Water which is too pure has no fish.

An art blog for practice and scribbles. Because not every attempt to draw has to be a magnum opus.

[the-reblog-squad-deactivated202]

Reblog if you don't use Generative AI to write fanfics/original fics or to create fanart/original art.

[aaronstveit]

"if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around" yes you would. if you were orpheus and you loved eurydice, you would. to love someone is to turn around. to love someone is to look at them. whichever version of the myth — he hears her stumble, he can't hear her at all, he thinks he's been tricked — he turns around because he loves her. that's why it's a tragedy. because he loves her enough to save her. because he loves her so much he can't save her. because he will always, always turn around. "if i was orpheus i would simply —" you wouldn't be orpheus. you wouldn't be brave enough to walk into the underworld and save the person you love. be serious

[oojamaflip-whatchamacallit]

#i didnt realize this was a love story#i thought this was about doubt itself#that the reason we as humans can communicate is because if left to our own thoughts#we'd all turn around#in the silence of her following he had time to think#and no matter what she did and how much he loved her#he had the silence to doubt

[ninjakittenarmy]

The post comes off as supremely arrogant though. I get that people are drastically underestimating how difficult it was not to look, but people react to things very differently.

“If you didn’t look, it’s because you don’t love her enough.”

Or maybe they’re more afraid of screwing it up than it not actually being her. Or they trust Hades since he tends to be fairly straightforward.

It is indeed arrogant and ignorant to say with the benefit of hindsight that you’d do everything in a tragedy correctly with the benefit of the reader’s viewpoint and hindsight but it is equally arrogant to assume that anyone would automatically do as the original characters would in their shoes and anyone who doesn’t lacks the original character’s positive traits as well as their flaws is just presumptuous and nonsensical.

“You would if you were Orpheus” but we’re not. We are different people who have our own reactions to this stuff. The whole point is what WE would do in his situation. And at least some people would not look back. Not because they’re less loving or caring than Orpheus, but because they are otherwise different and have different instinctive reactions to these situations. Not looking back is HARD. It is understandable to look back. But if you know that this is your one, last, and only chance to bring your loved one back from the dead, some may indeed muster all the strength they have and keep their eyes forward. Not because they don’t love, but because they do.

Also

“You wouldn’t be brave enough to walk into Hell.”

It’s the underworld, not Hell. If Eurydice was in Tartarus, Orpheus’s failure would probably be for the best. Don’t get me wrong, guy’s got balls of brass (no steel back then) but there is a distinct difference between walking into Hell to confront Satan and walking into the Underworld to ask Hades for a favor. This is the guy who let Heracles take Cerberus for a walk.

[boudicca]

sometimes it's not even "he would not fucking say that". sometimes it's "he would not fucking say that. nobody would ever fucking say that. nobody talks like that. have you ever spoken to another human being"

[newpathmain]

I read a lot of smutty fanfiction. In many fics, my character of choice says things in the realm of ‘dirty talk’ which in my asexual mind constitute things an actual human would literally never say. Like I cannot conceive of these words being spoken to another person in real life. So imagine my shock when a partner asked me to engage in it (which… was not happening), and that former belief went 💨 🤯💥 I still find it difficult to wrap my mind around, but apparently, a subset of people would actually say that.

And so, I’ve given up that criticism of others’ writing. Who am I to decide what humans would and would not say to each other?🤷🏼‍♀️

[tanakavox]

You know. I think the Megaman X fan base forgets that Axl, despite his youthful nature and look. Was an assassin. A talent and dangerous one so good that Red alert deem it was worth fighting the Maverick Hunters to get him back. Monsters X and Zero deem him worthy to work with. There probably been times when the Hunter had a whole meeting and never knew Axl was in the room till he spoke up.

[pale-opal]

@bruggle

[tanakavox]

You know. I think the Megaman X fan base forgets that Axl, despite his youthful nature and look. Was an assassin. A talent and dangerous one so good that Red alert deem it was worth fighting the Maverick Hunters to get him back. Monsters X and Zero deem him worthy to work with. There probably been times when the Hunter had a whole meeting and never knew Axl was in the room till he spoke up.

[pale-opal]

@bruggle

[rederiswrites]

Next time you go to write a ten year old child, please know that mine just gave me a fairly accurate explanation of fiat versus commodity currencies, in those terms. So for goodness sake, just have them talk like the adults they’re around most.

Also I saw a post yesterday that said that children under ten don’t understand sarcasm, and I assure you, that is not the case.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I talked like an adult when I was 10. So did all of my friends. Writing children believably is not about making them not know stuff, or making them struggle to express themselves. Kids can be very knowledgeable and very expressive, especially if they’re little book weirdos like I was.

To write a believable child, DO NOT make them:

- dumb

- inarticulate

- prone to outbursts

- superlatively innocent

DO make them:

- totally incapable of accurately calculating delayed gratification or the long-term consequences of their actions

- intermittently sociopathic

- sometimes choose to lie in a way that cannot possibly be believed, due to a dearth of life experience making it impossible to determine the likelihood of their own statements

- only sometimes, profoundly weird

[lacylu42]

I just want to add: intermittent competence. 

My 10 year old can do her own laundry, cook simple meals, look after pets, carry on a sophisticated conversation, make jokes that will make adults laugh (with her) for days, and do long division, but sometimes wears the same pair of underwear for several days in a row or forgets to wash the conditioner out of her hair. 

[heywriters]

My favorite thing about kids of all ages but especially pre-adolescents is they will casually observe and absorb whatever older kids and adults are doing and be doing it too within a day.

Also, if your little kid has older siblings/kids they spend time with, they have the advantage of learning stuff sooner than expected. Older kids are who you learn dirty, dangerous, and “grown up” knowledge from. If adults won’t tell you, older kids are only too happy to sound wise.

[orpheuslament]

now say it with me: authors/artists dont owe you moral purity. an author/artist job is not to hold you by the hand & tell you exactly what is Good™ & what is Bad™. you should be able to think for yourself

[orpheuslament]

"yes but depictions of (morally questionable thing) are only okay if its punished in the story" thats the hays code. you just reinvented the hays code

[ceasarslegion]

In my experience as a third culture kid who travels a lot the best indicator that you as a non-x is appreciating x culture is if the locals actively invite you to participate in it with them

Yes, you are allowed to buy those handmade Inuit winter clothes if an Inuk is literally selling them to you. They would not be offering you a price point if they didnt want you to buy and wear them. And you might discover that theyre the best winter clothes youve ever worn because of COURSE they would be if theyve kept this culture warm in harsh winters for thousands of years.

Yes, you are allowed to join those Cambodians in that local holiday theyre celebrating during your visit if they literally invited you to it. They would not have invited you if they didnt want you to participate. And in the process you might learn a lot about a culture you never wouldve interacted with and you can all have a laugh together about your clumsy but genuine attempts at getting your footwork right in one of their traditional dances.

Yes, you are also allowed to ask if you can participate in something from the local culture you are visiting. Sometimes you will get "sorry, thats a closed practice" but in my experience most of the time you'll get "of course, let me show you how to do this!" And in my experience people tend to appreciate when others make an active effort in sharing their culture and wont stone you to death if youre clumsy about it while youre learning. I guarantee that the local children doing all of this for the first time too make the same mistakes you do and they can tell if youre being disrespectful or genuine.

So much "cultural appropriation" discourse really starts to sound like "you cant participate or visit any other cultures if youre from a Colonial Culture and have to stay in your little box and never relate to other people"

[ceasarslegion]

You actually sound like more of a racist dickhead when your response to being offered something is to say "no im not allowed to do that, Im white"

[randomgooberness]

Whole-heartedly BEGGING writers to unlearn everything schools taught you about how long a paragraph is. If theres a new subject, INCLUDING ACTIONS, theres a new paragraph. A paragraph can be a single word too btw stop making things unreadable

[randomgooberness]

Ok So I’m getting more notes than I thought quicker than I expected! So I’m gonna elaborate bc I want to. 

I get it, when you’re someone who writes a lot and talks a lot, it’s hard to keep things readable, but it’s not as much about cutting out the fat(that can be a problem) so much as a formatting issue. 

You are also actively NERFING yourself by not formatting it correctly, it can make impactful scenes feel so, so much better. Compare this, 

To THIS. 

Easier to read, and hits harder. 

No more over-saturated paragraphs. Space things out.

[blackheartbiohazards]

➡️ Content warnings on fiction are a courtesy. 

➡️ Not every medium of fiction and storytelling has or is expected to have content warnings or extensive tagging.

➡️ Print novels do not traditionally warn for content in any way.

➡️ Until AO3 came along, fanfiction did not traditionally warn for content in any significant way.

➡️ An author is only obligated to warn for content to the degree mandated by the format they publish their fiction on.

➡️ Content warnings beyond the minimum are a courtesy, not an obligation.

➡️ 'Creator chose not to warn' is a valid tag that authors are allowed to use on AO3. It means there could be anything in there and you have accepted the risk. 'May contain peanuts!'

➡️ Writers are allowed to use 'Creator chose not to warn' for any reason, including to maintain surprise and avoid spoilers.

➡️ 'Creator chose not to warn' is not the same thing as 'no archive warnings apply'.

➡️ It is your responsibility to protect yourself and close a book, or hit the back button if you find something in fiction that you're reading that upsets you.

➡️ You are responsible for protecting yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort.

[mollyjames]

If you've ever thought to yourself "I basically know who this person is" about a stranger from reading their posts or watching their youtube videos, I guarantee you're wrong. Yes, even if you've been following them for a long time. Knock it off.

[ajaxgb]

It's possible to know a fictional character purely from the little vignettes in a story because the author has intentionally structured those moments to show every relevant facet of the character. If you finish a story, and there were two scenes where the character was nice and one where they liked rollercoasters, then that's the character! They are nice and they like rollercoasters.

REAL PEOPLE DO NOT WORK LIKE THIS.

Real people posting on social media may appear somewhat similar to a fictional character being revealed scene by scene. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. You are not being shown a curated collection of carefully authored scenes that intentionally build up to a full character! You are seeing a random assortment of moments when the person felt like posting on social media, filtered through imprecise wording, missing context, whether the person slept well the night before, and who knows how many other factors. Real people are orders of magnitude more complicated than fictional characters because they are not designed to be easily understood by an audience! If you try to interpret social media posts as a found-footage story it will lead only to ruin!

[toonscallop]

I feel like people who believe in body language experts are falling into the same trap as this as taking too many cues from creative works. Actors in movies are deliberately emphasizing certain behaviours and body movements to communicate the internal thoughts of their characters to an outside viewer. Real people in real life do not do this. There could be hundreds of completely non-dramatic reasons for why a stranger in an interview sniffed or fidgeted or scratched their arm or broke eye contact. The belief that body language can be read cleanly and interrogated is an excuse that results in a lot of neurodivergent people or people with uncommon body language getting harassed or accused.

[edgebug]

you'd think that "inhuman thing that isn't a person but speaks like a person and talking to it will slowly drive you mad" would only be found in folktales and fables and so on. but no. chatgpt

[gamlain]

Bonus: It speaks in stolen words because it cannot generate words of it's own, nor does it understand them. It's own language is so alien that understanding it is the work of a lifetime, and everything it does is a copy of someone else's lies.

It's like someone was /trying/ to create an eldritch inhuman evil

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Another kind of diversity we need in writing is protagonists without love interests. Give me adults with full-fledged stories that don't include falling in love.

[baejax-the-great]

[applecherry108]

@wellship’s tags bc they’re spot fucking on

[joeyclaire]

"you can't pick and choose what you like from canon" common misconception! yes you can

[pirateherokillian]

but please do not get this very true concept confused with “you cannot pick and choose what is canon”

they are two very different things.

[joeyclaire]

thank you for this addition seriously

[spicyraeman]

“hes a woman to me” IS HE? or are you equating women with submissive character traits you've arbitrarily put on a random man

[crowsent]

[eruhamster]

[dreamsy990]

i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to

[dreamsy990]

unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school

[dreamsy990]

things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls

[dreamsy990]

ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself