maybe people like butterfly vomit sometimes

Anyway!

I've sort of fallen in love with it for outlining my story ideas.

But I do want to preface this by saying I've got my settings done up so that it's supposed to provide encouraging but concise and professional feedback, with a focus on editing and Canadian language specifics. I still have to "remind" it from time to time of my preferences (lordy can it ramble), but it mostly only gives me what I ask for.

So, how does outlining with AI work?

Well, first I brain dump.

Something along the lines of: Here's my new idea in rough, broad strokes. Some character details and/or dynamics, a bit of world building, and some key plot points.

It'll come back with a comment about how it fits into X genre or popular trope.

Sometimes it'll make "suggestions" to expand on my initial idea (happens more often with shorter brain dumps). I mostly ignore the content, but always skim the headings. Because AI is pretty good at recognizing patterns, and I find those patterns help me focus on what I need to build up/out for the story.

Depending on how much brain dumping I've done, I may do another round or three of just text vomiting my ideas to get them all down. Then I might ask AI to either "compile" the information I've provided or create a check list of plot/world building things I still need to work on.

Then I use what it gives me to focus/guide what I work on next.

A lot of times I'll go find some research to support some character or world building detail, state the fact I need and provide the link I got my information at, specifically so it's saved next to the detail I used it for in case I need/want to return to it later.

Important to note, I don't ask AI to do my research for me. Just to keep track of my sources and the specific details I pull. (Later, when I do some rough draft passes, I ask AI to check my continuity against the facts I had it save. I double check it's work around 60% of the time, but so far I've only had a problem when I completely changed something, so AI was referencing an earlier fact sheet rather than the current one)

Occasionally I'll ask what are some ways to connect Point A to Point B. Sometimes the suggestions are helpful in a "I never thought of it that way" way and sometimes they're helpful in a "you'd have to be stupid to think of it that way" way. Honestly, I most love when I get to tell AI it's idea was stupid. It's very satisfying haha

But the big thing I've found helpful is that when I'm done and think I might be ready to start actually writing the story, I have AI "compile a story bible" for me (generally specifying that it needs to be compiled only from information I've provided). And then it takes all my scattered thoughts and notes and rambling and rabbit hole diving and organizes it.

And then I read through it and notice the twenty or so things I need to tweak in some way, make the changes, put it all into a word document I've organized, and viola! I've outlined a new story!

(For all that I like how AI compiles my notes for me, I have yet to not reorganize things so they flow according to my brain's logic and not the "average" way people would organize it)

instead of the logic of:

*a character says/does/feels something* -> I wonder why they did/say/feel that way? what is the subtext of that? what does it say about their beliefs and values? about other aspects of their personality? is this inherent or conditioned? what does it say about their past? what does it say about the world around them? how do they define/conceptualize xyz? is this the same as the rest of their world does? as we do? what happens when the boundaries of xyz are disturbed/recontextualized/troubled? how does that (re)shape their worldview?

it becomes the logic of:

*a character says/does/feels something* -> i do/say/feel that way too! and I do it that way because of my (personal and culturally specific) identification/understanding of xyz. therefore, the character does that because of the same shared identification/understanding of xyz, which is now a fixed feature, because my pleasure of the text is predicated on this identification.

which is fine, whatever, i'm not one to stay in the way of your pleasure, but it does become an issue when it turns you into a self-appointed cop on a path of righteousness to defend the character against (sometimes entirely imagined) infidels who are "disrespecting" or "misreading" them (because that means they are disrespecting and misreading you) and then turning it into some kind of overarching and targeted judgment of "well it's because fandom hates people like me," and looping the over-identification more and more into a knot. no one else understands this Character like you do! no one can touch them but you! woof-woof-woof!

but it's not about you. it's about the Character. And I'm not saying it in the sense of, "you can't hurt a character's feelings, they aren't real," because that's beside the point, but what I mean is that the character is embodied within a particular world - and I'm talking about speculative worlds specifically here - and you're completely disengaging with the fun part of unpacking that rich world because you jumped to a conclusion based on a solipsistic analysis. and yes, that includes when you bring in the undead author arguments of, well canon says-- no it doesn't. the Character says. the Author says about what the Character's perspective is. see point A.

and also, none of it negates the validity of your interpretation! but the problem is, because you didn't actually look at the thing on its own terms, you have deprived yourself of a different kind of pleasure of textual engagement, and multitudes of experiences that might also make you understand where other people are coming from.

Even with the prospect of Cinder getting turned into a full grim-hybrid much like what we saw with the Hound, it sounds like many people are expecting Cinder to meet the death of some ‘tragic monster’. That Ruby will simply ‘put her out of her misery’ by killing her.

HOWEVER, I am extremely confident that there is one CRITICAL detail to keep in mind regarding this big showdown between Ruby and Cinder:

Seeing a fully grimm-hybridized Cinder is DEFINITELY going to give Ruby massive flashbacks to the Hound, and through that; relating Cinder to SUMMER.

You see at this point, I don’t think Ruby has yet made the full connection between Cinder’s grim-prosthetics and the Hound. That what’s happening with Cinder is almost certainly the early stages of becoming this monstrous grim Hybrid.

However, the realization Ruby had after seeing the Hound and the faunus with Silver Eyes inside it and what that means for Summer is ABSOLUTELY going to be weighing on her going into Volumes 10, 11 and beyond. Especially considering the fact that, as I’ve gone into elsewhere, Ruby and her team never really got the chance to actually tell anyone like Qrow or Ozpin about the Hound before falling into the void at the end of Volume 8. Meaning that we are almost certainly going to get a scene in Volume 10 where Ruby and her team sit down with Qrow, Ozpin, plus Raven, and have to TELL them about the grim-hybrids, and what this could mean for Summer (which could also lead to that all-important conversation with Raven and the truth about what happened on Summer’s mission, but that’s a different discussion lol).

What all this means is that when Ruby actually sees a mostly/fully grim-hybridized Cinder, or better yet sees the horrific and agonizing process of Cinder becoming a full hybrid during their fight, almost certainly very much against her will, I have no doubt that there will be ONLY ONE THING going through Ruby’s head:

That’s what happened to MOM.

Which is a thought that I likewise have no doubt will completely override ANY hatred Ruby feels for Cinder.

So that after Ruby’s massive silver-eye blast defeats Cinder and leaves her helpless, broken and maybe even dying before her, this is the reason why Ruby, as well as Yang and even Weiss and Blake show MERCY to Cinder and even work to SAVE her. Despite how much all of their friends believe she deserves to die.

Not simply out of general sympathy for what happened to Cinder or some generic ‘all loving hero who wants to save everyone’ mentality.

But rather because when Ruby, as well as Yang, see Cinder in this state, all they are going to be seeing/thinking is what happened to their mother. THAT is why they spare and even save Cinder.

Because for them, being able to save Cinder represents a blind, desperate HOPE, no matter how distant or illogical, that they can SAVE SUMMER TOO.

I haven't seen people talking about this, but the pilot for The Ebony Witch dropped! the visuals are absolutely beautiful. it has the same magic as old disney (if disney was brave enough to give us a hot elf who is actually 50 cats in a trenchcoat)

And this flower, we tell children, if you let it bud and bloom and age from sun-yellow flower to moon-white seed, you can then pluck it and blow its seeds away to make a wish.

I had to make a Glitradora out of this photo

“First Kiss”

Weiss is kinda nervous 🤭❤️