HIATUS

so it turns out if you can get a key to the money box on laundry machines if your apartment makes you pay for laundry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathoey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muxe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%27afafine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81h%C5%AB

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1820633,00.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/05/30/153990125/in-mexico-mixed-genders-and-muxes

http://www.nativepeoples.com/Native-Peoples/May-June-2014/Two-Spirit-The-Story-of-a-Movement-Unfolds/

http://theculturetrip.com/pacific/samoa/articles/fa-afafines-the-third-gender/

THE WESTERN IDEA OF TWO GENDERS IS EXACTLY THAT

WESTERN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_and_Judaism

SIX.

JUDAISM.

two of the six both mean woman (nekevah, meaning cis woman and saris, meaning trans woman) and two both mean man (zachar, meaning cis man and ay’lonit, meaning trans man). 

saris literally means “someone who was identified as male at birth but later is revealed to be female” and ay’lonit literally means “someone who was identified as female at birth but later is revealed to be male”. judaism has recognized trans people for thousands of years.

Elizabeth put her hand against the bark of a tree. “Did we take the wrong turn?”

But this was the clearing. Same pattern of trees, same bubbling stream.

“No,” I said. “This is it.”

Ten minutes ago there were tents set up, and there’s no way they could have packed them all up so fast.

“Did they leave?” Asa asked.

Fry stepped into the clearing. “They wouldn’t.”

“Then where are they?”

I bent down beside the stream. There was no reflection.

“Or where are we?”

Nut collector faerie

He collects nuts and makes talismans out of them.

flowers in mugs

• The drinks refrigerator at the back of the 7/11 near the disused steelworks.

• Mrs Laura Whitman's basement (God rest her soul).

• Any three tins of line and pole caught tuna, when left to spoil and arranged in an eastern pointing isoceles triangle.

• The area in [REDACTED] where the normal background static of the town becomes noticeably louder and no plants grow.

• The mathematical centre of the O'Donoghue corn field.

• The K-P aisle in the town library (excluding Christian holidays).

Flaws are circumstantial. 

Don’t try and divide your characters into “good” and “bad” traits and only punish them for the bad, but rather “strengths” and “weaknesses” that are relevant to how they fit into the particular scene and story.

Being a kind person is generally thought of as a “good” trait, or a “strength”, but there are times when kindness is a disadvantage. Maybe that character ends up with work piled on them because they want to lift burdens from others, maybe their offering to help a stranger gets them kidnapped, maybe they stop to rescue a turtle crossing the road at a blind corner and cause a car accident.

Are there traits that make sense to be labled “bad”? Absolutely– but stories shouldn’t rely on black and white interpretations of personality because people and circumstances aren’t black and white. Almost all traits are simultaneously a strength and a weakness, the degree of which depends on the situation the character is in. “Positive” traits can create poor outcomes for characters just as “negative” traits can fix or prevent problems for characters, and stronger stories work with both types of traits to create a true-to-life dynamic where “flaws” are all contextual. 

Because strengths and weaknesses are context-relevant, it’s possible for the trait to switch between a benefit or hindrance depending on the scene. A character with a compassion for animals may spend half the story benefiting from their care for abandoned pets, but that same trait can turn into a hindrance if they severely injure themselves trying to save an animal and it interferes with their shelter work. The trait isn’t “bad”, but it has consequences that aren’t always “good”. 

All of that ties into character agency. “Agency” is the ability for a character to make decisions that affect the plot, and agency should have consequences that can be either good or bad depending on the context of the choice. Even if a choice is coming from a “good” trait that’s primarily thought of as a “strength”, it can become a weakness if the story calls for it– and that call is made by the writer. Because we don’t tend to think of “positive” traits as potential weaknesses, it’s easy for stories to fall into series of punishments for “bad” traits when in reality there are consequences no matter the traits that a person has. 

The same trait that leads to a beneficial choice early in a story can lead to a poor choice later on. The same trait that caused a problem at first can help the character at the end. It’s possible for characters to grow and adapt as they face the consequences of their choices that stem from their traits, but it’s also possible that they don’t change (at least for one particular trait).

It’s not about making sure a character has “flaws”, it’s about structuring the story to show the consequences of traits that can help or hinder them depending on story circumstances. Personality isn’t divided into “good” or “bad”, but is a dynamic aspect of character that should interact with the plot to create consequences that can be all over the spectrum of “helpful” or “harmful”. 

Flaws in one situation are not necessarily flaws in another– and a story should reflect that for a strong mix of reality, tension, and well-rounded characters. 

Pumpkins

Apple cider🍎

🍎caNDy fUCking APples hOLY SHIT🍎

Pumpkin spice everything

Those LITTLE fucking pumpkins

HaLLoWËÉÑ

Big fuckin hoodies like now I can buy some big merch hoodie watch

Denim jackets you cover with patches

Cool fucking grunge tights bro we getting fishnets and shit

Sweaters

Witchy outfits

The whole world appreciating spookiness as much as you do

🦇🦇bats🦇🦇🦇🦇

Cryptids bro, spooky bro, everyone's themeing everything in spook and you're just in your 24/7 spook and suddenly it's spook time and your purpose has been fufilled

Everyone cosplays on Halloween

The tacky kind of Halloween shit like purple and orange and sparkly I fucking love

Appreciating the moon more

Horror movies all the time 🎥

Hot chocolate is back in season

Halloween fairs and haunted houses and shit

Apple/pumpkin picking

Those little fuckin sugar cookies with the pumpkins on them

CARVING PUMPKINS

Pretending to be a fairy in a cottage baking a shit ton of pasteries

Pies

Tea

Fall leaves fucking obviously

When the weather is just right

That sense of mystery autumn has

Witchy everything

Ghost hunting

Exploring abandoned/haunted locations

When I’m talking or writing in my own voice, I use a couple of words excessively: well, just, pretty. 

Everything is, “well, that’s just pretty great, isn’t it?” 

You probably have similar “crutch” words–words that you unconsciously favor. You can also call them “filler” words. Go-to words. They’re a big part of your voice. (That is, not the sounds you’re making, but the personality of your verbal and written communication, as well as your internal monologue.) 

Your crutch words probably won’t be the same as mine, but it’s not hard to figure out what they are. When you’re writing dialog, it’s pretty easy to let these words slip in, even if you’re aware of them. So that all of your characters will be repeatedly starting sentences with “well” and preferring “pretty” over “very” or “really.” 

Did two characters use “just” in their dialog multiple times on a single page, with no real purpose other than that it sounded more natural that way? Then that’s probably one of your words. 

Now, here’s where I may lose you for a moment. It’s okay if right now you’re thinking “so you want me to make my characters speak unnaturally?“

To you. Sure.

That use of your crutch word sounded most natural to you because that’s your natural voice, but it’s not you who’s speaking. It’s your character. Having all of your characters speak in your natural voice will make them all sound like you, which will make them all sound the same. 

It’s your job, as an author, to find these words and ask yourself: “is this the character speaking, or is this me?” 

If the answer is “oh no, this is me,” then delete the word. Sometimes it’ll be just that easy. “Well” can be deleted from the front of a sentence, and “just” can usually be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence, too. 

Other times, you may need to replace words, or even whole phrases. Think of who this person is, where they’re from, and what they know. If they don’t say “pretty good” do they say “decent?” Do they leave it at “good?” Do they say “groovy, man?” If they’re begrudgingly admitting it, they may say, “it was fine, I guess.”  

None of these choices changes how “good” the thing being described is, but they’ll have a subtle effect on the voice of your character. And when one character says “the show was fine, I guess” and the other character says “the show was groovy, man” your dialog won’t just convey what your characters thinks about the show, but who they are as people. 

And that’s what good dialogue does. 

Is it okay to give one character your crutch words? Of course. Unless you have a strong idea for their unique voice, your protagonist will probably be the one you’ll be lending most of your own voice to, as you’ll get the closest to not only their written and verbal communication, but their interior monologue as well. 

Give other characters their own crutch words and phrases. They’re a natural part of voice and language. If you’re struggling with coming up with another voice on your own, pay attention to the people you talk to. Steal them from your friends and family. Does your aunt begin every story with “oh, [your name], you don’t even know.” Have your protagonists’ aunt/neighbor/mom/whomever do that, too.