Dragon's Den

Sterling|She/Her|Aries|Writing blog: @/caffeine-bee |Ask box open!

[caffeine-bee]

Hello! I'm Bee/Sterling and I am new to the writblr community. I hope to make a lot of friends here and while I'm quite shy I want to eventually participate in tag games. My stories are primarily character-driven and have some flavor of fantasy and adventure. Please note: This is a side blog! I don't actually post anything on my main blog anymore.

A little more about me

Illustrator/ Graphic Designer by trade which means I likely will post character illustrations

She/Her | Ace

Fave Tropes/Genres: Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Squad goals(platonic relationships!), Moral ambiguity, fantasy, and dystopian, enemies/friends-> lovers, badass turned parent, LGBTQ+ rep

Recovering from Squirrel/Shiny Thing Syndrome

As you probably noticed from my tropes, I have a background in writing fanfiction!

My favorite part of writing is world-building, I will world-build for hours

What the blog is about

You may have noticed I am recovering from Shiny Thing Syndrome and as a result, once I get past the world-building phase I just... don't (tm). I am hoping to use this blog to introduce my characters and document my struggles and triumphs as a writer. (My current and shelved WIPS are below the cut)

Shelved WIPs

Nassa of the River: In a world where water is scarce and the desert is fast encroaching a young woman must face beast, man, and god to find a way to bring a dark truth to light.

Current WIPs

Dragon Song: When one of the dragon eggs of W disappears a power struggle erupts between the leading families of four nations as they rush to secure their hold over the continent by any means necessary.

Spark: Faced with Earth 20,000 years into the future S and the scattered remains of the final ship have to navigate the dangers of the unknown as they fight for their life, traveling across mountains, oceans, and deserts to find one another.

Psychics: Two childhood friends are thrown into a dangerous secret world dominated by rival factions where the boundaries of their relationship are tested as they try to find their place amidst the chaos. (Banner image was made by my good friend and graphic design deity, Taterpie)

[sterling-dragon]

For those of you who follow me here, I am not active here anymore! (Apart from a few random writing things and memes) This is my writing blog where I am now the most active. Stop on by, I have cookies and I'll be introducing some characters soon

[beardedmrbean]

[theman]

I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

[tattooedzombigirl]

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

[secondlina]

Reblogging because it’s a damn potato and I want to encourage people to assume potatoes are magical.

[sinksanksockie2]

w-what if potato is actually lucky

[studentlifeproblems]

[amygdalae]

Favorite Meat?

Chicken

Beef

Pork

Fish/Shellfish/Crustacean

Goat

Sheep/Lamb

Turkey

Duck

Venison

Rabbit

Something Else (tell me what in tags!)

I don't eat meat

Voting ended onSep 6, 2024

[sterling-dragon]

Hey you! Yes, you! Do you want to help a UX student earn their certificate?

I'm taking a UX design course (User experience) and one of my projects is to create an app/website for a fictional museum. The data I learn would help me create an accurate "user profile" so I don't make assumptions in the design process. Here is the link to the survey and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to fill it out!

If you have any questions please feel free to send me an ask!

[sterling-dragon]

Thank you everyone for all the help! I have closed the forum and have so much information that I was able to create two user profiles which will help me tremendously when I create my app wireframe.

[sterling-dragon]

Hey you! Yes, you! Do you want to help a UX student earn their certificate?

I'm taking a UX design course (User experience) and one of my projects is to create an app/website for a fictional museum. The data I learn would help me create an accurate "user profile" so I don't make assumptions in the design process. Here is the link to the survey and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to fill it out!

If you have any questions please feel free to send me an ask!

[sterling-dragon]

The most frustrating part of being told to make lists for things is that they don't work for me. But when you tell people that they don't work for you they're all like "Hrm, well that's strange because all the science points to the fact that they do." like yeah maybe for most people. But for me, the second that I put things into a list I get overwhelmed because I HAVE to do the things in that order, I realize how much I HAVE to get done, and then writing something down gives my brain permission to forget that thing and open up more space to remember different things.

Writing things down doesn't help me remember, it stresses me out and I forget it because once it's written down I no longer need to remember it. Not to mention I have no context for things like notes when I write them down so it's just like a random collection of thoughts that makes no sense and aksjflakdjf. I hate it, I wish there was something better that doesn't ADD to my list.

but if I keep my list in my brain it stays less overwhelming and I accomplish everything. Somehow I get everything done. Somehow I don't feel as overwhelmed. But the second I see it on paper I stop EVERYTHING and it sucks

[allthingslinguistic]

Is French fanfic more like written or spoken French?

[sazandorable]

allthingslinguistic:

[allthingslinguistic]

Previous discussion snipped: Why are written French and spoken French so different?

Anyone know to what extent French fanfic uses the passé simple? My informal impression is that English fanfic tends to use present tense and second person at slightly higher rates than published English fiction, but that overall there is a considerable overlap. But since fanfic writers face fewer barriers to entry than published writers, perhaps not everyone who writes fanfic is comfortable with the passé simple. On the other hand, since writers are often also readers, maybe they are. Or maybe there’s some sort of progression as people develop as writers.

I honestly have no idea, but I have a feeling that tumblr is the right place to be asking this question. Anyone?

[sazandorable]

This is amusing because I was going to say that not confusing second-language learners of French with passé simple actually sounds very sensible, rather than making them believe they should use it in common conversation, but I understand your frustration x’) I got into a lot of small arguments with my English teachers at school because they would say “this form/phrase is never correct, use this instead” and I’d immediately think of exceptional examples I’d read… in English fanfic.

And about fanfic, that is indeed an interesting question. I remember when I started out writing fic, I used passé simple but still wrote as simply and closely to SF as possible — skipping subjunctives or using the easiest tenses as often as possible and even using passé composé regularly. I’m sure a lot of it was technically grammatically incorrect, but I was praised for my writing and my good grasp of my grammar (especially for my age). I think this was and still is the general trend; you do sometimes encounter the odd perfectly grammatically correct fic in passé simple with perfect concordance des temps, subjonctif imparfait, etc, but this seems weirdly jarring if the fic’s topic or tone isn’t especially serious.

I remember that I did eventually start writing French fic in present tense without really thinking about it, though probably because I’d been reading English fics that did it — and this caused lots of immediate reactions in the French fandom, from “Wow, that was surprising, but interesting choice! It gives a feeling of realness and instantaneousness! Very creative, I might start doing it too!” to “This would be a good fic if it weren’t in present tense. That’s just plain wrong. Change it to passé simple, that’s the rule”. (I was very surprised ‘cause it hadn’t even occurred to me that I was doing anything unusual, it was just a lot easier and more natural to write…)

That was around ten years ago though. These days, from what I’ve seen, I think more and more of French fanfic has absorbed the English trend of using present tense and second person as well (I think it was at first seasoned writers deliberately experimenting with something new, and now there are also young newbie writers who simply don’t know/think about “the rules” and feel free to do whatever as well); but it’s more noticeable/noticed, since there’s such a strong tradition tightly linking fiction and passé simple. You do run into the occasional grammar nazis who try to bring the rules of the Académie Française to the creative fanspace, though.

This is just my experience of French fandom; I’ve been more into English space for the last few years though, so there may be people with a totally different experience! There’s definitely something interesting going on there, though, and I think it might be relevant to note that many French fanficcers read a lot in English, but write in French, and might “bring” English fandom trends as well as linguistics characteristics to French fanspace. (The Harry Potter did some fun things back in the days…)

[allthingslinguistic]

I remember reading some French novels that used the present tense ~10 years ago, back when I was regularly reading French novels, and at least one was a translation of an English work that had been written in the past tense, so it’s not necessarily a new/Englishy thing. 

Anyway, since I posted the question I’ve been sent a link to all 5000+ fics on AO3 in the French language category (thanks, destinationtoast!). I am obviously not going to check them all manually (although if anyone wants to write a script that would compare each of them against a list of words in the passé simple, that would be really cool). But I did check the first 10 and last 10 fics in the list (I’m not sure what criteria they’re listed by, but whatever it is I didn’t want it to bias my sample).

At any rate, 14/20 fics used the passé simple, 5/20 used the present, and 1/20 used the passé composé, and there was no discernible effect of list position. Of course, they all used the imparfait, and I didn’t check for the past subjunctive or how accurately they used the particular verb forms. 

So it definitely looks like the passé simple is very much alive in French fanfic, at least on AO3! 

[sterling-dragon]

Thank you so much for those stats! I thought I had forgotten more French than I actually did :') and this makes me feel far less discouraged when it comes to working on my reading. (We were never taught passé simple when I first learned the language, and it's really coming back to bite me)

[sterling-dragon]

I think the funniest thing I've learned while studying French again is that it's always flaunted as a romantic language, but there's really not... a lot of what as an English speaker would call romantic words. Like the word for "hug" is a phrase (serrer dans ses bras). There really isn't a word to describe "comfort xyz thing". But boy, do I know how to insult someone.

It's just really interesting and kinda cool.

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[sterling-dragon]

Well not great but also not as bad at the last one I looked at. The author mixed up character names for that one, it was so bad it was actually kinda funny.

This one just has content warnings in it... which I love! Legitimately! But it’s so new right now in print books, and unfortunately, every single book I picked up that has had cw in the front has been so absolutely horrible to read. Like not content wise, content wise, the idea is solid. I mean structurally. I've unfortunately come to associate it with poorly written books just as I've come to associate adult fiction with a really played out trope that's just exhausting to read.

Regardless, I always give the benefit of the doubt and hope that it proves me wrong. Though, I am irritated that it did give me a spoiler. It's a thriller/horror I'm going to expect certain tropes that's what a thriller/horror is. You can't ruin the suspense for me by telling me what's going to happen, it defeats the purpose akfkdkvjdkvk

[sterling-dragon]

Help, it's going in the direction I'm scared of: great premise, bad execution. Like not terrible and can redeem itself (beginnings are hard) but it took me out of it just as it was getting good.

[sterling-dragon]

:|

Like it's not bad, it's not great, it's just... meh

Characters are great, concept and execution is... eh

[sterling-dragon]

Okay, maybe because I lived in a haunted city for 4 years and I'm a tough audience, but this... feels like a ghost tour story...

Like girl, he was being professional and polite! It's a tiny inn in a tiny town! Teeny tiny town!

[sterling-dragon]

Page 40 and I am stopping here. It kept taking me out of the suspense. It was supposed to be scary! >:(

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[sterling-dragon]

Well not great but also not as bad at the last one I looked at. The author mixed up character names for that one, it was so bad it was actually kinda funny.

This one just has content warnings in it... which I love! Legitimately! But it’s so new right now in print books, and unfortunately, every single book I picked up that has had cw in the front has been so absolutely horrible to read. Like not content wise, content wise, the idea is solid. I mean structurally. I've unfortunately come to associate it with poorly written books just as I've come to associate adult fiction with a really played out trope that's just exhausting to read.

Regardless, I always give the benefit of the doubt and hope that it proves me wrong. Though, I am irritated that it did give me a spoiler. It's a thriller/horror I'm going to expect certain tropes that's what a thriller/horror is. You can't ruin the suspense for me by telling me what's going to happen, it defeats the purpose akfkdkvjdkvk

[sterling-dragon]

Help, it's going in the direction I'm scared of: great premise, bad execution. Like not terrible and can redeem itself (beginnings are hard) but it took me out of it just as it was getting good.

[sterling-dragon]

:|

Like it's not bad, it's not great, it's just... meh

Characters are great, concept and execution is... eh

[sterling-dragon]

Okay, maybe because I lived in a haunted city for 4 years and I'm a tough audience, but this... feels like a ghost tour story...

Like girl, he was being professional and polite! It's a tiny inn in a tiny town! Teeny tiny town!

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[sterling-dragon]

Well not great but also not as bad at the last one I looked at. The author mixed up character names for that one, it was so bad it was actually kinda funny.

This one just has content warnings in it... which I love! Legitimately! But it’s so new right now in print books, and unfortunately, every single book I picked up that has had cw in the front has been so absolutely horrible to read. Like not content wise, content wise, the idea is solid. I mean structurally. I've unfortunately come to associate it with poorly written books just as I've come to associate adult fiction with a really played out trope that's just exhausting to read.

Regardless, I always give the benefit of the doubt and hope that it proves me wrong. Though, I am irritated that it did give me a spoiler. It's a thriller/horror I'm going to expect certain tropes that's what a thriller/horror is. You can't ruin the suspense for me by telling me what's going to happen, it defeats the purpose akfkdkvjdkvk

[sterling-dragon]

Help, it's going in the direction I'm scared of: great premise, bad execution. Like not terrible and can redeem itself (beginnings are hard) but it took me out of it just as it was getting good.

[sterling-dragon]

:|

Like it's not bad, it's not great, it's just... meh

Characters are great, concept and execution is... eh

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[sterling-dragon]

Well not great but also not as bad at the last one I looked at. The author mixed up character names for that one, it was so bad it was actually kinda funny.

This one just has content warnings in it... which I love! Legitimately! But it’s so new right now in print books, and unfortunately, every single book I picked up that has had cw in the front has been so absolutely horrible to read. Like not content wise, content wise, the idea is solid. I mean structurally. I've unfortunately come to associate it with poorly written books just as I've come to associate adult fiction with a really played out trope that's just exhausting to read.

Regardless, I always give the benefit of the doubt and hope that it proves me wrong. Though, I am irritated that it did give me a spoiler. It's a thriller/horror I'm going to expect certain tropes that's what a thriller/horror is. You can't ruin the suspense for me by telling me what's going to happen, it defeats the purpose akfkdkvjdkvk

[sterling-dragon]

Help, it's going in the direction I'm scared of: great premise, bad execution. Like not terrible and can redeem itself (beginnings are hard) but it took me out of it just as it was getting good.

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[sterling-dragon]

Well not great but also not as bad at the last one I looked at. The author mixed up character names for that one, it was so bad it was actually kinda funny.

This one just has content warnings in it... which I love! Legitimately! But it’s so new right now in print books, and unfortunately, every single book I picked up that has had cw in the front has been so absolutely horrible to read. Like not content wise, content wise, the idea is solid. I mean structurally. I've unfortunately come to associate it with poorly written books just as I've come to associate adult fiction with a really played out trope that's just exhausting to read.

Regardless, I always give the benefit of the doubt and hope that it proves me wrong. Though, I am irritated that it did give me a spoiler. It's a thriller/horror I'm going to expect certain tropes that's what a thriller/horror is. You can't ruin the suspense for me by telling me what's going to happen, it defeats the purpose akfkdkvjdkvk

[sterling-dragon]

Rented a book from the library, it looks scary, I'm gonna read it

[somerandomdudelmao]

I just....I just learned that there's a word in the English language...for when you run into someone to hug them with all the enthusiasm and strength you have....I learned that it's called glomp.

My God, English has so many words to describe physical intimacy, I'm in love

[thepartyponies]

[sreppub]

did the people miss facebook pokes this much.....

[sreppub]

what if i miss this