#8tea

Ooo! Okay, so time for more birb talk!

So interestingly enough, I actually don’t think Hawks would have a uropygial gland. The purpose of the gland is to secrete preening oil, the important of which varies between bird species. For some species it’s vital because it provides waterproofing and helps with maintaining the feathers in good condition long term. For others it’s not as important and they may not have a uropygial gland at all because they use powder down instead and/or feather care just isn’t that important to the species.

In Hawks’ case, given that he destroys and regrows his feathers so quickly and regularly, not to mention his feathers have the ability to harden somehow such that they can be used as swords, I think he actually wouldn’t have any natural preening oil. Instead, he has powder down feathers that grow constantly and leave a layer of dust which he can use for preening!

HELLO MY LOVE

16. What is your best piece of advice for writing angst scenes?

oh shit that’s a good question.

Two ways I do it: concrete imagery & airy but high-impact lines

Concrete imagery: angsty feeling on its own is abstract at best, cliché at worst. i mean, whatever, i don’t think the stakes are actually that high, but in an effort to avoid clichés that don’t bring much to the party (e.g. “he felt his heart break”), i like having a conceit, and following it throughout the scene. Bonus points if this is a metaphor that’s existed in a happy/empowering context before. One person’s compared himself to the earth and his lover to water? Hit me with that drought imagery then. Someone’s been compared to snow? Go to melting, or go to a blizzard, or go to the realization it’s actually ashes.

but! let me hit you with a pseudo-counterexample too. one of the most OOF JESUS CHRIST lines for me from Angels in America is when Harper, in the shared dream with Prior, says, “I have to go. Something just… broke.” It’s such a powerful way of subverting the cliche of a “heartbreak,” and it really stuck with me. By being deliberately vague about what was broken and by changing the expected tense, Tony Kushner made a cliche-thus-abstracted concept concrete, and fucking devastated me.

(goddamn i wish i could find the clip from the HBO series but ;;;)

Airy but high-impact: you know what I’m talking about—when authors go scant on emotional descriptions, but the entire scene is skimming the surface of a fucking ocean of angst, and you feel like they’re sparing you the grief by not giving you too many details, and then at the very end there’s one fucking sentence that fucking WRECKS you and then all you taste is salt ‘cause that motherfucking ocean was your own tears the entire time. you know what i’m talking about. do that.

Nonymos’ “War, Children” (Stucky, Rated E) is what came to mind as a quintessential example

24. How do you balance your characters when there are only a two or three in a story?

you gotta ksdjfnksd. i have never put words to this problem until this question so this is great

i think you just gotta remember every character is a full character, even if your POV is limited. when crafting a scene, i’m a big fan of making sure EVERY character gets an internal world, even if that world is never manifested in the fic beyond a few details, and every character gets to make a choice in the narrative. Otherwise, they’re literally just there as props for your main character. Which is fine for minor-minor characters, but then you end up with a very lonesome main character. Worse, if you’re writing a romance, you don’t get the full roundness of their relationship.

29. How do you plot your stories?

CLOWN EMOJI CLOWN EMOJI CLOWN EMOJI CLOWN EMOJI I DON’T

I PLAY NOBODY BUT MYSELF

okay but genuinely here’s how plotting goes with me:

1) consume content2) oh shit oh shit oh shit i got a fic idea3) holds my breath and cranks out as much as possible in the shortest amount of time because–4) loses attention span around day 45) fuck i want to finish this but now I have to apply DISCIPLINE UGH6) doesn’t know how to apply discipline7) struggles and whines8) throws it at friends and begs them to tell me what’s wrong with it9) worships at feedback’s feet10) comes back 10 months later like “oh shit i wrote that? it ain’t half bad”

OH GOD OH NO MY HEART IS APPROXIMATELY AS IMPALED AS HAGAKURE RIGHT NOW QAQ

I think that when you're the kind of person who challenges yourself, it's also easy to underestimate how much you're doing it! That's how it's been for me, at least. x) So you're probably right in that you do it more than you think!

Damn, this is gorgeous!

I'M SORRY. uwu

Bellamy-Today at 11:45 PM

ARE U THO

Cloyd-Today at 11:45 PM

I'm not.

Bellamy-Today at 11:45 PM

QUQ

Cloyd-Today at 11:45 PM

at all, whatsoever

Bellamy-Today at 11:45 PM

OH DON'T WORRY, I'M AWARE

and the thrilling conclusion:

Cloyd-Today at 11:47 PM

at least we're not trying to valiumize you. unless you want to be our test dummy. c'mere, bel.

Bellamy-Today at 11:48 PM