oh wait... yes books

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

i think people have gotten out of the habit of writing characters being untruthful unless they're evil. sometimes people just lie, or they believe and repeat things that aren't true. people just do not and often Can not tell the absolute truth about themselves all the time even during heated and climactic moments. why are you writing everyone being absolutely honest about their feelings!!

Is it just me or does having a positive interaction with a stranger scratch a very particular itch? I think it's the reassurance that the world is not split solely into people who already love you and people who never will.

i hate you endless quippage i hate you contrived dialogue i hate you "he's right behind me isn't he" i hate you undercutting emotional scenes with immature comedy i hate you media that is too insecure to take itself seriously i hate you disney i hate you joss whedon i hate you alienation of artist from artwork until the act of storytelling becomes an unfeeling assembly line

sometimes as a short person seeing a tall person I'm taken by the urge to say "wow you're so tall" and every time I think "they're probably sick of hearing that" so I say out loud "kind of short, aren't you" and they inevitably say "what" and the only explanation I can give is "thought you might not get that much" and I could just say nothing, but I don't, and I believe that's the primary symptom of whatever's wrong with me

for anyone new to Dracula (/hasn’t read it in a while), this is the first point at which the Dracula Daily order differs from the order in which events are presented in the book! We left off with our friend Jonathan midway through chapter 3 and are now reading chapter 5.