ao3: elsie_ash (HP), EllisBett (Holmes etc) || ey/em/eir || AuDHD || not a minor || Harry Potter, ACD/Soviet Sherlock Holmes, who knows what else will catch my fancy
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If Your Scene Feels Lifeless, Someone Is Being Too Polite
Stories stall when everyone behaves. Real tension appears when someone:
• asks the wrong question
• says something they shouldn’t
• notices something uncomfortable
• refuses to drop the topic
• misunderstands something important
• interrupts at the worst moment
They want something REALLY REALLY REALLY bad, but for some reason they can't ask for it -- or can't have it even if they did ask.
They don't notice something that the audience HAS noticed (like in a horror movie when the monster is sneaking up behind the protagonist, or if someone drinks a glass of unboiled water during a cholera outbreak because they don't know about germ theory)
Takes a risk (or otherwise does something they "shouldn't" do) which the audience has to sit through for a prolongued period of time (e.g. slips away from the party to go into the host's private office and rifle through their papers before the guards catch them)
Current situation just reminded me! I think it makes some folks nervous or wary that I use the words "white supremacist" so casually. But it's because white supremacy is casual. It's so normalized that we don't even perceive it as such, so when I throw it around it feels like "is everything really-" I mean!
Not every white supremacist is a gun toting maniac! They might be the easiest one to spot, the most extreme example, for sure! Everyone's not that bad. However! It is literally in every act that believes, maintains, and perpetuates the idea that Whiteness is supreme, is superior. The idea that Whiteness is the default, the goal, the expectation. It often buries itself in and aligns with other bigotries!
Hell, even saying "I think that straight hair just looks better on all my Black characters", 👀 WHY do you think that? Do you think that's just something you've always believed? Or has it been reinforced?
Idk, I just think if we start pointing out how often things are racist and/or white supremacist in nature, just how casually we've incorporated it into our lives, anybody who doesn't wanna align with that can start going "okay, so, if this action does this, what else can I do that might be better?"
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Anyway, I find very funny that while Watson didn't wrote a lot about Holmes' addiction, he wrote it in a way that would call attention to it. And we can ask, why did he do that? And I think the answer is "because he wanted the readers to agree with him"
Which is funny because he never talks like that about his own gambling addiction
The only two times I can remember when he barely mentions it, it's when he says he has spent half of his pension in horse races and that time Holmes says that he keeps Watson's money under lock and key. And while this last one doesn't directly says that it's because of Watson's gambling addiction, we can assume thanks to his other comment about spending half his pension
THEN
It's very clear that Watson has a problem, and it got so bad that Holmes thought best to keep Watson's money away from him, since he can't be trusted with it. Maybe Watson was spending the rent money on horse races
But, why did he never brought it up like he did with Holmes' addiction? Easy peasy lemon squeeze, because Watson is not stupid; he knows that admitting that he has a problem will make him look bad. He knows that putting Holmes' addiction on display will make him look bad, and put pressure on Holmes to stop
Then we must also ask, what other things is he omitting or changing? Because he doesn't make an effort to make himself look smart, but he does make an effort to make Holmes look smart, even if it is at Watson's expense.
So he doesn't care to look smart, but he does care to look good? What other things is Watson hiding? Because the gambling thing wasn't so much brought up as it was a slip
Maybe Mary wasn't ok with her husband abandoning her to go away with another man, or perhaps his comment about enjoying committing crimes more than defending the law had something more to it than what it seemed at first glance? What else is Watson not saying?
We don't know, we can't know, but maybe good stupid Watson isn't as good or as stupid as everyone seem to think
I have the same problem now while reading the canon again, though on a different aspect.
I'm especially focusing on the homosexual background and as Watson of course couldn't write it down in an obvious manner, there are still hints.
But then this makes me wonder what is actually "reality" and what made up by Watson.
All these prefaces to cases when he is saying this like "Holmes is a brain without a heart" "he's so cold and emotionless" when he actually shows how empathetic and warm Holmes is. Is he saying that for society as a statement like "oh, look at this man, he's such an unemotional and distant person, he could never feel anything akin to love, so you don't have to worry about there being something between us"?
It really confused and intrigues me at the moment...
i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.
there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.
anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.
A Better World - create an alternate history timeline
Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game
Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet
Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games
Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones
Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy
Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface
The Cafe & Diner - mystery game
The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game
Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions
Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game
Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game
Miniconomy - player driven economy game
Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes
BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators
Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil
Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.
if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.
since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.
anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.
Games
A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.
corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.
Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.
Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.
Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.
sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.
Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.
Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.
The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.
Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.
The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.
Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.
Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.
The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)
Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.
Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.
EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.
You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.
The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)
Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.
Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.
ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.
PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.
Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.
Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.
PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike
Tools
Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)
Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.
Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)
Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.
PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.
Non-Games
Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.
Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.
17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.
Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.
The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)
Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)
Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)
If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.
r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.
r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.
thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.
The joy I feel when someone says "I wish there was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation that did This Thing", and there IS a Sherlock Holmes adaptation that does precisely This Thing, and I get to introduce people to my beloved Soviet Holmes.
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Writing smut without cringing the whole time? How do you do it.
Writing Smut 101: Overcoming Smut Shame
CONTENT WARNING: NSFW RELATED CONTENT BELOW.
The short answer, nonnie, is: you don’t.
That is to say, writing smut is always kind of cringe—especially if you’re new to it, or simply “not in the mood” to write.
But rest assured, feeling embarrassed is completely natural. The trick is learning how to overcome the cringe when it does happen, instead of letting it deter you.
I’m going to break this up into a few sections: 1) Why you might be feeling this way, 2) How I, personally, combat the issue, and 3) Some more tips that might help you get the ball rolling.
1. Why You “Cringe”
It’s important to find the root cause of any form of writer’s block so you can pull the weed out instead of just trimming it back. Smut writer’s block is its own special brand, and generally, the main issue writers have when it comes to smut is stigma.
Speaking openly and honestly about sex, in Western society, is still very much a taboo.
No matter how “progressive” we like to think we are, the inherent shame surrounding pleasure-seeking experiences, and the detailing/consumption of them, has been ground into us since we learned how to understand the concept of gratification.
And I’m not just talking about sexual gratification. This applies to everyday things, as well. Eating, shopping, relaxing (or doing virtually anything in capitalist society that does not directly contribute to capitalism).
So it makes sense that you would feel any amount of embarrassment, awkwardness, or “cringe” when writing smut. It’s something our society teaches us is wrong to want. Unfortunately, that shame translates to writer’s block when we sit down in front of the computer.
A lot of this blockage might stem from not giving ourselves permission to write the thing.
We’re staring at the blank document, knowing we want to write smut, and suddenly the thoughts start streaming in: This feels wrong, is this wrong? What if someone comes in and looks over my shoulder while I’m writing? Am I describing this right? Is this too unrealistic? I have NO idea what I’m doing, and everyone is going to know it.
These are all perfectly normal thoughts, and definitely ones I still have from time to time. But they’re also probably the direct cause of why you feel so blocked. Luckily, I have some bits of advice to give you on how to unblock yourself.
2. How I Combat Smut Block
✦ First, when the intrusive thoughts occur, instead of ruminating on them, think of each one as an impermanent object. You can use any metaphor, but I like to use the imagery of leaves:
Each negative thought is a leaf floating down the river of your mind. If you focus only on the leaf, you’ll exert a lot of energy running to try and keep up with it, consequently miss everything else around you. But if you acknowledge that leaf as a temporary part of the scenery, and let is pass, you can process and appreciate the beauty of your surroundings a whole lot better.
Remember: you are separate from your thoughts. You are not defined by them. The things you think sound stupid might be incredibly exciting to someone else.
If you can string a sentence together, you can write smut. This is all part of giving yourself permission to write the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable.
✦ Second, I’d suggest giving good thought to how you personally experience embarrassment, how you experience excitement (of the sexual variety), and how those two might sometimes commingle or feel similar.
For me, they are very comparable, like different shades of the same emotion—but there are differences which are important to note.
If I’m making myself blush from excitement, this is a very good thing for writing smut. It means that what I’m writing feels real enough to evoke something in the reader, even if the reader, like me, knows what’s going to happen.
If I’m making myself cringe, however, it may be time to take a step back and readjust my perspective.
✦ Third, ease yourself into it! Don’t jump straight in the deep end and expect to know how to keep your head above water if you’ve never swum before.
The way I eased myself into smut was first by writing “Steam”—a category of fic I made up because the current vocabulary lacked an efficient term for fics that straddled emotional romance and explicit content.
Essentially, steam is smut-adjacent but not explicit, and here’s a step-by-step example of how I transitioned myself smoothly from one genre to the next:
I first wrote my fics Wicked Game and You Are (both of which feature either a heavy make out session or teasing + lots of sexual tension) with this “steam” concept in mind.
I wrote the first chapter of Fine Line, which has brief but explicit descriptions of fantasies, framed by a very sexually charged scene.
I released my fic Crashing, which is probably more of a bridge between Steam and Smut, and features soft-focus fingering. Nothing in it is explicit—it focuses more on the emotions than explicit detail—but it’s very clear what is happening.
After I wrote those, I felt just confident enough to make that final stride over the threshold into smut. I wrote my fics Holy, King, and the second chapter of Fine Line all within weeks of each other.
And trust me when I say, once you get the momentum going and receive that validation from people who’ve read your work, it becomes SO much easier to sit down and start writing.
You just have to finish that first piece.
✦ Finally (and I know I’m going to sound cliche when I say this), just like any other skill, the more you practice the more confident you will feel and the better you will get.
So practice, practice, practice!
If you’re nervous about posting smut for the first time, have a trusted friend/mutual Beta read it for you. It’s the online equivalent to someone holding your hand before jumping off the cliff, and works wonders for the nerves.
3. Keep The Smut Rolling
Now that you have some tools to help get you past the blockage of writing smut, here’s how to keep the inspiration flowing.
✦ Start by incorporating smutty fanfiction/erotic fiction into your regular reading rotation-
Of course AO3 is a fantastic resource for smutty fanfiction.
If you’re a fan of TFOTA or ACOTAR and want some of my personal fic recs, visit my fic rec masterlist.
In terms of erotic fiction, my personal favourites are anything Anais Nin (specifically Henry & June and Delta of Venus), The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone, The Godwicks series by Tiffany Reisz, and The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz.
There are also sites like Literotica and sexstories.com, which play host to explicit short fiction (not fandom based).
✦ Next, I’d recommend having a designated digital space for smutspiration-
This can be a list of “smutty” words/phrases kept on a separate document on your computer, for those days when you just can’t think of the right way to describe something.
Or you can create a private side-blog or Pinterest board for your favourite smutty fanart or other kinds of visual smutspiration.
✦ For that matter, try following some smutty/18+ blogs (ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+) here on Tumblr-
Many of them have a plethora of what I like to call “lemony snippets”, a.k.a. short text posts that describe (usually in conversational language) explicit scenarios.
This is useful because it will normalise the concept of sexual fantasies in your brain, making it less weird for you when you try to come up with ones of your own to write into smut.
Not to mention, your dash will be rife with inspiration.
✦ I would also suggest checking out 18+ ASMR on YouTube (AGAIN, ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+).
My favourite account is Professor Cal Official, but Auralescent also has some good content.
Headphones are highly advisable for this, as their stuff is very dangerous for work.
So, nonnie, I hope this has provided you with at least one helpful tip. Whether you took anything away from this or not, just know that the feelings of embarrassment when it comes to writing smut are entirely normal. And the best way to keep those feelings at bay is to confront them head on.
“Are you a spirit?” I asked.
“Tch! It is extraordinarily hasty to wander into the realms of the preternatural on such scant evidence. You will find I am as corporeal as you.”
“I am not so certain about that, Holmes,” I said raggedly, unable to raise my voice to more than a whisper. “You have no pulse.”
Nothing Without my Boswell by FruitViking, teaspoonnebula. Such a beautiful fic about finding your way back to life!
Oh. I got so carried away by the fic that I forgot where from I learned about it. Then checked the tumblr app and yeaaaah now I understand what these gifs are about! They're great, and thank you for the rec!
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