Muffin's Writing Blog

I guess this is one way to come out to everyone at once. 

It’s a wlw fantasy and sci-fi short story collection involving tales of mermaids in zoos, astronauts on dying spaceships, cursed princesses, and floating islands!

I’m in the middle of renovating this into a (mostly) writing blog. And you know what that means, don’tcha? I need to FOLLOW folks. So, if you would so kindly…

Reblog If:

You run a writeblr.

You post advice about writing.

You post information about books.

You have a WIP you want me to mercilessly tear apart offer critiques on.

You’re doing NaNoWrimo

You post pictures of cute animals.

You post pictures of spiders.

You post none of those things but have an A++++ Blog and are a stellar human being.

I’ll take a look at each reblog and follow you if I like your blog. 

P.S. I also likes monsters and mythical creatures. 

All the higher powered and older deities have far too many followers to answer everyone, so they come up with ways they want their prayers presented.

One sentence to change an outcome.

One page to harness a vision.

One book to construct a world.

You’re not annoying me at all! It’s so common to feel like this, in all aspects of life, but no one should have to. Unfortunately, there’s no magic switch you can flip to feel differently, but you can get there.

What I had to do was to learn to stop comparing myself to my peers. Everyone is different, and every process is different. In addition, everyone has a different set of circumstances outside of writing. When you catch yourself comparing you and your work to others and their work, remember this.

Everyone is different, and every process is different.

If it helps, sticky-note it to your monitor. Make a cute doodle of it. (I made you a gif, because cute and reassuring messages are the best.)

It might take some time, but one day, you’ll notice you it’s been weeks; months; years. And when you get to that point? You’ll be able to love your writing more, and you’ll be able to love your friends’ writing more.

All the higher powered and older deities have far too many followers to answer everyone, so they come up with ways they want their prayers presented.

My WIP:

Here’s the list no one asked for!

Rose of the Fae:

Arabella: The angry, traumatized “Belle” whose loyalty is absolutely undying once you win it

Leander: The gentleman diplomat “beast”who would do anything for his court

Carina: Arabella’s carefree younger sister

Rey: Arabella’s bestie

Mechanized Love:

Nicoletta: The no-nonsense female protagonist who’s an expert at suppressing her emotions

Gareth: Nicoletta’s mecha piloting partner who wears his heart on the absolute hem of his sleeve

Firebird: Nicoletta’s sassy mecha AI who can make a goodbye sound like an innuendo

Nightjar: Gareth’s brilliant mecha AI who’s quiet–until you get him talking about  physics

Daggers of the Jaithim:

Seraphina: The secret princess who refuses to bow to fate or her title

If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.

But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.

I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.

But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.

I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.

I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.

When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.

The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.

But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.

Akkadian

Arabic

Aramaic

Church Slavonic

Egyptian (hieroglyphics and Demotic)

Elamite

Ethiopic (Ge’ez)

Etruscan

Gaulish

Georgian

Gothic

Greek

Hebrew

Hittite

Latin

Mayan (various related languages/dialects)

Old Chinese

Old English

Old French

Old Frisian

Old High German

Old Irish

Old Norse

Old Persian

Old Turkic

Sanskrit

Sumerian

Syriac

Ugaritic

as a half asian person, asian representaion is important to me, and i’m sure it is to all the other asians out there. but incorrect representation is far worse than no representation at all, so here are a few guidelines and things to keep in mind when writing an asian character.  

things to keep in mind when naming:

please don’t make up names that “sound asian”. well known offender: cho chang from harry potter. hearing people mock me when i speak in my asian language by saying “ching chong chang” is bad enough, but making us asians read/hear about a character whose name is a constant reminder of that ignorance and racism really, really bothers me.

if the character was born in a different country, our first names aren’t always native to our language/country. we may or may not have a traditionally english name. a great example of this used correctly is ethan nakamura, from the percy jackson series.

coming up with a last name is not difficult - at all. just google “common (insert country/ethnicity) last names” and they’ll come up. use this for other ethnicities/races too!

this is really just common sense but don’t give a traditionally korean name to a japanese character, vietnamese name to a chinese character etc. (unless they are multiple ethnicities).

guidelines for physical descriptions:

please…don’t say they have slanted eyes. just don’t. almond eyes is a good alternative.

our skin isn’t yellow. we aren’t lemons. also, the asian race incorporates not just east asians but also filipinos and other much darker skinned people.

many east asians have straight, thick black hair. but again, even within the asian race we are diverse, so this isn’t always true.

of course, if your asian character is being faced with racism, you can have the racist character make fun of their eyes or skin. some asians make fun of themselves, but make sure you check w multiple asians to see if this joke is ok.

writing personalities, characteristics, quirks, etc.

asians can have any personality, just like any black, white, or hispanic character. they can be mean, they can be nice. just make sure that if you only have one asian character, they aren’t shown as a villain. if you have multiple asians on both the “good” and “bad” sides, that’s perfectly ok.

stereotypes can definitely affect your character. be concious of them.

people’s personalities and quirks are shaped by their parents/how they were raised. an asian kid adopted by white parents is not going to act the same way or entirely fit in with other asians raised by asian parents. their cultures (or their parents cultures) will affect them.  

asian cultures

asians can be racist to other asians. in the past, koreans and japanese do not get along, and that has really showed in the japanese side of my family. my mother is quick to stereotype koreans she sees, but she does have korean friends she gets along with. racism among asians exists, and it’s not always black and white. rasicm also exists against other races; i’ve heard of an asian daughter who wasn’t allowed by her parents to marry a black man.

asians can have friends of multiple races/ethnicities

not all asians know their respective languages. some only know a little, some are completely fluent.

asians don’t know everything about other asian cultures, and can still accidentally insult other cultures. each culture is very different, so do your research on each one.

universal asian culture things: 1) no shoes in the house. 2) do well in school. 3) strict rules on cleanliness, going out, friendships, relationships, and curfew. 4) mothers always wear slippers for some reason. 5) attacking insolent children with said slippers. 6) screaming

religion is also varied. usually it’s either christianity or buddhism, although there are of course, exceptions. the native japanese religion is shinto.

taiwan was recently the first country to legalize gay marriage, which is good news, but that also means that many asian countries are against it or don’t fully support gayness. not all asians are like this! but it’s common for asian parents to be less understanding of this kind of stuff so keep that in mind if your asian character is going to be gay.

stereotypes and their affects

asians are smart. this one probably came around because many asian parents are very strict when it comes to their child’s education, but strictness doesn’t equal understanding a subject you just don’t get. this stereotype is usually detrimental to asians because people expect too much of them. if they do well, it’s expected and less people congratulate them. if they don’t, they’re shamed for it more.

asians are bad drivers. this one doesn’t affect asians as badly as the smart stereotype, but it’s still insulting.

asians all look alike. again, this one isn’t really that bad, just very annoying. yeah, some of us look similar, but a lot of us are very different. i was once compared to a guy who was fully vietnamese, whose skin must have been at least ten shades darker, with black hair and was on the chubby side. i’m japanese, half white, with brown hair, and definitely thinner than him. if i genuinely look like the person you’re comparing me to, it’s not a problem, but it’s definitely offensive when we’re very different types of asian. we are all different and unique, and it’s important that people respect that. 

it’s important to remember that not all of the things i said are always true - there are always exceptions. i’ve probably missed a lot of things. i also don’t pretend to know about every different kind of asian. so if you have anything to add, feel free, and if you have any questions about how to portray an asian, ask someone of that ethnicity!