Down the rabbit hole we go

A place for my WIPs and thoughts on writing

[wet-monsoon]

“starts off goofy and funny but progressively gets darker as more about the characters is revealed” is my favorite type of storytelling

[danaspriddy]

Tore between telling everyone about the shiny new idea and waiting until the new idea has some writing behind it. 

But, shiny.

[bauliya]

just gonna leave this here

[princecharmingtobe]

I’ve said this before, possibly even on this post, but this also means throwing out that shitty attitude of “You can tell this was made by cishets for cishets” just because it doesn’t relate to your specific queer experience. I have seen works created by queer creators based on their own experiences get labeled “by cishets for cishets” because it didn’t reflect a particular experience/reflected a different experience from that of those criticizing it. There is no universal queer experience. Just because it’s not YOUR experience doesn’t mean it’s not queer.

[danaspriddy]

Really tired of being told that all queer characters have to be pure cinnamon rolls living in coffee cafe AU or else it’s ‘problematic’. Gods forbid queer characters be actual characters who have things happen to them.

Actually had a person claim that a series with a 95% queer cast was ‘bury your gays’ because some of them died. In a horror series.

A horror series.

[tempestpaige]

this is why demanding flawless representation from every piece of media, and trying to police who writes what based on identity is a huge fucking mess

source

[solarianvulpine]

[starscream-has-adhd]

I-??????? I can't really get that my brain hurts

[solarianvulpine]

Grammatically speaking, Pronouns are a game we play with society.

A crew of sailors discuss their ship. "her mast is strong but the sails need changin. She's a beaut though."

I see a fancy rock on my hike. I pick it up, turn to my friend and say "Look at him, he's so handsome"

A group of our sparkling Gay gentlemen meet up for a night out. "Girl, Daniel's serving up looks tonight. Queen! She's stunning love. She's killin it."

My neighbor needs a cup of sugar, I take some to them.

My lesbian friend wants to introduce me to her fellow female partner. "There's Star, he's wearing the blue jacket. Let's catch up with him"

What's real is how respect for one another makes us feel. He/him lesbians deserve your respect.

[gendermunch]

Pronouns are also more related to gender presentation than gender itself for some people!

Lesbians calling themselves "fathers", "husbands", "boyfriends", "handsome", and other words associated with men are a part of their gender presentation as masculine women as well as their reclamation of the idea that "lesbians just want to be men". He/Him pronouns is just a part of that!

[hogmilked]

thank you @national-shitpost-registry

[danaspriddy]

Since I’ve seen a lot of posts about bad writing advice I would like to add my least favorite writing advice post: How to write siblings.

These posts are always written as if the writer thinks siblings are this rare thing no one knows about, like the majority of people don’t either have siblings or at least knows many siblings. And its so weird. 

Plus the freaking, ‘no one calls their sister, sister’ advice. Oh my gods, stop. My siblings call me ‘sis’ and ‘sissy’, my sister’s kids call her oldest, ‘sissy’, my mom is called ‘sis’ by her brother. This isn’t uncommon. I hear people call their siblings, sis, bro, buddy, sissy, sister dearest, brother mine, etc all the freaking time, stop acting like this never happens.

[ofools-deactivated20151107]

you know what i don’t get? when like, people write romance stories where two characters are so in love w each other its all magnetism, but they? don’t even have fun together? or are even nice to each other sometimes?

“our love could level a thousand mountains and conquer a million cities”

ok but… are you even… like….. friends????

[this-is-psychosis]

Therapists aren’t people who you “pay to pretend to care about you”, therapists are people you pay to teach you how to care for yourself

[voce-morti]

Me: I am violently depressed.

Therapist: Oh! Sounds like you need to do YOGA! That will help!

Me: *signs up for yoga*

Me: *is violently depressed in Downward Dog*

[mx-mythical-deactivated20260319]

Me: I hate myself and only see my flaws

Therapist: ok lets refocus on things you like about yourself. This week i want you to try and journal about good things you’ve for yourself and others.

Me: *does the homework* yeah but i still hate myself but feel bad cause i shouldn’t

Therapist: feeling like you shouldn’t hate yourself is a step in the right direction. Mental health is complex and isn’t something that will ~magically~ improve. We have a lot of hard work head of us but I’ll be here to help you.

TL;DR stop perpetuating the idea that therapy is unhelpful because the results are not instantaneous.

[kcsplace]

FUCKING THIS.

As a psychologist the amount of bullshit on this site, the amount of fucking dangerous bullshit on this site about how therapy is neurotypical bullshit and isn’t worth it and how exercise is pointless and good diet is pointless and that therapy homework is pointless DRIVES ME UP THE FUCKING WALL

Exercise is fucking important. good diet is fucking important therapy is fucking important. WHY???

because pills alone don’t help. they improve the hormonal imbalance (as does exercise and good diet which ALSO are a form of very real self care as your physical being is sorta connected to your mental one but go fucking figure right?), but guess what? the suicidal thoughts, the thoughts of harm, the thoughts of hating yourself, they’re still there.  suicides actually increase when medicated.  why? because suddenly you have the energy to fulfill thoughts of harming yourself.  which is why you NEED therapy alongside pills.

it has taken you years, or decades to create your maladaptive thought processes and behaviours.  that shit doesn’t disappear overnight. core beliefs don’t change overnight. these are the very fucking core of your personhood, your being and personality. THAT TAKES TIME TO CHANGE

STOP ACTING LIKE THERAPY IS SHIT IF IT DOESNT WORK IN TWO SESSIONS

[potrix-the-queerschlaeger]

^This!!!!!

[aestheticallypleasingurmom]

The stigma that therapy isn’t worth it if you don’t feel better after the first couple sessions is such bullshit. It took me 8 months to tell my therapist anything personal but I kept going because I wanted to get better. I thought it was bs too when she kept telling me to think about other things and to distract myself when I have intrusive thoughts (not exact words whatsoever). Now it’s 2 and a half years later and I can successfully switch from thinking about all the ways I could kill myself to the song Slippery by Migos and immediately start laughing. You need to let it help you.

[danaspriddy]

Yes! When this site went from ‘it’s okay to need medicine’ to ‘only medicine, nothing else’ it was distressing. Medicine might have masked my anxiety, but it wouldn’t have done shit about the stressful and unhealthy environment I was in. I actually think it would have made it worse because then I would have blamed my anxiety on my brain chemicals and forced myself to stay where I was instead of realizing that I needed to make changes to my life.

[cirqueduroyale]

For Autism Acceptance Month, I felt the urge to focus on Quinn’s terrible experience with a certain type of therapy that many autistic children were/are subjected to. For Quinn, this lead to masking, self harm, and overwhelming stress growing up. Because of her need to protect Claudette from this abuse, she was finally able to understand that her own autism wasn’t a bad thing and taught her daughter the same.

Misinformed and ablest societies are the reason why autistic people call for acceptance rather than awareness. We don’t need a cure, we need understanding and resources that actually help us rather than those that stigmatize and try to change us. 

Read more here: https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/controversy-autisms-common-therapy/

[myjetpack]

For yesterday’s @guardian review

[sartorialadventure]

Anniesa Hasibuan, “Pearlasia”

[cottagepatch]

Yes🤍

[aelfcynn]

May you find exactly what you want at the thrift shop, in your price range, next time you’re there.

[yteicosanievilew]

“this makes me personally uncomfortable”, “this seems in poor taste”, “this is somehow harmful but presumably because you’re misinformed” and “this is actively malicious” are all different things. remember that

[vivaciousarcanist]

“this makes me personally uncomfortable”: the work has something that is awkward or triggering to someone, but nothing problematic “this seems in poor taste”: the work is fine, but it’s about something that maybe shouldn’t be joked about/the work has bad timing with the release lining up with a tradgedy similar to the events of the work like the episode tentacool and tentacruel from pokemon “this is somehow harmful but presumably because you’re misinformed”: the work unintentionally has some negative shit in it caused by a lack of knowledge, i.e. a cis person’s trans headcanons accidentally reinforcing negative stereotypes “this is actively malicious”: the work was made with the intention to cause harm

[schafpudel]

#this post needs to be mandatory viewing because the critique of work always being this black and white like… #‘the artist made a joke in poor taste therefore they are clearly an unapologetic violent fascist’ is like holy shit #please learn how to have a normal discussion  about problems without it being 0 to 100

[ao3commentoftheday]

Do you think it's worthwhile to explore the same trope, kink, or AU many times? I know about the two cake theory but in my mind I always associated that with different authors writing the same premise. So now I'm wondering - do readers think a writer is stale if they have their go to favorite things to write? Do they find it annoying? Or is it the same level of excitement as it is when you see similar ideas from different writers? Idk I guess I am torn between wanting to challenge myself and continue to improve as a writer and acknowledging that this is all for fun and what's even the point if I'm not having fun. Is it even possible to have both? Should I let go of the idea of challenging myself and dive headfirst into self indulgence? Or is it possible to improve my craft AND write all my favorite things even if there's some repetition involved?

Every writer has things that they enjoy writing and there’s no harm at all in writing a lot of it. I love fake dating, and I’ve written more than my share. A sampling of comments I’ve received on my own fake dating fics:

Oh, I’m such a sucker for fake dating, and you have done it so well before, I can not wait to read what are you going to do with this!

Pi + fake dating = a flat out joy guaranteed

I'm very excited for this. You have no idea. I've been dying for a fake-wedding-dating-AU-thing and I'm so glad you're writing it  

I would say stop but DON'T EVER.  

So yeah, I think it’s probably okay if you write the same type of story over and over again. Your readers won’t mind at all. You might even become known for your writing of a particular type of story. If that’s something that would make you feel constrained, then you might want to be careful with it. If it’s something you’d take pride in, then go all out.

You definitely can improve and stretch yourself in your writing while also indulging yourself in your favourite ships or tropes. Another thing I love to write is a meet cute. So one thing I did was write meet cutes in various literary styles from Gothic to Douglas Adams. If you know a particular trope well, you can start to play with the trope and invert it in different ways. If you love a particular ship or a particular kink or a particular AU, there’s always a way to change it up. 

Hell, one time I wrote a fic for the express purpose of using as many words as I possibly could from my fandom friend’s English language textbook so she could see the words used in context and have something more interesting to study. 

The only limit when it comes to your creativity is your own imagination :)

[beck-a-leck]

Not to oversimplify with more food analogies, but since the 2 Cakes theory was brought up, I thought this fit.

You cook your favorite meal more than once in your life, right? Or you make variations on a basic recipe depending on what you want. If you enjoy something you want to have it more than once.

If your fave trope was a cheese pizza, think of all the hundreds of ways you could add or change ingredients to get something new. But at it's core it's still your cheese pizza. And sometimes a basic cheese pizza is just So Delicious.

And from a reader perspective, if I go out to a restaurant or store looking for pizza, i'm gonna be absolutely thrilled to find 20 kinds of pizza to choose from in the same place. Sure maybe some of those pizzas will have topings I don't like, but there's a chance you might become my new go-to pizza place.

[tatooines-ghosts]

Adding to this bc I've been thinking about it all day.

But like.... nobody told Bob Ross to stop painting happy little trees because he made one or two nice landscapes.

Just do what makes you happy OP, write all the Happy Little Trees you want!

[theredscreech]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I recently read somewhere on a post that no one complains that Agatha Christie wrote about murder again, and then I feel better.

[insertusernameici]

[unicornempire]

I love that Leverage really goes out of it’s way to show us that just because you break the ‘rules’, it doesn’t mean you’re breaking the rules. Rules and laws and society are all made up, at the end of the day, and all you really have is your own moral compass and sense of justice; is this just to you? Is it right? Should it be OK for companies to put people in insurmountable debt for the rest of their lives just because our medical care is so expensive in this modern day and age? No law or rule should change what you know in your heart is right and wrong, and I think that’s the key thing that makes someone a good person in my eyes.

[theheroheart]

#there was a time when parker wouldn’t have noticed, #not because she lacked the capacity to care, #but because she had narrowed herself, #to stay alive she cut off as many unnecessary things as possible, #watching her get them all back, #is one of the glories of this show (via @seananmcguire)

[jack-the-bear]

Leverage hands down has the best character development I’ve ever seen.

[lets-go-steal-an-ot3]

This scene hit me like a brick. My parents were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when I was 16 bc I’d had cancer the year before (my treatment ended up being free but the initial ER bills and such were not).

But somewhere along the line they just… Disappeared. My mom says they’re not being paid and they’re not in collections. It’s almost as if someone out there did…exactly what Parker did.

Ever since I saw this the first time, I’ve imagined it was Parker doing it. That she and Hardison had a free weekend and decided to take it out on a collections agency. That I was one of the lucky ones who got a little Leverage.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Okay but like yeah, that is actually a thing that happens, albeit not exactly like this. I don’t remember the exact process but basically there’s a booming industry to sell peoples debt - the business you owe money to sells it to someone else for a fraction of the money owed, wipes their hands of the whole affair, and now whoever bought your debt is riding your ass to get you to give the money to the. But it’s also entirely possible for people to just… buy up massive amounts of debt for pennies on the dollar, and then just. Forgive it. Because capitalism is a living nightmare, but the system is broken enough that it’s possible to exploit it for good sometimes.

Like, the main reason I know about this is because John Oliver did a piece on debt buying a few years ago, and ended it by revealing that he’d bought 15 million dollars worth of medical debt just so he could forgive all of it. Both to expose how broken the system was because some random fucker like him could buy millions of dollars in peoples debt with zero regulations, and also just to take the record for biggest TV giveaway in history.

[mikkeneko]

A charity where you can do this, right here.

Be Parker!