Write It Down

@writetobuildtheworld

This blog will more than likely just be random ideas I feel like documenting.

7,479 posts

did you know... that if you don’t kudos/comment on fics... authors don’t know you read and enjoyed them...

#in a fandom i was in i had someone dm me and say 'omg why'd you stop writing x? i loved it!'#the fic in question had like. 3 kudos? and their ao3 handle wasn't one of them #bestie!! how was i supposed to know anyone was reading it!!#i apologize for the salt on this fine tuesday morning but good lord #im not a mind reader #yes i write for myself but yes engagement helps me stay motivated too #my post #sidenote: this might have been an ffn fic actually. so not kudos but favorites or whatever #but my point stands!!#my memory may be bad but that does not negate my correctness lmao #an author Cannot Know anyone has read and enjoyed their fics unless they are TOLD #addendum that dms on tumblr/ffn/platform of choice are also a fine way to tell authors you like their fic #it was more that they'd never interacted with my stuff before and only engaged to ask why something was discontinued

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ppl misunderstand me when I say "I want more [thing] in stories". I don't mean "I'm going to love every single one" I mean "I'm very picky and I want more of it in circulation so I can actually choose from a wealth of them and be discerning". I see ppl being like "you say you want more of [this thing] but you don't like [example of it]" YEAH CUZ I'M PICKY!!!!!!!! I have opinions and standards????? not all of them are gonna be the same I wanna be able to look at 100 of them and go "I want these 20" not "I only have 3 to choose from and I don't like any of them" you feel me??????

Sometimes, fanfiction is carefully plotted out stories, with plot points and call backs and themes that all tie it up in a meaningful and exciting way.

And sometimes fanfiction is, ‘Watch me do a fucking KICK FLIP off this cool sentence!! Also here's some sex'

Both are beautiful forms of writing.

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

This is such good advice.

All I will add is: WRITE THOSE BREAKFAST SCENES if you want to, they can be absolutely critical in getting a handle on your characters. Or even on the setting. Write them all to fuck. Go hogwild.

Then cut them. They're for you, and for the characters. Not the readers.

When I was younger I used to be part of the “only-reads-complete-fics crowd” but as I’m getting older I’m realizing how powerful it can be to have consistent things to look forward to…

All the ppl in the tags laughing abt how fic updates aren’t consistent are cowards. I aim to be subbed to at least 365 fics. One for each day of the year. And that’s just my starting point. Your inbox? Empty. Barren. Fallow. Mine? Bountiful. Overflowing. A cornucopia of ripe treats awaiting my tender consumption. I wade through honey-rich excess while you starve of your own volition.

“I wade through honey-rich excess while you starve of your own volition”.

This line is the sexiest way to say “You fucked up” that I have ever read. I have to start using this in my life when pointing out the follies of others.

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I would love to see a fantasy novel where the lore that the reader / protagonist learns at first is not true

e.g. they're told that this kind of creature has some kind of psychic or pheromone-based "mate bond" that cannot be broken; but it turns out that's a popular myth that has never been scientifically substantiated, and is basically used to keep people in bad relationships (basically the equivalent of "human women are biologically submissive")

"lore" is imo too often treated like information that the author is giving the reader, and it just happens to be using the medium of diagetic (that is, 'in-story') exposition.

it's so much more interesting and dynamic to treat "lore" as information that is generated and disseminated in-story. who is telling the protagonist this information? under what historical and social circumstances was this idea formed? what political motives are there for trying to get people to believe this information? which characters would disagree with it? would the protagonist believe it, or be sceptical? does the plot bear it out, or cast doubt on it?

featherquillpen

This is one of the things that Animorphs is very, very good at. In the early books in the series, you get all kinds of lore on the Andalite/Yeerk War from Andalites (Ax and Elfangor) which the Animorphs accept as true because they have no other sources of information. Over the course of the series, as they talk to Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, and Andalites who dissent from the party line, they learn that much if not most of what they absorbed from Elfangor and Ax early on isn't true, or makes glaringly huge omissions to the point of being lies.

coldfeetonthekitchenfloor

So for over a month and a half I’ve been told in my Creative writing MA class that my writing is too poetic and abstract to work in the form of a novel and that I need to simplify my meanings and sentences. I did as I was told and lost all interest in writing if I have to write in the same style that every other novelist does. Today I received this note from a classmate and didn’t realise how much I needed to hear it. Don’t change your art just because other people don’t get it. Don’t change your style to fit in with everyone else. It’s your story not theirs.

This post is 4 years old, but for anyone who needs to hear it I want to tack on the advice my Creative Writing professor told the class I was in: "Not everyone is going to get what you're trying to do. So a lot of the advice your classmates write on your papers might feel Wrong to you. If it feels Wrong and you don't think they understand your story, don't take their advice because they are not your audience."

Sounds like the initial advice for OP to tone down her natural voice was incorrect, but thankfully one of her classmates that was part of the audience wants to hear that voice.

gatesofminrathous

there will never be anything as funny as the mutual disbelief between long form and short form fic writers about each other's style.

short form writers look at people writing 100k+ fics as though this is some sort of talent given as part of a fae bargain, that the commitment required shows some sort of ungodly mental fortitude.

meanwhile long form writers look at people writing 1000 word one shots like god I would cut off my left nipple to be able to say anything concisely. i would love to play with multiple ideas. free me from the shackles of this child I have birthed. i love them but I now must take them to t-ball and doctor's appointments and they're going to destroy everything I own.

ao3commentoftheday

'Remove anything unnecessary to the story' is advice as often or more often misunderstood as the advice 'write what you know'

There is more to a story than a direct a to b to c to d to end plot. 'Remove what is unnecessary' is stuff like eight paragraphs about, idk, the ecology of one specific pond the characters happen to be passing... unless the pov is somebody super interested in ponds, or the you the writer are trying with your work to make people consider the beauty in the mundane or the importance of small things or whatever. It's all dependent on what you're trying to do. What is unnecessary to one story could be very necessary to the next and vice versa.

For instance, dragons are unnecessary in Fourth Wing, but extremely necessary in To Shape A Dragon's Breath. Both are in the blandest sense about young women attending dangerous dragon college, but only one used dragons to greater purpose and to further the worldbuilding, plot, and themes.

'Remove unnecessary things from your novel' IS good advice, but people either misunderstand or have it explained to them so poorly that they believe removing things like what kind of dresses people are wearing in an epic fantasy is following this advice when really the dresses serve the narrative by showing you things like the social class, culture, and personal sensibilities of the characters wearing them without writing another two paragraphs of exposition.

what sources do u recommend to learn about palestine

books:

the hundred years war on palestine by rashid khalidi

my people shall live by leila khaled

on zionist literature by ghassan kanafani

zionist colonialism in palestine by fayez a. sayegh

the question of palestine by edward said

perfect victims by mohanmed el kurd

gaza writes back by refaat alareer

films:

jenin, jenin (2003) dir. by mohammad bakri

the stones cry out (2013) dir. by yasmine perni

the palestinian (1977) dir. by roy battersby

they do not exist (1974) dir. by mustafa abu ali

voices from gaza (1989) dir. by antonia caccia

introduction to the end of an argument (1990) dir. by jayce salloum and elia suleiman

gaza fights for freedom (2019) dir. by abby martin

children of shatila (1998) dir. by mai masri

where should the birds fly? (2013) dir. by fida qishta

the settlers (2016) dir. by shimon dotan

palestinian women (1974) dir. by jocelyne saab

on our land (1981) dir. by antonia caccia

more things to read:

decolonize palestine - a website with information debunking zionist talking points, stuff about history, etc

the wounded memory of the nakba by basel al araj

in gaza, you die a thousand times - written by an anonymous writer from gaza in 2022

i'll keep adding to this list as i find more stuff

some great recs here!! i’d like to add a few!

- Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis

- Black Power and Palestine by Michael R. Fischbach

- The Question on Palestine by Edward W. Said

- Orientalism by Edward W. Said

- On Palestine by Ilan Pappé (of which i am currently reading ❤️)

- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Papé

- Palestine Speaks complied by Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke

- On Edward Said: Remembering of Things Past by Hamid Dabashi

- Culture and Resistance by Edward W. Said

- On Anti-Semitism by Jewish Voice for Peace

- Apartheid Israel by Jon Soske and Sean Jacobs

- Uncivil Rights by Steven Salaita

- The Fateful Triangle by Noam Chomsky

- The Battle for Justice in Palestine by Ali Abunimah

- Gaza in Crisis by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé

- The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience by Plestia Alaqad

some of these you can find on tinyurl.com/read4palestine and they’re free!! xx

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not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

acanvasofabillionsuns

[ID: A page from a What If? book that reads, "In fact, the Moon — our faithful companion — would act to undo the damage Andrew's scenario caused. Right now, the Earth spins faster than the Moon, and our tides slow down the Earth's rotation while pushing the Moon away from us. (There's a footnote here, that says, "See 'Leap Seconds,' http://what-if.xkcd.com/26, for an explanation of why this happens.") If we stopped rotating, the Moon would stop drifting away from us. Instead of slowing us down, its tides would accelerate our spin. Quietly, gently, the Moon's gravity would tug on our planet..."

Here, the page has a comic of the Earth and Moon. There are four "panels" — there are no lines separating them, but there are four depictions of the Earth and Moon — and in each, Africa and Eurasia are shown on the Earth as the Moon spins around it. The Moon says, "Hey, Earth. Earth? Why'd you stop? / Oh no. Are you okay? Earth, are you okay? / Don't be scared, Earth! I can help! / I'm here, Earth. Your moon is here."

The text finishes, "... and Earth would start turning again." There is a final panel of the comic, where the Earth has turned, showing Australia, a bit of Asia, and the Pacific Ocean. The Moon tells the Earth, "I will never leave you." /end ID]

genuinely, i think watching live theatre can improve your media literacy so much

like people who look at doctor who and are like 'lol the effects are so rubbish'

maybe watch a stage play where there's no backdrops and half the characters are played by the same three guys in different hats and maybe you will calm down

truestoriesaboutme

I do think the problem is that so much modern media has trained us to believe that the only way to properly judge effects is whether or not it looks real. Which is honestly a very limiting criteria. Focusing purely on whether or not it looks real ignores the fact that lots of things that happen in scifi fantasy are never going to look real because they're impossible and trying to make it look real inevitably means choosing the safest, most boring design so that people aren't put off by it.

Instead, I ask, does it look interesting? Does it convey the feeling that it wants to convey? Does it contribute to the overall aesthetic goals of the show? Does it look cute or uncanny or evocative or iconic? Can I draw it on my notebook? Does it inspire wonder?

All of these are much more interesting questions than does it look real?

GET. AI. OUT. OF. FANDOM. Stop making headcanons with it, stop making fanfic with it, stop making fanart with it. If I see one more "asking chatgpt *blank* about *character/characters in a fandom* I'm going to lose my goddamn mind. Use your own fucking brain, stop asking AI to do everything. You could even ask other real people what they think. Just. Stop. Using. AI. In. Creative. Spaces.

thatgirlonstage

Please don’t let fandom ruin something you love. Walk away and unfollow the fans and enjoy the thing by yourself, or find a limited circle of people who ignore the discourse, or get your irl friends into the thing and collectively ignore the Internet community, or blacklist from here to the moon if you need to and only ever scroll through your rarepair ship’s tag on AO3. But don’t let fandom distort a show or a movie or a book or a comic you used to love so badly that you can’t enjoy the original anymore. Please. It isn’t worth it.

briannacherrygarcia

The best recent fandom I’ve been in lately has been a discord group of less than a dozen people. My bff and I send fanfics and fanart just to each other and we’ve been having so much fun, just like how fandom used to be. And it sucks that I had to go paywall, but things got a LOT better once I started posting fandom-only art to my patreon. You find ways to make it work.

What are dead man walking tornadoes? :O

it’s a multi-vortex tornado. i dont remember the tribe it originates from (i think it was cherokee), but there’s a native american legend…? saying? that goes “if you see a man in a tornado, you are about to die.”

the most infamous shot of a dead man walking tornado hit jarrell, texas in 1997

it did so much damage to the town it caused the scale that tornados are measured by, the fijita scale, undergo revisions, and it made anchoring buildings in the tornado alley region pretty much mandatory. (it took the entire town off the map. only those who had taken shelter outside of the town or in underground bunkers survived.)

two more examples of dead man walking tornadoes looking like a person are a tornado from 2011 that hit cullman, alabama

and a tornado from 1975 that hit xenia, ohio

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, that's terrifying on a whole new level.

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chillyfeetsteak

from this article, which is well worth the read, if only for the fun of seeing zuck get dunked on

purplejabberwock

My bestie's tags

sawed-on-shotgun

i am of the sincere belief that if ur on ur computer a lot you should visually customize it to high hell and back not just for funsies but also because it has literally made me less depressed before. its kind of like how rearranging your bedroom is good for your brain, yknow. i do stuff like this every few months

sawed-on-shotgun

and if anyone wants to follow suit

LIVE WALLPAPER: wallpaper engine. only thing on here that costs any money (its like 5 bucks on steam). im sure theres free alternatives but this one has a lot of presets and stuff so its less hassle and its what i use. might be a bad idea for lower end pcs tho

CUSTOM TASKBAR: retrobar on github (lots of different options)

CUSTOM CURSOR: theres a lot of places to find these, but rw-designer open cursor library is a good place to start

DISCORD: betterdiscord, im using the clearvision v7 theme with a custom background

EXTENSIONS (these are for firefox, might or might not exist on other browsers):

tabliss for the new tab theme

stylus for tumblr -> specifically the 'tumblr - custom dashboard pallette' theme for colors + bg, and this for the pre-twitterifcation layout

enhancer for youtube for custom youtube colors

the browser theme is just one i found on the firefox theme 'store'

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