mothman

yum

today my bf and i were talking about visiting my home for the holidays and i was (sadly) wondering aloud if i should cut my hair and our kid was like "why would you cut your hair??? your hair is cool" and not knowing how to explain it to him i said "my family doesnt think boys should have long hair" to which he went silent, wordlessly pulled out his phone and then swiftly held it out with a picture of keeanu reeves on his phone

EHAHDHAH

today my bf and i were talking about visiting my home for the holidays and i was (sadly) wondering aloud if i should cut my hair and our kid was like "why would you cut your hair??? your hair is cool" and not knowing how to explain it to him i said "my family doesnt think boys should have long hair" to which he went silent, wordlessly pulled out his phone and then swiftly held it out with a picture of keeanu reeves on his phone

the little dry leaves swirling around in a circle on the pavement look so happy

the breeze has stopped so they're having a nap now. all tuckered out from playing

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

i think people have gotten out of the habit of writing characters being untruthful unless they're evil. sometimes people just lie, or they believe and repeat things that aren't true. people just do not and often Can not tell the absolute truth about themselves all the time even during heated and climactic moments. why are you writing everyone being absolutely honest about their feelings!!

A character shown to be very self-aware and emotionally intelligent having a failure of that when under pressure or in conflict is incredibly dramatic. A lapse into previous maladaptive behavior is especially effective on me, because it is so believable, because I have been to therapy for ages and this STILL happens to me regularly. I have a character who is 47, has been in therapy for years, is doing really good, is aware of his weak points, is extremely honest. I get the genuine pleasure of putting him through shit that will ruin that. You can have your heavily-therapized characters AND conflict. Don't be afraid to break them. Let them have challenges that they fail. It's realistic, and it gives you somewhere to go.

oh my lord

oh my lord

adore this

i absolutely adore this