maybe “the hidden, the covered”) and that was a spinster-figure tied to the twelve days of Christmas and the feast of Epiphany. Known by many different names (including the poetic “Lady of Ember days” she could appear either as a beautiful white-as-snow maiden, or as an elder haggard hag, but she always had one large foot similar to the one of a swan or a goose. She roamed the land during midwinter and entered homes during the twelve days separating Christmas from the Epiphany. She was a keeper of the domestic and social taboos: she checked if the children and servants of the house had behaved well and worked hard during the year, to reward them with a small silver coin, or punish them by slitting their bellies open and replacing their guts with straw and pebbles. She also thoroughly checked if girls had spun all of the flax or wool they had to spin during the year, and punished those that ate forbidden food during her feast day. This notably led birth to a midwinter-cult where people left food and drinks for her in hope it would bring abundance and wealth.

Of course, the fact that the fairytale Mother Goose might be a descendant of Perchta can be seen as a bit of an outstretched conclusion – especially when you know that for the Grimms everything had to be German and Germany was at the center of everything. But there might be a common cultural ground, somewhere. In fact, Katherine Elwes-Thomas, in the 20th century, proposed another theory a bit more grounded than the one of Jacob Grimm but that forms the “missing link” between Perchta and Mother Goose: she theorized that la Mère L’Oye might have been based upon a historical queen of France (which already makes more sense that fetching a German goddess to explain French expressions). Berthe de Souabe, known in English as Bertha of Burgundy, who was also called “La Filandière” or “La reine fileuse” (The Spinster or the Spinner Queen). Queen of the Franks, wife of Robert II the Pious, there was a whole iconography about her spinning thread (in fact a common expression in medieval and Ren            aissance France was “of the time the queen Bertha was spinning”, which means “in an old, past time”).  Elwes-Thomas pointed out that in the legend of the spinster-queen, some tales claimed the queen was also “spinning” wonderful tales that charmed children, and that another nickname of Bertha was “Berthe pied d’oie” (Bertha goose-feet).

It should be noted that the “goose-feet” of Bertha of Burgundy (which I found nowhere else mentioned beyond Elwes-Thomas’ report) actually feeds a confusion between her and another Bertha queen of the Franks: Berthe de Laon, Bertha of Laon, also nicknamed “Berthe au Grand Pied” (Bertha with the Big Foot, in English “Bertha Broadfoot”), so called because she apparently had a clubfoot. It is commonly agreed that Bertha Broadfoot is tied to the legend of Perchta, but how is unclear. Did the historical figure influence the goddess, or was the nickname given to the queen in reference to the goddess? (As the Franks, partial ancestors of the French, were Germanic tribes whose empire went from Germany to France). Wife of the famous Pepin the Shot, Bertha Broadfoot was most notably the mother of one of the most famous figures of France history (and European history as a whole), Charlemagne, king of the Franks, founder of the Carolingian Empire, the first emperor to rule western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, and starter of what would later become the Holy Roman Empire.

This are all the theories about a “historical” Mère L’Oye, courtesy of Wikipedia, but to be honest, they are all just unclear theories that keep circling. The most probably explanation is that “Mère L’Oye” was never based on one specific figure, but just born of a wider cultural background of which Perchta and the Bertha queens are just ingredients. Hell, some people even want to claim that Mother Goose comes from the Queen of Sheba, the Biblical figure, due to one legend claiming that, as she was part-djinn, she had an ugly animal foot under her dress… That’s a really crazy theory.

Now, given I am studying French fairytales at the university, I actually have by my side a professional, expert-edition of Charles Perrault’s fairytale by a renowned authority on fairytale literature (Tony Gheeraert). So let’s look what he says about the whole “Mère L’Oye” topic, shall we?

So, what Tony Gheeraret explains is that the choice of the title “Contes de ma Mère L’Oye” was part of an editorial strategy to make it seem like those literary fairytales were directly taken from the “countryside repertory” and the “grandmothers folklore”. Indeed, in the Dictionnary of the French Academy of the time, when you look at the article “conte” (tale) you have a mention of “those ridiculous fables that old people use to entertain children” and we have a list of their names. ”Tale of the old wolf”, “tale of the donkey skin”, “stork tales” or… “tales of my mother goose”. And in the article about “oie” they do precise “Contes de ma mère l’oie” as “the tales to entertain children”. And Gheeraert concludes that… the origin of those expressions is actually unclear. We don’t know where those names comes from for certain. We have medieval traces of “tales of my mother goose”, and Rabelais did use the term “stork tales”, but to be fair “Mère L’Oye” wasn’t an actual character or figure in French literature of French culture. She was just an expression… until the British turned her into a character.

Another very interesting fact: I wrote earlier that Perrault’s tales were originally called “Histoires ou contes du temps passé” (Stories or tales of the past time) before being reprinted as “Contes de ma mère L’Oye”. This is what Wikipedia claims, and it is true. But it oversees another important detail… “Contes de ma mère L’Oye” was the original name of Perrault’s text. It was the title of his manuscript, before he changed it for the official publication as “Histoires ou contes du temps passé” – but while he changed the title for the publication, he didn’t had time to have the illustrations of the book changed, and they still bore the title “Contes de ma Mère L’Oye”, which resulted in the title surviving and replacing the other in future editions.

#mother goose #mère l'oye #fairytales #fairy tale #french fairytales #folklore #perchta #berchta #germanic goddess #charles perrault #bertha #madame d'aulnoy #mother bunch

[kelin-is-writing]

Hi! I wanted to ask two thing If thats okay.

First is : I have a story about Dabi and reader but Im stuck. They were childhood friends, he had the 'I will marry you when we grow up' talks and promised to always keep an eye on reader. Then he dissapeared and then...Im stuck. Pls how could they meet again? (H would reveal that he is Touya much later) I know he would stalk reader but...The first and second time they would actually meet?

And the second is : Should it be like having a relationship (and smut) after the reveal? Or before that and he would tease about reader not loving her childhood crush Touya since she is with Dabi and THEN reveal that he is indeed Touya?

Thanks If you find any time for my ask ❤️

Oh my–! Help–! it's totally okay asking! You know, i feel so honored to see someone asking me for advice like– SDJKSJDKSJDKSDJSKJDKSDJKSJDKSJDSJNXSMJDKSJDSKJDSKDJK it's actually making me want to cry, because no one has ever asked me advices for such things. ANYWAYS!

Let’s start with one question that’s been on my mind since i started reading the first question: is your story settled into the Bnha universe or a Quirkless!au? I ask because I’ve seen lots of AUs playing with the Touya hiding his real identity through Dabi in quirkless!aus too! (like i'm doing with a long fic of mine) Which is why i'll try to give you an answer that can be used for both things.

I think that Dabi and Reader should meet up in a crucial moment of their lives where both of them never expects to meet again after one of the two disappears, i think that from a literature point of view this method can help carve/influence a character's course throught out the story to forge their development for me.

The setting is up to you, depending on what you have in mind for your story, the setting of their meeting can vary. They could be meeting on the streets like they could be meeting in a bar or another place, it's really up to the plot you've decided for when they meet again.

If there's the possibility I think yes, Dabi would keep watching over Reader if she's truly important to him even after all the year they haven't seen each others. So once again, depending on your settings this trope can be used in a story.

As for the second question, you know what? I think it can work both ways, because seeing you accept Dabi makes him think that Touya didn’t have importance in your life when maybe unbeknownst of him you’ve always loved him since he was Touya. This can work both before AND after he tells you about his real identity. Dabi’s character to me (others can have whatever headcanons they want about him) is someone who in his life needs many things, two of which are reassurance and stability, especially because as Touya he didn’t get none of these, his father’s selfish and toxic ambitions, needs, goals and attitude messed up with this kid’s mental health the most because I think Dabi is one of the characters who inside of him has the biggest amount of love in the serie and he’s someone that would’ve been as good of an influence to the Todoroki's as much as Shouto is doing, if only he had close to him someone who actually supported and encouraged him as what he wanted to be: an Hero (he doesn’t need near him someone like Midoriya though, nor like any of the other hypocrits around him or his father for that matter). But with the way the Hero society is right now, someone emotional like Dabi (yes, he is the emotional type) would’ve never followed it blindly either way. This man is where he is now because he had too much love inside of him that went unseen and ignored by the peoples who he wanted to give it to, a love that he repressed to the point he became numb to anything except the “hate” for the one person who messed him up that way after gaslighting him.

So whether is before or after he reveals his identity to the Reader, once you understand his character as both Touya and Dabi, you’ll be able to write it the right way.

But if you want a suggestion from me, I think I would go with that... be it SFW or NSFW, a sincere and genuine Reader is the best choice for a character like Dabi.

One thing is for sure, he would feel bitter and sad about the distance created with the Reader (based on how close they were before he became Dabi, you can assert how much hurt he is by it) and question her reasons for reaching out to him and what her goals are, he has trust issues so of course he wouldn’t let her close if she isn’t 100% sincere with him.

You gotta keep this in mind in the case your story is a long slow-burn with angst (like the one I’m writing because I like pain lmfao) and you don’t plan to have smut in it anytime soon, after building trust you gotta slowly put into the characters tension that steadly grows until one of the twos can’t go on anymore without breaking the friends barrier.

If it’s a One-Shot I think that reunion/angsty love making and talk after it would be a good way to settle the unresolved things Dabi and Reader got going on.

This got super long and I sound super annoying, as addition I also suck at giving advices so I’m sorry, you’re genuinely troubled but I’m actually someone hopeless unfortunately 😭

Hope this messy essay was of help though 💀💜

#kelin responds #answered #libertythedragoness #writing #ugh i feel like i just said a bunch of useless shit to you... #i apologize in advance if this didn't help you at all #you'll understand through this why no one asks me for advices 😂😭 #god i'm so fucking annoying istg no wonder some of my friends abandoned me lol