heck

Holding kitty as she makes biscuits (kneads) 

Conflict comes from character. Throw out everything you know or heard about plot. Conflict begins and ends with character. What they want, what they need, and how they can’t get it. From their best friend’s boyfriend, to the magical McGuffin that will solve their secret desire, to the terrible situation they have to escape.

Always start out your story (at least in outlining) with the following questions:

What does your character want? Your character will start the story both lacking something and on the verge of their entire life being thrown upside down because they don’t have it. All characters should have a goal, even if they don’t know how to achieve it.

What does your character need? This isn’t necessarily what they want, and you’ll derive more conflict over these two things being different. Obviously your character doesn’t need to steal her best friend’s boyfriend, she needs to deal with the childhood trauma she carries around that lead to this conclusion.

How are you going to prevent them from getting this? The first half of your book and the driving conflict is going to be your character trying to get what they want or need the wrong way, and failing. Bad decisions are made, antagonists pop up, and what starts out dire just gets worse.

What do they have to change about themselves to obtain what they need? All characters need to change over the course of the story, for better or for worse. If your character doesn’t change, it’s hard to convince your readers to care about what happens to them. 

Now, this advice is all very generic, but hopefully it’ll give you a starting point. Just remember, character-driven plots will help your story gain the momentum it needs.

(Note: There are exceptions to this rule - there are always exceptions to EVERY rule - but if this is your main struggle, than this should be your main focus. You can always break rules as long as you first know how to break them.)

THIS IS WHY FEDERAL COURTS ARE SO IMPORTANT AND YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS IN NOVEMBER

You aren't just voting for a President for four years, you're voting for who's going to nominate Justices to the Supreme Court and judges to all Federal courts for the next forty or fifty

y’all

need

to

read

Shimanami Tasogare

It is an amazing manga with an almost entirely LGBT+ cast and talks a lot about gender identity, sexuality and troubles faced by those within the LGBT+ community (especially for younger members). Also it is fucking BEAUTIFUL.

Kamatani Yuuki’s use of imagery and visual metaphors never fails to take my breath away.

I was absolutely shocked, never expected to see that kind of rep in manga, but it’s there! The author identifies as X-gender and asexual, so it’s LGBT+ rep being written by an LGBT+ author!

no one:

me: here’s a flow chart of 41 lgbtq+ book recommendations, have fun!