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comfyhome · 4 months

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// cw: mentions of nsfw, cannibalism, and if this escapes my target audience, vore ofc

hey! sorry for the long hiatus, but I’d just like to say something.

if you don’t understand sfw vore, that’s ok!! there’s no need to interact, and you can block me as you wish. but sending hateful anonymous accusations in my inbox .. really sucks? you don’t know anything abt me or my interests??

I’m sorry that this is how I return to this account, but jesus christ. it’s insane how everyone online has begun to romanticize stuff like cannibalism recently and they can recognize it’s fantasy + they know for some people it’s sexual and for others it isn’t, but when it comes to more taboo interests, vore is totally shunned.

this is the same stuff they did w that infamous asexual vore blog lol. this person was asexual and said their stuff was sfw and people still got on their ass about it. it sucks! especially when people refuse to have an open mind and instead resort to harassment.

I’m happy to talk to anyone who doesn’t understand my interests. explaining this stuff to anyone curious has become natural to me. I’m not hurting anyone — I haven’t even spoken to anyone on this account — and there’s large enough of a community of people online who enjoy this interest nonsexually that it’s just ignorant to say it’s a sex thing.

I’ve been interested in this stuff since I was a little kid. it’s really comforting and it’s gotten me through a lot of tough spots, even if that sounds silly. anyone’s free to enjoy my posts, and even if I let anyone interact, it’s incredibly rare that I’ll interact back anyways.

sorry for writing this whole thing. it’s just really bothersome that there are so many real threats out here on the internet and people still choose to target accounts who haven’t done anything at all. this account was made because I was comforted finding a space where there were people like me who enjoy this interest nonsexually like I do; trying to fit myself into the sexual side of it never felt right, and I grappled with that struggle a lot growing up until I realized this niche of the community existed.

thanks for reading and I hope anyone who did has a good rest of their day. feel free to dm or send an ask if you have any questions or inputs! :]

#confetti important #confetti talk

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awalkonthelightside · 1 year

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This is not something I'd hoped I'd have to write, but it seems that a few, some or indeed many of you aren't finding the way I post and present myself to be a wholly positive experience - whether it's by not having my age in my bio or the fact that I just post my own content.

I've touched on the age thing before however I've not really had to address why I post exclusively my own work on my blog, because I've mostly thought that people follow me for what I create (for better or worse).

I would firstly like to say that I'm always eternally grateful for everyone that likes and reblogs my work - as someone that creates things the feedback that I'm doing something right is what motivates me to continue. That said if any of you are reblogging my work (coming from an albeit well meaning intent) just to promote a fellow creator, please don't. I want people to post my work for themselves. I'm not here to be popular or to get as many likes as possible - I certainly don't make money from this - the few prints I've sold over the years hasn't come close to covering what I have put into this, and I'm certainly aware that what I create has a niche audience.

The most important message I try to portray in my blog, especially with the lingerie, is to try and normalise the overtly macho form of what can be considered masculine. That a certain body can be accentuated in ways that people don't usually see. As with the age thing, I want my blog to be very much about what I create, and not me as a person. I am probably not what most people expect me to be, and I really want the message to be accessible to everyone who needs it without being distracted by the person behind it. I follow a lot of beautiful creators out there with equally wonderful messages, however for the most part, they aren't quite the same message - it's not that I don't want to support their work I just feel that it would dilute the core message of my blog.

Having said all that if you feel that my blog is out of place with the standards you want for Tumblr, then maybe this isn't the platform for me.

I probably won't be posting for a while, whilst I consider everything.

Edit: I don't think the comments I've had have been trolling, and they were well meaning I think, so I don't want anyone to feel I'm attacking them if they read this. I just wanted to express myself in a way so that people could maybe understand my reasoning better

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homochadensistm · 21 days

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I'm not jewish, so i have no skin in the game and no right to center myself in i/p, but I'm against hamas, and I know it's insignificant and petty but everytime I see some really good artist or fandom blog or account and then after scrolling a bit I find pro-pally stuff and I just can't follow them anymore. I feel guilty when I like their post and fanarts. after the war in ukraine and the silence to overtalking of russian fandom blogs i gained the bad habit of checking the politics of a fanfiction writer or artist, but most of them wwre either silent anti russia at first before forgetting about it very quickly, but pro pally stuff is everywhere i can't avoid it. sometimes I wonder, maybe if it's just one or two post, or it's not that antisemitic, just misinformation propaganda for pity, maybe I can ignore it, but at the back of my mind I still wonder if they're pro hamas. it would be nice if they at least condemned oct 7, but it's always after that they post about palestine.

would it be acceptable if I just ignored the artist and enjoy the art? can you still enjoy art made by pro-pal or antisemites?

I also start to wonder if i'll still like art and fandom creators from china if it attacks taiwan where i'm from. also how the western left turned their back on ukraine and celebrated hamas terrorism on israel just makes me despair and think, would they blame us if china attacked, call us usa puppets? it once felt so ridiculous but now i can actually see it. i know he was fringe but there was some european politician that said taiwan's election results were us manipulations and the sheer fuck upness of that is just.

sorry for the long post you can ignore it, just wanted to ramble and your blog feels so cool, your humor is how I chill down from hating hamas fans and remember to not become an islamophobe or sinophobe when I know it does me no good and i can't do anything anyway but i'm to scared to post politics in my blog. if you take the time to read this, so that it won't be a complete waste of your time, please also add a donation site for jews you like that uses credit or visa instead of paypal, it probably can't be much but I will donate what I can. thank you so much for reading this

Ur so kind anon ty for sharing ur feelings with me. Personally I do consume media from ppl who think my death would solve all world problems, but thats mostly because I treat artists the same way I treat my mechanic or electrician - they make ha ha funny product or oooh pretty song product, and that is what I consume. I don't care if they say X or Y because I know they have no clue what they're talking about, so getting mad at them feels to me like getting mad at a child for saying or doing something retarded. It's not really "separating the art from the artist" but more akin to "separating the artist from all expectations of niche intelligence" lmao. I also know that if I started boycotting every idiot out there I'd be left with almost nothing to enjoy, so going "ill listen to ur song despite knowing ur an idiot" is very easy for me.

As for donations - idk of anything related to the diaspora, and donations for Israeli organization as far as I know don't have an international audience? Maybe some of my followers can recommend something. Thank you for ur ask and I hope u keep enjoying my nasty little blog, and that West TaiwanTM never attacks you ever ever (but if it will know that I will root for u and never support Xinnie the Pooh may God curse his name) <3

#israel #palestine

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olderthannetfic · 7 months

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I feel like people won't like this question but not knowing the answer bothers me, so here goes. I'm part of a small writing community and in my category (original m/m) I'm a really small author, getting one comment per chapter, while others have 100+ comments for the same amount of chapters. These are usually the type of stories that are darker with elements of rape and seme/uke dynamics and feature maffia bosses, sex slaves, hybrids, A/B/O and the like. These are not my cup of tea but I understand the id explanation and fully support it, I just don't understand how my id can be so different from the majority's.

My favourite dynamic is bad boy with a golden heart/fairly normal guy, so that's what I write most often and I thought this was a popular dynamic. Within that dynamic, my stories are pretty eclectic, I've got old butler/young groom, prince/court painter, ghost hunter youtuber/ghost, PE teacher/math teacher, I write about adults, teenagers, boys, girls, etc. What is it that's so appealing in maffia stories but not in mine?

Obviously I'm motivated by jealousy in asking this, but I hope I don't come off as too unpleasant or pretentious. I just don't understand what the barrier is that I can't step over, what it is that makes these other authors so popular. It's disheartening to realise I will never be as popular as them, and not knowing why. (Of course I know the obvious answer is to just write whatever makes me happy and don't think about popularity and numbers, find friends with similar tastes, etc., but I do that most of the time and in asking this, I'm just interested in how other people see the issue, what might be the reason behind the majority's taste.)

I think all of the writers in question can tell a story fairly well, me included, so I can only think the difference is in the topics we choose. (Also in sappy declarations of love and the characters constantly calling each other "sweetheart" and "my love" that sounds kind of cringey in my native language but I can't imagine people are not interested in my stories because they don't contain tearful love confessions. There's plenty of romance there, though less and less explicit sex.) So can anybody tell me what makes these darker topics so much more appealing? Maybe if I understood, I would be less bothered by it.

(You're also free to tell me I'm a wanker and to come off it, of course.)

Haha. Well... I think a certain amount of professional jealousy or at least insecurity is common, especially if you're hoping to pay your rent or gain clout or something and it isn't happening for you (yet). (I'm unclear if your original m/m niche is one where people are seeking money or not.)

I don't feel bad when other people are more popular because I know my shit is good. If it hasn't found an audience, it's partly because my marketing isn't good (or existent) or because it just takes time to find an audience. But a lot of it has to do with my native personality. I'm just not a jealous person, and I find jealousy odd and confusing most of the time. (Cue a bunch of fiction exploring jealous characters. Haha.)

There are some interesting side topics to discuss here, but your question, taken exactly as phrased, is basically about your own emotions and not about external reality.

It sounds to me from what you wrote here like maybe you're writing in your native language?

But if you are writing in English, watch out for little pitfalls like "heart of gold" vs. "golden heart".

Second... what do you mean "majority"? Do you honestly think that everyone, everywhere likes runny assholes and mafia rape?

If the community you hang out in all prefers a/b/o to what you like to write, your answer is right there: You have chosen to hang out with the wrong people, courting the wrong audience.

That says nothing about whether somebody somewhere else prefers lighthearted bad boy stories.

In the professional m/m novelist circles I've seen (the type where people only publish complete books, not serialized things), contemporary romance is one of the categories that sells best. I'm not an authority since I loathe contemporary, but it's so very, very popular, probably much more so than any given dark kink trope.

Third, Wattpad-style mafia stories, a/b/o, hybrids, and suchlike are easy to market.

They have very specific keywords that make it easy for aficionados to find that exact subgenre in order to consume five thousand more of the exact same thing.

Look at conventional romance novels: The most popular and enduring individual books are by Names and are often a little harder to tag, but a lot of what sells at the lower tiers is that "The Greek Billionaire's Virgin Bride" stuff where you figure the actual prose is terrible but it will deliver exactly the tropes you expect and want with no wasting time on shit you don't care about.

'Bad boy with a heart of gold' is fairly easy to tag too, but if that's the only keyword-y bit of your stories, that could be an issue.

If you're writing the sorts of things that live or die by tropes and you don't write explicit sex, that can also be a hindrance.

It's not that everyone wants explicit sex in their books, but if I'm looking for a high volume of average-quality stuff by kink or trope, I probably do.

This one's more idiosyncratic, but for me personally, if I'm picking up something that's less about delivering specific sex scenes or kink experiences, I probably care more about quality of prose and plot.

I absolutely have a double standard here, and that does extend to iddy-but-not-porny stories in many cases because something like really intense hurt/comfort just won't hit home well enough for me if it isn't up to a certain writing standard.

I also do not tolerate serialization for this type of thing very well where I probably would for a story that has a different fucked up kinky sex scene in every chapter.

Yes, I believe you that you can write a decent story. Can you write a great one?

Lots of the most popular books of all time have some romance without having a lot of soppy pet names or explicit sex, but they're also often a hell of a lot better at mystery or action or sweeping historical epic or charming sense of place or some other thing than I'm guessing these circles you run in are.

I could be wrong. You could be a brilliant writer. But I do wonder if you're hanging out in the right place or comparing yourself to the right authors to achieve whatever your goals actually are.

A related thing that occurs to me here is that writing about all categories of person is terrible branding.

It works if your selling point is your brilliant plots and prose, especially if you are traditionally published.

It works a hell of a lot less well if your selling point is tropey original m/m with easy keywords in an online context. Why would that audience suddenly want a f/f version of the same thing? They might, but they very well might not. If they like young protagonists, maybe they don't also like old ones. etc.

When people are filtering down and down and down by keywords, having a diverse oeuvre is not an asset unless you are head and shoulders above all the other writers around.

We can also talk about why people like darker tropes over lighter ones, but I think you have some assumptions and some marketing!fail to unpack here.

But the short version of my answer is that some of the darker tropes still have a lot of zing and inherent drama even in the hands of a mediocre writer, while a fairly banal contemporary romance setup needs a higher degree of skill to inject life into it.

Anyone else have thoughts?

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queer-ragnelle · 26 days

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Hi! I hope I do not bother you, but I'd like to ask a thing (if you already answered this in another ask I'm sorry) because you seem to be the most qualified person to answer. In a retelling, when how much is too much changing? I am writing two whole Arthurian fics and while I mostly mix and match from different versions there are some things I fully changed (one of the most egregious, for example, being Palamedes dying early in Post-Vulgate fashion and Safir as the one who slays the Questing Beast and the killing being an expression of vengeance instead of newly-found peace despite this definetely not being the case in the original text). I think what I changed works better for plot reasons but I am a bit uncomfortable with it, especially when it comes to characterization. But on the other hand there are so many different versions that I find it hard to say if I am ruining it or not because even in the canon plots and characters' personalities change a lot but I don't want to do something that ends up being "in name only". When is too much too much?

Hello! I don't know about being the most qualified person to answer, but I can certainly give you my answer! I've explained this a little bit before here and here, but can elaborate again for you, especially because I think those characters and that text in particular should be handled with care.

Before you determine what amount of reinterpretation constitutes the right balance, pause everything, and pinpoint your audience. Are you writing fanfiction for your own self-fulfillment and enjoyment? Maybe also for a handful of friends who share your ideas? In that case, there are no rules, do whatever you want. That's your space, your story, and you bear no responsibility to uphold some unquantifiable standard of characterization "accuracy." Fandom is your sandbox and you can build whatever castle you want! Be free!

The next thing to determine is what characters you're changing and why. Not all changes are created equal! For example, if you wanted to absolve Arthur of the May Day Massacre to write a more honorable King, it's not all that drastic a change. There are many texts, old and new, in which that narrative beat never occurs. If noble Arthur serves your story better than morally gray or evil Arthur, and it can be done without compromising the Arthurian fabric from which you sample, go for it. Alternatively, if you decided to incorporate additional violence into the story, especially if attributed to a character who had not previously done those things (such as rapist Gawain, ie, inverting his Maiden's Knight role he's known for), you're going to have a harder time selling the reader on it. Generally speaking, a positive or neutral change will always be easier to sell than a negative one.

This is especially important if you intend to publish something you write for a broader audience. That's a different matter, in my opinion. In that regard, the thing you create is contributing to an Arthurian body of work that's meant to stand on its own. Fanfiction exists in a writing niche which assumes a base knowledge from the reader, you may not necessarily explain what Camelot is, or what chivalry means, or who Palomides is. That's fine and dandy. It's for fun!

But with a published book standing alone on the shelf, the author is expected to establish the framework of the world their story takes place in. That may or may not align with "canon" and therefore maintain or depart from the expected. This is where your decisions as an author matter. While Arthuriana is anachronistic by design as a literary tradition that's evolved alongside its authors, the moment you decide on an era to write in (if you put a year to it or imply one based on what historical aspects emerge), you now bear responsibility to depict that as accurately as you can. Even if it's a mishmash of "Medieval" spanning a few centuries, it should still bare resemblance to the era. Particularly in our current political climate with constant misinformation and even disinformation spreading, it's important to do the research necessary to create something genuine so as to avoid misrepresenting the past and the people in it. For example I think it would do a disservice to an Arthurian story to ignore religion, particularly one about Palomides or his brother Safir. To write them as areligious is to ignore the role in the Arthurian narrative they were created for. They're Saracen, (even if Palomides converts in some versions), and to ignore the way religion and race interconnect in Medieval society would be disingenuous.

[Idols in the East: The Saracen Body by Suzanne Conklin Akbari]

And, more to your point, that aspect informs character. The stories define Palomides by his religion, by his race, and how that impacts him in the face of a rivalry with Tristan, a white Christian, for the love of Isolde, another white Christian. This isn't to say that you're obligated to depict racism, or to put the characters into situations that oppress and hurt them, but to write something "race blind" is to erase the character's identity, and that would be too great a change, for me personally, to get by.

That being said, if you're writing in 6th century Britain, your research might lead you to think, "Hey wait a minute, Islam doesn't exist yet! But Palomides and Safir are written as Muslims, so how can I stay true to both the era I'm writing in and the characters if that anachronism is built right in?" Well, that's where you have wiggle room to be creative! Perhaps they're Zoroastrians or follow one of the many Berber religions that existed at the time. Even Tristan could reasonably be written Pagan in this era, as he has in many retellings before you sent this ask. Maybe Tristan's Mithraic or Druid or Jewish and that in and of itself helps mitigate some of the tension between the characters as neither are Christian. All of this should be handled with great care, of course, but the point is that there aren't really straight answers about what changes are worth making.

Your discomfort in this isn't unjustified. I've been there. But it doesn't mean you're doing anything "wrong." It's not a crime to conceptualize changes. I had a lot of anxiety writing Ragnelle and her brother Gromer as Zoroastrians. But I went on to find an editor who studied the religion, and asked my Zoroastrian mutual for help, who put me in touch with a practitioner that agreed to beta read my books and inform me on my handling of it. There's no perfect story, but all you can do is give it your best effort.

I don't think it'll benefit you to worry about "ruining" the story with changes such as Safir pursuing the Questing Beast. That sounds awesome! And your plan about vengeance is baked right into the source material, as the Post Vulgate indicates that QB had killed all of Palomides's brothers before he finally defeated her, so your story has some textual basis in a medieval source. (Not that you need it to be "allowed" to write that, but it may help your anxiety to know!)

[Post Vulgate Quest for the Holy Grail: 87. Galahad and Bors Chase the Questing Beast and Meet Palamedes and His Father, Esclabor the Unknown.]

One other thing I'll point out is choosing the language you use matters a lot. You can have some characters behave a certain way toward Palomides or Safir or this "futile" quest that resembles historical prejudice while utilizing word-choice throughout that signals to the reader you, the author, know what you're doing and understand the nuances at play. Reading broadly will help you with this so much. Not just non-fiction for your research, but other Arthurian retellings as well. I personally didn't love Persia Woolley's handling of Palomides in her Guinevere Trilogy. He was referred to as "the Arab" throughout which seemed like a "lesser evil" placeholder for "the Saracen." It's usage acted as a generalized umbrella term to other Palomides and didn't indicate his area of origin beyond constantly reminding the reader that he wasn't white. (Whereas Gawain was "the Orcadian" and Lancelot "the Breton," which differentiated their white cultures from one another while homogenizing Palomides with every other Eastern person in the story as a monoculture.) Furthermore, many characters were afraid of him (I mean literally making the sign of the cross and hiding when he walked in the room), which isn't consistent with a Post-Roman Britain, in which the population would have been mixed. I prefer the handling of Numidian Sagramore in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles. Sagramore, as a Black man, is a part of Arthur and co's community, even if the Saxons themselves are unnerved by him. He's respected by the narrative. It's usually better to be specific (Numidian Sagramore versus Arab Palomides) particularly if that character is a minority and the word is leaving the mouth of a white character. This article discusses this aspect at length and really eased my own concerns depicting these characters and doing them justice.

[Saracens and Black Knights by Maghan Keita]

Here's another example of generalized versus specific language.

[Sword of Lancelot 1963: Merlin refers to "the Orient."]

[The Adventures of Sir Lancelot 1956: Merlin refers to "the Iberian Peninsula."]

So in my opinion, as long as you don't white wash Palomides or Safir and avoid writing them as "exotic" or "mysterious" or in some way barbaric in the pursuit of the Questing Beast, you're fine. Even in La Tavola Ritonda, Percival pursues QB for a time before Palomides picks up the quest, which is the opposite order in which that occurs in Post Vulgate where Percival and the other grail knights assist Palomides to defeat her at the very end. Many versions don't maintain the incest-monster aspect of QB from Post Vulgate either, like in Perlesvaus or Moriaen, she's just a monstrous creature and that's sufficient to tell the story the author has in mind. Even from a characterization standpoint, Malory wrote Palomides as volatile and melodramatic, having fits in the woods over his grief from which only Tristan could coax him out of, where in La Tavola Ritonda, Palomides is mostly chill and sweet, to the point Dinadan teases him for being a push-over haha! In regards to Safir, there's far less textual source material to base him off of than Palomides, so you have even more creative freedom! Literally the spectrum is so vast you can pretty much characterize however you desire if you keep in mind what the core of the character is and why that's important to their identity and the historical significance of that identity. (Even if it's something you have to bulk up, such as you will for Safir.) If you're ever unsure, it's never a bad idea to ask! Plenty of historians, or medievalists, Arthurian enthusiasts, or people of different cultures would love to discuss this subject. You might have to dig a little, but I can't imagine it'll be harder than my search for a queer Zoroastrian beta reader willing to read a trilogy-length Wedding retelling haha! It'll benefit your writing to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known so others can give you feedback. Share some passages with a trusted few and gauge their reactions. Read what other people have done and take notes about the way they chose to characterize Palomides or Safir—did [aspect] resonate with you? Or did [aspect] ring false? Exploitative? Hollow? Why? Then step back, take another look, and go from there. It's about vibes and can't be defined, but you'll know when you know.

Hope this helps. Good luck and have a nice day!

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blackplaaague · 7 months

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Just gonna say it. No explanations, nothing.

Dark romance is boring.

Seriously. I pick up something labeled "dark romance" expecting, like, love on the battlefield, and romanticized open heart surgery, and learning necromancy to return your deceased lover to life. I'm hoping for paranormal, gothic, extreme, fascinating tales about devotion and madness and passion. You know what I get?

"Generic cishet chad stalks a lady but she's fine with it because he's conventionally attractive."

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place or something, but that's basically the summary of everything I find. I want forbidden love and gothic elements, not a vaguely-romantic thriller about a love interest I'd like to see get kicked in the teeth. It just feels pretty bland! I know there are good books in this genre, but a lot of them just fall a little flat in my opinion.

If anyone knows any dark romance that can scratch the itch I'm looking for, please let me know. Just because you put a skull on the cover doesn't mean it's going to be a good, dark story, all the characters seem so bland in most of the booktok faves!

Disclaimer: I mean no offense to people who genuinely enjoy these books. I know they have their audience, and we all have our own guilty pleasures, and these books are a fun read for a lot of people. If you think they're fun, keep on reading. They're just not my niche, and I'd like to read stuff that's a little less romanticized stalking and a little more intense devotion and goth-ish.

#bp rambles

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snifferish · 10 months

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What do you recommend to upcoming streamers? (like my friends and I)

I’ll keep it real, it’s not as easy to grow right now as it was when I got popular, because everything’s gotten really over saturated. However, I don’t think that means you shouldn’t try.

Short form content (tiktok, YT shorts) is the best to make rn to promote yourself. A lot of these platforms prioritize original content though, so just doing stream clips won’t really work.

As for streaming, don’t focus on numbers too much. I know people say that a lot, but I think it’s more important that you focus on building a genuine connection and community with your audience because that’s what keeps people staying.

Also, find your niche, everyone has something they’re good at or passionate about and exploring that in your content creation is important.

I’m not really the best at advice, but I hope this helps!

#snifferish #lgbt streamer #streamer #asksniff #mcyt

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fizzigigsimmer · 9 days

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Modern Au or Na?

I have been doing research on dance conservatory schools and ballet culture in the 80s & 90s for the Harringrove Ballet!Au. I was hoping it would help me decide between the two decades but I think I'm more torn than ever on what time period to set this fic in.

On the one hand, there's so much opportunity for modern dancers and social media has really changed the artform, making it more accessible, making space for smaller companies while centralizing the health and well being of the dancers. And I love love LOVE that (for the most part) dancers today feel free to be out and proud to their audience, even if there are still many walls to take down when it comes to queer visibility on stage. I can really see Billy (as well as Steve) flourishing in this setting. Struggling in that "don't ask don't tell" era of the closeted 90s, learning to embrace himself as a student and going on to have this dynamic and colorful career as an adult in the 2000s where he can express himself unapologeticly through his choreography, and be a part of what was pioneering a new era of queer visibility in dance.

And even if the dance world is not as elitist or as "cut throat" as it was even just a few decades ago, there are still so many pressures on young dancers, their bodies, their mental health, and the competition is still fierce. Some of these kids are joining professional companies right out of highschool, moving to big cities at 18-19 years old and feeling the pressure to prove they're "where they belong" alongside managing an apartment and independence for the first time. And if they fuck up, they may not get another chance.

On the other hand, ballet culture of the 80s is turning out to be really fascinating. Inspiring as well as tragic for all the reasons that I am sure you can imagine. Because on one side of it you had the aids crisis and all the bullshit that required male dancers to maintain and defend their public image as straight masculine males; but on the other you had this unique space, that was heavily influenced by queer culture and has always been a niche avenue for queer men and women to be celebrated and rise to success (so long as the public could politely deny their queerness).

A space where straight and queer individuals worked intamitly, and within the bonds of the company a queer person could be known and live relatively openly. The "open secret" kept politely by their friends and colleagues. They lived and worked together, and they lost together as the aids epidemic rocked through their community, taking lovers along with friends and mentors. It makes me excited to develop Mrs. Harrington and explore her relationships with her students as well as Steve. It makes me excited to explore the tensions and relationships of the teens, who would be coming of age in this strange insular bubble celebrating new thoughts and ideas about life, right in the middle of conservative Indiana.

Billy would not expect to be able to find that kind of acceptance he finds in the dance world, especially when he leaves California. And it would be really interesting to explore his transition from the street scene of San Deigo, to this new elitist space where he can achieve incredible heights, receive honors from the president and standing ovations in packed out theaters, with a partner in the wings while being left in peace - just so long as he's willing to keep his head down and play by the rules.

I think Billy would really struggle with the hypocrisy of these privileged spaces, along with classism, body dysmorphia, homophobia, the performance of masculinity etc. Not to mention having to keep duel identities between his public and private life. These are all issues that are hinted at but barely touched upon in the canon, so it would be really rewarding I think to really be able to lean into it and give them a proper exploration.

LOL so writing that all out I think I am leaning towards keeping the 80s setting. But IDK, I'd be interested in hearing any other thoughts if you have them.

#harringrove #plot bunnies #harringrove ballet au #research #plotting #discussion #ballet #history

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venbetta · 3 months

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I took some time and actually watched Hazbin Hotel... I watched the pilot 6(?) years ago, and seeing the hellfire commentary from Twitter made me reluctant (rightfully so I guess).

But I say it was pretty alright. I feel like I have some complaints. I'm not a diehard fan at all, nor do I see myself in the fan base, but I feel like I can add my own input, I guess. These are my opinions and personal reasons, please be nice.

Spoilers/commentary beneath the cut (16+)

For starters, I think the concept is good, I like some of the designs for the characters, especially since they improved from the pilot.

I think I have at least 3-4 favorite characters, ranking them from my most fave:

Lucifer, Alastor, Vox, and Nifty.

... I didn't like anyone else. I'll probably explain that.

The only reason why I liked these four was mostly cuz they had some funny bits to them. I told my friend that Lucifer reminds me of Hunter from TOH??? And I said "Maybe it's cuz their both blonde and depressed." Lucifer just has that appeal for me. Vox didn't have much screentime, but I like his niche design and voice. Alastor is also cool. Nifty is just a cute gremlin that I fuck with honestly. Good for her. Everyone else I either didn't care much for or straight up didn't like...

Charlie annoyed me a lot, I know she's the MC, but I didn't like her. I get that she's supposed to be good, but her behavior in some scenes bothered me. Like in Ep4, I understand she was coming from a good place, but I couldn't help but feel agitated. I can't explain it. She has a savior complex which is her flaw, and maybe I just don't exactly understand it.

Of course, she's not the worst character (looks at Valentino and Adam), but she could improve. There were a few characters that I feel should've been written better, but the pacing made it hard.

I feel like the pacing was something I didn't like, but I can't blame it since it only has 8 episodes. The writer in me deflated seeing how fast things moved along, but I get why they sped it up towards the end. I wanna ramble about how the show could have gone if it had 24 episodes- but that feels like another post. Also, another thing that irked me were characters word vomiting.

Again if this show had more time to explore each individual character, it wouldn't have happened. I thought ep 4 with Angel Dust pouring his heart had good intentions to tell the audience that he's fucked up, it could've been built up more (if there were more episodes) until he finally blew up, similar with Husk. It's different because it's an animation, but you can still show and not tell visually about someone struggling. That's just me.

The excessive swearing isn't funny, I didn't find myself laughing that much except for Ep 8: Adam telling Lute to chill the fuck out, Alastor's mic breaking, and Lucifer saying "I'm gonna fuck you!" are the only bits I found funny. I've laughed at dumber things (my sense of humor is garbage, I'll laugh at a waffle falling over), but I didn't find most of the jokes funny.

I knew it was a musical, and I love musicals, but there weren't many songs I vibed with. Maybe a few, but not a lot. I'm a music person, and the songs just didn't feel right? Like the lyrics either felt awkward or general direction of the song didn't feel cohesive. I think I only like 4 songs in total.

The VAs were great, I recognized a lot of them, and I enjoyed their performances. They all fit their characters.

The animation was good for what was originally an indie project, and I hope the animators/artists were properly compensated. I know there was a lot of shit going on about Vivi allegedly not paying them but regardless, they did amazing.

I'm gonna be serious and say I feel like I didn't want to give HH a chance because I just didn't exactly care about it. My friends watched it. I saw Twitter's scolding opinions and hottakes on it, and I didn't want to hate watch it. But I was still curious. While I wasn't laughing through most of it, I think it's good. There's a lot that I'm trying not to say or get into because that would derail my commentary and make it about other discussions I'm not fully knowledgeable about...

I sailed the seven seas to watch this show, and I say it was sort of worth it. Again, I'm not a crazy fan, but anyone that likes it, good for you.

#PLEASE IM JUST RAMBLING #THESE ARE MY OPINIONS DONT KILL ME #hazbin hotel #commentary #ven speaks #text post

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us-laws-you-should-know · 5 months

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About The Blog

The short version is:

This blog is to bring awareness to American laws that affect a significant portion of the US population, but that many Americans may not know the details of.

More details about what this blog is, what it isn't, and who's running it below the cut.

What this blog is:

It's about United States laws specifically. Sorry non-Americans. Hey, if this inspires you, I fully encourage you to set up a similar blog for your own nation or area! But fifty states plus federal law is plenty for me.

It's about things that affect a big chunk of the US population. Labor law will definitely come up time and time again, because for something that affects lots of Americans there's a lot of ignorance of the law, or outright misconceptions, floating around about how labor law works. But it won't just be labor law, either. It just can't be too niche of a topic; I want there to be a decent chance that, without specifically tailoring a post to any individuals out there, the audience will include a number of people affected by the laws being cited.

It's about the factual state of the laws in question, as of the time I make the post about them. I'll do what I can to cite sources, especially direct sources, where possible.

What this blog isn't:

This isn't political. We're not taking a stand on whether the law is right or wrong, just presenting what it currently is.

This isn't a news source. Updates might happen, if and when they feel needed. But there's always a chance outdated information will be posted, especially if you're looking at older posts.

This isn't necessarily how the system actually works. Sometimes, people and organizations break the law (citation needed). Sometimes it happens enough that breaking that particular law becomes commonplace in a whole industry or area. Sometimes those breaking the law set things up so that whistleblowers who point out their illegal activities won't do so well afterwards. Sometimes some or all of the individuals involved don't know that what's happening is against the law in the first place. (But as the old saying goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse... which is one reason I hope to reduce that ignorance through this very blog!) "Illegal" is not a synonym for "doesn't happen".

This isn't a business, or a government service, or a registered non-profit. I'm one person sharing some information in my free time, that's all. If you like what I'm doing... well, I did turn tipping on. Maybe I'll break out a Kofi too.

This isn't legal advice. I am not a lawyer, and I am definitely not your lawyer. If the laws presented here affect you, I strongly encourage you to do your own research, and/or contact an actual lawyer, before taking action. Heck, if this blog gets people poking around government websites to find out the details of the laws featured here, that's a win in my book.

About The Blogger:

I may not be a lawyer, but I do work in the legal system. Specifically, I'm employed as and trained to be a paralegal. My usual definition of what paralegals do is "everything lawyers do, except for the things that only lawyers can do", which is a little opaque, so allow me to expand upon it a bit:

Imagine a lawyer at work. Think of all the things that must be done for the practice of law. Going to court and going in front of the judge, sure. Giving clients legal advice, of course. Communicating with the other side, and with clients, and perhaps even with the court. Filing documents. Organizing documents. Researching whether the law's on your side or not. Meeting new clients and getting together the details about their case.

Now, the big two things there that only lawyers can do are representing someone in court and giving legal advice. But the rest of it--letters or phone calls to opposing counsel, or clients, or even the judge; filing documents with the court; organizing documents (so much organizing documents); new client intake; even legal research--can all be done by paralegals, and in practice, a lot of it often is.

I specifically work in the field of family law, though unfortunately a lot of that is likely too niche and too variable to fit into this blog's posts, and have experience with the laws of two different states within the field of family law.

So I'm just another tumblr blogger, yes, but I actually do know a bit about the legal system, both in theory and in practice.

#about me #faq #pinned post #pinned intro #intro #intro post #blog intro

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izloveshorses · 7 months

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🎇

I feel really embarrassed about asking this but...

How do you write smut without feeling really embarrassed about it

✹ wildcard - ask any other question you have!

thank you for asking this!! first of all, i am embarrassed about it, so so so embarrassed, let me make that clear 🙈 every time i click publish, i'm like

but it's a small fandom, someone has to do it. and it's kinda fun once you get used to it. being able to write it has been... idk, freeing? it's allowed me to explore facets of these characters that i haven't felt comfy exploring on main before. and i feel like a whole slew of creative opportunities have opened up, and i feel a little braver attempting to try them out. once i got comfortable with it i kinda feel a little unstoppable now ngl.

while i'm by no means an expert on writing smut (absolutely not an expert asdlkfh), here are a couple tips that have helped me feel braver and might help you do the same:

this isn't a very productive piece of advice, but when i first published explicit smut i just kinda.... turned my brain off and blacked out until i was done typing lol. like i just drafted something from beginning to end without stopping, because if i slowed down or stopped in the middle and started thinking about how embarrassing this was i would never finish it. i still do this tbh. getting over this little mental embarrassment is the first and most important step, everything else follows.

read smut. i know everyone has different tastes and stuff, but exposing yourself to the language used helps sort of desensitize you in a way.

imitate what you like to read. as a continuation of the previous point: read smut, yes, but read smut you like. what about it is good and memorable to you? take note of the way it's written, how explicit it is, the language used, etc. don't like copy it word for word, but just pay attention to the style and start asking yourself why you like it.

like with any creative hobby: practice! write bad drafts!! write stuff that will never see the light of day!! the more you practice, the more comfy you'll get writing things you want to share.

remember that whatever you write will find the right audience. folks want to read it! and they are very happy you typed it out and published it for free!!

sometimes i start wondering if what i'm writing is Cringe, because the only thing more mortifying than writing smut for a niche fandom is writing bad smut for a niche fandom, but someone once said that what excites you as a writer most likely excites your readers, too. lean into that.

also. if you start thinking what you write is Bad or Cringe, just remember. jj abrams and a whole table of Professional people decided to make a star wars sequel trilogy without even bothering to write an outline first. the bar is literally on the floor. <3

Hope this helps!! if anyone else, perhaps someone more versed in this matter than myself, has any words of advice, feel free to drop them below <3

fic ask game!

#asks #Anonymous #ask games #fanfiction #my writing #smut #this is a great question anon!!!

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goodluckclove · 18 days

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Hi, I hope you're doing well! ☺️ I was wondering if you have any tips on growing a writing account here on Tumblr? I want to post more things on my second account that I'm using for my fiction writing, but I'm not sure how to go about navigating tumblr's writing community and the right tags I should be using. 😭 So any tips/advice would help. Thank you. 🙂‍↕️🫶🏽

I feel really weird doing this, but I actually have professional insight into this sort of thing - I mean, professional is a strong way to put it. I was a social media manager for maybe four years for a few nonprofits. I wasn't really good at my job, but I did a lot of research and I was usually the youngest person on the team so people assumed I knew what I was doing. Good tip for young people here looking for remote work - if you look like you know how to use Instagram, there is a local nonprofit that will probably pay you to run their Instagram.

Uh anyway, I'd say it comes down to consistency, interaction, and finding your audience. I started this blog to sort of build up a presence online as an indie author before my first book comes out (A terrible thing all authors apparently have to do now), and while I planned to branch out to other platforms I've since changed course. I was looking for the platform that I believed had the most people that would at least be interested in what I write about, and I know that's this side of Tumblr. Legitimately all the aspec people all here. I refuse to try and break into BookTok.

But I also just love the community here. I found my niche, which is mainly badgering my fellow writers into sitting down to work and then singing their praises from the rooftops when they do. People like it, and since it's literally something I've fantasized about doing for years I enjoy doing it and it therefor comes across as genuine (I hope).

Maybe your niche is different. It could be drawing fanart of people's OCs, sending funny asks, or just providing fun comments to their posts. All of this draws attention. If you can draw attention in a way that other people aren't, the attention will be drawn to you.

Other than that, it takes time and requires consistency. You should post fairly regularly so you keep popping up in feeds. My platform has grown in a way that won't break records, but I consider buck wild for how long I've been here. I do acknowledge though that building a presence is a part of my job right now, so I can dedicate a lot more time to it.

In short, be normal. Be cool. Be there, taking part of the community somehow. For most posts I tag #writeblr, #writing community, and #actually writing, with other tags more focused on the specific content. I will be honest and say I'm not sure how well that works in my favor.

Good luck!

#writing asks #writing tips #writing resources #this felt weird to talk about #oh man check your analytics and shit too #barf

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johannestevans · 3 months

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Where is the best place to get started posting original erotica? I have written a few things I think other people would enjoy but it's also quite niche and heavy on the kink and I don't know where is actually kink friendly and sex positive instead of just claiming to be kink friendly and sex positive. I would like to stay somewhat anonymous with it too.

It depends on the kink, your desired audience, and if you want to get paid, pretty much.

There are various erotica publications - Bare Back magazine will pay $3 a piece, and I'm sure there are more you can find on ChillSubs. There are various erotica publications on Medium - I run Trans Erotica, for example. Once you build more of an audience, depending on the kink, you might want to try Patreon - or SubscribeStar. I know some people sell things on Itch.Io and such as well.

Then there's Ao3, there's Literotica, there's Hentai Foundry: none of these are paid sites, and their audiences differ. The latter have way more straight people on them and are cishet-run, cishet-dominated platforms, but they each have some normal people as well.

There's, I don't know, SoFurry or F-List if you write furry or furry-adjacent kinks.

Pretty much anywhere you'd submit to would allow you to use a pseudonym. You've used words like "kink heavy" and "sex positive" but like, these are vague terms that don't tell me what you're actually worried about.

You might be heavy on spanking as a kink, for example, but you can publish that anywhere and have 0 problems whatsoever - if you're working with more taboo or frequently banned subjects like consent play, erotic hypnosis, substance use, gore or guro, rape, violence, underage, incest, certain beast stuff (I don't just mean if you write bestiality, I also mean if you just write monsters of the Wrong Sort for some places' guidelines), etc.

This is not really a question I can choose the right answer for you, Anon, as I only do what I do and don't know what your set-up or preference is - I would recommend that you look into the various sites I've mentioned or look up similar ones and decide for yourself what best suits your purposes. Hope the list helps!

#anonymous #musings

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literaticat · 5 months

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Pardon me if Im not understanding re: that big breakout ask, but why wouldn't all editors always want books they believe could be big breakouts? It doesn't serve anyone if they're sure the book would be small, does it? It's another thing if they bet on the wrong horse but I sort of assumed that no one would buy or rep anything they don't think could be huge. Is that wrong?

ICYMI, the asker is referring to this question from a few days ago.

Yes and no? I would say all editors (and agents) would like for their books to be successful, of course -- but "success" can be measured in lots of ways, and there are lots of TYPES of books and readers in this wide world of ours. Different imprints/publishers have different needs and expectations.

If a publisher is publishing, IDK, highly literary or esoteric works, "success" would look like getting some good reviews from the right kind of literary or cultural figure, and becoming lauded by cognescenti -- they aren't TRYING to mix around with hoi polloi.

If they are publishing books about some niche topic, they are hoping that everyone who could ever want to know about that topic will get the book, but they aren't expecting that to be literally EVERYONE.

Some publishers, on the other hand, really focus on highly commercial books for a mass audience -- thrillers, romance, fun fantasy -- the kinds of books you see not only at bookstores, but at the airport, big box store, supermarket. There's nothing wrong with that AT ALL, hooray and more power to them -- but you can totally understand why expectations would be a little different for that kind of book than for say, a book of children's poetry about glow worm habitats. Even if the glow worm book exceeds expectations -- it's simply not gonna be sold by the dozen in the airport.

But the publisher always knew that the glow worm book would have a more limited audience and would not be a "huge" book. (That's why the glow worm author got a much much much lower advance than the highly commercial romance author!) -- The agent knew. Hopefully the writer understood that, as well. NONE of them were watching the bestseller lists waiting for glow worm to show up. Should they not have published it at all? Nah. Success just looks different for different kinds of books!

(Success in the glow worm's case is a long-term thing. Success means it gets a starred review or two, maybe wins an award, it gets on some state lists and over the course of years finds its way into school curriculum and stays in print for ages and ages and teaches lots of kids about the power of the glow worm. Maybe it becomes your kid's FAVORITE book? Maybe it inspires little Matilda to become a poet and scientist? It finds its audience. But it's simply never going to be selling on par with Colleen Hoover!)

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pinkchaosstories · 11 days

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You said you want an people and audiences to share ur work with, also thanks for the tag! Tell us about ur characters pls, who’s ur favourite, who do u think about that most?

I hope you find that home soon.

Hugs! Juno <3

Juno, you're literally the sweetest for this ask. Thank you!!

I have 4 main characters in Blood and Thorns, and they're all my children and I don't have a favourite (def. lying).

(Left to right: Rosalind, Marcus, Razi, and Frigga - chapter 13 of Blood and Thorns)

Frigga Thorneheart is the main character of the first book, and she's just the sweetest, femmyist lil thing. Physically little, she's like 5'2" lol. And she's supposed to inherit leadership of her coven, but she really doesn't want to. She wants to frolic in the grass and make flower crowns and do lesbian things! She's a prodigy and studied Illusion magic when she was away at school (which is thought of as very complicated and niche in this universe because of how it interacts with the brain), but she also picked up a herbalism hobby, surprise surprise. Unfortunatly, she's a people-pleaser, so she has a really hard time voicing her needs to anyone, something I have never ever ever had an issue with myself. Wouldn't know anything about that, nope. 😬

Razi Wood is the other main character and Frigga's love interest. So butch, so hot, makes incredible bread. She's non-magical servant, so Frigga's falling in love with her is sort of a bad idea. But Razi's a charmer, she's got the rizz (as the kids say apparently?), and she hates the bourgeoisie which is probably the hottest thing about her honestly. She's independent and lives by herself in one of the servants' quarters at Thorneheart Manor because her father passed a few years ago, but she's also guarding a broken heart and using that independence as a shield. Let's just say: trust issues, but we see some character development in the first book when she makes her decision. Razi is probably the best point of view to write from because she really is no-nonsense and doesn't put up with rich-people's bullshit, an attitude I admire and hope to exemplify one day.

Marcus Magnus-Monroe is the non-magical son of the coven's benefactor and is the person Frigga gets forced into an arranged marriage with. He doesn't know that, and if he did, he'd immediately call things off. He started out as an uncomplicated guy, and he's the sort of character you don't see very often because he had a wonderful childhood growing up, his parents were both great people and treated him so well, and he doesn't have any real trauma from before the age of like... 20? He's thought of by his social circle as a bit of an airhead/bimbo, and he got that reputation because of the way he behaved from the age of 20-23 (party boy, chronic man-hopping, here for a good time), but after his mother's passing at 23, he calmed down (after being smashed for a year) and got into the Family businesses. He's just a sweetie, the truest incarnation of the Golden Retriever Bisexual Boy there is, and he's so much fun to write.

Rosalind Bloodswell was the last character to be created for Blood and Thorns, and their creation fundamentally changed the story because they quickly became way too interesting for their own good. They were originally going to be a man, but I ended up putting them in the NB category for a lot of reasons. They're the Heir to Frigga's Family's Enemy Family, the Bloodswells which is a clan of necromancers. The family isn't popular, but not because of the death magic. They're thought of as conspiracy theorists, which Rosalind has done their best to distance themself from. They're the quiet, withdrawn type, the dark horse of the story, but behind the prickliness and the concrete walls they've constructed to keep everyone out, Rosalind is a sappy romantic that has been in love with a certain Golden Somebody for years. Rosalind is the reason Blood and Thorns has become a series rather than a one-off book, and out of my shorts, 90% of them feature Rosalind in some way.

This group of characters occupies approximately 90% of my brain's ram. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they embody two of my favourite relationship tropes (femme/butch and sun/moon), but I think it's such a fascinating group of opposites that I can't help coming back to them over and over! I just finished the second draft of Blood and Thorns: Restructure, which centers on Rosalind and Marcus the way that the original one focused on Frigga and Razi, so after I take a little break, I'm going to write the first draft of the third one: Blood and Thorns: Otherworld - which will feature the four of them equally (I hope). I'm excited to explore different aspects of these characters (Rosalind alone, Frigga when she was at school) as well as dynamics between characters that I've barely been able to glimpse at (Razi, the anti-bourgeoisie commoner, will have to team up with Marcus, one of the richest men in all of Ozelea (the country), and Frigga's friendship with someone we know very little about from school).

Thanks for giving me an excuse to gush about my kids! I hope you enjoyed <3

#writing community #ask #my art #original fiction #original characters #blood and thorns #frigga thorneheart #razi wood #rosalind bloodswell #marcus magnus-monroe #free to read

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