#creative inspo

[katelynjeanette]

Alexander McQueen’s “It’s Only a Game” turns 20 years old

McQueen turns the runway into a chess board to debut his Spring/Summer 2005 collection.

[yyprompts]

#100 🌙❤️🤍

trauma prompts pt.2

"You say you love me every time, but if that's the case, why are you leaving me here like this again?"

"I don't need your sympathy, you'll just use it against me later like everyone else."

"You don't know what happened, so don't pretend you know me."

"I want to tell you, really, but every time I try, my throat swells up and my eyes start burning until I can't talk anymore."

"That's the sixth time this week you've woke up from a nightmare." / "Oh, hah, I woke up this time from an accidental alarm, not a nightmare..."

"I've lied too much to be honest with you now."

"It'll never feel like it's a part of my body anymore, will it?"

"Did it make me crazy, or was I always this unwell?"

"You've done everything to make me more comfortable, but this has nothing to do with you."

"I'm fine, just didn't need to see that right now."

[renstrapp]

This morning we had our first creative hangout! I got to talk with author Aphy Ray and the legendary Fawnduu about riso printing, programming visual novels, and developing character voices for writing. It was so nice to exchange ideas with some really smart, thoughtful people over coffee!

These hangs are a new experimental feature for Lucky tier members. Sign up for the next session by joining the tier on Patreon! They're monthly chitchats, where I also stream some drawing (see above) Will I see you at the next one?

ATTN: SHE IS WEARING UNDERWEAR. HER PUSSY IS NOT OUT. DO NOT FLAG THIS POST OR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quietlyfamous]

"You have to be a bad artist before you can be a good artist."

Unknown

[carabiner-pansy]

here are some beautiful mushroom lesbians galavanting around the forest, surrounded by lil fungi, ferns, dragonflies and moths! they are drawn in pentel pocket brush pen with indian ink🌿🍄

[vkcorduroy]

The Light of Yore, a moment held captive and a place for sure, where ideas grew massive from a tiny spore. Flashed in a tick of time, like the greys that grew on this head of mine, wisdom paved a new to save a new shine.

I shared this in a poetry chain on Substack where you use the last line of the previous poem to make yours. I'd be fun if we could get on going here!

[embraceyourdestiny]

I’m certainly not the first person to say this but Honestly, from a storytelling POV, the shoehorned Ryan x Laura stuff only feels so strange and out of place because we’ve already spent multiple hours seeing how much Laura and Max care about each other, and we are told explicitly that Laura is only doing this because of Max, so it feels like a slap in the face as an audience member invested in that plot line and certainly a betrayal to Max and Laura’s relationship for her to be forced to flirt with another character that doesn’t seem very interested in her, and who already has two other potential love interests that were heavily set up in the first half of the story, only for them to get put on the sidelines for this strange, sudden dynamic.

Like, it’s just so random, and it makes me wonder how much was changed from the initial draft because, what the hell, it’s so out of nowhere and makes no sense. Everything a character does should make sense and/or have a reason for them doing it, whether it be furthering plot or enriching the internal world of the character, and I don’t see what the point of the Lyan stuff is. It doesn’t further their characters or move the story along, so I guess it’s just for humor? But That’s not substantial enough to me for it to have been included.

And this isn’t to say I dislike Lyan or don’t see how people ship it, regardless of what happens in game or not. I’m a hardcore shipper and can read the writing on the wall for pretty much any ship between characters; with Lyan they’re enemies to lovers, they’re both hot badasses, they have hearts of gold, they experience difficulties together, they’re standing next to each other for more than 5 minutes… I get all that. From a fan’s POV.

But from the position of a storyteller, it just makes no sense and I’ll be forever curious why that, of all things, made the cut.

[dnschmidt]

Don't be afraid to write someone different

I frequently see new authors asking if they're "allowed" to write people from different backgrounds. They're worried that they won't get it right, or that they'll offend someone.

If you're writing about another culture, you should do your research and ask people from that culture if you got it right. You also need to remember that your characters aren't just their differences. We all have similarities, a deeper connection that makes us all human.

You can do a mountain of research, but if you don't feel that connection with your characters, something will still be missing. The care you feel for your characters will be the push you need to put in the work and make them living, breathing, fully formed individuals.

If a character has a different background than you, you can still look for ways to connect with their experiences and give them that spark of verisimilitude. People are people. You can find common ground with any character.

I’m a guy, but when I wrote a fight scene involving a female character in a room full of men, I was able to connect with what she was feeling because I know what it feels like to be scared because of a larger, stronger man who could easily hurt me. I was able to take my experiences of being bullied and intimidated and threatened and put them into the scene and make the character's emotions more vivid.

I'm not a space alien, but I've had plenty of experiences where I've felt alone and isolated, and unable to connect to the "strange" people around me. I've put those experiences and those emotions into characters in a variety of science fiction stories about loneliness and alienation.

Never be afraid to write people who are different than you, and always be brave enough to put yourself on the page. Including a piece of yourself in your character will help you connect with them and make them come alive. It just takes empathy and care. Making that connection with your characters will help your readers feel more connected to each other, too. Your story will help make the world a little more caring, something we need now more than ever.