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in-pleasant-company · 3 months

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Hello new friend,

I'm a 41-year-old white queer femme who has just recently retrieved my three AG dolls from the attic where I put them away before I went to college. I have Kirsten, and the original release Felicity and Addy. I brought them out to clean up and give to my daughter, but have found they have released a great deal of stored up energy, and I have been deep diving into the world of AG since I put it down in 2001. I have been working my way backwards in your Tumblr, and am in 2020 now. I want to thank you for your clear love of and dedication to American Girl, and I really appreciate your various thoughtful perspectives, especially as it relates to the historical PC and current Mattel relationship with race and ethnicity. As an Elder Millennial, I don't really know how to Tumblr, but you can find me on IG as quiltereina (my public account), so you can see that I'm not a total weirdo-in-a-bad-way - just a domesticated rebel with grandma hobbies living in a hippie suburb of my hometown of Washington, D.C.

I found my dolls, but not their clothes or accessories yet, which is a devastating. I received the dolls as gifts, but I earned all of their clothes through chores. I have already sewed more clothes for my girls (plus the three new ones I have purchased since Jan 1) than I had the entirety of my childhood, having leaned to sew in the intervening years. I am balancing the desire to recreate all of the clothes I had, using time-period appropriate prints and patterns, but in my own preferred color schemes (mostly pinks and purples), a sort of alternative history recreation for my own inner child, plus the desire to make fun and frilly costumes for my five-year-old's enjoyment. In these pursuits, I have not only saved the Pretty Dresses PDF from AGPlaythings, but have been searching for patterns that will as closely as possible replicate the Meet outfits for my girls; I have found Addy's from doll-princesse, and think I can wing Kirsten's from her school dress, but Felicity? Still searching.

So I have one very specific question - a woman in a 18" doll facebook sewing group claims that there was 1992 Pleasant Company book of patterns released, which included Felicity's Meet Dress. I have searched the ends of the internet; she is not referring to the PC Pretty Dresses Patterns; there is no record in the AG Wiki or in the Library of Congress for this book. She said someone on Etsy was selling copies of the book and the FB poster got blocked for harassing the Etsy seller for selling a book still under copyright, but I cannot find the like on Etsy or Ebay. Have you ever heard of such a book? Or is _someone_ -lying- on the internet? And if you have any other deep-dive pattern suggestions (I've seen everything on Etsy, PixieFaire, Pemberly, etc), I'd be grateful, and also happy to compensate pattern makers/recreators.

If you've made it this far, thanks for your time reading this, and again for your insightful and informative Tumblr-blog.

Best,

LaLa

Hi, welcome! It's wonderful that you're giving some love to these old dolls once again!

As for the book with Felicity's pattern, it sounds fascinating. I will keep a lookout for it. It's possible the book was an internal, company only creation that was meant for creating the mockups before the doll clothes went into production in West Germany (and later in China). I will say that there was a set of doll patterns (or possibly multiple sets?) that were briefly available from Colonial Williamsburg that the person may have been remembering as Felicity patterns. It could also have been a pattern that was made available for special events at places like the Madison Children's Museum. I know of a pattern for Felicity's Bedding that is associated with the Madison Children's Museum.

The patterns available from Colonial Williamsburg were from Past Crafts patterns (labelled Evoking Period Style for Dolls), and I'm almost positive that there was a set of doll clothes patterns designed by someone who worked in the textiles department of Colonial Williamsburg, but I haven't been successful in tracking them down.

Edit: Could it be they were talking about the GIRL sized pattern for Felicity's Meet Outfit? It wasn't in a book but a paper envelope like commercial patterns.

Edit 2: I reached out on the AG Playthings message board and got some answers. Yes, the pattern does exist but it was never available for sale from Pleasant Company. I imagine it was an internal document that was somehow leaked/stolen. Mystery solved!

#felicity merriman #answered asks #sewing patterns #by the way please don't feel worried about coming off as 'creepy' the note in my pinned post was for a very specific type of message

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dandelionflowery · 25 days

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Intro post!

(if you're looking for the breast cancer awareness post it is here)

HII!!

My name on the internet is Dandelion, but you can call me whatever you like honestly. It's so hard to find a good name around here, the fae keep stealing them

I use any pronouns, online people default to they/them, IRL people default to she/her, you can use whatever you feel like!

I'm aroace 🧡💛🤍🩵💙 and my gender is up to interpretation lol

I'm 16 and I live in France but I have both French and American citizenship

I have both scoliosis (diagnosed, 45°) and probably dyslexia (not officially diagnosed but all the internet tests I did were screaming at me to go get an official diagnosis) and those two really hate each other who deCIDED SCOLISOIS SHOULD BE SPELLED THE WAY IT IS (if i spell it correctly be aware that either I copied it from somewhere, or i thought about it for WAY too long, or it was a monkeys on keyboards thing)

I created a blog just for reblogging shit (aptly named @dandelionflowery-reblogs) but even with that I can't promise to tag stuff correctly on either...

I'm not often super active on here, at least not regularly, mostly because I have way too many classes but sometimes I go absolutely insane and spend like an entire day on here (oops)

~~☆~~

I like:

- Harry Potter (Drarry, Deamus, Romione, Linny are my main ships but there's a decent chance you could get me to like a specific portrayal of just about any pairing lol) [also fuck jkr]

- The Marauders (WOLFSTARRR! Also Jily and aroace Peter and maybe Remadora. Same thing as before: open to other pairings [I know of and appreciate the ships with the girls but usually I'll lean towards the first ones mentioned actually I'll lean towards wolfstar with background Jily and aa battery Peter)

- Reading and books in general

- Fanfics, fanart!! (Both writing/drawing them and reading/simping for them)

Speaking of which, I have a side blog that's actually technically marauders themed! @mybrain-fanficedition

- Interactions on here!!

- there's probably some other stuff I like but I can't think of anything rn

~~☆~~

I don't like:

- Following from above, I said I was open to pretty much any pairing, ... I lied lol

I don't really like adult/child pairings (especially not snarry) but I am still open to at least trying it, but it is much much harder to convince me about that

- That said, irl adult/child is very bad and dni if you think it should be a thing in real life, fanfic is fiction do not attempt

- Also the usual list of if you're homophobic transphobic uh racist or just a generally mean person

~~☆~~

I like talking to people even if you don't know what to say just say hi!

Also I have other social media, come find me if you want!

@/flowerydandelion, @/dandelionfloweryart and @/wands.swords.and.books on Instagram!

On Ao3 I'm like 90% sure it's DandelionFlowery and uh probably similar usernames on Discord and Reddit [though I'm not often active on there]

Wait if I link my ao3 that means i need to actually post my fics lol

Leave comments if you read my fics, I love feedback!! (or just leave kudos, it makes me irrationally happy lol)

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kitkatsudon · 5 months

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KitKat reads the TKEM Novel: Introduction & Prologue & Chapter 1

Hello all! Those that have seen my account over the past couple of days will know that I have recently come into possession of copies of both volumes of the TKEM novel. I always had the vague idea in my mind that these would contain information that we don’t see in the show, characters’ inner monologues and such like, so as someone seemingly on a quest to find out everything there is to know about this show (how did it end up like this? I’m not going to dwell on that before I start regretting all my life choices), I have taken it upon myself to read these books and share this knowledge with the rest of what’s left of this fandom.

These books, of course, are in Korean, which is a language I do not speak and don’t have any intention of learning in the near future. I definitely couldn’t learn Korean in a quick enough time frame to be able to read these books in a satisfyingly short amount of time, so instead I’m utilising the power of the internet and using two online translation services, and then sort of combining the two with my preexisting knowledge of the show to create a usable translation that feels mostly right. So here’s my disclaimer: some of this stuff could very easily be mistranslated, because I’m embarking on this journey with just the powers of the internet, homosexual audacity, and autism to help me along.

So! Here’s how this is going to work. For every chapter of the book I manage to translate, I’m going to make a new post where I summarise the events of the chapter, share my thoughts on it, and then share any specific new details that we’ve learnt. All of them will be tagged with ‘kitkat reads the tkem novel’ so if you want any of the information in this series for whatever reason, hopefully these posts will be easy to find. In this post I’ll cover the prologue and chapter 1 because the prologue is barely anything at all, but from here on out it’ll be one chapter per post… whenever I finish the next chapter.

Ok then. Shall we begin?

Prologue

The novel starts with a bit of preamble about the show’s lore, not much that anyone who had already seen the show wouldn’t know, but I suppose it makes sense to open like this if they were trying to appeal to people who hadn’t already seen the show? It’s an interesting choice, though, because some of this stuff is information we don’t find out until a little later in the show, for example how the two worlds split thanks to the life/death of Crown Prince Sohyeon. However, without the visual nature of the show to keep it appealing, having a little bit of backstory about the Kingdom of Corea would be nice to have so new readers aren’t totally confused about the setting of the novel when it begins.

The only semi-new thing we really learn from the prologue is that the palace (which I will call Haeungung Palace from here on out as part of my personal mission to spread this information) is located specifically on Dongbaekseom island in Busan. This is something I had pretty much figured out already by being a big nerd and looking at screenshots of the show and comparing those to maps of Busan, but it’s nice to have this for real confirmed by a canon source. Another thing to maybe mention is that the flower symbol of the royal Jeonju Lee family is a plum blossom, but this is also something that you could probably work out beforehand.

In conclusion, this is a good introduction… but a little useless to established fans of the show, who I think would make up most of the demographic of this book. Still, it’s best for them to cover their bases.

Chapter 1: Find the clock rabbit

The first thing to mention here is that “clock rabbit” refers to the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, which the English subs on Netflix call “the white rabbit with the clock” but I’m going to say “clock rabbit” because that seems to be the direct translation, and it makes all Yeong’s lines about “Is it a rabbit or a clock?” make a lot more sense in my mind. This chapter covers four scenes from episode 1 of the show: the scene where Gon is being dressed by his new attendant Park Gyubong and he catches the talismans that Lady Noh put in his room, the scene where Gon and Koo Seoryeong have their meeting after Gon goes riding, pretty much all of the rowing scene sequence from the race to Gon going to chase after the “clock rabbit,” and then Gon very briefly in his study alone, looking at his Alice in Wonderland book.

What stood out to me the most while reading, getting over the fact that they’ve changed the order of the scenes from the show (Cheonjongo in 1994 is happening next chapter), is how much extra dialogue they’ve cut out. Again… I guess it makes sense, if they’re trying to condense a sixteen episode drama into two volumes of a book then of course they’re going to want to get straight to the point, but this is disappointing for me personally because a lot of what they cut out are the fun, familiar conversations that Gon had with Yeong throughout episode 1. For example, Gon and Yeong never have their conversation after Gon finishes his ride where Yeong reveals that there are more talismans than Gon thought, and they also cut out the conversation between Gon and Yeong in his study after the race day, which means we don’t get “are you having fun, Captain Jo?” and we don’t get their following conversation about Gon wanting to find his saviour, and Yeong assuring him that he’s grown up well and he doesn’t need anyone to save him anymore. Which is… fine. It’s fine, but it’s still disappointing. Even without coming at this from a Gonjo angle, their friendship is still very important to me, and it’s disheartening to find out that where the show abandoned it very quickly, the book doesn’t seem to be developing it at all. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments, but it’s not as much as I would have liked.

The other big thing that stood out to me is… well… how do I put this? The book really wants you to know that Gon is perfect and amazing and handsome and the best man in all of Corea and no one else could ever compare and he’s just so incredible and wonderful and everybody loves him so much and every woman is in love with him because he’s just that good. Which is hilarious to me, as a loser (affectionate) Gon truther, because this man exists in my head as an adorable mess of mathematical equations, overthinking, and pretending to be fine, and it’s just… no matter how many times they tell me how perfect and shiny he is, I’m just not going to believe it. Let me give you an excerpt, so you can see the tone of this and know what I’m talking about.

Gon’s body, which he trained to protect himself against any danger, was perfect because his safety was the security of the kingdom. Gyubong was impressed anew by a glimpse of his hard and wide shoulders.

Gyubong glanced at the pride of the Kingdom of Corea before he could meet his indifferent eyes. His sharp nose, smooth lips, and sharp jawline stood out under his straight eyebrows. The third king of the Kingdom of Corea boasted an appearance that deserved the love of the kingdom’s people.

Like— it’s so unserious! They’re really trying so hard to ram it down your throat how utterly perfect Lee Gon is - and in this scene it reads like Gon’s eyebrows may be straight but Park Gyubong sure isn’t. They also mention Gon’s “long legs” when he’s running after his clock rabbit and… wow, does this answer that age old question? Is this what Yeong knows that Gon uses his long legs for - running away and giving Yeong a headache?

So, after all this, what have we learnt so far?

Park Gyubong is either very confident in his heterosexuality or he has a huge crush on King Lee Gon

“The royal courtiers often found the principled Captain of the Guard more difficult than the easy-going king” which… hurts me, a little, to imagine the palace staff bitching about Yeong behind his back. Does it make sense? …yes, to be fair yes, yes it does, it makes a lot of sense for Yeong to rule Haeungung palace with an iron fist as he tries desperately to take care of Gon’s safety, so I just hope that none of the other members of staff are being too mean about our beloved Yeongie :(

Yeong’s naval rank is confirmed to be a Soryeong/Lieutenant Commander! If you’ve seen my post about military ranks in TKEM then you’ll see that this is something that you can see in the show by looking at his epaulettes, but it’s nice to have it confirmed in writing here

Yeong was described as being “born and bred to serve the king.” This is something we knew already, but having it said explicitly here… it’s doing something to me, so it’s getting its own point.

Yeong specifically says to Park Gyubong that “His Majesty doesn’t like other people’s hands touching his body.” It’s not just any touch, he specifically mentions hands. Fanfic nation, do with this information what you will.

Mentioning the moment where little Yeong joined little Gon in crying after Lee Ho’s funeral is something that hurts Yeong’s pride. We can only assume that Gon knows this because he has brought it up in the past and Yeong has got very flustered about it.

On that topic, Gon thinks about that moment after his dad’s funeral after Yeong is like !!!!! when Park Gyubong mentions covering Gon’s scar.

Lady Noh has been noticeably anxious about finding Gon a partner ever since he turned thirty (Korean age). Gon isn’t sure if it was before that, but thirty is the age that he mentions. The Korean word for partner used is 짝, which Wordreference tells me means “pair, mate, buddy.” Interestingly, not necessarily wife, very gender neutral. This is in Gon’s internal monologue so again, fanfic nation, this one’s for you.

It’s also said that Lady Noh is more like a mother to Gon than his own mother was, which again is something we already knew but it’s very nice to have it written.

It’s crossed Lady Noh’s mind that Gon might have a secret mistress and that’s why he has never been interested in getting married, but she figured that this was illogical because Gon is always being watched while he’s in the palace. Thank you for your hard work, Jo Yeong!

The issue of marriage is apparently the only duty of Gon’s that he ever abandons, which… idk, there’s something there.

Gon feels like he’s free of all his worries when he goes riding, especially with Maximus, so riding is basically like Gon’s therapy :D

Maximus is his “favourite horse” which is something else that’s just nice to have in writing

It is mentioned several times in this chapter that Gon “is the favourite of every woman in the kingdom.” It’s giving… heteronormative, but that doesn’t surprise me. However, Koo Seoryeong doesn’t count herself as being one of these women because she can see up close how Gon is putting on as much of an act as she is.

Koo Seoryeong’s ex-husband was not only from a chaebol family but also a conglomerate leader. This is interesting to me because it’s mentioned in the show that he’s the second son so… what happened to the first son? Is he the leader of his own separate corporation? Was he just not as good as his younger brother?

Gon finds the way Koo Seoryeong is clear about expressing her desires uncomfortable because, as the king, he’s never been able to have his own desires or express his own desires freely

“Yeong’s nerves were on edge” while Gon was rowing in the competition, because it was an outdoor event. He finds these things stressful because Gon already came close to death once, and you never know if it’ll happen again

As soon as he hears a gunshot, Gon is immediately transported back to the night of the treason. Even if he doesn’t show it outwardly, it’s crossing his mind at the slightest trigger.

That time at the rowing competition is the first time that Gon has run away during an outdoor event. He runs away often and he knows he causes trouble for the Royal Guard, but this is the first time he’s done it at an event like that.

Gon can recognise Yeong just by his footsteps

Gon leaves his duties in the palace once or twice a year - either because he wants some personal time, or he’s in desperate need of it because he feels too overwhelmed by his regular life. I already assumed it was because of that, but to have it confirmed… fanfic nation, this is for you again

Gon was still thinking about the night of the treason when he got his Alice in Wonderland book out at the end of episode 1, and he could still vividly feel the sticky blood on the soles of his feet, and the feeling of something constricting around his neck. He felt like it could still happen again at any moment. Clearly, Lee Gon needs some better therapy than just going riding with Maximus.

Final thoughts: I’m very much enjoying seeing into the characters’ minds like this, especially Gon, since we’ve had a lot of him this chapter. I like how the book is able to show how often Gon is thinking about the night of the treason, making it and therefore his PTSD a much more present thing than in the show. It remains to be seen whether the currently hilarious Gon-worshipping is going to become annoying after a while, or whether or not seeing the characters’ inner thoughts is going to start annoying me when the main romance plot gets going. If it’s in the same tone as the Gon-worshipping… yeesh. That’ll be an experience.

My main thought so far? Not enough Yeong. There’s not as much Yeong as there was in the show, and there isn’t even much Yeong there. This book could be greatly improved with more Yeong. I suppose we’ll have to stick to fanfiction for that.

#kitkat reads the tkem novel #tkem #the king: eternal monarch #I can’t help but think… if Gon is always being watched by Yeong #and Lady Noh figures that Gon can’t have a secret mistress because people would have noticed #the only person that Gon can be alone with without Yeong being too overprotective is… Yeong himself #idk guys that’s just a silly little thought haha #these posts are of course for everyone in the fandom and not just the gonjo side of it #but I know that most of my audience also suffers from gonjo brainrot soooo…

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jessequinones · 4 months

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Writing Lesson: It’s okay to make mistakes.

I know as a writer I make mistakes, in fact, I’m certain if you go through this text you’ll find grammar and punctuation errors and that's ok. This text isn’t a book or a peer review essay. It’s a conversation from me to you about mistakes in writing.

When I was young, learning how to write, I created this.

***

2010, Wildcats: Civil War

“What are you saying?” A black tom said to a brown tom with anger in his voice.

Before he was finish Shadow walk away wan Deathclan was about to leave but what Whiteheart said next made Shadow froze in his tracks. “I know I can beat you.”

“Is that so?” Shadow said as he was turning around and was slowly walking back toward Whiteheart.

“That is correct.”

“Well then….let’s have a little battle right here and now then.”

Whiteheart could not say no, or back down now. He walks right it in this battle.

***

Yeah...it’s not good but the point is, even though I was a terrible writer, I never stole my writings. All of my terrible stories were original and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

The word plagiarism has been going around the internet for the last few days and I noticed when people who plagiarised other’s works get caught they tend to say they don’t feel comfortable with their own writings and thought it was a good idea to steal. Assuming they’re genuine, let me say it’s okay if your writing isn’t good, that’s how we learn.

You write a bad sentence or a paragraph which doesn’t make sense, and someone will point it out. You’ll learn over time not to make the same mistakes and grow as a writer. Just copying from someone else won’t help you learn because you’re no longer making mistakes, you’re just copying.

I always hated the saying you gotta keep practising your craft to get better because there were a few times when I thought I couldn’t improve. I kept practicing but I kept making the same mistakes and didn’t know how to get better. For those types of situations, I find it best to ask someone whose more experience how to overcome your hurdle and let me be the first to say there are plenty of people in your craft who’ll be willing to help.

As for writing, here’s a trick I did to help me create stories. For practice, I took a book, like the Warrior series for an example, and copied their words. Before you say that’s plagiarism, first things first, I never published the stories I was copying, and secondly, I was figuring out how the Erin Hunters were creating their stories.

When artists learn how to draw for the first time, they copy someone else’s art style and maybe even do trace works until they become confident in their ability to create their own. I was still trying to learn what my writing style was, and I wanted to figure out how someone else created theirs. Over time I started to get an understanding of how sentence structure was made. I understood foreshadowing, and I understood when and where to add descriptions. I would start looking at lines in the books after I wrote them and be like...I could improve this. I started to see things I didn’t think were necessary for the story and after a while, I told myself I was ready to write my own Warriors fanfic.

Learning from someone else, being inspired by another. These are all things that’ll help you grow as a writer but you still got to do the work yourself. You can’t say you created something original if 90% of it was stolen, you’re only hurting yourself.

If you’re a new writer and have questions, even if you think they’re very basic, please feel free to ask me. I’m not the best writer. In fact, I don’t really know how to create informative writing, which is why I’m practising now, but I do know a few things and am always willing to help someone if I have the time and don’t forget. Keep trying and keep writing, your writing is better than you give it credit for.

#writing #writeblr #books #writers of tumblr #writing community #warriors #erin hunter warriors #writing lessons #authors community

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monolite001 · 10 months

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I had parents who were very strict about internet usage

I never got allowed to read web comics or play mobile games so I could only get to text-heavy websites

Which led me to spending time reading Korean equivalent of Wikipedia

One day in 2016 on tis website I read an article about a trending, award-winning video game called "Undertale". I was 14.

Something about this game appealed to me immediately. I bought it on Steam. That was the first time I ever purchased a video game.

Needed a language patch because I wasn't fluent in English back then. Became a member of a video game community just to have the language patch. That was my first time I ever got into an online community.

Finished the game without searching anything up. Finished every route. I loved the game. I started to look for more secrets and info from the community mentioned above.

People posted fan arts and fan fics there. I read them. I loved them. That was my first ever exposure to a fandom.

I watched the fandom grow. AUs started to develop. I liked them. Got interested in reading the original contents for the AUs, which were mostly in English.

And that just HAPPENED to be around the time I came to America and my English started to improve

I could read so many comics. I looked at so many different Tumblr blogs. Then I learned AO3 was a thing. That was a huge different world full of fan fictions.

I found that Error was my favorite. If it involved Error, I gave it a try. Mostly oneshots tho, because English still wasn't my first language and I was the world's slowest reader.

Then one day I came across a 25 chapter, 140k-word-long fic. The prologue already was half an hour of reading for me.

And I somehow decided to keep reading it. Knowing fully well it would take me at least a month with my normal reading speed. I just felt like I would like this fic.

And that was The Council of the Inevitable. I read all of it in 3 days, from start to finish, doing nothing else during those days.

That story was breathtaking. Literally. I never felt so absorbed into anything ever before. I ranted about it in my personal notes. I ranted about how much I loved the author wrote the characters just so perfectly and how brilliant the plot was. I also started writing my own little analysis and theories amd predictions.

I re read the fic. And I re re read it. I wrote more notes. I did that for 3 years, from 2020 to 2023. I wrote over 200 notes about it.

And I decided that it was physically unberable to keep that level of excietment and passion just to myself. I wrote an ask to the author's Tumblr blog I had found, including a fanart and a message about how much I loved her fic.

And she replied. She followed me back. I posted a couple more fan arts I had made and she liked them too.

And she had a Discord server. I looked at it and thought, maybe in there are people who love this story just as much as I do. I downloaded Discord created an account. I joined the server.

And I was right. And I never knew how much fun it was to have people who love the same thing as I do. Someone to share my excitement with.

So I'm really not exaggerating when I say everything regarding TCOTI was a miracle.

If any of the things listed above didn't happen I wouldn't have been here right now. What are the odds, really?

So if THIS happened, who's to say something as good as this wouldn't happen again?

TL;DR: My parents were strict. This led me to shipping copies of the same skeleton falling in love with each other.

#Mono thinks

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somethingusefulfromflorida · 9 months

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Forever stamps cost $13.20 for a book of 20 right now, 66 cents a pop. Looking up envelopes, they range from $3.50 to $4.75 for a pack of 40, $9.99 for 100, about 10 cents a pop. Printing at my local library costs 10 cents per page, 20 cents if it's double sided. Altogether, setting up a physical newsletter would cost about a dollar per copy to mail to subscribers. I don't expect to have many takers, so I could almost certainly pay for it out of pocket. I have something like 15 or 20 active mutuals, maybe 30 or 40 regular followers whose names I recognize. At a buck a pop that's $60 per month, max, which is less than internet and utilities, easily doable. And that's assuming 100% turnover, so realistically it would be much less.

I've been meaning to ease myself off social media, but I don't want to lose all the connections I've made, so I think this might be the ideal format for me. I read about fanclubs in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I read about offline communities of likeminded dorks who created something together, printing out entire fanzines, dozens of pages, absolute labors of love for zero profits, and I wish I could have been part of that. I miss getting mail, I miss magazines, I miss physical media, I miss not being spied on and having my thoughts sold to advertisers and cops. Not everything has to be profitable, some things are worth investing in for their sake.

I thought about making a magazine last year, even set up a blog about it, but as I thought about the logistics I realized it would be too expensive and mostly filler. A newsletter is much more manageable; cheap and short, but dense enough to say what I want to say without overstaying my welcome. Three columns per side, six total, something like 40 lines each, maybe five or six words per line, 1200 to 1500 words per issue, probably closer to 1000 after factoring in pictures and subheadings. Maybe this too is overly ambitious, but it's worth a shot. I'll keep you all posted.

#newsletter #physical media #snail mail #subscription #columns #newspaper #magazine #nostalgia

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bogkeep · 9 months

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stuck in the brain bog shallows today, stirring up some mud soup

hi it's more traumaposting

i wrote some time ago that i got like, Stalked and Harassed which is obviously very trauma. but then there's the trauma behind THAT trauma which is actually a lot harder to speak about, because that IS actually relatively easy to spin into You Are A Horrible Person And You Clearly Deserved What You Got

but i know i'm not the only one who's experienced this.

have you ever had a friend or acquaintance or someone who just. copies you. treats you like a blueprint for themselves. who slurps up your personality like juice. eats you like a whalefall? humans are a social species and copying others is a normal thing we do! of course we pick up mannerisms from our friends! of course we pick up habits from people we admire! everyone is a tapestry of the world we've absorbed. i can go poetic about it, you know, how we keep people alive by harbouring their memory in our daily lives. and yes obviously i am well aware of the zealous "how DARE you copy my art" digital artist archetype. i am very very aware of the precarious position i put myself in by speaking about this at all. but it wasn't really about art. it was - my interests. my mannerisms. my friends. my ideas. my goals. my way of speaking. my words. my memories. anything i shared where they could see, nothing was sacred. (they never created enough art to ever actually copy mine.) towards the end, i could predict what they would do next, only because i had done it. like a drinking game. i didn't get to keep anything for myself. is that selfish? is that greedy? to share a piece of my life on the internet and hoping it gets to stay my own? obviously i don't own everything. i don't own concepts or ideas or experiences. i can't stop other people from doing the same as me, even if i wanted to - which really, i don't. i don't know how to convince people that i really don't mind. it's just, there's a limit. i think the limit is where i start thinking "are you mixing up my tweets with your own memories?" "are you doing this on purpose or is your self-awareness really that lacking" or maybe the weird feeling of responsibility i get when someone clearly tries to solve their own problems by trying to be Me, Someone Who Obviously Has No Problems Ever, and i have to, somehow convince them that our lives are different and being me can't solve their problems because they're not actually me, or i try to let them know how i ACTUALLY solve my problems, or try to show them a way of solving problems that involves Not Doing Exactly What I Do, and it turns out all of these options are actually deeply uncomfortable to everyone involved. welp (i made grim jokes to myself about it being a form of cultural appropriation - to whisk off my surface level behaviours without understanding the deeper roots of why i act the way i do.) and i spent months trying to convince myself that it was wrong of me to be uncomfortable with this, that i just need to stop being so selfish and greedy and just relax about it. in fact i may just be mistaken and making the whole thing up! how self-absorbed am i for even having the THOUGHT this is what's happening! just a coincidence, just a coincidence, just a coincidence, just a coincidence, just a coincidence, just a coincidence - how do you even... talk about this. with anyone, much less the person doing this to you? because like the good outcome is that you go "hey i feel like you keep mimicking everything i do and it's starting to feel really weird" and they go "oh shit i did not realise" and then they walk on eggshells around you forever and you get bitch eating crackers disease about anything that even remotely resembles copying you and the bad outcome is that they go "whaaaaaaaat i didn't even notice but i'll TRY" and nothing changes, and then it becomes "well actually it's your fault for being so INFLUENTIAL, you're basically brain-washing people around you when you think about it" so you apologise for doing that (and nothing changes), and then it becomes "actually i have trauma and that's why you must let me keep doing this" and nothing changes until it must because there is no other way out of that. they can do it all they want but they can't be your Friend at the same time. you have to Leave.

i tried - i tried not saying anything, i tried saying anything, i tried Giving a lot so they would Take less, i tried keeping my distance. it was clumsy and desperate but they were attempts. a hard lock leave and burning down a dozen bridges was my only way out.

for a long time it made no sense - why were they so angry at me for leaving when they hated me so much? why did they follow me everywhere if they wanted nothing to do with me? a friend explained to me: i had left them cold turkey.

close to where i used to live, someone had spraypainted a phrase on a wall - "mitt liv er ikke et måltid." my life is not a meal. i gave it a salute every time i passed by.

#traumaposting under the cut #im doing okay! the fact that im able to write this means that i'm okay

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novafire-is-thinking · 10 months

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Sooo

What website are we moving to when tumblr “removes the outdated choice of the feed being only posts from people you follow” and “collapses reblog chains to do away with long posts” and “will switch to emails if a user has push notifications off”

I’m already copy pasting my existing posts into documents for preservations sake but if the update comes and it’s truly awful I think a lotta people will agree on wanting to move sites

The question is where

Okay, so I’ve been reading over and analyzing the Tumblr update post since I woke up to your ask, anon. And I have thoughts.

For those who aren’t interested in what I think about the coming changes, the site I recommend is Pillowfort.

About Pillowfort:

Pillowfort is a new blogging platform currently in open beta with over 140,000 registered users. The founders of Pillowfort want to create a site that takes the best features from popular blogging platforms while aiming for a site that is user-friendly, community-friend, efficient, and fun. We’re passionate about providing our users more privacy and more control over their content, while offering better ways to hold conversations.

It’s kinda small, but it has potential. A lot of Tumblr users (including myself) have already headed over there and created accounts as a backup plan if Tumblr ends up nuking itself, although I personally doubt that will happen.

Now, time to ruffle some feathers:

I personally have very few issues with the actual proposed changes. However, I do have concerns about how far they will go with those changes.

Something I’ve noticed is that, of all social media sites, Tumblr has the highest concentration of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” folks. And there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily.

However, the reality is that the internet and internet culture are constantly evolving.

What tends to happen is that as companies get bigger and eventually sit close to the top of an industry, they become beholden to the majority if they want to stay relevant.

It makes me think of how celebrities and politicians who make it to the top have to say all the right things and strive to meet certain mainstream expectations at the cost of true individuality/being genuine/making a difference, if their goal is to stay relevant and popular. That same principle applies to the business world.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert in matters of business, but there are things I’ve learned over the years from observing business practices and people in general. I’m also fascinated by the why behind what certain businesses do what they do, so here are my thoughts no one asked for:

Like any company, Tumblr cannot possibly care about what every part of the user base likes AND what works to keep the overall user base alive.

Numbers and data speak louder than the protests of what the data determines to be the minority. The data could always be wrong, but there’s no way for them to tell for sure. They will make changes based on the hard data unless they find sufficient proof that it’s inaccurate.

Tumblr’s vision for the future takes priority. A good company makes every action count toward that vision.

Sometimes company visions change, especially in response to changes in an industry or mainstream culture. This means that those who were on board with Tumblr’s previous vision will likely leave. And Tumblr is okay with this because the data says they’ll still have the support of the majority.

Like any company that wants to succeed, Tumblr would not be making any of these changes if they thought it would cause the site to fail. Something (the data, other sites’ success, etc.) is telling them that they can make these changes without killing the site entirely. Whether or not that ends up being true is to be determined.

Now, to speculate about the proposed changes anon mentioned:

Stagnation is death. Without bringing in and providing support to new creators and users, Tumblr will die. The key is finding a balance between the current user base that wants things to stay the same and bringing in and keeping newcomers.

“Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it” sounds to me like users will still have control over how much new content they see.

Currently, we have the separate “For You” page that already shows new content from Tumblrs we don’t follow. However, it’s very easy for the For You page to go unnoticed and to be forgotten.

I think the best course of action is to switch things around:

As the default for new users, show posts from Tumblrs outside of their follow lists in their main feeds in addition to the stuff from Tumblrs they follow.

Give all users the option to toggle this off and see little to no new content in their main feeds.

For those who choose to see very little new content in their main feeds, move the new stuff someplace else while keeping it accessible.

The solution is as simple as providing options and honoring individuals’ curation of their experiences.

I actually agree that reblogs and replies are highly confusing to most people. It’s difficult to follow a reblog thread when unrelated reblogs all end up bunched in one place. Manually clicking through to try to read all the different reblog threads is not fun. I’m all for eliminating the confusion and frustration.

I have a hunch that collapsing reblog threads won’t be as devastating as many people are thinking it will be. Tumblr would never get rid of something so vital to the site’s culture and success if they didn’t have something better in mind. (Whatever they have in mind for addressing points 1-4, specifically)

As for emails being “forced” upon us if push notifications are turned off, I doubt this will end up being more than a small annoyance.

“Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages” tells me that Tumblr will be giving users control over what they receive and how frequently. This is no different than what a lot of other successful companies are doing.

Closing thoughts:

I’m not taking a side or saying all of the changes are good. Heck, I’m not happy about some of the changes, but personally, I’m willing to see what awaits and to adapt.

This is not to say people who end up leaving are wrong to do so and that those who end up staying are better (or vice versa). This is not a post about right or wrong action. These are merely my thoughts on what is happening and why.

Tumblr is doing what they think will work while keeping in mind their guiding principles and the future vision for the company.

Companies change all the time. Typically, those that adapt are the most successful.

People generally want to find a company—or in this case, a website—that aligns with their personal values and desires. If Tumblr ends up not being that website anymore, there are other options—like Pillowfort. Their vision is bound to align better with some people’s desires.

People have every right to be angry about Tumblr’s changes, but anger can only do so much.

I leave anyone who’s read this far with Tumblr Staff’s reply to the algorithm rage:

#tumblr update #tumblr changes #personal opinion

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hikarisora101 · 7 months

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Ok so I had an idea and I’m throwing this to the wind and at some point I want to write about this

Ok dark idea but what if Asimov did more than just experimented on Mytyl. What if he used Gv, Nova, Elise, and possibly Teseo and/or Zonda to test the limits of her septima.

After that making it so they are completely subservient to him and can’t ever get their memories back even if he dies.

Each of them would have their own roles:

Gunvolt would be the closet and mostly be kept with him or Nova. He probably wouldn’t have his dart loader and instead have a sniper rifle.

Nova is the negotiator, acting as the president of public affairs.

Teseo works to scrub all negative information from the internet and to suppress any information that can hurt them.

Elise would be a potential backup in case anything happens to Mytyl herself.

Side note - He probably turned them all into cyborgs.

During this time he would frame himself as a saint, making it that no one would know what’s going on behind the scenes. He would use this to “gift” people septima and form a group of people who would be absolutely loyal to him and only him using the butterfly effect (I guess they could be called falcons but monarchs could work to be different idk). He would keep the other 5/6 close to him.

In Blade’s case, she would have a slightly altered role, being either an assassin or the mascot. As an assassin she would silence the more troublesome opponents, likewise as the mascot she would show how the program “helps” people.

The other backup plan would be creating copies of the muse septima. By doing this and being successful, he can use a mini butterfly effect to control other adepts. He could also use it on the falcons to give them a second chance during their boss fights, like djinn in gv3.

Idk I thought this would be interesting for an au of sorts.

#azure striker gunvolt #Gunvolt #gunvolt chronicles #throwing thoughts into the void

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a3day · 1 year

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A3DAY Extended Commentary: KAI "Rover" (2023)

DISCLAIMER - An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This blog, just like my podcast, will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

When assuming membership in one of South Korea's most well-recognized idol groups, I'm willing to believe that creating solo work is not only a deeply desired opportunity, but a rites of passage. Clearly, it's allowed Kim Jong-in a.k.a. Kai to break away from the mold (or "colors," as K-pop often refers to the energy, styling, and expectations) of SM Entertainment's EXO with two mini-albums.

With this third outing, "Rover," sounds unexpected. There's some familiar deliveries, but you damn near can't put your finger on which EXO album clued you in that he could do what he's going to do on this project. You can't even fully place it on the same shelf as "Peaches," his second mini-album birthed 16 months before this one. If his debut mini-album was sexy-sexy-dance-dance-smooth, then the second was tongue-in-cheek-sweet-sweet-vibes... and this one is grown-grown-borderline-AOMG/H1GHR Music.

You can't just jump around like that, Kaihonetta... don't do me us like this... it's dangerous. (And yes, that is pronounced Kai-ho-netta.)

SM used far better words than I have to express the variety of this album, stating,

KAI has presented different concepts for each solo album released so far, such as 'Mmmh' with a restrained sexiness and 'Peaches' with a sweet vibe, proving that he is a 'world-class performer' who will never let you down. Expectations are rising for the unique music and performance that he will show through this album.

Let's get into the breakdown of what we're hearing, feeling *clears throat* and sensing on "Rover," track by track.

Rover - Bulgarian pop done Kai's way

You've read that right: this song is a reinterpretation of Bulgarian pop star Dara's song, released on Virginia Records. SM embraces covers and the fact that Kai's production team stayed true to the original music and arrangement is a win.

At bare minimum, the chorus is catchy enough to get a little body movement from its listeners. In my case, I keep mixing parts of it in my head with another track on the album, which we'll get to soon enough.

EDIT: Since writing this on album release day, I've come across several conversations on Twitter about this song and how Kai "copied it." We know there are instances of blatant plagiarism in South Korean pop entertainment but this is not the case here. Permission was sought, granted and publicly acknowledged.

It takes so little to search the Internet for reputable reporting and notations about major and indie label work. This was a perfect opportunity to use those keyboarding skills to find the truth.

While I understand that not everyone is engrossed in music to the point of wanting to know who's who and what's doing what, these arguments against Kai's reinterpretation are ignorant. Checks and cheques have cleared.

Listen to my reaction to this song below

Black Mirror - "Boomerang~~ boomerang~~" A song produced with the sounds of its time for mid-trap music, the track wins because it's not overwhelming the auditory experience. Kai plays with pitch and tone throughout the entire track as he speaks about watching someone with provocative angles and enticing interactions. It's easy enough to ignore the music in favor of his delivery. He sounds comfortable yet arrogant and it works. It works very well, indeed.

Slidin' - This man is talking about adult extra-curricular activities

The mood is set as soon as the song comes on. It's a mellow tempo that encourages the body to loosen up and one's head to bob to the beat. Thus, I thought the title was about sliding into one's DMs. It seemed right and my ass was wrong. Kai said, "Slidin'/Strip it down, take it off/Slidin'/You can leave it all to me/Come wrap me up, closely."

It's easy to get lost in the melodic experience but if you take the time to familiarize yourself with the lyrics in the language of your choosing, then you'll find this song to be a solid statement of adulthood without giving too much away.

Bomba - Reggaeton and redundancy

I must preface this by saying that I'm a member of a reggaeton household. I can't escape it when I hop in the car nor can I run from it when my partner is lounging around the house. It takes very little effort to identify its typical instruments; and it's not that I don't enjoy it, but that I am burned out on it.

Now that my truth has been revealed, this song would not work any other way. "Bomba" is on trend, gives a few words in Spanish to make it feel authentic, and has ear worm capacity that syncs with "Rover" (unintentionally?) well.

Say You Love Me - The hip-hop soul track that fits multiple vocals

Let's look at this first from the artistic styling before my fangirl antics surface. The team behind this track must hide behind the mild description given by SM for the song to avoid pearl-clutching behaviors. The label gives us this:

''Say You Love Me'' is a hip-hop R&B song, which directly expresses the wish to have love confirmed in precise words.

Call it a nice way of saying what one with certain life experiences could pick up on: this song isn't playing around with words but seeking physical confirmation. This isn't uniquely Kai's, per se, not in the way we think of "Confession," for example. This track could have found a home with the deliveries of GOT7's Yugyeom and/or Jay B, Bluewoods, or even Dean if he felt like coming back. Any male artist willing to ride the lyrical cadence could have done it, but it's nice to have Kai challenge himself in this way.

Where's the fangirl antics, you say? I scream, you scream, we're all screaming, "Kai, PLEASE." PLEASE! What the hell do you mean, asking me to wake up and feel the mood and "just feel when I move"?!? HUH?!?! BLANKET THREATS, SIR. You're throwing around blanketed threats!

Sinner - A powerful close to a literal phase in an entertainer's life

We've heard Kai use music before to (allegedly) process feelings of heartbreak and loss as a member of EXO but this felt like it was seeking retribution and forgiveness with his fans. After all, we know that sooner than later, his time to serve his country through military service is coming. Could his pleas for punishment with an immediate re-embrace be thoughts about the inevitable next thing? Regardless if this interpretation is true or not, the song rests on a simplified beat and contemplative piano. The baseline and kick drum could deliver more, as it feels a bit apprehensive soulfully, but it doesn't diminish the message.

MY OFFICIAL RANKING

K-pop fans, on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5′s essential listening and 1′s not worth mentioning, the A3Day ranking for Kai's third album is 4. He's provided three albums that have captured the colors of three periods in his life and this one feels like a man on the cusp of new experiences away from the limelight. I enjoyed it and look forward to what's next to come.

#a3day blog #a3day extended commentary #exo kai #kai rover #music commentary #kpop imagines #kpop moodboard

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studioloartale · 1 year

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Finding an Aim

Life has been feeling like a slow turning spiral. Never quite reaching any point, but circling around a central feeling. I’m trying to find a target now. For the past 6 or so years, I’ve been playing with clay, in a serious manner, but also a very loose one. I’ve dabbled with a few craft fairs, hosted some pop-ups, and sell work very rarely through online platforms. But I’m continuously following a barely visible trail of bread crumbs in regards to this path in ceramics. I feel a bit lost.

I don’t know what keeps me hooked to making in ceramics. Or making in general. A low grade feeling of anxiety that if I’m not doing SOMETHING, anything, that I have very little worth in this world. I don’t think I’m the only person feeling this way at the moment. I have a feeling we all suffer from that sentiment a bit. Must remind myself though, suffering is a choice, a state of mind. I choose to degrade myself with these thoughts, because I know that my craft is simply a tool for expression, an outlet for anxiety, and to put more weight on it as more than that is quite detrimental in the long term. But, how can I reconcile the two opposing desires within myself, the artist who wants to create for the sake of pure expression, or the functional idealist who wants to dissect the proportions and color balance of a mug?

Anyway, it’s raining here in New Jersey this morning, and I’m feeling that need to do something immediately upon waking. I figured, since I’ve been wanting to start cataloguing artists that I really admire, I could lean back into Tumblr as a source for inspiration. It’s also much easier to share other’s work, as I don’t have to go and find it on the internet and do the whole copy/paste/crediting bit. So, I’m going to be using this platform more for that, as well as to do a bit of journaling. I contemplate the idea of sharing my creative process more, the internal struggles that play out often, but also the moments of triumph, breakthrough, when it all feels right and for a good reason.

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sophieakatz · 11 months

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Thursday Thoughts: How to Leave a Comment on Fanfiction

From the title of this blog post, you might expect what follows to be sarcastic: “Just type the comment and click submit!” But we all know it’s not as simple as that.

We – and by “we” I mean anyone who has ever read a fanfiction story on a website like Archive Of Our Own or Fanfiction Dot Net – we all know that moment when you’re on one of those websites, and you get to the end of the story, having loved that story very much, and your brain goes blank.

You, the reader, are paralyzed. You don’t know what to say. You don’t want to bother the writer! What could you possibly say that would mean something to the person who created this story that meant something to you?

So you don’t leave a comment. You click “kudos” or “bookmark” and make a hasty retreat, back into the anonymity of the internet.

But leaving comments on fanfiction is important. Comments let the writer know that there’s someone out there – someone for whom their work means something. And that’s the biggest, most effective way that you can get more fanfiction in the world – by letting writers know that what they’re doing matters. Sure, most writers get started because they like to write. But the thing that keeps them writing, and that keeps them sharing their writing in places where you get to read it, is knowing that it matters to someone other than themselves.

So that’s why I made a video series on TikTok (@sophieakatz) titled “how to leave a comment on fanfiction,” which I will now summarize for you in this week’s Thursday Thoughts. There are different techniques to writing comments, with different effects, and they’re all fantastic. Let’s go over three of them now.

1. Simple Praise and Gratitude

Here are some examples:

“Great fic! I loved it!”

“This story made my day.”

“Thank you for writing.”

“Thanks for the update, I really enjoyed it”

“Good work, writer!”

“Thank you for sharing this with us”

[thumbs up emojis]

[many different emojis including hearts and crying faces and just plain screaming AAAAAA]

Why is this a good kind of comment to leave on a fanfiction?

Praise and Gratitude comments are simple and get right to the point. They tell the writer, “Hey, there’s someone out here! I’m here! I liked your story!” They don’t take a lot of time or thought. They don’t need a lot of time or thought. But they make a BIG impact on the writer.

If something put a smile on your face, let the writer know, and you’ll return the favor. And then they might write more!

2. Quoting

Here are some examples:

“Oh my gosh, this fic was so funny! Here’s the line that made me laugh the hardest: [insert quote here]”

“When you wrote [quote here], I nearly cried”

“You write these characters so well! Like when this character said [quote here], it really sounded like they do in the show!”

“I don’t really know what to say so here are my favorite moments in this chapter: [example] [example] [example]”

Why is this a good kind of comment to leave on a fanfiction?

The specificity of a quote lets the reader know what kind of experience you had with the story. It allows both you the reader and the writer to relive some of the best moments in the chapter together. It lets the writer know that you were really paying attention to the words they chose. Best of all, it’s as simple as “copy and paste.”

If there’s a line in a fanfic that really stuck with you, let the writer know. It might make them write more!

3. Tell About Yourself

This is a broad category. Here are some examples:

“When I saw that this fic had updated, it totally made my day”

“I was almost late clocking into work because I was reading your fic in the breakroom!”

“This character you’re writing about is my favorite character ever”

“I can really relate to the way that you write this character”

“This is my favorite fic and I reread it whenever I need a pick-me-up”

“This fic helped me figure out that I was queer”

“I shared this fic with my friends, and they loved it too!”

Now, this kind of comment is harder to write. It’s more uncomfortable, more revealing. But as a result, it means that much more to the writer!

Writing is an act of vulnerability. The writer has put themselves out there for you. If you give some of that vulnerability back, it can mean the world.

I love writing fanfiction, but I would not have written so much of it over the years if not for people telling me how much it meant to them that I did it. Every example in this article comes from personal experience, sometimes as the writer and sometimes as the reader. “Thank you for sharing this with us” is my personal favorite comment to give – the best workaround to a blank brain. But when someone reveals something about themself and their experience with my story to me, that’s when writing fanfiction goes beyond something I do for fun and becomes something fulfilling and truly wonderful. A little communication goes a long way.

#thursday thoughts #fanfiction #writing #writblr #writer #reading #reader #fanfic #ao3 #bookblr #commenting #quoting #community #listicle

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screadingchallenge · 2 years

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Behind the Keyboard Volume 30

Behind the Keyboard is a series of interviews with different Schitt’s Creek fanfic authors. The series will last as long as there is interest (from authors) and capacity (from me). If you are an author from the Schitt’s Creek fandom who would like to participate, send a DM to this account.

Each author was given ten questions. The first five questions are the same for every author, the last five will vary.

Let’s meet our next author:

@trueillusion82 / TrueIllusion

How many fics have you written?

112 total, 41 for SC

When did you publish your first fic on AO3?

2018, but I go all the way back to FF.net in high school, in the late 90s/early 2000s. Unfortunately all of that work was lost when they removed RPF. I’ve tried to see if I can find the original files but haven’t been able to locate the completed versions, sadly. But I do know I was always a hurt/comfort junkie, both in my reading tastes and my writing. ;) As for writing fic, my best friend and I were writing it in 1994 before we even had the internet or a name for the stories we were writing featuring our favorite TV characters.

Describe your writing process from “Oh, I have an idea” to pushing publish on AO3.

I like to chat with fandom friends about the idea and bounce around thoughts for different details. Sometimes the chat literally looks like a dialogue conversation from the fic, and that helps me to know where I’m headed with the story. For one shots, I make an outline in the doc itself, with a synopsis of each section in brackets, and as I write, I replace those sections with the actual prose. When that’s done, I let my beta know and once she’s looked at it, off it goes onto AO3. For chaptered works, I’ve started using Scrivener, which allows me to “storyboard” with virtual notecards that contain the synopsis of each scene, and then ties to the actual prose. As I complete each section on Scrivener, I merge the separate mini documents into each chapter, and copy and paste it into a google doc for my beta readers. Once I’m ahead a few chapters and have a good buffer, sometimes I’ll go ahead and publish because I like the encouragement of reader feedback, and it helps me keep going.

Tell me about your most recent fic? What do you love about it? Is there anything you think you could have done better?

My most recent published fic is “Meant to Be,” a story from Rachel’s point of view in the “Safe” universe. I was nervous about writing Rachel, wanting to make sure she was a balanced character with depth, and not the one-note jealous ex-girlfriend trope. I wanted to allow her and David to communicate without interference from others, and to create at least a tenuous “truce” between themselves, to open the door for a friendship later on. She’s moved on, and there’s no reason to keep her “stuck” on Patrick, nor is there really a reason for there to be any continued hatred between her and David, or her and Patrick. Putting her in a position to help David through an MS flare felt like a good way to allow them to establish trust. I also didn’t want David to feel cornered, so setting the scene up in a way that left him in control of the situation was a challenge, but I think I pulled it off. I loved writing her observations of David and Patrick as an “outsider,” as I always enjoy those points of view. Plus, it was fun to explore writing the perspective of a character that we don’t see often and that I hadn’t written before. For the last question, I feel like there is always something we could second-guess or wish we had done differently, but it’s better to let it go and let it be. :)

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about publishing their fic for the first time?

Just do it -- don’t second guess it. Especially in the Schitt’s Creek fandom, which is the absolute best for encouragement and reader engagement. And if you’re afraid it won’t be “good”... the only way to get better is to keep doing it!

If you could say one thing to the people who read your fic, what would it be?

I really, really hope you’re not sick of my angst yet. LOL But seriously, I always appreciate your comments even if I don’t get a chance to reply to them -- they give me a much-needed mental boost.

Would you rather write smut or crack?

If I had to choose, crack, but really, neither. I’m kind of a “substance” girl when it comes to stories… I need plot and a solid direction.

What’s a fic (by any author) you love that you don’t think enough people know about?

It’s hard to pick just one, because I have a lot of favorite fics that I return to again and again, but “Drowning in my Thirst” by wordswordswords7 is one I don’t think gets the attention it deserves.

In what way are you most like your favorite Schitt’s Creek character?

“Anxious David Rose” is me in many ways. I’ve not been treated the best in the past by people I considered friends, or people would take advantage of me, and I was so desperate to be liked that I let them. And even though that situation is no longer my reality, it has left some scars.

Plot vs vibes - pick one.

Comfort vibes all the way. And whatever setup it takes to get there.

#behind the keyboard #meet the authors #sc fanfic #schitt’s creek #schitts creek

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bookwhimses · 1 year

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dirk.... tell me about the my fair lady au. also despair squid

treasured sibling......best sibling

The My Fair Lady AU was I think one of the many @gallantrejoinder and I talked about in the car during a long drive. It's technically a My Fair Lady production AU; Bart is a weird indie director who's done short films, stop-motion, random hit films widely praised by critics and audiences alike, and now she's suddenly turning her hand to theatre, which the internet is in melt-down over. It's not even a big original new production either, which is what people would expect, it's an off-off-off-Broadway production of My Fair Lady and as things develop it just keeps getting more buzz around it because Bart's casting seems very political and occasionally simply unhinged. She casts a relatively unknown black man who has only ever been cast as comedic side characters (Ken) as Higgins, which is a big deal. One of my notes is:

When asked about her political agenda Bart squints at the interviewer through her $3000 Yoko Ono sunglasses and is like "... he does his job good."

Then Bart casts a complete unknown, Farah, as Eliza, and it's Farah's DREAM role. Bart casts an actress from one of her creepy indie films (who is mostly unrecognisable because she did motion capture for a clown doll from space) as BOTH Mrs Higgins and Mrs Pearce despite the fact that the actress is younger than Ken. This decision is ridiculed everywhere online until opening night, when Mona is credited with "incredible chameleonic abilities" and Twitter critics start writing thinkpieces about the "genius direction creating intertexual discourse about Higgins's psyche".

This was another one where most of the cast get cameos, some as actors and some as crew or design. Dirk was going to an English guy they imported from the UK to play Freddy, which in itself caused internet uproar because the play is so English, if they were going to import one actor why ONLY a single supporting character. Amanda and Todd were stagehands and/or sound people. I'm fairly certain it was going to be a social media fic at least partially but the wip doc on my computer doesn't have stuff I'd thought I'd written, which likely means it's lurking somewhere on my phone or Google drive.

I opened "despair squid.docx" and I think I cannot explain things about it without spoiling key things about it, and it turned out to be more ramblings than actual wip. The title is a reference to a Red Dwarf episode which is relevant and the DW ep Amy's Choice is also referenced in the ramblings and is also relevant. I think it was something that I was playing with for a different wip, and then I copy-pasted into another doc and abandoned it there like a dino skeleton I could potentially resurrect later.

#dghda #wips #answers

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themarydragon · 1 year

Text

The Story So Far

A few days ago, I was tagged in a WIP game, which prompted me to go, you know, LOOK at my WIP folders. I found (an original!) world I’d written a story in, and it was way better than I remembered. I remembered it being straight cringe, but as I read through it I realized (a) it wasn’t bad at all, and (b) I knew how to fix it. I vaguely remembered how it ended.... but the file I had was only the first half! What the hell? Thus begins my descent into madness.

The file was noted as v1 which implies a second version, at the very least. Given what I remembered about the story, my assumption was that I’d merely chosen to import the wrong file when I’d changed computers. Before my current laptop, I’d been using a Surface Pro, so I went digging for it.

Found it AND the charger. Plugged it in. Let it get some juice. Turned it on.

The file was the same - v1 - so I must have imported it from the first-gen Surface (NT) I’d been using in nursing school. I hadn’t wanted anything I could game on and distract myself from school, so the tablet I had was bare bones AF. Also I hadn’t touched it since I’d upgraded in 2014.

I FOUND IT. I did not find the charger. My mom had used a slightly newer version NT with the same charger, so I asked if she still had hers.

We moved in August, so our random tech boxes are not in fantastic shape, but she pulled out all the random-ass cords and chargers she had. The old-version Surface charger was not amongst them.

SO, to the internet. I found a compatible charger and ordered it. I moved to the middle of nowhere, in the woods on the side of a damn mountain, so there is no such thing as next-day shipping out here. The best anybody could do was 5 days, so I waited.

In the meantime, I searched. Old google drives, google docs, flash drives, email archives. The document did not exist. Why would it? I thought it was bad. (Keep all your stuff, kiddos, that’s the lesson here; you never know when you’ll get the flash of inspiration to redeem your old bullshit).

TODAY, the charger was delivered!

IT WORKED. My old tablet took a charge! It was booting into “Automatic Repair” and not successfully repairing, so it took a LOT of convincing, but eventually I got a login screen AND remembered my 10-year-old login AND got in! IT WORKED.

In addition to TWO other worlds I had forgotten about, one with all the outlines I need to actually flesh out another original setting (and the other the most brutal DA:I concept I’ve ever attempted to write, holy shit its evil) I found three copies of the file I was actually looking for!

They were all the same! They were all v1 and they were all imported rather than created! Which means I moved them to that Surface from my ANCIENT laptop.

So where is my 15-year-old HP crapbox? My husband, over a year ago, had taken it upon himself (in preparation of our move) to remove all the hard drives from all our old PCs and laptops and clone them to a SSD he had. I watched him do it. I talked to him about which of my files to keep.

Where is that SSD now? Who the hell knows. But it’s SOMEWHERE and I will find it.

#The saga of Devin and Myra #I will find their world #the notes have to be somewhere #it has to be SOMEWHERE #me #irl

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