Caoimhín

A Darren Criss Stan account. Love Broadway, Gaga, writing and cool modernist paintings. He/him

[arguablysomaya]

i love straight people because i’ll be doubting my sexuality then talk to straight people for 2 seconds and get struck by a bolt of queerness so strong it powers me for the rest of the semester. god bless

[gumuhit]

you’re going to love again, find a job again, create art again, do what you love again, feel powerful again. you’re going to be back on track. i don’t know when, but you are going to feel like yourself again, eventually. this isn’t the end. hang in there.

[somethinginthestatic]

being in your early 20s is crazy bc there’s people who are literally married and people who’ve never even dated and people who are trapped in their childhood bedrooms waiting to get out and people who are trying to live out romanticized dream lives and people who are completely on their own and people with multi tiered support systems and we’re all supposedly peers and none of us think we’re doing it right at all

[emphasisonthehomo]

Imho the idea of ‘cruelty free’ products or food shouldn’t mean that nothing died to create it, but rather that anything and anyone involved in the creation process hasn’t been exploited or harmed.

Leather is good actually. Veganism isn’t the end all be all to morality and consumption. The issue isn’t that a chicken died for those nuggets, but that while the chicken was alive, it’s life fucking sucked. Vegan chocolate means little if the cocoa that made it was gathered by child slave labor.

Factory farms, abuses of the people who pick the fruit and vegetables we eat, the focus profit and productivity over all else - that’s the fucking issue here. It’s capitalism folks.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you have any tips on identifying plot holes during revisions?

10 Tips for Identifying Plot Holes

1) Create a "Big Picture" Overview of Your Story

Whether you use a scene list, chapter by chapter summary, timeline, flow chart of events, or some combination of the above, having a "big picture" overview of your story allows you to see all the smaller parts and how they fit together. Not only can it help you spot problems as you're creating it, it also gives you something to follow as you're revising to help make sure everything makes sense.

2) Create a List of Plot Points and Subplot Points

Make a list of your story's plot points and subplot points. Once again, not only can the creation of this list help you spot potential problems, it will also be a crucial tool during the revision process as well as helpful for the next exercise.

3) Follow the Chain of Cause and Effect

Good continuity in your story means having a tight relationship between cause and effect. For each plot point and subplot point, you should be able to ask "why did this happen" and answer "because this other thing happened." You should also be able to look at each plot point or subplot point and say, "Because this happened, this next thing happens."

4) Look at Character Choices

Since stories are ultimately about people who want something trying to get that thing, plot points and subplot point are often the result of character choices and actions. So, for every choice a character makes or action they take, ask why? Did that choice make sense for that character's personality, situation, and back story? Did it make sense for that particular moment?

5) Make Sure Subplots Are Tied Up

Make a list of your subplots and make sure they're all tied up by the end. Pay attention to how and when they branched back into the story and what they accomplished.

6) Create Character/Setting Continuity Tables

Create a table of important characteristics like hair color, eye color, current age, birthday, etc. and when you're reading through your story, any time a detail like that comes up, check it in the table to make sure you've got it right. You can do the same thing for setting details.

7) Create a Technical Detail Checklist

For every technical detail you include in your story, whether that's the moon being out and in a certain phase in a particular scene, the amount of time it takes to travel a particular distance, how a particular weapon works, the ingredients of a particular spell or potion, the types of berries your character forages, an historical garment or costume... put it in a checklist. Then, when you're revising and you get to that item, double-check the details you've included in the actual story against your research (or look them up again), and check them off when you're sure they're accurate.

8) Create a "Things That Need Reviewing" Checklist

You can do the same while you're writing/editing for general things you want to double-check, like maybe you recall your character mentioning something about their childhood home in a chapter, and now they're saying something else about it and you want to go back later and make sure the two things are coherent.

9) Review Your Manuscript with Fresh Eyes

When you've been with your WIP for weeks or months or years, it becomes tough to see mistakes that would be obvious to anyone else. If you can, try stepping away from your manuscript for a few days or weeks so that you can come back to it with fresh eyes. Another trick you can use (especially if you can't step away for long or at all) is to change the font style and/or color in your manuscript. This can trick your brain into feeling like it's seeing everything for the first time. Reading it out loud or trying to to visualize it like a movie can also help.

10) Get Feedback from Other People

If you plan on posting or publishing your story anyway, it's crucial to get critical eyes on your story during your revision process. Critique groups, writing groups, critique partners, beta readers, and editors are all great ways to get feedback on your story before publication. These folks can help you spot problems, like plot holes and continuity errors, before you share, query, or publish your story.

I hope that helps!

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[guerrillatech]

[stormandrout-deactivated2020022]

“There are two MLKs. There once was a man named Martin Luther King Jr. who actually lived and breathed. He was a radical who believed in the redistribution of wealth, argued for slave reparations and that wrote that moderate whites who didn’t speak out on racism were just as bad as the Ku Klux Klan. Seventy-five percent of Americans disapproved of that man when he was killed by a white supremacist in 1968. Then, there is the Martin Luther King Jr. that exists in the collective white memory. Through a complex combination of whitewashing, self-guilt and the intentional rewriting of history that absolves them of their hatred, they have painted a sanitized, impressionist portrait of a civil rights icon whose dreams were fulfilled by America’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality. Out of whole cloth, they managed to fabricate a fantastic hologram of King that is ahistorical, but still “based on a true story.” Their Martin was a lover, not a fighter. They remember a socially conservative, respectable reconciler; not an anti-establishment revolutionary. And, for their sake, his doctrine of nonviolent resistance was eventually reduced to simple “nonviolence.” This is the King they will remember this weekend.”

— Martin Luther King Jr. and the White Delusion of a ‘Non-Racist’ America (via blxckberrying)

[writhe]

just like enamored by this interaction i had yesterday and again today with this old gay man…not to be like ‘oh what a feeling to see someone who has survived’ but literally that & today we actually ended up chatting and he asked me “are you family?” which i didn’t catch at all until he gave me an extremely knowing look (chin tilt, raised eyebrow. and he really just had such a shine about him, too) and i just got flooded with this big stupid feeling thinking about how much he has seen and known…about many things but esp lgbt community as it exists offline and historically & how if i were to ask, and were somehow able to know, there are 1000 different lifetimes in his, i’m sure. his name is leonardo

[onetwistedmiracle]

oh how sad that “family” meaning queer is dying out. that’s always been such a lovely code word.

[callmecaoimhin]

120 days of no social media.

Tomorrow is the day I check my accounts.

fuck.

[blainedevonx]

Okay I have to say this.

For reference: I am a queer trans man getting a degree in queer studies :)

if you agree with that tumblr post, you are NOT a real lgbt+ ally and you need to be educated.

Straight men are allowed to be feminine. Straight men are allowed to wear dresses and skirts and makeup and paint their nails.

They can do all of those things and still be straight. A man being feminine doesn’t make him gay, just like a woman being masculine doesn’t make her a lesbian.

If you want to be an actual lgbt+ ally, know that men can be feminine and still be cishet. Saying that someone “has to be gay” because they’re feminine is femmephobic and homophobic :) I can’t believe I have to say this, but Darren is NOT appropriating queer culture ?? He’s wearing an outfit that he thinks looks good. So what if it’s a feminine outfit. Kurt Hummel himself is the one who said fashion has no gender.

Educate yourself and stop speaking for us queer folks. I don’t dare what you believe, but let men be feminine without forcing homophobic stereotypes onto them.

[callmecaoimhin]

gosh don’t you just love those mornings where you wake and remember how much you love darren criss

[callmecaoimhin]

Day 100/100...

It’s 100. And I’m...going to keep going.

What started off as a challenge to stay off social media apps for 100 days has now turned into a new lifestyle. Or at least until April 30.  You see, I get birthday anxiety - at least I have over the last few years. And as it so happens, Day 101 of the year (the day I was due to return to SM) is my birthday. And I decided that rather than nervously scrolling through feeds I avoided for over 3 months on a day where I know I’ll be consumed in despondent self-reflection and anxiety, I should enjoy this newfound freedom I’ve carved out for myself that much longer. Life has turned majestic since I quit SM (in this pandemic? I don’t think). But I don’t doubt for a minute it would have been a tougher start to 2021 if I spend my evenings and weekends looking at people on Twitter giving out about something I was already trying to learn to cope with, or people on Instagram flagarantly flouting guidelines or bragging, or Facebook sharing right-wing shitposts. 

I felt I wasn’t writing as much as I’d have liked, but tbh, I did write 3 or 4 short stories/flash fictions. Which is more than I would have in any other circumstance.  I spend an afternoon 2 weeks ago crying over the mere thought of 26. But now it’s tomorrow and I’m feeling diassociated from it (I think).  I have a lot of nice stuff planned tonight and tomorrow (in my house of course), from takeaway plans, to video chat dates with friends, opening parcels I was sent, reading a book I’m enjoying, and watching one of my favourite movies. I will connect to 26 much better than I have to 25.  The last thing I’ll say is more to myself reading this back in the future, or to anyone else who might have similar woes, but: you have time. 

[macrolit]

Giveaway: We’re giving away 12 vintage classics by Charlotte Bronte, J.R.R. Tolkien, Alexandre Dumas, Harper Lee, Shakespeare, and others! Won’t they look lovely on your shelf? =) Enter to win these classics by: 1) following macrolit on Tumblr (yes, we will check. :P), and 2) reblogging this post. We will choose a random winner on 1 May, at which time we’ll start a new giveaway. Good luck! Follow our IG account to be eligible for our IG giveaways. For full rules to all of our giveaways, click here.

[whitepeopletwitter]

[callmecaoimhin]

80 days of No Social Media

I started this off with the intention of taking 100 days off of social media. Partially to clear my head. Partially to allieviate distractions. Mostly to reduce the feelings of anxiety, jealousy, frustration, and a swinging pendulum between the highest of highs and lowest of lows in the matter of seconds. 

I’m due to “return” on April 11th (the 101st day), which is coincidently my birthday. I faced up to the reality that this would have been disastrous for my emotional wellbeing. My birthdays as of late have consisted of me feeling guilty for not having acheived as much as I would have liked, for not having had as much fun as I thought I should have, for not being better, doing more. So having to contend with seeing my social feeds for the first time in over 3 months alongside those feelings...well, it would have been awful. So through a conversation with a friend, I made the choice to extend my hiatus. To 120 days. Still a round number. Still a good amount of time off. And it puts off the apprehension I will feel about going back on the grid.

Regardless, I think this break has helped to rewire my brain. I don’t feel the urge to check my phone as much anymore. I don’t feel the addictive pull. The FOMO. 

Anyway, this concludes my sporadic updates on my progress during this wee project of mine. Not many people see it, but I like putting them down anyway. For me. 

[callmecaoimhin]

Day 31/100

It's exactly one month since I've deleted Twitter, FB, Tiktok and Instagram.

I feel it is one of the best things I've ever done.

Ive gotten slightly better at piano. I've read 3 books this month. I eventually managed to write a short story in time for a competition. All things I might not have got around to had I been stuck scrolling.

I'm missing out on things - and that's ok. There's been so many moments where my colleagues or friends have messaged me about things that have happened in the media and I've been none the wiser. I used to fear I'd adopt serious FOMO if I ever want off the apps for a length of time. But it is actually much more peaceful. To only find out things by chance. To not feel I even need to form an opinion on it. To immediately forget it even exists.

Instagram especially is something I'd be happy to never go back onto. I don't feel jealous or guilty for that jealousy when I look at friends posts about how great their lives look. The idea that I don't have to acknowledge how acquaintances are getting promoted or getting engaged has helped with my perception of my own life. A renewed comfort to go at my own pace.

Sure I had a few close friends fill me in on achievements they had and all I felt was happiness for them! As it wasn't hidden by the social media filter that success was just happening to them at random and missing me. I knew through personal experience how hard they worked for their success and how deserved it was. It opened my eyes to how it too can happen to me. That it's not just happy accidents.

I'm looking forward to continuing my challenge. I hate February as a month in general, but maybe I won't mind as much this year.

[fravery]

Music is the verb of the future.