Bequest of Wings

Mostly books and writing

[azalea-blooming]

"I'm in! Let's go! Let's do it!"

Fear is like this vicious little worm that lives inside you and eats you alive. You have to fight it. You have to accept that you'll never get rid of it, but fight it just the same.

I'm pretty gung ho. Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I'm ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell.

Instead, ignoring the hideous pain, I chewed through my own tail.

He walked in silence beside me for a while. "How many Animorphs were there when you started?" "Six." "And now?" "Still six."

I wanted so much to live. I wanted so much to stay, and not to leave.

"You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."

Animorphs Book #5 // the dictionary // unknown // Orca - Wintersleep // Animorphs Book #12 // unknown // stock image // Seven Devils - Florence + The Machine // Animorphs Book #17 // Boyish - Japanese Breakfast // post by @/starei // Animorphs Book #22 // unknown // Monster - Melissa Etheridge // Animorphs Book #37 // Anecdote of the Pig - Tory Adkisson // Animorphs Book #54 // unknown // Mirrors - Nikki Geovani // Wikipedia // Animorphs Book #54 // Wikipedia

[insomniac-arrest]

the road OUT of hell is also paved with good intentions. That’s just kind of the main road we’ve got

[glorious-spoon]

While I sort of get the impulse, it does always get my back up when people talk about something like Animorphs with this attitude of 'omgggg remember these books, how on EARTH were we allowed to read these books, they're so grim and dark and violent and tragic, no adults could possibly have known what they actually contained or they'd have been banned.'

And like. Allowing for the fact that there absolutely are adults who think every distressing topic ever should be banned from children's literature - they're children's books. You were allowed to read them when you were a kid because they were written for kids. Bridge to Terabithia is also a children's book. So is Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and The Giver and loads of other books that deal with heavy, difficult topics. It is appropriate and good for children to have books about these things that are tailored to their reading levels and it genuinely really bugs me when people act like they're somehow not really for kids because bad things happen in them or they end tragically.

[luna-azzurra]

The thing about a good character flaw is that it has to be the same thing as their greatest strength just turned up too high. the person who loves deeply and therefore controls. the person who sees everything and therefore trusts nothing. the person who is so loyal they lose themselves. there are no clean villains and no clean heroes and once you understand that in fiction you can't unsee it in people. everyone is just their best quality at the wrong volume.

[unravelingwhy]

my fave writing reminder

honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.

[meltygetswifi]

not to be a dirty commie or anything but i don't think any one person should have enough money to solve world hunger and then get to decide not to

[july-19th-club]

simply cannot ever resist what i call the little mermaid or the tin man or the pinnochio plot, the one about a character who is either inhuman or human but outside in some way, constantly searching for whatever it is that they consider to be the quintessential proof of humanity, preoccupied by it so deeply that they fail to realize the proof is in the act and fact of the search itself

[mischiefseven]

(via @notaficwriter)

[sarahreesbrennan]

MAYBE WE’LL FIND IT IF WE BOTH LOOK

[soleilsplanet]

do you ever just … picture a whole scene, a whole fanfiction in your head, you know how to place every single word of the english dictionary that you need (or your language dictionary), you know how to structure your sentences, you know just what your characters are going to say to each other and then… and then you just open microsoft word.

[the-adults-are-talk1ng]

Its the doc! The blank document steals the ideas from. Your brain!!!! If you want to keep your ideas,, do NOT look at the doc when you open it, look STRAIGHT* AT THE KEYBOARD and write the first words to pop into your head! Once the document isn't empty it, takes away its evil power over you

[rabbitindisguise]

two things:

the mental image of that is hilarious

it might just work

[itsalwaysdark]

you have to be careful reading too many things that are good/smart/well-written bc then you encounter something that isnt and you get confused like ? why didnt they just make this good ? were they stupid

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[deathgasmic]

am i allowed to text friends i have not spoken to in awhile or will they gather and beat me with sticks send post

[thirdity]

“You write the beginning and then you go back and rewrite the beginning, and you never got off page one. It’s kind of a syndrome, and I have a rash piece of advice which is — Go on, page two, page three, and never look back. Get something finished, no matter how lousy it is. […] Perfectionists cannot get going unless they kind of do violence to their own instincts, and just blast ahead.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Last Interview and Other Conversations

[lifes-pinata]

One of the compelling things about Project Hail Mary is that you can't fix it.

"What if Stratt didn't force Grace to go?" Then the Earth dies.

"What if Yao and Ilyukhina had survived?" Then they all would have died in space, not enough food to get to Earth or Erid

If the Taomoeba hadn't escaped then Grace would have never seen his best friend again. Returning to a world he loves but no longer recognizes.

If the stars weren't dying then Grace never would have met his best friend at all. Living content but alone.

Project Hail Mary is a hopeful story. It is a story of friendship and what it means to be brave. It's a story about saving the world.

But you can't remove the tragedy of the story without making it unrecognizable. It's written into the bones.

[mamawasatesttube]

the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.

[duckbunny]

wow. books are good. did we know this? they're good. reading? recommend it.

[perequiste]

things will work out + it’s still early + not everything is lost + trees

[theskydoesgreatthingsnow]

LOTR abridged

[lifeguardtanlines]

Is it so small a thing To have enjoyed the sun, To have lived lightly in the spring, To have loved, to have thought, to have done?

— James Longenbach, Barcarolle