y

You're able to fly

BUT

Every time you walk, it feels like you're walking on broken glass

before you say "4% isn't that big of a difference between the US and China"

Hey, you! Do you remember LiveJournal? Remember all the fun you had there? Remember all the cool fics and communities and stuff?

Dreamwidth is basically LiveJournal but better!

Yes, LJ was more work than Tumblr is! Yes, it was harder to share images! But damned if it wasn't still a helluva lot of fun, and I miss it dearly!

We can still have that kind of fun on Dreamwidth!

Anyway, here's some improvements Dreamwidth has made to the LJ formula:

The owners are actively fighting for our rights and have been for years

Remember how when you added someone as a Friend on LJ they had access to all (or at least some) of your locked posts, which made privacy kinda wonky? Dreamwidth did something about that; "Friends" has now been split into "Follow" and "Access", so you can subscribe to a person's journal without having to grant them access to your locked posts, and/or you can grant someone access to your locked posts without having to follow them back. The first one is already great for privacy, and the second is great for if you have, for example, fics under access lock but don't necessarily want to have everyone you grant access to on your reading page

Dreamwidth has done a lot to make the site accessible for disabled people

Dreamwidth is also doing its best to make the site surfable on mobile; this is important because it will never have an app (To be fair, LJ might also be working on this, but I've never visited LJ on my phone and don't really plan to)

On LJ, you could have, what, 3 icons with a free account, 6 with a sponsored account? Dreamwidth gives free accounts 15 icons

Dreamwidth is entirely user-funded; there's still no ads, and never will be

Content on Dreamwidth is not subject to Russian law

Because it will never have an app, content on Dreamwidth is not and will not be subject to Apple's restrictions

The Power Fantasy is SO good, y'all. It's one of the few *actual* superhero deconstructions out there, rather than just "what if they were evil though?" (which isn't really a deconstruction of anything, it's just a different story)

If there were six people on the planet who each possessed vast destructive powers, how would you deal with them? How far would you go to keep them happy? What would constitute moral behavior for them? And most importantly... how could you ensure that they never, EVER fought each other?

entropyalarm said: When describing embarrassment, blushing is typically used as an indicator. I’m white, but I recognize that darker skin tones shouldn’t show blush the same way as lighter tones. My friend, with medium skin, told me it only shows in her nose and ears, felt more as intense heat radiating from her cheeks than a visible color change. What is your insight on handling blushing? I feel this is especially important for proper portrayal of PoCs in romantic situations.

Anonymous said: You’ve written some great advice for describing black characters, but I was wondering whether you have any advice for describing a black character blushing? I have face blindness, so I’m having a lot of trouble with this. (otherwise I could just look up pictures and describe those) So sorry to bother you!

I’m glad you’ve asked. It bothers me how often I’ve heard “Black people don’t blush” which only seems to be another way to dehumanize Black people (and defeminize Black women) for not possessing this base human reaction, even if it’s not always notably visible.

Everybody blushes. Or rather, can blush. It’s the physical act of blood rushing to the face, ears, and other areas of the body; how visible the output doesn’t dictate whether one blushes or not.

While fairness has its part, I think blushing and how visible it is has a lot to do with the individual (some folks have better blood flow) + the undertones within their skin.

I’m going to steal my undertones chart from the Skin Tone Guide here:

As shown above cool skin colors have undertones that mostly fall under red/pink shades.

I’ve seen dark cool-skinned people with naturally rosy cheeks. I can only imagine when they blush, those reddish undertones are emphasized or brightened.

On the other hand, warm skin is usually in the golden, orange spectrum. Not so much reds. Still that doesn’t mean red coloring doesn’t appear on dark warm skin tones.

I have warm medium skin with golden orange undertones, and I definitely get flushed from extrinsic factors, such as if I exercise hard (I turn a berry-red coloring), plus the winter cold pinkens my nose like Rudolph.

I’ve also had friends call me out on blushing, but I can’t tell you exactly how that looks for I’ve never checked a mirror at the time, though I imagine it’s like a slight tinting or an enrichment of the undertones in the skin, brightening them, paired with a “coral to dark red” reddening.

In general, though, it can be redundant to constantly refer to blushing to show shyness or embarrassment with characters of any skin tone. It seems blushing is one of those things that happen more often in stories than daily life. Kinda like green eyes.

For variety, also consider these indicators: 

~Pages from the Emotion Thesaurus, seriously every writer should buy this book 10/10 would recommend.~

To reiterate; dark (cool) skin with red/pink undertones might show blushing more notably than warm skin, as an enhancement of those reddish undertones. 

Dark (warm) skin without red undertones, more “richening” of the undertones with pink to dark reddish coloring as an influence, likely depending on how harshly they’re blushing.

In any case; if you’re describing the blushing from the character’s perspective, it makes more sense to focus on heat and sensation.

Followers, any personal experiences or thoughts?

I fully intend to be more mindful of things like this in my writing moving forward, especially when it comes to x reader stories.

empathy is the ability to feel somebody's emotions as though they are affecting you personally. for example, somebody tells you "my dog died last night!" -> you now feel as though you've lost a pet personally -> you feel grief and sadness just like the other person. not everyone has empathy. it's a trait some people develop and others don't. some have high empathy, some have low empathy, some (like me) have none.

sympathy is the ability to understand and care about somebody else's struggles, even if you don't feel them yourself. so, somebody tells you their dog died -> you realize how this affects them emotionally -> you care about this person, and are upset that they are suffering. not everyone has sympathy either! it's a scale, just like empathy.

compassion is doing something to relieve another person's suffering or make them feel better. somebody tells you their dog died -> you don't want them to remain upset -> you come up with ways to help them feel better, like offering comfort and distractions, or other forms of support. compassion is a learned trait, not something you can be born with like empathy or sympathy. anyone can learn to be compassionate, although some may struggle more with it than others; it's a skill, just like anything else.

empathy is the ability to feel somebody's emotions as though they are affecting you personally. for example, somebody tells you "my dog died last night!" -> you now feel as though you've lost a pet personally -> you feel grief and sadness just like the other person. not everyone has empathy. it's a trait some people develop and others don't. some have high empathy, some have low empathy, some (like me) have none.

sympathy is the ability to understand and care about somebody else's struggles, even if you don't feel them yourself. so, somebody tells you their dog died -> you realize how this affects them emotionally -> you care about this person, and are upset that they are suffering. not everyone has sympathy either! it's a scale, just like empathy.

compassion is doing something to relieve another person's suffering or make them feel better. somebody tells you their dog died -> you don't want them to remain upset -> you come up with ways to help them feel better, like offering comfort and distractions, or other forms of support. compassion is a learned trait, not something you can be born with like empathy or sympathy. anyone can learn to be compassionate, although some may struggle more with it than others; it's a skill, just like anything else.