The Cage @rachellinsey - Tumblr Blog

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There's always a reach for the shore

For the core

#savantgarde #magna carta cartel #mcc #the dying option #wetlands

behraka

#katatonia #mytwin

Close your eyes, what do you see?

Chapter five is up.

“What time is it?”

“A little after four.”

“I’m so glad.”

#wip #Phantom of the Opera #phanfic #fanfic #writing #new chapter

undoritis

I become the one You haven't seen for years

Liberating rain Two shots and i need more

#katatonia #serein #vancouver #steam clock #gastown #metal #moody

Close your eyes, what do you see?

Working for the music faculty at her alma mater, Christine is constantly reminded of a life that might have been. At a fundraising event, she meets Erik, who is disappointed to see that the soprano he'd once admired has traded the stage for a desk and a pension.

Read it on fanfiction.net.

#phanfic #fanfiction #Phantom of the Opera #christine daae #erik the phantom #modern #raoul de chagny #photoset

I am riding in the shadows behind you on a pale white horse.

#pacific northwest #ghost #the band ghost #forest #witch image #mood

timebird84

Task: Share a view from one of your windows at home, use the tag #window to the world, name the country you live in and please tag me :D ( @timebird84 ).

And @everyone, no matter if you want to participate or just look forward to see the results: Please reblog this post, so many people will get to see it and hopefully join the project. Thank you!

mypdo

Hello from Austria! This picture was taken a few weeks ago and shows the view from my bedchamber. Now the whole landscape is under a thick layer of snow and completely covered in white XD

Thanks to @timebird84 for organizing another wonderful challenge! I really hope you will visit me in spring so we can enjoy the mountain view together!

mypdo

So this is the view from today. The whole landscape is covered in snow and the sun finally came out after nearly two weeks XD

Great weather for skiing today, although it is terribly cold.

rachellinsey

Vancouver, BC (in summer)

#window to the world @timebird84

rageofthenerd

“And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to say a few words about escapism. I hear the term bandied about as if it’s a bad thing. As if “escapist” fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in. If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn’t you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with(and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real. As JRR Tolkien reminded us, the only people who inveigh against escape are jailers.”

— Neil Gaiman, from theguardian.com (via thensiur)

Into the forest.

#forest #forestbathing #nature #photoset #canada #pacific northwest #trees

she-who-fights-and-writes

So, I don't know how to write pain like! What words do I use? how do I describe it! I really need some help here!

No problem! And sorry about not answering sooner, I was on vacation. To make it up to you, I’ve made one of my trademark Long Posts about it.

TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE PAIN (FOR BOTH ORIGINAL CONTENT WRITERS AND FANFICTION WRITERS)

When I first started writing, about eight years ago, I had the same issue as @imjustafuckinggirl.

How are you supposed to write about pain you’ve never experienced before???

The characters in my book suffer through all sorts of terrible shit, and in no way am I writing from experience, which is marginally easier to do than write about something that has never happened to you.

However, with time, I managed to gather up a few strategies on how to write pain.

1. Don’t Write Paragraphs About It

I know, it’s tempting. You want to convey to the reader just how much pain the character is in, and you think that the pain will be emphasized the more you write about it.

This, however, is a lie.

As a reader, when I’m reading a book or fanfiction where, whenever the writer uses agonizingly long paragraphs to describe when a character is hurt, I skip it.

Entirely.

It’s boring and, quite frankly, unnecessary, especially during a fight or huge battle, which are supposed to be fast-paced.

When it comes to writing about pain, it really is about quality and not quantity.

In my own writing, I stick to short, quick paragraphs, some of them which are barely a line long. This gives it a faster pace and sort of parallels with the scattered, spread out thoughts of the character as they suffer.

2. Describe it Right

Many times, usually in fanfiction, writers over-exaggerate certain injuries.

This partially has to do with the fact that they’ve never experienced that injury before and are just thinking about what it might feel like.

As a girl with two brothers and who often participated in rough play-fights, I can assure you that getting punched is not as painful as you think it is.

(However, it does depend on the area, as well as how hard the punch is, on top of the fact that you have to take into account whether or not the punch broke bones)

I’m reading a high school AU where a character gets punched by a bully (Idk where they got punched it wasn’t stated) and the author is describing it like they’d been shot.

It was to the point where I was like Did the bully have brass knuckles or something????

It was very clear that this author had never been punched before.

When describing the pain of an injury or the injury itself, you have to take into account:

- What object was used to harm the character

- Where the injury is

- How long the character has had the injury

- (For blades) How deep the cut is

- (For blunt force trauma) How hard the hit was

- Whether or not the wound triggers other things (Ex: Concussion, vomiting, dizziness, infection, internal/external bleeding).

There’s also the fact that when some authors described wounds caused by blades such as knives, daggers, and swords, they never take into account the anatomy of a person and which places cause the most blood flow.

Obviously, a cut on your cheek will have less of a blood flow than a cut on your wrist, depending on what the blade hits, and I hope that everyone consults a diagram of veins, capillaries, arteries, etc. when they’re describing blood flow from a certain place.

There’s also the fact that you have to take into account where the blood is coming from. Veins? Arteries?

The blood from arteries will be a brighter red, like vermilion, than the blood from veins, which is the dark crimson everyone likes to talk about.

Not all places gush bright red blood, people!

3. DIFFERENT INJURIES HAVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PAIN

Here, let me explain.

A punch feels different from a slap.

A broken arm feels different from getting stabbed.

A fall feels different from a dog bite.

I’ll give you a list of all the kinds of things that can be described for the three most common kinds of injuries that happen in stories:

Punch/Blunt Force Trauma

How it feels:

- Aching

- Numbness (In the later stages)

- A single spike of pain before it fades into an ache

- Throbbing

Effects:

- Vomiting (If the character is punched in the gut)

- Swelling

- Bruising

- Broken bones

- Unconsciousness (Blow to the head)

- Dizziness (Blow to the head)

- Concussion (Also a blow to the head)

- Internal bleeding

- Death (In the case of concussions and internal bleeding and broken bones- ribs can pierce lungs)

Stab Wound/Cut

How it feels:

- Stinging (only shallow wounds have just stinging)

- Burning

- With stab wounds, I feel like describing the effects of it make it more powerfully felt by the reader

Effects:

- Bleeding (Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Unconsciousness

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Gunshot

How it feels:

- Depends on the caliber bullet, from how far away they were shot (point-blank range is nothing like being shot from a distance), and in what place. Do careful research and then make your decision.

Effects:

- Bleeding(Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be. Also take into effect the above variables for blood flow as well.)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Some things that a character may do while they’re injured:

- Heavy/Harsh/Ragged breathing

- Panting

- Making noises of pain

gasping

grunting

hissing

groaning

whimpering

yelping (when the injury is inflicted)

screaming

shrieking

wailing

- Crying/ Weeping/Sobbing/Etc.

- Clenching their teeth

- Unable to speak

- Pressing their hands against a stab wound/cut to try and stem the bleeding

- Eyesight going out of whack (vision blurring and tilting, the room spinning, black spots consuming sight)

- Eyes rolling up into their head

- Trembling/shaking

- Ears riniging (from gunshot)

HOPE THIS HELPED!

endless-archive

Yes thank you even thought I….do not need this for something I’m working on haha nope….

hacash

guys, we need to talk about eowyn

So I get really narky when people pull the whole ‘oh Eowyn’s storyline came to such a sucky ending; she was really cool going around killing orcs and Witch-Kings and then she got shoved into a traditional girly role by marrying Faramir and becoming a healer’ thing, because no. No-no-no-no-no. Not only does that stray dangerously into the territory of ‘women only have worth if they’re doing traditionally blokey things’, but that misses almost the entire point of Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien was in the trenches in the first world war, right? He got all that ‘for death and glory’ shit shoved down his throat, that was the whole point about the war, it was when so many people came to see how awful and misleading all the propaganda about winning glory through violence and death was. And Tolkien’s work completely shows that: it’s why the hobbits, who’ve never craved power or battle the way men do, are the heroes of the book; it’s why strong men like Aragorn and Faramir are shown to be lovers of peace rather than war. It’s why the quote - but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory; I love only that which they defend – is so poignant and beautiful, when seen in the context of all Tolkien had gone through. He’d seen all but one of his closest friends die in an utterly pointless war; the prevalent message in his books is ‘if you’re going to have that many people die, let it be for something worth dying for.’ (Like defending your home from the lord of all darkness, for example.)

And Eowyn might be a fantastic female character, but she’s also got so much development to go through, and she’s by no means perfect. I find it really interesting that when Eowyn talks to Aragorn about wanting to go off and fight she never really actually mentions protecting her people, but speaks about wanting to ‘face peril and battle’, and to do ‘great deeds’. And it’s not that Eowyn doesn’t want to protect her people, because of course she does, but she’s also got such a driving motivation within her to do glorious and fell deeds simply for the sake of valour and renown. It’s one of her defining features, having an attitude that got so many young men killed in the war and which, obviously, Tolkien would have been very wary of.

(Also, I think, there’s so much in Eowyn that wants to prove herself to be more than ‘a mere woman’; because twice in that conversation she asserts that she’s no mere ‘dry-nurse’ or ‘serving-woman’, but a member of the house of Eorl and therefore capable of greater things. There’s almost this slight sense of Eowyn considering herself more than ‘just’ a domesticated woman that I sometimes get from her in the books? Which is very sad - the idea of Eowyn having less regard for others of her sex who do mind the house or raise the children - and why I so love that ‘I am no man’ moment in RotK. Eowyn’s no longer hiding herself, or dismissing fellow women as the weaker sex, but acknowledging and embracing the fact that women in all their forms can fuck you up.)

And then we reach the Houses of Healing, and Eowyn yearning for death in battle just like her Uncle Theoden, and basically buying into that whole world war one ethos that Tolkien would have considered so poisonous. Which is why her friendship and courtship with Faramir is so fricking beautiful. Remember that quote I wrote earlier? That’s from Faramir. He’s not backing down from conflict, he’s in no way less of a ‘real man’ than anyone else; he’s just saying there needs to be more to the fight than simply having a fight. There needs to be a reason; something worth fighting for. Eowyn recognises that Faramir is a good man in every sense of the word: he’s strong and valiant, but he doesn’t fight simply to prove himself or for the sake of winning glory, he fights for other people. And Faramir gently challenges Eowyn on her idolisation of battle-glory and encourages her not to scorn gentleness or peace, and he’s so freaking good for her.

(Seriously. Can we just stop for a moment and think about how wonderful Eowyn and Faramir are for each other: Faramir encouraging Eowyn to turn towards life and healing and openness while never denying her strength or courage, and Eowyn giving Faramir the validation and security he never got after so many years of an awful relationship with his father? I honestly don’t know why I don’t get all giddy about these two more often, because they make the very best otp.)

And the result of the departure of the Shadow and her friendship with Faramir is Eowyn’s decision that ‘I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’

I think that last bit is so important because I’m certain that Tolkien doesn’t mean for Eowyn to immediately pack up her sword and shield and become a good girl sitting at home with her knitting and waiting for the men to return home after the fight – after all, she’s going to be the wife of the Steward of Gondor and there’s a lot of mess to clean up after the War of the Ring. Eowyn’s probably still going to find herself defending hearth and home from time to time. But the important thing is that she’s no longer defining herself simply by the doing of valiant deeds; she’ll no longer compare herself to the great warriors of her house and feel lacking simply because she hasn’t killed as many men. Most importantly, she’s not going to take joy only in the songs of the slaying, in destruction and death. Tolkien was all about healers symbolising life and rebirth, and Eowyn’s decision to become one – to aid in the preservation of life rather than the taking of it – is so beautiful. I don’t think Tolkien ever wrote Eowyn’s ending to make her reclaim her ‘lost femininity’; I think it’s a lovely way of adding to the ever-present theme in Lord of the Rings of hope and frailty and healing and friendship over glory and battle and strife.

books-n-quotes

“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.”

— Lynda Barry, What It Is

Quizilla

So, I’m setting up a new laptop. Which means clearing out files from my old hard drive and moving everything (worth keeping) over to this one.

Came across some old fanfics that I’d written in my teens and, my god, they are something else.

Does anyone else remember writing fics on Quizilla? It was an early 2000s website for making quizzes. (”Which hobbit should you be friends with?” “What is your magic colour?” etc.) A year or so into its existence, fic writers started using the site for fanfiction: posting paragraphs of a story, written in second-person, into the “question” field and adding possible reader reactions into the “answer” field.

I found a few examples on my hard drive but, alas, the “reaction” answers are lost to the internet.

Exhibit A: That time in 2005 that I wrote Anne-Rice-inspired fics (and stayed up way past my bedtime working on them).

As you start to feel better, you flick on the TV and finish watching last night’s movie. “Jack I’ll never let go…”, Rose insists. All the same, he sinks into the ocean and dies. At three, you come back into work with everyone wanting to know what happened. You try to ignore them, but find yourself giving up little tidbits of information. A male co-worker offers to take you home. You know he just wants a date, so you decline, “I have my own car.”

The end of your shift doesn’t arrive early enough and you drag yourself out to your car under the careful watch of your supervisor through the window. The engine grumbles to a start and you drive home to your apartment. When you get there, you open the door carefully: waiting for the attacker to jump out, but all is safe. You sing to yourself happily as you get ready for bed. You lock your door and each window, just to be sure.

As you lay down in your twin-sized bed, the phone rings. Lazily, you pick it up, expecting it to be a girl from work who wants to switch a shift. “Hello?”, you answer. “You’re not safe yet.”, says the voice from last night. Your back freezes up and your eyes pop open in fear. “Oh, god.”, you whisper. “God won’t save you now.”, cackles the voice from the window above your bed. The lock was broken. He was in your bedroom in a flash. “Get the hell out of here!”, you scream. “I can’t leave, darling, not until I’ve had what I came for.”, he replies. “If you’re looking for money, you won’t find much here!”, you answer. “Why would I need that? I have all the money I could want. No, silly, I want your blood.”, he reveals.

“You’re not a vampire!”, you assert. “Can you be so sure?”, he asks, cockily. You gasp as he flies to your neck and wrestles you to the ground. His teeth sink into your neck and you feel the strain of your veins against his suck. You pass out soon after.

Exhibit B: That time in 2005 that I crossed King Arthur with Lord of the Rings (and didn’t understand paragraph breaks).

On a warm summer’s morning, you wake to your servant- Gwennis’ call. “Rose, get dressed. You have two suitors today and one just arrived!” You groan and dress yourself in a simple blue dress that skims your curves. You brush your hair and rush to the main hall. A large, redheaded knight stands there next to your father. “Sir Argus.” He announces. Argus bows in a chivalric manner and extends a hand to you. You don’t take it and your father sighs. “Will you walk with me at least?” he asks, sounding withdrawn. You consent and wander the orchards with the knight. “I see that you are quite contented to be unwedded, Lady Rosalind.” He states, solemnly. “I think, therefore I remain a maiden.” You reply dryly. “Do you study much in the ways of philosophy?” he asks, trying to start a conversation. Mildly, you reply “I read what is available to me.” “You read?” he asks, astonished. “Latin, English, French, Gaelic and a little Saxon.” You reply, amused. Argus doesn’t reply and the walk ends shortly. You smirk, knowing that most men fear an educated wife, so this simple little speech scares off most suitors. Argus leaves after a brief talk with Uriens. He seems to realize that the prospects of marriage are rapidly dwindling for him. The rest of the day passes uneventfully. You’re sitting down to supper with your family, sipping wine. “Your next suitor set word that he’d arrive sometime this evening, Rosalind.” Your mother says. You had completely forgotten about the second suitor, and accidentally choke on a bit of your wine. You shrug and your father says “You should wear a holiday dress.” You swallow carefully and reply “What’s the matter with my present attire?” Uriens stands up, looking annoyed and answers “This suitor is important. You have remained unwedded too long. I too have grown weary of your insolence, you will wed him!” You jump up and shout “What if I refuse?” Your father slaps you across the mouth and yells “Then I will give you to the blind, old shepherd!” You rush to your room, crying. You hear Accolon behind you, shouting “Sister!”, but you heed him not. Once you reach your chambers, you decide it’s best to flee the castle. You pack a few coins and start throwing things in your bag. Lastly, you toss in your favorite necklace and throw on a riding cloak. You leave silently through the back and jog down the path only to meet a rider. He is tall and slender on his white horse. You presume it’s the mysterious suitor and turn away to hide your face. “Maiden, I request directions to the front gate. I have business with the King and Princess Rosalind.” He asks, pulling his hood down to reveal a handsome face and long blonde hair. He steps down from his horse and waits for you to speak. You feel an instant affection for him and going against all logic, you reply “I am she, I came to greet you.” You gently pull off your hood so he can see your face. He says something you don’t understand, so you ask “What tongue is it that you speak? I know many languages, but yours is strange.” He smiles warmly and bows to you “I am Prince Legolas, of Mirkwood. I speak Quenya, you will remember soon enough.” He holds out his hand, but instead of taking it, you ask “What mean you by ‘remember’?” You give him your hand, cautiously and he kneels to kiss it. You lead him to the front door and his horse follows. “What I meant, was that if you came to Mirkwood with me and became my bride once again, you would remember. I hope you’ll agree.” He explains, much to your confusion. You hear your father calling your name, so you answer “I’m here!” He walks over and sees you with the prince and smiles. “It is time.” He says and Legolas nods in agreement. Later, in the hall, you’re all seated on chairs. Your father begins talking “Rosalind, you were betrothed to the prince since you were born, you must understand. That is why we didn’t feel much sorrow for your suitors.” Legolas lifts an eyebrow at this and asks, jealously “You allowed suitors?” Uriens apologizes and continues “Legolas is not of this world, he has journeyed from the land of Middle Earth. He’s an elf.” Legolas parts his hair to reveal a strangely pointed ear; you look away quickly and wait for your father to finish. “You are from his world, but there was great turmoil over a ring, so your real parents hid you here with the Merlin’s help. A spell was cast to remove your memories and make you appear human. It will dissolve on your 18th birthday.” You ask “Why did you never tell me?” “You were young, and content to be human,” Uriens says “and it was safer that way. You will be an elf in a few days. I’ll be sorry to see you go.” You look down at the ground thinking, I’ll have pointed ears, no difference… “On the contrary,” begins Legolas “elves are immortal; we die only at the hands of an enemy or by broken hearts. We are also telepathic.” You shiver, feeling cold and pass out. You fall face first into Uriens.