dead blog

A aeipathy (n.) - an enduring and consuming passion aleatory (n.) - relying on chance or an uncontrolled element in the details of life or in the creation of art alharaca (spanish, n.) - an extraordinary or violent emotional reaction to a small issue anacampserote (n.) - something that can bring back a lost love antiscians (n.) - people who live on opposite sides the world, “whose shadows at noon are cast in opposite directions” áoyè // 熬夜 (chinese, n.) - to pull an all-nighter   appetence (n.) - an eager desire, an instinctive inclination; an attraction or a natural bond aranyhíd (hungarian, n) - “the golden bridge”; the reflection of the sun as it shines on water aspectabund (adj.) - letting or being able to let expressive emotion show easily through one’s face and eyes asterismos (n.) - “marking with stars”; a word that gives weight or draws attention to the words that follow aswium // 아쉬움 (korean, n.) - the mingled feeling of disappointment, frustration, and regret that results from an unsatisfactory situation atermoiements (french, n.) - distractions or hesitations leading to procrastination avos’ // авось (russian, n.) - blind trust in sheer luck

B balter (v.) - to dance artlessly, without particular grace or skill but usually with enjoyment basorexia (n.) - the overwhelming desire to kiss bilita mpash (bantu, n.) - the opposite of a nightmare; not merely a good dream, but a blissful state where all is forgiven and forgotten brontide (n.) - the low rumble of distant thunder brumous (adj.) - of grey skies and winter days; filled with heavy clouds or fog b’shirt // באשַערט (yiddish, n.) - “destiny”; referring to the seeking of a person who will complement you and whom you will complement perfectly

My brain: Just skip it? Scenes can be written in non-chronological order.

Me:

There you are, minding your own business, writing your story, when suddenly…

Bam. An amazing idea for your plot hits you out of nowhere. You can see it now. Your novel will be the new bestseller, with publishers lining up, begging to print your book. But what about that scene/chapter/half your book that you worked so hard on and was so great?

Copy. Cut. Paste. Keep your deleted scenes, deleted characters, dialogue that you thought up in the middle of the night that won’t fit anymore.

Why?

• Your book can’t tolerate a scene that doesn’t actively work for the plot. Get rid of it.

• BUT maybe you’ll change your mind

• Or you can reuse it for another story, move it to a different spot, etc.

1. you can't stop

Second thing I want to say is that it is not possible to create fiction that is universally good for people’s mental health.  Tumblr fandom tends to treat certain mental health needs as implicitly the most legitimate, and inherent universal needs, but it’s way more complicated than that.  Many people will absolutely thrive on stories of loving, supportive families, while some people will need to avoid them due to their specific family history.  Some people are helped by reading about characters they enjoy practicing healthy communication and getting positive results, while other people might come away hearing, “Everyone can do healthy communication and get helpful responses if they try hard enough, so therefore the problem must be you screwing it up!”   Some people might find “Destroy the evil abuser” revenge fantasies a helpful way to process anger, while other people might find they do more harm than good.    A lot of people find stories of a character being gently nurtured by someone else, while some people have negative associations with other people trying to take care of them and have bad psychological reactions to these stories.  (And let me tell you, if you have a bad associations with soft pastel nurturing that mean it can put you in a bad headspace, Tumblr can be pure hell.)