[Pending]

I like books and weird stuff. I will disappoint the shit out of you.

[onamountaintop]

[roane72]

Best trick I ever picked up. Seriously.

[catastrophe-jones]

I have also learned this is great for [PICK A COOL NAME FOR A SHIP] and [LOOK UP THE FACTS ABOUT OXYGEN LEVELS] and [WHAT’S THE WORD] and [DOUBLECHECK CHARACTER’S EYE COLOR] and ALL KINDS OF THINGS.

Anything that isn’t critical in the moment, and could be filled in later while I’m currently trying to burn through writing pages that will be lost if I don’t get them out right now? Brackets.

[betweentimeand42]

This is seriously the best advice, and it really helps put it into perspective that the first draft is just that- a draft. There’s no reason to agonize over a particularly tricky bit of writing when you could just leave it in brackets and skip to the good parts, the parts you’ve visualized. I also use brackets for [fact-check this], [use a stronger verb], [is this in character?] and other notes as I write, just so I don’t forget what I want to work on when I go back and edit. 

[petermorwood]

Note the good sense of [brackets] not (parentheses).

Parentheses AKA round brackets can appear in fiction, usually as an afterthought in a character's thoughts or narration (as I saw them used just recently), but square brackets hardly ever do.

[jbirdwriting]

A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE 90S LET HAPPEN IN MUSIC: 2001

EXCUSE ME, HERE CONVENES MY TEDTALK TITLED "A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE 90S LET HAPPEN IN MUSIC: 2001"

Note: I'm not an expert on anything. One night I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a while and I fell down a rabbit hole and I wrote my journey down and shared it with a small group of friends. …now, you can have it. I wrote this in August 2022.

~~~

In 2001, Enya's Only Time broke onto the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, debuting on that chart at #88. In July. It lingered on the charts for thirty-two weeks in total. If you don't know this song--Yes you do. I mean, if you didn't, you will. (Apparently it's in the new Thor film.) But here, experience it and its official music video: Enya - Only Time

Celtic Pop New Age World Music--these are the major headings Enya existed under. Only 4 other Enya songs ever broke onto the US Billboard Hot 100 - 1989 Orinoco Flow (Sail Away), 1992 Caribbean Blue, 1998 Only If…, and 2004 I Don't Wanna Know (w Mario Winans ft P.Diddy).) In November 2001, Only Time peaked at the #10 position. That's right! Top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. I keep giving the name of the list because it is a non-niche'd/non-genre'd list. Unlike other lists such as… Adult Contemporary, Adult Alternative, etc.

Now, let's see what else was going on in the US Billboard Hot 100. And you should absolutely think about Only Time laid out (metaphorically) next to each of these songs.

We'll move down the chart a little for a couple movers/shakers coming up the charts under Enya for context. We'll start at number 12.

Number 12: Michelle Branch - Everywhere

This was the big breakout on a major label for Michelle Branch. Not much to say here. It was solid song and yes, I know it. But who was at number 11?

One of my favorite examples of cognitive dissonance in American music: Nickelback - How You Remind Me - and oh yes I linked it.

For a song/band that no one liked/everyone hated, they sure did really well! Nielsen Soundscan declared this song to be the number one most played song on US radio in the entire 2000s decade. Played over 1.2 million times on the radio from 2001 - 2009. I'd like to point out that the above linked music video has been played 131,205,632 times since March 2010.

Fun Bonus fact: Avril Lavigne recorded a cover of the song that was used for One Piece Film: Z (2012).

So then there's Enya doing her chill thing here at number 10. And the top of the alt-rock sandwich she's in at number 9? Staind - It's Been Awhile

Then we take a sharp turn and at number 8 is Ja Rule (ft Case) - Livin' It Up

This song peaked at some point on the list at #6 (but for this week it was #8 and moving up). Incidentally, this is around the era in time where I was not listening to as much rap, so I'm not familiar with this song. But! The album this song is from went triple platinum! Which… dang.

Then, the number 7 position, which was slipping, brought us Ginuwine - Differences

Another third-album release (by that, I mean that Differences was from Ginuwine's third album and Livin' It Up was from Ja Rule's third album) and a solid success. Differences peaked at number 4. Interesting fact--it was the first track on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart to reach the #1 spot without a physical single being available for retail. (That was a thing.)

A pause here! Let me remind you!

These are the top 10 colleagues of Enya's Only Time. A song for all your fantasy wistfulness needs.

…but now my hyperfixation is wearing off, so I'm not going to keep showing off as much.

Number 6 is Usher - U Got It Bad U Got It Bad was #1 on the Hot 100 chart for one week before getting bumped out for 4 weeks… Who bumped Usher out of the spot? The band everyone swore they hated for so long -- Nickelback. They battled it out with Usher topping Nickelback again for a few weeks longer. Usher was notably the only solo male act to have a #1 in the US Hot 100 in 2001. (Hey, I hate copying these statements from Wikipedia, but they are pretty succinct and factual.)

This song also performed very well in Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium.

Though this number 6 position was in November 2001, it went on to chart in 2002 as well.

Then came number 5, Nelly Furtado - Turn Off the Light

This song is a very vague memory in the haze of my mind. The only two songs I can think of and associate immediately with Nelly Furtado are… I'm Like A Bird and Big Girls Don't Cry. But Turn Off The Light is from her debut studio album and did quite well for her all over the world. At a glance, it performed better on mainstream charts than on R&B lists in the US.

The video is extremely 90s. Please watch it for your neon outfit desires.

Following up this perky number -- and remember, sharing the top 10 with Enya -- came number 4: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

Before we have to get serious - Look at baby Enrique and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

This is one of the best selling singles of all time, apparently, selling - as a single - over 8 million copies worldwide. I would not have guessed that. Except … it released on Sept 3rd, 2001. 8 days later, the World Trade Center buildings were attacked and collapsed. The song gained a life of its own because of that -- overtaking all of Enrique's previous successes. Eventually the song fell off the charge completely but re-entered later - not something songs typically do.

At number 3: Alicia Keys - Fallin'

R&B was a real sweet spot (for me personally) during chunks of the 90s, and I credit all those works for leading to the place where we find Alicia Keys. This song won three Grammy Awards. It was nominated for the Hot 100 Single of the Year but lost to Lifehouse's Hanging By A Moment. Don't think about that too long. I'll do that later. (Narrator: This was a lie. She never did - and cannot remember now where she meant to go with this side trail. I can only guess that she - she being I - meant to talk about how this song was the most successful song of 2001. It spent 54 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...)

Number two? Jennifer Lopez (ft Ja Rule) - I'm Real

This song feels bit like an 80s jam if we're honest with ourselves. It evokes not a little bit of early Whitney Houston and Paula Abdul. One of the songwriters on this song ALSO worked on Ginuwine's Differences. Maybe Troy Oliver should be credited for being on the charts.

And topping off this whole week at number one? Remember - in context with Enya's Only Time at number 10? Mary J. Blige - Family Affair

Personal anecdote; I was listening to Mary J. Blige back with What's the 411? (released in 1992… 30 years before I'm writing this) and it seemed to me like she didn't really land on the more mainstream lists until this song.

In fact, the song which I know Mary J. Blige for best is Reminisce, which peaked at 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 6 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. I'm going to link it and I encourage you to have a listen if you don't know the song - but be warned! Flashing images! - there's fake lightning for the music video and it is rough - Are you forewarned? Okay... here you go. Mary J. Blige - Reminisce

Anyway, back on track!

This list of music all happened in late 2001, but I just wanted to share my journey through 'wait, remember when Enya got on the top 100 charts?' moment. And the memory of how completely and wildly diverse the range of music was that I listened to and was exposed to through general radio play. It wasn't the wildest music experience I had and I know that the 1990s had some weirder things going on (anyone remember when a compilation album of Benedictine monk chants hit number three on the Billboard music charts and was certified double platinum?), but… Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk (not really a TEDTalk). Or not. I had fun doing it anyway.

[midwestastrology]

The "texts back either two seconds or two days later, no in between" squad

Aries, Taurus, Leo, VIRGO, Libra, Aquarius

[jbirdwriting]

Leo confirmation.

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

When trans women are mocked and made into jokes in the media, I get very upset, and I am often told “Kay, you can’t go through life getting offended every time someone makes a joke.” And I sputter and object but they don’t hear me. So I want to be clear for once, about why the jokes make me angry.

I learned to hate myself for being transgender before I knew I was transgender. I laughed at the jokes in stand up comedy routines, and prime time sitcoms, and animated comedy shows, and in the movies, and in books, and in games, laughing at trans women for existing, about “men in dresses”, about people who “got their dicks chopped off”, and I learned to think that was worthy of ridicule.

And then a day came when I felt a pang of envy at what my female classmates were wearing and I repressed it, and felt guilty, and a day where I felt incomplete because I had no breasts and I repressed it and I felt disgusting And a day when I realized the only images of romance that made me feel anything showed two women together and I repressed it and I felt like a monster And a day when I realized I felt sick when I looked at myself in the mirror after every shower before work and couldn’t bear to look at my own face, and I hated myself. And then there came a day when I hated myself so much, and I thought I could never understand why, and so I just wanted it all to end. And it was just a miracle that I swerved my car back into my lane in time.

And all of it started with a joke that I heard on TV, and then kept hearing from all the voices from the ether, over and over and over, worming an idea into my mind before I was old enough to realize I was absorbing it, the idea that a man in a dress is funny, and that changing your body parts makes you a freak, and that women who have penises instead of vaginas are liars and hurt men. And they’re still making these jokes. And somewhere out there right now, just like all those years ago, there is a little girl in a t-shirt and cargo shorts with buzzed off hair watching the TV, hearing that joke and absorbing it without knowing it, who will someday have to pry herself apart to tear it out of her head, just like I did.

That is, if she doesn’t kill herself first.

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

I know this is a really heavy post but if you read it and you appreciated it, I’d appreciate it in return if you reblogged it. This is really important to me and I want people to read it and understand it. Thank you.

what are your thoughts on ‘skinny shaming’?

[sonderdog]

As someone who has been “thin-shamed” I can say it does Not at all go hand in hand with fat shaming. People “thin-shaming” me was mostly verbal harassment- you’re too skinny, you look like a boy, eat a fucking cheeseburger, what’s wrong with you why don’t you like food?

But guess what, I don’t have a problem finding clothes that fit me. There aren’t companies that refuse to make clothes for my size. There is no shortage of messages telling me that despite the harassment of some, I am still beautiful and ideal even if I’m unhealthy. Despite being thin-shamed, I still PANICKED when I started a medicine that made me gain weight, and I had to really analyze that, because no matter what my culture will still say that “fat is unideal” “fat is bad” and “honestly its fine to starve yourself / but shameful and bad to overeat.”

So “thin-shaming” is shitty because it’s shitty to be judged and have people make assumptions about you. But Fat-shaming is institutional, it’s not just individuals harassment and judgement, it’s potential jobs, it’s clothing companies, it’s media and advertisement, all telling you you’re bad as you are. Like what a way shittier thing.

[mothgoggles-deactivated20210706]

This is the difference.

[themerrywriter-deactivated20200]

Favourite Line Tag Game

Here’s the gist - look at your current WIP and pick your favourite line, then explain why you love it so much. 

Mine, from The Whistler, is;

Funny feeling, getting hugged by a greasy, tearful hairdresser while you swing a head in a bag and toss up whether or not to drop it…

 I love this line because it sums up everything striking about Hunter at this point in his life, in one sentence. He’s undeniably bast-shit crazy, but still manages to be lovable to the people around him. Plus, I think it has a bit of bite to it. 

I’m tagging @aniphine, @loveiseldritch, @danniiiyyyl, @katywritesbooks, @caspar-caudle-universe, and @librasunwritings to do the same, but feel rfree to answer this or pass it along even if you haven’t been tagged! 

Merry writing, guys!

[danniiiyyyl]

Heh, Hunter tickles me.

Mine is from ‘Of Students and Masters’, and it’s only because everyone seems to get a kick out of. 

‘Her face was smudged with make-up, the smoky eye effect having gone into a full-blown smoke signal sometime during the night, and her lipstick smudged as though she’d kissed somebody. Oh god, she hoped she didn’t kiss somebody.’

I like this line because it’s a showcase of my dumb humour and lets people see that Brianna makes normal mistakes, and has normal regrets. 

I don’t know if anyone of my friends are writing anything at the moment, but if you follow me and see this, and want to share something, do it.Then message me so we can be writing friends.

[jbirdwriting]

Just for you @danniiiyyyl   "I can tell no one knows who I am because they let me get this far in without anyone stopping me." She paused as she noticed the slow turn of his head and the uncertain look. "Oh, that sounded a bit ominous din' it?"

[darlingduckie7]

Does anyone else ever google the meaning of a word just to double check that they’ve used it correctly, or is it just me, hanging out over here with my English degree?

[jbirdwriting]

Don’t Accept “The Way It Is”

"This was expected." "That's just how it is now." "[Variables] will be [variables]."

No.

Stop accepting shitty behavior just because you expected people to be terrible. Stop 'contributing' to conversations about these things with this dismissive garbage. Stop using it as an excuse to be lazy and disengage. (If you truly want to disengage or not-engage, then say nothing.)

Further, stop expecting people to be terrible. Expect better! Demand better! Hold them to better standards. Speak up.

Shit doesn't change on its own. You are an agent in the world. Your passive acceptance of the ways people mistreat each other is a choice with a negative impact. Giving that passive acceptance a voice, a voice of resignation, empowers that shit-behavior. Each time you choose to accept that off-color comment from a friend, or that shitty logic that lets them feel good about harassing a stranger... you contribute. You are not apart from this. You are a part of this.

Change is not one big thing that happens. It's a sheet woven of hundreds, thousands of tiny threads.

[markv5]

[jbirdwriting]

Paw print recognized. Initiation sequence activated.

[mcrauders]

40+ year old men who seriously believe the young girls working at stores and restaurants are actually flirting with them just because the girls smile and are friendly are the most disgusting and terrifying things on this planet.

[mcrauders]

i keep getting messages from men over the age of 40 who were upset by this post and i’d like to sincerely thank them for proving my point so effortlessly. 

[clowncare]

when ur friend thinks their art is bad but its actually really good

[clowncare]

when they keep disagreeing

[danniiiyyyl]

@wind-upshanoa @wickedserum

[jbirdwriting]

Right back @danniiiyyyl   re:writing

[wesfanemt333]

[fozmeadows]

fandom thoughts

So, here’s a thought:

The types of fandom that are most often considered traditional and acceptable, and which are often either male-dominated or coded as masculine, tend to be acquisitive, whether in terms of knowledge (obscure trivia) or merchandise (collectibles). Whereas, by contrast, the types of fandom most often considered insincere, non-serious or “unreal”, and which are often either female-dominated or coded as feminine , tend to be creative, such as making costumes, writing fanfic and drawing fanart. 

Which is arguably an interesting expression of gender dynamics within fandom, in the sense of being a direct response to gender representation within the canon of particular franchises: namely, that because men, and particularly straight white cismen, are so ubiquitous within popular narrative(s), they have less need to create personal fan interpretations in order to see themselves represented, or to correct/ameliorate stereotypical portrayals; whereas women - and, indeed, members of any other group likely to suffer from poor representation - do.

Which isn’t to say that it’s impossible to be both an acquisitive and a creative fan - not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor am I trying to say that the only reason someone might be an acquisitive fan is because they’re complacent about issues of bias and representation, or that the only reason someone might be a creative fan is because they want to address an issue in the canon. Some people like to collect, some like to make, and some like both, or neither. It’s fine! But I do think that, when it comes to conversations about Fake Geek Girls and what being a “real fan” means - conversations which tend to be strongly gendered - the split between acquisition/creation tends to follow gender lines, too: that guys who know All The Facts and buy All The Merch are the REAL fans, whereas girls who just dress up and tell silly headcanon stories aren’t, and that maybe, there’s an interesting reason for why this might be. 

[acornfriend]

sorry

[calocreek]

Chalcedony !  

[jbirdwriting]

That conversation is more than worthy of being canon.

[jbirdwriting]

Pick up Andi Cumbo-Floyd's Charlotte and the Twelve. Historical fiction for adults and young adults alike. http://thndr.me/NpqjyF

[jbirdwriting]

“If I could read books all day every day...”

Duration: 480 minutes (in 8 hours, let's be reasonable)

Speed: 250 words per minute (for the average reader)

= 120,000 words/day

There are 18,250 days in 50 years.

Adding up to 2,190,000,000 words.

There are 64,000 words in the average novel (Amazon Text Stats).

That's 34,220 (rounded to tens) novels!

There have been 129,864,880 books published (Google).

Reading 8 hours a day at an average speed, seven days a week, for 50 years - one could only read approximately 2.6% of all the books ever written (published).