:)

ilya destroying that plate of spaghetti right before this sweet moment is so fucking funny to me. especially since the actor was actually eating the spaghetti

every character’s first line should be an introduction to who they are as a person

even if you only wrote one sentence on a really bad day, that’s still one sentence more than you had yesterday

exercise restraint when using swear words and extra punctuation in order for them to pack a punch when you do use them

if your characters have to kiss to show they’re in love, then they’re not in love

make every scene interesting (or make every scene your favorite scene), otherwise your readers will be just as bored as you

if you’re stuck on a scene, delete the last line you wrote and go in a different direction, or leave in brackets as placeholders

don’t compare your first draft to published books that could be anywhere from 3rd to 103rd drafts

i promise you the story you want to tell can fit into 100k words or less

sometimes the book isn’t working because it’s not ready to be written or you’re not ready to write it yet; let it marinate for a bit so the idea can develop as you become a better writer

My parents threw away all of these things (even the vacuum cleaners and the dryer) when they got too dirty to function, because no one even told them THAT they could be cleaned. Cost them thousands of dollars over the years.

All I'm saying is that cleaning is not intuitive, and not knowing how to clean is not a moral failing, but it is something you can learn.

When Shane’s dad walks in on them, and Shane is terrified beyond belief, Ilya offers to go with him to talk to them together. Shane asks if he would really do that and Ilya looks him right in the eyes and says “of course” in the softest, most reassuring voice you could imagine. Its not a question to him. He wants to be there for his partner. Its intrinsic.

And Shane, when he gets to his parents house, already on the verge of a panic attack and wanting to run out the door, when questioned by his mother who says “but you hate him”, looks them dead in the face and says “no, actually, I love him.” Like they are both so sure and so solid and so real about it.

In My Dinner With Hayden (which you should read), all Ilya is thinking about is how nice it is that he gets to be a real couple with Shane, having guests at their home. Ilya doesn’t like Hayden, doesn’t want to share the little time he has with Shane, but he does because he knows how important it is to him. He stands by him and chops parsley and kisses him in the kitchen before serving a home cooked meal to their guests.

When Shane and Ilya are talking about their relationship to Hayden and Jackie, how long and hard its been, and how all they want is to be together, Hayden is a prick and says “you must love him so fucking much, right? Like, you’d have to, to go through all of this”. And Shane, without blinking, says back “I do.”

When I bought my latest laptop, which coincidentally is already losing functionality in multiple keys, I noticed that the right Control button was no longer a right Control button. This was a bad sign for me, someone who fairly frequently used the right Control button. Worse still, it now bore the Microsoft Copilot logo and would open, when pressed, Microsoft Copilot. Not having personal interest in that particular robot, I was now in the market to rebind that key to something else.

I initially considered setting it up as my dedicated The Sims 2 button, but not only do I not yet have The Sims 2 installed on this computer, the way I play that game, it takes upwards of 15 minutes to boot up. I knew I would be constantly accidentally hitting this key, and I did not want to be constantly accidentally opening The Sims 2.

My partner immediately suggested that I set it to open "a jpeg of a fish." I Googled "carp," found an image, and set my right Control key to open a tiny browser window with a link to said fish. Though it is a .png file from pngtree labeled "pngtree-rohu-carp-fish-png-png-image_4022775.png", in an effort to display matrimonial piety, I dutifully labeled it "fish jpeg."

I now accidentally open this link multiple times a day, which is great, because it means I have a lot of opportunities to see a fish. Sometimes I accidentally hit it several times in quick succession, which means I get to see several fish! When I close all my open programs to shut down my computer, I usually find at least one forgotten fish. Things are working out beautifully, and everyone is happy.