Heartless Harless

I'm J. Marie Harless and I like writing about writing. I also enjoy books, weapons, aggressive femininity, women who could kick my ass and superpowers. I'm particularly happy when two or more of those things are combined. I try to keep this blog focused on all of that but I'm occasionally sidetracked by current events. Check my tags to find out more about me. I keep my ask box open and I'm happy to talk even if we're strangers.

[brood-mother]

me asking my friends to beta my writing

[obstinaterixatrix]

*everything* that’s considered romantic has been conditioned by society, it’s performative, like the emotion can be genuine but romantic *gestures* are a societal construct, chocolates, flowers, rings, there’s no inherent act of romance, the purest form of what is conceptualized as “romance” can probably be boiled down to emotion + intent, and the manifestation of that combo’s gonna be different for everyone

an action evoked from a feeling of adoration and the need to express it can be constrained by what society provides, but once it’s made irrelevant the meaning becomes tailored to those experiencing it; someone giving fancy chocolates to their s.o. because it’s ‘the thing to do’ can’t measure up to someone giving the chocolates because they know their s.o. thinks the boxes are nice and really likes hazelnut fillings, same gesture, but former lacks ‘inherent’ romance because romance isn’t ‘inherent’, the later has a standard approach but it goes beyond what’s considered ‘romantic’

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Hello I am a big fan of Obstinaterixatrix’ Romance Meta and I’m just gonna add to this bc it’s a good post.

I feel like what makes the difference between something being romantic and something being What Society Says Is Romance is the connection between people.

Let’s say two people arrive on my doorstep. One of them has a bouquet of expensive roses from the florist. The other one has a dead bird in a plastic bag. We all know which one is to be considered the romantic gift (hint: it’s not the corpse)

And it’s not like I don’t like flowers or am allergic or anything, I would probably be flattered. But I have no connection to roses, and like, you can give roses to more or less anyone

Dead birds are not a standard gift, for pretty obvious reasons. A person bringing me a corpse in a plastic bag had to know me well enough to know that I collect bones and process them myself, and you don’t go shopping for birds in the Dead Bird Shop around the corner, so that means this person didn’t go out with the intent of getting me something and came back with an Appropriate Gift, they probably stumbled across something and thought about me (this ‘something’ just so happens to be a dead bird, because I’m weird) And then they had to go through the process of picking this bird up and bagging it and bringing it to me, probably pretty spontaneously and without a calendar event that says Find Dead Bird For Raptor with a timeslot between three and four pm.

You can’t have Corpse I Found In a Ditch be romantic without some sort of connection here. Roses can be romantic, but it can also just, be a formula. Two plos Two Equals Romance. A shortcut for ‘I care about you‘, even though the person might …. not, actually.

If it’s someone who loves fresh flowers in their home but rarely has the money to buy large arrangements, or like OP’s example where person A gets the chocolates because they know their s.o. thinks the boxes are super cute, then we have Standard Romantic Actions actually be romantic, but they might as well not be.

This is where my squad has the joke of someone posting a picture of a dead rat to the skype chat and goes ‘Raptor I saw this and thought of you‘ and I go -exaggerated gasping noise- “how dare you blatantly flirt with me right in front of my girlfriend“ from (and also THIS JOKE that bunch of people were confused about). Because there’s INTEREST and CONNECTION there. They’re obviosuly not actually trying to steal me from my gf, but there is a human connection and a knowledge of who I am and what I want to be associated with. The humor then comes in from the self-awareness that this could very much be the opposite of a compliment in, like, probably most other situations ever.

So TL;DR: Things can’t be romantic without the connection between people, no matter how ‘inherit‘ people claim the gesture is. However, more or less anything can be a romantic gesture if there’s the right connection and consideration behind it. Taking out the trash can be romantic. Bringing home a dead fox can be romantic. There’s no Romance Shortcuts. You have to actually care about the other person (sorry, Writers Of Like 9 Out Of 10 Mainstream Movies), there’s no way around it.

So basically: Care about each other!! If you’re writing, write characters who care about each other!! And if you don’t know what character A could do for character B, you might wanna look into whether or not you’ve made a Cardboard Love Interest, like I feel many mainstream writers do. But that’s a whooooole ‘nother can of worms.

There’s so many cans of worms.

Oh god there’s so many worms.

Please help.

[biofomission]

I’ve wondered for a long time why so many fictional romances feel forced and this is the exact reason. So many main couples in media only express their love through performative romance.

This is also why a lot of platonic fictional relationships are seen as romantic because for some reason screenwriters have a habit of making friends express their love for each other with actual thought and intent to their actions.

[arosecret]

Food for thought this morning ;)

[apagewithaview]

[bemusedlybespectacled]

University of Utah research backs up the argument that bisexuality is not just a phase: Though 62% of gay men once identified as bisexual, nearly as many bisexual men — 56% — had once said they were gay, professor Lisa Diamond found. More women switched from calling themselves lesbian to calling themselves bisexual than vice versa.

Emily Alpert, “Why bisexuals stay in the closet”

Remind me to slap biphobes with this statistic any time they utter the words “you’re just on a stepping stone” or any iteration thereof.

(via bemusedlybespectacled)

I’m gonna leave this riiiiight here in light of Ramona Blue…..

(via bisexual-books)

[apagewithaview]

bookstagram pictures are fun until you need to clean up…

[abd-illustrates]

tfw ur trying to write plot but ur brain only provides you with out-of-sequence snippets built on vague ideas and an endless number of potential outcomes that develop and branch out unnaturally over an unspecified timespan

[c2fe]

[marzipanandminutiae]

can we please let historical women be historical?

NOTE: I AM REFERRING HERE TO AESTHETICS, NOT MORAL/SOCIAL ATTITUDES. RACISM IS GROSS AND ENOUGH PEOPLE IN ~YE OLDEN TIMES~ WEREN’T RACIST THAT IT’S NO EXCUSE

papers are praising Emma Watson to the highest heaven for refusing to wear stays and a hoop skirt in Beauty and the Beast and honestly, I’m kind of sick of it

yes, it’s a fairytale, but Belle is living in 18th-century France. she probably would have worn stays because they’re a basic foundation garment that provides breast and back support and pretty much every woman wore them. probably hers would have been laced more loosely because she’s not upper-class. and yeah, she would have worn some kind of hoops or panniers under her fancy ball gown. which would have been significantly fancier than the new adaptation is making it and needed the support and can you tell how hard I am side-eyeing the designers

in a fairytale it doesn’t matter so much. I’ll concede that the movie’s not actually set in real-life 18th-century France, so they can do what they want. but it’s a trend I see a lot in historical fiction, too. Miss Whatsherface is a Liberated Strong Female Character and doesn’t wear a corset! how shocking! how perfectly tailored to appeal to our modern sensibilities!

here’s a truth-bomb: women wore corsets. most women didn’t lace them at all tightly and some took them off upon returning home for the evening like we take off our bras today. nevertheless, they did wear them, in almost every echelon of society. factory girls, servants, farmers, sex workers, artists, aristocrats, the earliest female politicians and doctors- almost all women. the only time I’ve seen “liberated woman doesn’t wear corsets” done well was with a character in the Artistic Reform dress movement started by pre-Raphaelite artists in the late 1800s. and then the author actually did research to reflect that Artistic Reform was more than just not wearing corsets

most women also wore skirts most or all of the time (with notable exceptions like Amelia Bloomer, Anne Lister, and other singluar ladies who defended their right to pants). many also wore hoop-skirts, panniers, or crinolines. and guess what? they were still badass.

Ada Lovelace made her groundbreaking mathematical discoveries in the dorky balloon sleeves and puffy skirts of the 1830s

Madame C.J. Walker became the first black female millionaire in the US and ran her beauty empire in bustle skirts and corsets

Mary Shelley invented science fiction in stays and an Empire-waisted dress. Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake got commonlaw married and wrote reams of poetry in the same

Dr. Shih Meiyu got her medical degree from the University of Michigan in a corset, as did Dr. Kang Cheng at the same time

these women were products of their time aesthetically and we shouldn’t have to divorce them from that or denigrate it to appreciate their accomplishments. the same holds true for historical fiction. if your female character can’t be just as strong dressed in the typical clothing of the era, you need to go back to the drawing board

[smartass-stripper]

[blooming-white-tea]

When White people don’t want to wear corsets to uphold the wardrobe of the time period, but won’t cast people of color because it would be “historically inaccurate.”

[ms-andry]

YESSS also they make very slim hoop skirts that would have been what Belle would probably wear on the daily (people always think huge circles, but those are for rich people or special occasions)

Also, yeah, what is even the point of that style ball gown without the proper foundation garments???

[lostinhistory]

Having actually worn 18th century stays, they’re not uncomfortable.  You will stand up straight, but you’re not squished or anything.  And the hoops/panniers are important, because otherwise you will have a sad, droopy dress, as evidenced by that yellow thing Emma Watson is wearing.

[minim-calibre]

Hell, properly fitted, even a 19th-century corset of the sort people think of when they think corset is comfortable.

(The least-comfortable foundation garment I have ever worn, for the record, is a 20th century pull up panty girdle. Speaking as one used to girdles with side zips or laces, OMG, THAT THING IS TORTURE. And yes, it’s properly fitted. IT IS JUST MADE OF PAIN AND SUFFERING.)

[rosebramblewolf]

i feel like belle’s stays might even have been corded rather than boned? am i thinking of the right period its been a while since ive been heavy into this stuff. but corded stays are the BOMB DOT COM YOU GUYS. like i honestly wish that i could get away with wearing corded stays INSTEAD OF A BRA because theyre so comfortable

[sgtford]

I think a big part of why I read way more fanfiction than books is that there’s just a hell of a lot less exposition

the first 10 pages of most books are always “these are the main characters and here’s some background on each of them and this is the setting etc etc” and it’s such a fucking hassle getting to the plot sometimes

fanfic is just like “fuck it you know all of this already let’s go”

[chitarra10]

That’s a really good point.

[puckish-saint]

Same here but there’s actually a point here of well written exposition. Take AUs for example. Even in the most complicated, as-far-removed-from-canon settings we get at most a single paragraph before the actual fic where the author gives us a quick rundown of the rules for that universe. The rest we are left to figure out on our own and it works. We’re not spoon fed every trivial detail when all we want is to get to the plot. Everything that’s important is said at the moment it is important, not sooner not later. Especially in long fics characters often take on such a unique characterisation that you get to know them all over again but the readers do so organically, in the situations that define those characters as they happen. Same with looks. The fic author generally assumes the readers know what the characters look like and don’t spend paragraphs describing them, and only bring it up when it fits the plot. I’ve read a few fanfics from fandoms I’ve never been in and surprisingly it still worked out. I had generally a good idea of who these people were, what they did where and why and how they worked together.  Point is, if you’re a writer writing original fiction, pretend it’s fanfic and everyone knows your setting and characters already. That way you’ll only have to add a few details if and when your beta readers mention needing more information and chances are they won’t need a lot. 

[teknon-deactivated20190112]

Point is, if you’re a writer writing original fiction, pretend it’s fanfic and everyone knows your setting and characters already. That way you’ll only have to add a few details if and when your beta readers mention needing more information and chances are they won’t need a lot.

Bolding this fantastic advice. 

[writing-masterlists]

Synonyms For Very

This masterlist is a masterlist of words that you may use alongside the word very, very being one of the most common words that are used when writing. I hope this helps you as much as it helps me in our writing seem more sophisticated and unique. 

A:

Very accurate - exact Very afraid - fearful Very angry - furious Very annoying - exasperating

B:

Very bad - atrocious Very beautiful - exquisite Very big - immense Very boring - dull Very bright - luminous Very busy - swamped

C:

Very calm - serene Very careful - cautious Very cheap - stingy Very clean - spotless Very clear - obvious Very clever - intelligent Very cold - freezing Very colourful - vibrant Very competitive - cutthroat Very complete - comprehensive Very confused - perplexed Very conventional - conservative Very creative - innovative Very crowded - bustling Very cute - adorable

D:

Very dangerous - perilous Very dear - cherished Very deep - profound Very depressed - despondent Very detailed - meticulous Very different - disparate Very difficult - arduous Very dirty - filthy Very dry - arid Very dull - tedious

E:

Very eager - keen Very easy - effortless Very empty - desolate Very excited - thrilled Very exciting - exhilarating Very expensive - costly

F:

Very fancy - lavish Very fast - swift Very fat - obese Very friendly - amiable Very frightened - alarmed Very frightening - terrifying Very funny - hilarious

G:

Very glad - overjoyed Very good - excellent Very great - terrific

H:

Very happy - ecstatic Very hard - difficult Very hard-to-find - rare Very heavy - leaden Very high - soaring Very hot - sweltering Very huge - colossal Very hungry - ravenous Very hurt - battered

I:

Very important - crucial Very intelligent - brilliant Very interesting - captivating

J:

K:

L:

Very large - huge Very lazy - indolent Very little - tiny Very lively - vivacious Very long - extensive Very long-term - enduring Very loose - slack Very loud - thunderous Very loved - adored

M:

Very mean - cruel Very messy - slovenly

N:

Very neat - immaculate Very necessary - essential Very nervous - apprehensive Very nice - kind Very noisy - deafening

O:

Very often - frequently Very old - ancient Very old-fashioned - archaic Very open - transparent

P:

Very painful - excruciating Very pale - ashen Very perfect - flawless Very poor - destitute Very powerful - compelling Very pretty - beautiful

Q:

Very quick - rapid Very quiet - hushed

R:

Very rainy - pouring Very rich - wealthy

S:

Very sad - sorrowful Very scared - petrified Very scary - chilling Very serious - grave Very sharp - keen Very shiny - gleaming Very short - brief Very shy - timid Very simple - basic Very skinny - skeletal Very slow - sluggish Very small - petite Very smart - intelligent Very smelly - pungent Very smooth - sleek Very soft - downy Very sorry - apologetic Very special - exceptional Very strong - forceful Very stupid - idiotic Very sure - certain Very sweet - thoughtful

T:

Very talented - gifted Very tall - towering Very tasty - delicious Very thirsty - parched Very tight - constricting Very tiny - minuscule Very tired - exhausted

U:

Very ugly - hideous Very unhappy - miserable Very upset - distraught

V:

W:

Very warm - hot Very weak - frail Very well-to-do - wealthy Very wet - soaked Very wide - expansive Very willing - eager Very windy - blustery Very wise - sage Very worried - distressed

X:

Y:

Z:

A/N: If you know of anymore words I can add please message me.

[quellary-deactivated20150628]

[seananmcguire]

So I reblogged this before, but I actually wanted to stop and saying something, which is this:

Everyone who writes has felt that moment of “EVERYTHING HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE I’M A FAKE I’M A FAILURE I’M WORTHLESS,” and it’s always been over a moment like this one.  That moment where you realize your idea has been done before.  But here’s the thing.  Ideas aren’t worthless, but they’re the pennies of your novel.  They’re the smallest component.

Execution, on the other hand…that’s what does everything.  That’s your dollar bills, stuffed into the jar until you have enough to go on the biggest adventure of your life.

So write your story where the mermaid falls in love with the boy who lives on land.  Write him becoming a merman for her, or write him as a her, or write your sea witch as the heroine, or write your mermaid as a villain.  Write a world.  The idea, that’s a penny you found in the street.  All the real value is going to come from you.

[jeralibu]

This, this, this. :)

[hazzdaze-deactivated20181204]

THIS. Execution is key.

[shada-was-in-the-area-and]

Also

Novels have been around for more then three centuries, maybe even more.

Do you think your idea hasn’t been thought up before?

No idea is original on this earth, no matter how creative it can be, one other has probably thought of the same thing in their life time.

In turn, what does it matter if its “not creative?” Fuck em’. Write what you want to write, you’re not a failure, you’re a visionary, and you know what the difference if between you and the ones who also dared to dream of the same things you dreamt?

You have the will and the determination to put it out there.

[writercoda-blog]

It doesn’t matter if something has been done before. Do it better.

[victorianimmortal]

Note to self: in order to write, you have to actually do more than stare at a Word document rereading what you’ve already written. For example, maybe typing new words would be a good strategy.

[astravers]

books and flowers are my favorite 🌸📖💕

[micdotcom]

Ohio bookstore shelves male-authored books backward to spotlight women

Ohio bookstore Loganberry Books is giving female authors the floor on International Women’s Day with a visual reminder of the publishing industry’s stunning gender disparity.

Starting on March 1, the staff began turning all male-authored books on the store’s hardcover and paperback fiction and poetry shelves backward, leaving only the spines of books by women visible.

Harriet Logan, the store’s owner, said the project serves the dual purpose of illustrating an injustice while simultaneously seeking to rectify it.

“By turning the books around, the whiteness of the page creates a different contour and color than what you’re used to seeing on a wall of books,” Harriet Logan said in a Wednesday interview.

“It’s also, of course, very easy to find women’s books because they jump off the selves. And browsing, you’re probably more likely to pick one up.” Read more (3/17/18 1:13 PM)

[psliterary-deactivated20190419]

[thewritershandbook]

[itstartswithablankpage-deactiva]

The first page is so important. People buying books won’t usually glance at more than the first few pages if the blurb sounds interesting enough. They will base your book on the first few pages. You have such a short space to showcase your words and your characters, so make sure you make it good.

[lhazaar]

look…………….. write as much shitty fic as you want. nobody can stop you. you’re learning constantly and it’s better to write hackneyed implausible ridiculousness than it is to not write at all out of fear of fucking up. you’re good

[darkandstormyslash]

There was an experiment a professor did. I think it was pottery students. He did an experiment of “quality” vs “quantity”. One half of the class he told; you have to make as many pots as possible. Good pots, bad pots, shitty pots, whatever. The more pots you make, the higher your grade.

The other half of the class were told, “you can make only one pot”. But that pot had to be perfect. The quality had to be high; the highest quality pot would get the best mark.

But when it came to the grading, they noticed something weird.

All the best quality pots were in the ‘quantity’ group.

The guys who were literally churning out pots, trying to make as many as possible, not concentrating on the quality. But every pot they made, made them better at making pots. By the end of the month (I think it was a month) - they had some pretty awesome pots coming out, because they enjoying finding all the ways and all the things they could do to make all their pots. Where as the ‘quality’ guys had spent their time reading up on pots, and technique, and researching and planning; which was all great but they’d had no further practice at actually making pots.

The best way to get really good at something, the only way to be really good at something, is to make lots of shitty attempts at that thing several of which will fail. If all you create are perfect things then you won’t improve, because how can you improve on perfect?

tl:dr MAKE YOUR SHITTY POTS.