Asher Gray

Jewish trans mlm author, he/him please. You can buy The Many Lives & Times of John Doe on Lulu! Other WIPs include Dr. Atilol's Patient and Trans Man (both on Wattpad!) Brain Damage, Descent, and Oy Fae.

[getupthestairs]

UUGGGHGFGGG ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD THE PLAY OF ALL TIME. AUGHHH

[quietwingsinthesky]

possession horror where the thing possessing the autistic character causes them to behave in a more neurotypical way. autistic possession horror where the thing inside you is easier to communicate with than you are, the thing inside you doesn’t have a flat affect, the thing inside you doesn’t let your body stim, the thing inside you is how you were told to behave and you can only do it when you are no longer you. autistic possession horror where you will never forget that everyone liked it better than you before they found out something was controlling you. autistic possession horror where they know what’s inside you isn’t you and debate whether it would be easier for everyone to leave you like this anyway. you agree. reblog.

[kurhanchyk]

my preemptive answer is that because people refuse to commit main characters to it but i'm sure there are many reasons

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

#i think it's also because many people write about them from an atheist's perspective#i.e. they write like they can't believe a character would take a religion and its tenets seriously#without being a caricature of fundamentalism

(from @lilybarthes)

[fivekoboldsinacoat]

It's a good video! I highly recommend it. Watched it a few hours after it dropped and was thinking about it again this morning.

OP isn't wrong, exactly (saying this for everyone else reading, not at you, OP) and the pasted tags are excellent & about a real issue, but actually further from the thesis of the video.

That thesis boils down to fiction that creates religions, like fantasy novels or RPGs, is very prone to only really depicting the religion's myths and sacred texts. The creation stories, the pantheon melodramas, that kind of thing. Adjacent to this is a big focus on belief. Both of these, ReligionForBreakfast (RFB) suggests, are due at least in part to (unexamined or deliberate) Christocentrism.

The thing that's missing, that RFB proposes as what he thinks would make a big difference and be good to see in fictional worlds, is action. ("Ritual", for certain definitions of the word.) What do followers of a religion, or people within that religion's culture, actually do? How does it appear in daily life, in art and architecture, customs and food, etc.? And not just the Official Approved actions or activities, either.

It's a really solid video, just under 20 minutes long, link here for the interested.

[mycannibalromance]

you've heard of ghosts as repetitions of memory now get ready for ghosts as the absence of memory

[mycannibalromance]

Joan Tierney, 'Free-Range Angel Produce' / the Mountain Goats, 'Riches and Wonders' / Mark Strand, 'Keeping Things Whole' / Mark Z. Danielewski, 'House of Leaves' / Rosario Castellanos, ‘Memorandum on Tlatelolco’ tr. Maureen Ahern

[tinfoilvalentine]

Dennis James Sweeney, ‘Ghost/Home: A Beginner's Guide to Being Haunted’

[plutonicbees]

trans asf to be a clone.

oh you were biologically constructed to be somebody that you can never become?

and when you look in the mirror you can only yearn to be seen as yourself rather than who everybody expects you to be? interesting.

[the-real-nikki19]

a writing competition i was going to participate in again this year has announced that they now allow AI generated content to be submitted

their reasoning being that "we couldn't ban it even if we wanted to, every writer already uses it anyway"

"Every writer"?

come on

[rose-of-pollux]

Reblog if you're a writer who doesn't use AI.

[wearefallensouls]

You are stuck in a time loop.

This Road by Poe / post by @janemorris / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), dir. Tom Stoppard / Circles by Marion Ethel Hamilton / Happy Death Day (2017), dir. Christopher Landon / Alan Wake II / Fatigue Empire by Cynthia Cruz / Black Sails episode XXXII

[arynneva]

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[mecharose]

I see first person stories like I'm sitting down across from the narrator getting the wildest tea imaginable

[arynneva]

Most accurate way to read a first person story

[carnivalseb]

second person stories are about you

[charlemane]

writing tip: searching "[place of origin]ish names" will get you a lot of stuff and nonsense made up by baby bloggers.

searching "[place] census [year]" will get you lists of real names of real people who lived in that place.

[annabelle--cane]

the first law of tragedies: the end is already written and inevitable. the second law of tragedies: your actions are all your own and you can choose to get off this ride whenever you want. the third law of tragedies: we both know that you are never going to do that.

[grissomesque]

[valtsv]

when you think to yourself "i should make this relationship more fucked up and difficult to define" that's the aromantic demon talking. and you should listen to it.

[bloomedwings]

Ugh, was having a great time mocking my recently imprisoned rival when I noticed the camera positioning makes it so that I appear behind the bars, thus framing me as trapped in a metaphorical prison of the narrative, now my whole day is ruined. Fuck.

[nuclear-mech-wizard-deactivated]

I get it, man. The other day, I survived a shootout, only to realize that a stray bullet went through a mirror in such a way as to look from the camera's perspective like I got shot in the head through the mirror, so now I have to acknowledge that something that could be reasonably referred to as "me" really did die that day, and it's just like "jfc, gimme a BREAK"

[fipindustries]

ugh dont even get me started on how the other day i tried to sit on the throne of my conquered foe and light a cigar to celebrate my victory but the lighter wouldnt work and it had to be lighted by the vizier who used to work for my enemy but that i enlisted to work as a double agent and help me in my coup. that jerk afterwards said with a devilish smile "ill always be at your service my liege" and i just KNOW that he said that exact same thing to the previous ruler. signifying that my victory was phyrric since i am still caught in an endless cycle of violence and betrayal. that really spoiled the whole mood

[yardsards]

been toying with the concept of vampirism as like, needing something that you inherently can't provide for yourself. vampirism as dependency- especially in cases of vampires who refuse to (or straightup *cannot* for whatever reason) feed on anyone without consent, who must rely on blood freely given by living humans.

an independent young adult, so eager to move out on her own and see the world by herself, is turned into a vampire. her human parents are willing to feed her, but now she'll be dependent on them. she can't move away, can't stray too far from the family farm by herself, because she can't be too far from her source of blood for too long. she's afraid of what will happen when her parents are too old to give blood to her, if she'll be able to find someone else to depend on. she'll outlive them all eventually, if she's not left to starve.

a sociable vampire with a wide network of human friends who are willing to offer up their blood to her. they're happy to help her, but she still feels like a monster for having to take their blood all the time. she tries to take as little as possible while they beg her please take more, we hate seeing you so hungry all the time, please let us help. 

a vampire trapped in an abusive marriage because he relies on his wife for blood. if he leaves her without an alternate support system to feed him, he'd starve. she isolated him from all his other loved ones who might've been willing to feed him years ago. she holds the fact that she gives him her blood over his head anytime he tries to defend himself.

[bioluminescently-unfolding]

This kind of thing is why I look at vampirism as a dimension of disability - it's impossible for me to look at their circumstances and not see the vulnerabilities and complex logistical problems imposed by chronic illnesses. It's the absolute inability to be exposed to the sun - sometimes even inability to move or stay awake when the sun is up. It's the inability to take other forms of nourishment besides blood. It's the mental and emotional experience of being unable to focus on anything else if you get too hungry.

But, as in these examples (and especially the "what happens when I outlive my parents?"), it is indeed overwhelmingly about "what if I just can't meet my own needs on my own?" and that is a very common experience.

And having been both disabled and an abusive survivor, I find that juxtaposition particularly fascinating, because it's common as hell - vastly moreso than most people realise - for those things to coincide. I often fin horror fiction the most emotionally and creatively useful genre lens for exploring difficult real-life experience, and stuff like this is why.

[teaboot]

Theory:

Werewolf as fear is Losing Self-Control, Werewolf as fantasy is Letting Go Of Self-Control.

Vampire as fear is Being Controlled by outside forces, Vampire as fantasy is Having Control over outside forces

Am I getting close to something here

[mstrickster]

This got me thinking and I'd like to add.

Witch as fear is being hurt for your differences, Witch as fantasy is being feared or revered for your differences

Ghost as a fear is being left behind by the world, Ghost as fantasy is seeing the world in a way no one else can.

Zombie as a fear is being the prey, Zombie as fantasy is being the predator.

[penny-anna]

The problem w writing fiction is that you'll be like tee-hee I'm going to write a story about a fucked up little scenario that's got nothing to do with anything in real life, just some pure messed up nonsense, and then you finish it and take a step back and go aw rats I made a metaphor again

[theblackparadeisdead]

What's that poem about the cockroach and the moth where the cockroach is like "I wish I've ever wanted anything the way that moth wanted to burn itself up in that lantern" because we had to read that in high school and it still fucks me up to this day

[theblackparadeisdead]

Ok I found it it's called "the lesson of the moth by archy" and it's by Don Marquis

[gearlic]

90% of my writing experience is doing this