Midnight Quest

Not every writer wants to post their work online, however there are positives to doing so. If you seek feedback and advice from readers and writers, you might consider posting a draft or two. Even a few chapters or a poem can be uploaded online to get a little audience feedback.

Here are writing sites I’ve explored along with brief reviews of my experience in using them:

Fictionpress & Fanfiction.net Neither site allows you to remove reviews, delete your account, or budges an inch about harassment reports. This attracts many trolls, spammers, and critics who feel you’re entitled to their extremely negative opinions of your work. I don’t want young or amateur writers going through that, and the rest of us don’t deserve harassment either. There are wonderful readers and writers on both sites, but overall it’s an unsafe environment I can no longer recommend (further info).

A decent alternative to FF.net is Fictionpad. It’s a smaller site with fewer fandoms, but it’s easier to use and the admins were nice when I last tried it.

Archive Of Our Own (AO3) | Fanfiction only** | No covers — Invite only, but getting in isn’t hard. High viewership, well organized, and ad-free. Some written feedback, especially if you ask for some, but the “kudos” button is open to the public so anyone can leave their mark of approval. You can also set individual stories to “users only” along with other useful privacy options.

Crossover friendly, so you can finally post that multi-fandom fic and tag each property for search. Ships, subject material, and trigger warnings are also taggable for search (or to weed out in the case of tws). Lets you group individual stories into a series, and has various features for sharing/gifting your work with others. Overall the best place for fanfiction, hands down. — Adult Material Allowed

Major Demographics: Female, All ages.

Popular Genres: smut, epic dramas, fluff/angst, whump

Wattpad | Original & fan fiction | Covers Req. — Wattpad has been steadily improving its features and policies in the five years I’ve been using it. Here, some writers receive tons of feedback and appreciation, but most receive very little. A few authors have gotten published thanks to this site, others have followers in the hundreds of thousands, and still others become site administrators to support the bustling community.

They’ve recently rebranded, and have also introduced a feature to earn writers money. It is currently in beta and being tested with select authors only.

Unlike other sites, this one has very clear international groups and a high ethnic diversity among its writers. There’s an emphasis on supporting foreign authors and their stories in any language. Contests are set up by the site, but also smaller niche ones can be run by individual users.

It’s very fun to use and if the site chooses to feature one of your works you can get a lot of traffic. For the most part however, you have to practice marketing yourself, and/or develop a group of writer friends and read/promote each other’s work. — Adult Material allowed, but along strict guidelines (lots of kids use this site!).

Major Demographics: Female, Teens.

Popular Genres: romance, young adult, supernatural, celeb fic, fantasy

Royal Road | Original & fan fiction | Covers Opt. — This was suggested in the replies, so I did some research. Haven’t used it myself, looks nice, but here are the main points interested writers should know: 

Site does not claim ownership of your work, copyright stays with you.

Popular stories receive much feedback and viewership in the millions.

You cannot remove reviews on your own stories, and you must submit a ticket to remove your story or delete your account.

From their FAQ: “All new submissions are manually checked for appropriate tagging and plagiarism, so expect it to take 12-24 hrs for a submission to be approved.” Also, stories with low-quality spelling and grammar will be removed by moderators.

Keeping a steady update schedule of “polished” drafts seems to be mandatory, and reviewers sound entitled.

One-shots seem to be out of the question, this is a site for novels.

Premium and free options exist for both readers and writers.

Site is affilated with Amazon, has been running for six years, and is based in Israel.

Fantasy, supernatural, epic dramas.

Adult Material Allowed

Smashbook, Livejournal, Inkspired, and Booknet are sites I am aware of, but have too little knowledge of to review. Likewise Wordpress, Blogger, or right here on Tumblr you can regularly post stories or novels and receive feedback. However, for those sites you do have to figure out a blogging system for yourself.

While researching good sites for this post, I found this user’s comments insightful. She suggested Writer’s Digest and Absolute Write as good places to seek professional feedback on your work. They don’t appear to be sites where you post work, but rather they provide tips and resources to help improve your work.

There are dozens of other places online where you can post your original fiction, non-fiction, and fan fiction. Things to keep in mind when site shopping:

READ THEIR SUBMISSION POLICIES & GUIDELINES FIRST

Search for reviews of the site by individuals who’ve actually used the site and are not affilated with the site.

See what the site’s policy is on deleting works & accounts. You don’t want to get your name and work trapped on a site with a bad reputation.

If “popular” stories have very little feedback on them, this means the majority of stories on that site get none.

If most users haven’t updated in months/years, this means the site is practically dead and may soon shut down. RED FLAG: the site does not date anything.

If the “feedback” on users’ pages and stories are “Like my work!” or “Read for read?” and other self-promotional messages, don’t sign up.

If a site looks cool to you but you’re still unsure, make an account with a junk email and post something you don’t care too much about just to test the waters. Good/bad doesn’t matter much right now, what’s important is figuring out how traffic works and what readers there are interested in. 

Sites to AVOID due to spam, scams, and shifty behavior:

Inkitt—spam/shifty; claims it’s the #1 site for online publishing, but this is misleading. Their idea of getting users is to send copy/paste “invitations” to pre-existing online accounts (often dead accounts), and lie about how good one’s writing is even though they’ve never read it. Signing up with them also gets you endless emails about their pathetic contests.

Dreame/Ficfun—spam/scam; similar deceptive invitation tactic, except they are relentless (they’ve “invited” me five six TEN times on two different sites). Their gimmick is to offer you pennies for 5yr rights to your work (and their site is trashy with very little reader feedback). Both are owned by their Singaporean parent company Stary PTE Ltd. (who personally sent me my 5th “invite”).

+ If you have a question, please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee! 

+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads

—

*Based on what I see as receiving the most traffic and feedback on each site. These are not accurate statistics, merely observations.

Wattpad inserts ads—at first images, but now videos—into stories so you have to watch them before you can continue reading. No other writing site I’ve used is that sleazy. Whether this is just the app or not, still pathetic. There are also times when my normal use of the site has been interrupted by “coin” requests, meaning the site asks me to give it money just in case I ever want to read a paid story. (the paid stories that are advertised to me all appear to be steamy romances, which you can get anywhere online for free, so idk how well that’s working for them). Lastly, the only private messages I receive anymore are spam and their system seems helpless to stop them.

Wattpad was just bought by Naver, a huge South Korean company. Maybe Naver will save it before it collapses on itself? The worry going around is, however, that Naver may purge fanfic from the site if it can’t find a legal way to profit from it.

Webnovel falls under scam/spam as their tactics are extremely annoying and deceptive. For a time they were in my Wattpad inbox two or three times a week.

In today’s world, we know that Misandry is treated as a joke, whereas Misogyny is taken very seriously. In fact, Time magazine declared that Misandry is just a joke and us men are just being whinny when we point it out. Yet, when we men even disagree with a woman, or spread our legs on a bus, we are misogynist shitlords.

Last month, this idea of Misandry became apparent. “How To Destroy A Man Now” was released on Amazon. That goes into what the title says, destroying men.

“How to Destroy A Man Now” was born from the #metoo movement, which started with the allegations of Harvey Weinstein’s many, many years of repeated abuse of women, allegations that were well-known in Hollywood (not that actresses didn’t use it to their advantages). Not long after its inception, it became a way to shame all men, from the suggestion that men can’t use it to Minnie Driver getting angry with Matt Damon who said that we shouldn’t treat all forms of sexual harassment the same way. Then came the False Accusations and so many women coming forward to state they were raped, including Monica Lewinsky stating she was raped by President Bill Clinton all those years ago, despite her always saying it was consensual, even as far back as four years ago. #metoo has proven to be quite opportunistic for women to get into the limelight.

“How To Destroy A Man Now” is divided into two sections: destroying a man online and destroy a man in the workplace. Both make use of three elements to accomplish this: Allegations, Media, and Authorities.

Allegation

This section suggests that you start with an accusation, but rather than report this to anyone of authority, you instead set up to make it look like it could be true. Now if the book differentiated between only doing this to those actually guilty and doing it to the innocent, I could understand to a degree, but the book makes no distinction between those who committed a crime against women and those that women simply want to destroy with false accusations.

With online allegations, this involves going to fan submitted news sites to post a story about someone, or a website that will post anything about anyone and will take it down if the target pays money (which is technically extortion.) The purpose of this is so when you do a Google search of someone’s name, the first page is filled with your accusation, most likely sexual harassment or rape accusations.

With workplace allegations, it’s about spreading rumors amongst other coworkers, telling them that a man has committed something against you, and getting everyone to turn on said man, whether it is true or not. Doing so in the workplace is suggested as a good way to silence a man for disagreeing with a woman, and to steal any promotion he may have.

Media

For destroying men online, technically internet news sites are media. However, this recommendation was to go to more established media to report on it. The media can say just about anything they want if they use the right words, such as allegation, and they won’t be held to any consequence for basically suggestion that an allegation may be true.

The allegation comes from all the work you’ve done to make accusations on various website to show up on google search results. And the Internet and News Media never lies, so it must be true. The kicker here is, whether people actually believe it or not, no one wants to be associated with those who could even possibly have done it. Like college campuses, the court of public opinion is based on the 50.0000001% “preponderance” of evidence suggesting they might have done it.

For the workplace, it’s briefly touched upon, but really skipped over, as there is no use of media when it comes to the workplace, unless said company has been made aware of an allegation and failed to address it. Then you can shame the company for creating hostile work environment.

Authority

With the internet and the media saying something is “true,” now you can go to the authorities and report the “crime,” as the police must take notice that it is being reported on. Rather than going to the police first, this book recommends painting them as guilty before anyone of authority steps in. I believe this would also taint a possible jury pool if the internet and new media reports them as guilty. Even if the police don’t arrest or the courts don’t convict, a person is forever tainted as ‘possibly guilty.’

With the workplace, having spread rumors about someone, now is the suggested time to go to HR. HR wants what’s best for the company, which primarily means not getting sued by an employee, especially a female one complaining of sexual harassment or feeling unsafe in a work environment. While the guy in question may not get fired, they will be spoken to by those of authority in the company, and told to change their behavior in order to keep their job. The book gives the example a man who disagrees with a woman’s idea. The company’s response to the situation is that the man is discouraged from doing that. This man is now forever tainted as someone who hates women in the workplace, even if they’ve never done anything but the be the best worker.

Conclusion

Is this book a Poe?

Possible. However, I’m inclined to think that this book is for real. Even if it’s not, I’m amazed that Amazon has it on their site. While there is a lot of immoral content (such as doxxing, self-victimization, spreading rumors), there are some illegal recommendations included that could result in jail time for anyone who acts on them and is subsequently caught (at least, if you were a man. A woman is likely to get a slap on the hand.) This book doesn’t deny what it is, a means to destroy men’s life and have no remorse for your actions.

When I saw this book, I felt very strongly that it shouldn’t be on the market. If it was for just immoral recommendations, I would know that is covered by the First Amendment, as it does not protect against hurt feelings. But illegal suggestions? First Amendment doesn’t cover that, especially False Accusations.

I contemplated on how to get Amazon to take this off the market, and then I got an idea of what I personally could do. Tit for tat! I published my own book (in accidental celebration of International Women’s Day, as that is when it was published) titled, “How to Destroy A (Wo)Man Now“, keeping the DAMN acronym.

In this book, I discuss ways to destroy a woman emotionally. I do not include anything illegal, as that is a line I won’t cross (though cheating is technically illegal in some first world countries, but rarely enforced,) and I state in the book that you shouldn’t do anything illegal, as the law works against men.

As stated at the end of the book, I strongly recommend that no one use these methods, and doing so would make you a bad person. I explain my reasons for making this book: I want to put pressure on Amazon to take it (and hopefully the original book) down. It is my hope that as my book becomes more popular, Feminists and SJW’s will pressure Amazon to take it down, as it is blatant misogyny.

What Amazon does from there is anyone’s guess. Hopefully both books come down. I don’t want my book on the market, and I definitely don’t want the other on the market. Quite possibly, Amazon will remove my book but not the other. This will look bad for Amazon, because then the question becomes, why does a misogynist book get taken down and not a misandrist book?

The only way this can happen is if my book becomes popular enough that it is featured on their front page and sent out in emails as a recommendation for people to read. This will draw attention from many that this is a blight on Amazon’s store and should be taken down, which will result in Amazon taking action. So I encourage you to pick up a copy and encourage other’s to do so as well, so we can encourage Amazon to take action of these two books.

Here are some unpublished initial sketches of Thoth Tarot cards by Lady Frieda Harris, the artist who painted The Thoth Tarot with the guidance of Aleister Crowley.

LIBER AL VEL LEGIS, III,44: But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous; let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!

LIBER AL VEL LEGIS III,45: Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.

The arts posted in this social profile are not directly related with our society. Politics, sensationalism, homophobia and racism is completely contrary to the practice and teachings of the Fraternitatis S.’.S.’. and Thelema.

VERSION 2, 50 MORE PAGES, HARDBACK AND EBOOK AVAILABLE

LIBER AL VEL LEGIS, III,44: But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous; let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!

LIBER AL VEL LEGIS III,45: Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.

The arts posted in this social profile are not directly related with our society. Politics, sensationalism, homophobia and racism is completely contrary to the practice and teachings of the Fraternitatis S.’.S.’. and Thelema.

Here are some unpublished initial sketches of Thoth Tarot cards by Lady Frieda Harris, the artist who painted The Thoth Tarot with the guidance of Aleister Crowley.

We all love to quote Osho  and why not?  He is eminently quotable.  I quote him. Yet, what of the man himself?  Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, later known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was a once respected professor of Philosophy turned holy man.  He gained a large following of Westerners in the 1970s and 1980s purchased some land in Oregon and set up a commune.  His “followers” purchased 100 Rolls Royce automobiles for him.  He lived in luxury while his people toiled in the fields. 

He was known as the “sex guru” and was well known for having sex with his teenaged followers.  He was later implicated in a bio-terror murder plot engineered to influence local government and was deported under a plea bargain.  The man was a total charlatan.  He used his knowledge of the ancient wisdom, available to anybody who can read, to manipulate and exploit his weak minded followers.

The real holy men are not riding in limousines and living in luxury.  They are tending fields in Tibet.  Teaching in Nepal. Living humbly in India. Raking the garden in Japan.  No enlightened teacher would take anything from his teachings other than the basics of life. 

A lot of you have been asking how I go about making my graphics, i.e. how I do graphic design, so I thought I’d make a guide - or perhaps a series of guides if you would like - on how to design graphics! First off, I’d like to introduce you to the fundamental elements of graphic design, and hopefully this will help you gain a new perspective. and improve your own design skills.

Lines are structures that connect two points. They make up everything that we see, even the letters and characters we read every day. But more often than not, we take them for granted. In reality, lines are one of the most rudimentary components of graphic design, and they serve to channel ideas and emotion.

Lines can:

Organize pieces of information or elements on a page

Serve as guidelines to lead the viewer’s eye

Provide movement such as using wavy lines to represent moving water

Emphasize certain parts of the page

Set a mood, such as how straight lines evoke order and neatness while zig-zags convey excitement and tension

A shape is any two-dimensional area with a recognizable boundary. They can add interest to designs (such as in backgrounds), organize visual content, and be used to make illustrations.

Shapes exist in three categories:

Geometric shapes are regular shapes like circles and squares

Organic shapes are more freeform, such as a blob or a leaf

Abstract shapes have a recognizable form but are not exactly natural shapes, such as alphabet glyphs, spirals, and stick figures

When brought together, these shapes can form helpful illustrations that will help convey meaning to your work or add some decoration to it.

The effects achieved by the shapes are determined by its form, color, size, and other characteristics. For example, triangles often show excitement and risk, while circles are seen as eternal and often feminine.

In the example illustration below, which is one of my January wallpapers, I use triangles to convey a feeling of vivacity and excitement.

Different shapes may also be used to structure content or create a layout, making it easier for the user’s eyes to find information. This is often the case in blogs and websites.

Color can be used to make an image stand out, convey information, enhance meaning, or group things together, but how do you know what colors ‘fit’ together? When you’re starting out, you might find it easier to look for color schemes from pinterest or wherever you can find inspiration. It also helps to look for images or photographs that evoke the same vibe you’re going for, and then using a similar color scheme.

But what if you want to make a palette yourself? Learn color theory!

Before I elaborate, here’s some terminology for you:

Hue is the color itself

Value is how dark or light the color is

Saturation is the intensity of the color

Now, how do you go about making a color scheme? Here are some types of color schemes you should know about:

Monochromatic color schemes only use one hue but vary in value and saturation.

Analogous color schemes use colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel, such as red, orange, and yellow, or blues and greens.

Complementary color schemes use colors opposite each other on the color wheel. To add complexity, play with the value and saturation of these colors.

Split complementary color schemes use colors on either side of the complement.

Triadic color schemes use three colors that form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel. These are often very stark and in-your-face, so you might want to use this type of color scheme in moderation.

Tetradic color schemes use four colors that form a rectangle on the color wheel. These are more effective if one color serves as the main color and the other three colors are just accents.

When choosing a color scheme, the main thing you should keep in mind is balance. Using fewer colors means it’ll be easier to balance and thus it is less likely that the piece will appear messy and discordant.

Color has the power of evoking emotions and moods, and each hue and shade has certain connotations associated with it.

In the illustration below - which is part of my April wallpaper set - I use the color green to convey the safety and familiarity of the comfort zone. The color red, on the other hand, shows risk and danger, but it also represents the courage required to get out of the comfort zone.

So the next time you’re thinking of what colors to use in your project, think of what kind of message you want the audience to receive.

Like the other elements we’ve discussed so far, type conveys meaning beyond what is written. Type can communicate a mood, style, vibe, or feeling. A curly or script font might appear fancy and extravagant, while a handwritten font may seem raw and playful.

Different types of fonts are also suitable for different contexts. For example, sans-serif fonts are more readable on screen while serif fonts are more readable in print. Display fonts, on the other hand, tend to be fancy and decorative, and thus should only be used for small amounts of text, like titles.

Audience and purpose also serve a role in deciding what fonts to use. Large, bubbly text is suitable for a children’s birthday party invitation but probably not for a business card.

In graphic design, different fonts are often used in tandem with each other. The main principle or rule behind this is that you should choose fonts that complement each other. Large, bold fonts should be paired with small, subtle fonts. Oftentimes, you’ll have to rely on your instincts, and that’s okay.

Remember, though, that you wouldn’t want to overwhelm your readers by using too many fonts. Stick to one or two per project. To add variation, change the weight or style of the existing fonts.

Finally, your text would be more effective if you establish some sort of visual hierarchy. This essentially means sorting out your text in order of importance, using different typefaces and fonts. This includes adding a certain weight (or boldness) or increasing the size of texts that are more significant.

In the title graphic below, the word “podcasts” is handwritten and larger than the rest of the title because that’s what I want to draw attention to, so that readers know what the post is about. My name, on the other hand, is smaller than the other texts.

Texture adds tactility and depth and can also be used to evoke a certain feel. In this graphic from my March desktop wallpaper, I used a tape texture and a paint texture to achieve a scrapbook-y vibe.

Some other common textures used in designs are foil, watercolor, and paper textures. Although there are many textures to experiment with and choose from, you should also be careful not to overwhelm your viewers with too many textures in one piece.

Lines, shapes, color, text, and texture are the five basic elements of graphic design, and by understanding how these elements work together, you’ll be able to make more effective designs.

Now, the question is, do I think deeply about all of this when I make my designs? To be honest, not really. A lot of my designs are instinctual, but knowing the theory behind what I’m doing has helped me improve those instincts, and you can do the same!

That’s all for now. Hope this helps, and let me know if you would like me to continue the series or if this brief blog post is enough. Happy designing :)