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“I need more faggy butches in my life. Faggy butch was good. It accurately described my pink button-down shirts, my giggles, the fact that I talk with my hands. I once saw a tape of myself in which I made a gesture that looked more like it belonged in A Chorus Line than in the middle of an interview. Faggy butch was like genderqueer—not quite this or that, a little of both, maybe. A friend once said to me, “I access my femininity through my masculinity.” I feel lucky to have grown up in a world with butch pioneers, and I feel lucky that I had an idea about what being butch might have meant. But instead of making me feel part of the community, these constructions of what butch was—stereotypes, really—pushed me away from the word and the identity. Instead, I chose a newer term, genderqueer, which had yet to be defined; it was in flux, it was a new frontier. I may not have been butch “enough,” but genderqueer was all mine to rewrite and redefine. I still like the word “genderqueer,” still claim it and own it and love the way it makes room for me, in all my complexities. But I’m coming back around to butch. Maybe it’s because the years of pink prom dresses are further and further behind me, maybe it’s because I’m learning from butch elders who talk in terms that make room for me, giggles and all. Maybe it’s also because the people I know have no idea (unless I tell them) that I was never a tomboy. They only know me—my short hair, tightly bound chest, and button-down shirts. I think every new generation feels the need to reject their elders, reject what came before them, and feel that they are the new gender rebels. We invent terms, we create new spaces, and sometimes, we come back to where our big brothers started—home.”

— miriam zoila perez, from Persistance: All Ways Butch and Femme

#to read

mason-bees

“Kill me. Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.” Is such a metal quote. But it’s from fucking. Warrior Cats.

#dare I say it #foul is fair

engulfes

Taking a walk because it feels good going to bed on time because it feels good waking up earlier because it feels good eating enough fruit because it feels good doing a workout because it feels good cooking myself a nice meal because it feels good staying in contact with friends because it feels good… sometimes joy is work but it’s always worth it

~ Shakespeare, Macbeth

#foul is fair

girlgerard

thinking about red and blue being an explicit and pretty unavoidable AIDS metaphor within killjoys really hits home how grounded and truthful all of gerard’s fantastical storylines are tbh.

within this universe of classic superhero neons, robots, and laser guns, not only is there commentary about commodification, chosen family, anti-capitalism (debatably imo), and even doctorow-esque data privacy, there’s also a deeply grounded illustration about the experiences of many queer people during the AIDS crisis. here you have red and blue, who are not only a lesbian couple but also sex workers who are discriminated against because of those intersections, navigating what is obviously meant to be read as the heathcare system. you have a storyline focusing on their dedication and love for one another, on the reality of being on the poverty line, of not being considered fully autonomous or deserving of rights based on the fact that they’re androids. you have a tragic decline of red slowly losing her hair, her blush, her skin cracking and her body shutting down as her battery dies. you have the incredibly pointed arc where blue, attempting to save red, gets denied a new battery, and has to attempt drastic and back-alley measures that ultimately fail. through this sci-fi overlay, gerard managed to write a deeply tragic and beautiful love story about two queer people and their relationships with each other, with sex work, with the healthcare system, with their economic status, and with AIDS in a comic that most people only know about because they heard nanana on the radio in 2013. and it’s only highlighted by how heavily 80s-inspired all of the killjoys visuals are.

obviously it can be read in many different ways, but thinking about gerard growing up near a major american city in the 1980s during the reagan administration and thinking about the depth that these two characters have even as side plots. idk. there isn’t exactly a point to this. i just really, really appreciate gerard as an artist. in every capacity

girlgerard

like jesus fuck. jesus FUCK.

#hmmmmm. many thoughts #foul is fair #comics

thehikingastronomer

What are the stages of drafts? I'm trying to write my own book but I dont know how to draft properly and I feel like I'm gonna be stuck in a gutter if I don't know

Yesssssssssssssss someone finally asked it!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to explain this and show everybody my inverted pyramid :D :D :D

I present, The Inverted Pyramid of Revising a Book

Now I’ll explain each section of the inverted pyramid:

THE FIRST DRAFT

This should be self-explanatory. You write the first draft. For novels, 75-150,000+ words of the world inside your head.

PLOT, CONTENT, SCENES, AND MAJOR CHARACTERS

Go back and fix it all up. Did you tell the story you wanted to tell? Did you include scenes and events that add up to the conclusion you present?

Are there any unnecessary scenes you could delete, or scenes that are redundant to other scenes? Get rid of them. If this means entire chapters have to go, wave bye-bye.

Do your main characters have believable back stories and arcs, and do they act appropriately in character at all times?

Is there any point in time when your characters do something that they literally WOULD NOT DO? Change that up.

WORLD-BUILDING, CHARACTERIZATION, HONING IN PLOT POINTS

Now pay attention to the deeper aspects of the story. Delve into the world your characters live in. Do they react appropriately? Does any part of society influence them more than others?

What does your world look like? Delve into the setting. The cultures, the technology, the history.

Work with your secondary characters and how they interact with your main characters. What role do they serve overall? Does the main character’s journey affect them at all, or vice versa?

Tighten up plot points. Stay concise if possible.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE, FLOW AND PACING OF SCENES

Now that the major parts of your story have been patted down, you can begin focusing on the technical stuff. Start broad.

Do you have redundant sentences? Do you start multiple sentences the same way?

Throw in short sentences.

Drop the pronoun from the beginning of a sentence every now and then.

Use commas instead of ‘and’ if you find you use ‘and’ a lot.

Does the flow of sentences and paragraphs fit with the tone of the scene?

Chop sentences apart. Use quick, sharp words.

Or combine sentences and flowery language and soft words.

BETA READER CRITIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Now that you’ve really patted this thing down, find people willing to read your work (hopefully for free).

Ask them to point out inconsistencies. Are they confused by anything?

Beta readers can tell you when things are boring or exciting. They’ll laugh. They’ll fangirl. They’ll beg you for more chapters.

Your brain is soft from so much revising. Beta readers are fresh, and will pick out things you’ve glossed over from seeing it so many times.

Shake things up and host a video chat for you and your betas! It’s a great way to make friends :)

PUNCTUATION AND MISSING WORDS

NOWWWWW you’ve finished all the major revisions and your story makes sense!!! All that’s left to do is get the broom and sweep it up (or the vacuum cleaner, or generate a black hole from the Large Hadron Collider to suck out all the errors because that’s super-effective**).

This is the nitty gritty stuff, and I highly recommend either forcing yourself to read really, really slow, or better yet, read your book out loud, start to finish.

You’ll trip up over misplaced commas and periods.

You’ll literally hear when a sentence is awkward.

Your brain will get confused when there’s a missing word.

Fill in the gaps, hammer down the boards, tidy up the place like you’ve got guests coming over.

THE FINAL DRAFT

OMG

OMG IT’S FINISHED AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD AND BUY PHYSICAL COPIES THAT YOU CAN HOLD AND SMELL AND RUB ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND DRAW IN AND DOG-EAR AND TOTE AROUND TO SHOW PEOPLE AND SIGN AUTOGRAPHS AND BECOME YOUR OWN LITTLE CELEBRITY!!!

Email the newspaper (I’ve appeared multiple times).

Email the local TV station (I’ve appeared on live TV).

Email book talk radio shows (I’ve had a Q&A for an hour on live radio).

……..Marketing is hard.

I hope that helps!

N.B. **please do not ask CERN for permission to use the Large Hadron Collider to create black holes that suck out all the errors in your book. You’ll look silly, and you might destroy Earth in the process.

#writing

spiderbasil

thanks @yourdyingwish for the script

#actually I’m putting this on here so I don’t lose it #gerard way #comics

girlgerard

“when i was around 16 i became friends with these really cool girls, and that's how i got exposed to bikini kill, helium, bratmobile -

that was the real punk. all the other hardcore scenes at the time were a little bit hypermasculine and violent, which was totally unappealing to me.

but here are these bands - bikini kill, et cetera that were actually talking about important things.

that was real punk.”

- gerard way

#and this in addition #mcr

girlgerard

five years ago i would make jokes about how people would still believe gerard was cishet even if he pranced around in miniskirts and heels and it’s not even funny anymore because that’s exactly what’s happened

girlgerard

the most infuriating part of this is that the skirts and heels aren’t even the most important part of my chem’s long, long history with queerness.

gerard way is deeply literate in queer media and culture. they’re part of a queer comic writer’s anthology. he was interviewed for and included himself under an article titled ‘queer innovators’ in 2018. they’ve spent this whole tour referencing fright night and camp films. he’s personally called in to drag shows just to tell trans people who were originally inspired to transition because of him that he’s proud of them and everything that they are. they formed their musical identity based on sapphic riot grrrl scenes. they were first drawn to bowie and nirvana specifically because of their bisexuality and gender nonconformity. they’re obsessed with rocky horror and drag culture in general. they deliberately curated their audience to center women and lgbt folks, using visible queerness to dissuade violent rock dudes from even wanting to attend their shows. they wrote personal narrative songs about gay sex in an era where having long hair made you a target for a hate crime. he made out with his male guitarist in front of an entire crowd of rowdy rock fans just to piss them off and decry homophobia in the early 2000s. they wore passing drag when they were in college because they wanted to see what it was like to live as a woman. good fucking god he spent two entire years openly and almost ravenously discussing his own lifelong struggles with gender incongruity, how they wished they’d had access to gender-focused therapy when they were younger, how when they, as a teen, learned what transgenderism was, they immediately understood themself as ‘more of a girl’, and how they felt like a light switch went off in their head when they read what laura jane had written about her experience with dysphoria, something that affected them enough they explicitly wrote about transfemininity and transphobia in a personal solo album where they only referred to themself with she/her pronouns. and this isn’t even fucking half of it! they tweeted their goddamn pronouns seven years ago! gerard is deeply, deeply rooted in queer culture, and he has been so despite extreme personal hardship.

god, it’s not just about gerard, either. the way people treat my chem’s queerness is infuriating as well.

mcr has always been a queer band. ideologically, identification-wise, politically, artistically, whatever you want to call it, they have always, always been a queer band. gerard wearing eyeshadow and deliberately presenting femininely during revenge was a declaration. frank pasting ‘PANSY’ in the biggest letters he could on his guitar was a declaration. gerard’s speeches against homophobia in the early days was a declaration. and these statements weren’t just political, they were personal. gerard has gone on record saying that they looked the way they did in 2004 because it was affirming to their femininity and gender identity! the reason they made those anti-homophobia speeches in the early days was in direct response to being called faggots backstage at that gig! my chemical romance has always been a queer band by queer people writing queer music for a queer audience and somehow people have managed, by some godforsaken feat, to twist that queerness into being purely coincidental.

during the breakup, mcr somehow became a ‘gay band’ the same way that hozier was ‘gay music’ or mushrooms were ‘gay culture’. people suddenly decided mcr was queer not because presenting that way was an extremely deliberate decision by the band members, but simply because gay people liked them. just like how mother mother became ‘enby music’, my chem became queer only by association. and what utter bullshit that is. after all they went through, after all they’d done and sang and spoken and curated, for their queerness to be reduced down to a simple coincidental aesthetic.

look. i get it. we don’t want to overstep. but this has bridged into complete overcorrection. the fact that all of this history has been capped off by a world tour where gerard has been, and i’m gonna say it, completely, undeniably, and wonderfully queer, out in public without any restrictions for the first time in their entire life, and people have STILL managed to raise their hackles at the thought of calling them and their band queer is…somewhat offensive to be honest! we’ve lost the language of flagging and subtlety (though i wouldn’t call any of my chem’s history with queerness subtle), and have overcorrected to the point of forcing people to come out with a pleasantly packaged and explicit label before they can ever be included in the political sphere of queerness. what happened to ‘cishet isn’t the default’ and ‘coming out on life magazine isn’t a necessity to be lgbt’?

this band has done so fucking much to find hands to hold, not just for their audience’s comfort, but to connect with people they can identify with. what a gift that is. if you look at mcr’s entire discography, everything the band has said about not fitting in and being bullied for being faggots, everything gerard’s said about their own gender identity, everything they have ever aligned themselves with, everything that has happened onstage these past five months, everything, and i can’t believe i’m saying this, including gerard yanking a trans pride flag out of the audience pit and literally waving it around onstage, and your conclusion is ‘well i don’t want to assume…’, you’ve missed the point in its entirety.

#this is so incredibly important to me #mcr