Boats Against the Current

~ Brittany ~ She/Her ~ Bi ~ 30 ~ NYC ~ Leo ~ ~ INFP ~ Intersectional feminist ~ ♡ Writer, editor, journalist, & aspiring novelist ♡ ♡Lover of stories, scented candles, frozen blueberries, cats, & iced coffee ♡

[djspindash]

My new sonic tattoo (My first one)💓💓💓

[girltalk]

── ࣪˖ ࣪ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ──

You matter.

You are worthy. You are pretty. You have a great purpose. You are enough. You are valuable. You are a gift. You deserve to be safe and happy.

　　 ˚ 　　　 . ✧　　 　　˚ 　　　 . ✧　　 　　˚ 　　　 .

[madamslayyy]

Rich people telling poor people to donate money to other poor people has got to be the most disrespectful and condescending shit on the planet

[grandenoirceur-deactivated20220]

Fat characters deserve to be more than the butt of the joke.

[diarygirls]

can lorde release her third album please i don’t know how to navigate my early twenties without her 

[ahagisborn]

was just Remembering how you’d be out with a friend and you’d each order a different cocktail and you’d ask “what’d you get?” and they’d read the description off the menu and you’d be like “ooh that sounds good” and then they’d say “try it!” and then you’d have a lil sip of their drink and they’d have a lil sip of your drink and you’d decide which one was best and you wouldn’t give each other a life-threatening respiratory infection

[jinlinli]

[palindrome-girl]

explain

[jinlinli]

1. lack of female characters in spn means that there are no meaningful het romantic relationship prospects for dean

2. the only strong relationship in the show is between dean and sam

3. wincest pairing becomes most popular ship in the show

4. many fans are frustrated that the juggernaut ship in spn is an incest ship

5. castiel appears in show

6. destiel goes wildly popular as a result of fans being relieved to have a mlm ship that isnt wincest

7. resulting destiel flurry shoots the show back to prominence, ushering in a new audience of fans, including stacey abrams in 2017

8. supernatural becomes stacey abrams's new go-to relaxation show

9. stacey abrams's frustration with sam's decisions in season 10??? apparently??? helped form some of her opinions about coalition building in her campaign???? theres a 2018 interview with abrams on blackgirlnerds.com that posits this jkdfhgkjhdfghdfjkg

10. stacey abrams runs for georgia governor in 2018

11. stacey abrams narrowly loses the race in large part due to suppression of black votes

12. stacey abrams spends the next two years advocating for expanding voting access, an effort that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of first time registered voters

13. in the 2020 election, georgia goes blue by a margin of a thousand votes or so

14. stacey abrams's efforts are given credit for this shift

15. stacey abrams celebrates by unwinding with a nice relaxing episode of destiel is canon

[sixth-light]

I hate to do this but given the above and the fact that Stacey Abrams has written romance novels there is a much higher than zero chance that she is fandom-adjacent 

[violetanthology]

Sfogliatella

The smell of coffee, roasted beans, fresh whole milk, 

espresso expressing how I feel inside. Where did

the room go, with the dim lighting and the comfort of

a successful day?  Where did I go, when the lights

flicked on and the spots appeared in my eyes, a 

disco ball of colors, of a life I wish I lived?

–

Take me back to those days of security.  When

breathing came easy and every flower sprouted

from yesterday’s soil with renewed intent to

grow.  Stronger, taller, more powerful.  I am

in control now.  The smell of coffee brings 

me back to the beginning.  Grandma’s kitchen

on Thanksgiving - After Turkey, before we

break out the rainbow cookies and sfogliatelle.

Colombian Folgers.  Where are the pastries 

of self control?

[cogesque-deactivated20210410]

Three-Act Structure in 30 Days

A Cog Special for NaNoWriMo

Hey friends! I’m unable to participate in NaNo this year, but! I thought I could share with you a “prompt list” I developed for myself. One prompt a day, this list might just help you achieve a complete book in 30 days! (Maybe.)

ACT ONE

11/01 - Develop what most inspires you. Let your world blossom, your character present themself, or your conflict begin.

11/02  - Introduce your protagonist’s day-to-day routine. Show who they are in their own element before their life spirals out of control.

11/03 - Show readers a conflict that’s been occupying your protagonist’s mind–use this as an opportunity to reveal another dimension of your world and the characters that inhabit it.

11/04 - Delve deeper into the side characters. Explore their superficial relationships with your protagonist.

11/05 - Bring in a new face. This face might belong to a new friend, a love interest, or even the villain.

11/06 - Take a moment to breathe, then destroy your protagonist’s world. Break it in such a way there’s no taping it back together. (And remember! This doesn’t have to be a bad change! Just an irreversible one.)

11/07 - Let your readers wallow in the fallout. Show how your protagonist initially responds and who they reach out to (if anyone).

Congratulations!! You’ve completed Act One! You’re well on your way to a book!! Remember to take a small breather and reward yourself. Look how much you’ve accomplished in as little as a week!

ACT TWO

11/08 - Your protagonist is on the precipice; let them jump. Encourage them. This is where the plot truly begins.

11/09 - Show your character the paths they can take. They don’t have to choose one yet, but let them know what their options are.

11/10 - Introduce conflict between your protagonist and one of the characters they thought they trusted.

11/11 - Explain away the conflict. Put your protagonist and that character back on somewhat firm ground–maybe there’s still suspicion, but it won’t break them. Yet.

11/12 - Make your character choose a path. It’s too late in the game to be all wishy-washy about what to do and how to do it.

11/13 - Show them that they’re not yet equipped to handle the primary conflict of your novel.

11/14 - Let them take a step back and re-asses. Let them consult with those that they trust and try to find how to best tackle the conflict.

11/15 - Give them a way to grow the skills they need or learn the information they need to best succeed in the main conflict.

11/16 - Renew their confidence. Little-by-little, help them remember that they can do this.

11/17 - Let your protagonist’s relationship with another character take an unexpected turn. This could be anything from them having helpful knowledge/skills to having a connection with the villain to being romantically interested in the protagonist.

11/18 - After all their hard work is paying off and your protagonist thinks they might just be able to succeed in their goal.

11/19 - The newfound skills/information/etc. your protagonist has gathered are put to the test, and they come out victorious. Delight all around!

Take a moment to think and reflect. Have a nice tea and prepare for everything to go utterly, terribly wrong, because that’s where we’re going with this.

11/20 - Your protagonist’s worst fear is confirmed and all the bravado they’ve gathered comes crashing down around them. (Hint: This is a great place to bring back the 11/10 conflict.)

11/21 - Your protagonist struggles to cope with the last blow they took, but they don’t have much time. They need to compose themself.

11/22 - Time to gear up for the grand finale. There’s no going back now, and everyone knows it. Let your protagonist and their allies gather.

Look at you go!! You’ve written the majority of a book?? You’ve made it through the hardest part and you’re in the home stretch. You can do it!!

ACT THREE

11/23 - Shove your protagonist into a room with the conflict that’s been haunting them from the beginning and let them have a moment with it.

11/24 - Bang! Pow! Climax time!

11/25 - Just when your protagonist thinks they’re winning, make it all go wrong. A fundamental piece of the puzzle is missing and we’re in disasterland now, lads.

11/26 - Let a side character prompt the protagonist’s defining moment–let them do something unexpected to prompt an even more unexpected response.

11/27 - Ideally, this will be victory time! Everything we’ve been hoping for since the beginning comes to fruition and all the protagonist’s hard work pays off. Alternatively, you could make this end real bad. It’s up to you.

11/28 - Let the results of the final conflict settle in. These could be good or bad, depending on your story, or even better: both.

11/29 - Go back to the beginning. Rewrite the first scene or develop a prologue. Now that you have a sense of the ending, you’ll have a better idea of where things should’ve started!

11/30 - Show your readers where everyone ended up–did they get a happy ending? A sad ending?

You’ve finished your book!!!!!!! YOU’VE FINISHED YOUR BOOK!!! Heck yeah.

[standpoor]

being an adult is just running around getting one thing done so you can get another thing done so you can get another thing done so you can get another thing done so you can get another thing done and also eating whatever you want but feeling really guilty about it

[actuallylotor]

my favorite kind of fanfics are “canon divergence” because it’s always like handing back a reviewed essay with comments like “I enjoyed the strong beginning but here is where you lost me, I’ve made some notes”

[hustlerose]

nobody has been bullied for being a nerd since like 1990 and star wars and superheroes and video games have been mainstream to the point of oversaturation for like 20+ years now and adult man babies still have a persecution complex. may divorce be with you 

[fallinyourtidalwaves]

Black coffee in the morning thats sexy

[violetanthology]

The Beehive

So much of the time,

anxiety buzzes in my skin like bees.

i have always been afraid of insects.

But You.

In Your arms the bees fall silent.

The ceaseless fluttering of rapid wings

cannot reach me here.

And yet still i tremble.

The irresistible refuge of your embrace

is an expense i must pay in installments.

Flayed raw, my body betrays instincts.

Fight or flight is not an acceptable response

to someone who loves you.

How beautiful, this bespoke cage of feeling,

gilded gold and forged by my own hand.

Certainly preferable to the cold cast iron

of the beehive.

Daisy, your pedestal is much too high.

It is fair to neither of us, and

the bees are starting to catch on.

Bronzed and ascending, they loom

in pillars, turning in wrath to wasps —

Didn’t i know that the honey you gave me

was but only a top-shelf poison?

But happiness forsaken for fear is

a choice I cannot justify.  Steeled,

I wait for first sting. I wait.

I wait.

[placiddream]

[theconcealedweapon]

[bimbocracy]

This is a manipulation tactic that men use to make it such a pain in the ass to set a boundary with them that you don’t attempt it again

[themanicnami]

I’ve been told this before and my response was “Sounds great. Glad we agree.” they always look immediately shaken and surprised.

[niggazinmoscow]

I’ve rewatched the ad at least three times to try and figure out why some folks are angry with it and I’m at a loss.  All I see here is: Be a better human. Set a better example. Encouraging strength of character and integrity over typical “machismo”.

[lousirthe3rd-deactivated2022080]

[kimmycup]

That last tweet calls for another reblog.

[takaraphoenix]

I read the comments first before watching the ad and was expecting… anything that could even remotely be perceived as provoking at all. But this was literally just 1.) Treat other people with respect and 2.) Teach your sons to treat other people with respect. What fragile, gross creatures must you be to feel attacked from a prompt to be a decent human being…?

[karadin]

and I bet most people complaining haven’t even seen the ad

[cipheramnesia]

Shit I cried.