#eqq rambles

[eqqautor]

this is so specific but in sinners I really liked how the cotton plantations are depicted. there's so many shots of them driving or walking through cotton fields which just feel infinite and really span into the distance, maybe a single tree in the frame. it's such a small detail but it really conveys the sense unending labour and the scale of exploitation of Black people in that industry in the US, like of course the cotton fields would have seemed/felt endless, especially as you work in them all day... Ryan Coogler i love you

[fr-eqquator]

Flightblr Intro

Hi! I’ve finally made an FR sideblog to go with my clan!

I’ve been playing FR for -- I just checked -- 5 years and 16 days, now, and I’ve been on FR tumblr for a while, too... now I can reblog things without bothering mutuals on my main blog.

Here I’ll mostly be posting clan lore details and updates, current projects and goals, and hopefully getting involved in the community.

I mostly play FR from a lore standpoint, and for anyone interested: my clan is an ever-evolving encampment, set up in the ruins of a spooky old castle in the billowing moors of the Reedcleft Ascent. Some of the dragons here are hiding out, fleeing whatever aspect of their past or enemy forces are pursuing them, sometimes at the risk of their life. And some... are already dead. A magic ritual gone wrong wrought many of the ghosts and past dragons of this place into physical forms, albeit tied to this place and forever doomed to haunt this camp. But hey, the ghost stories now surrounding this place are a good repellent for unwelcome dragons.

I really want to make some more connections here, so if you’re an FR blog, please interact this post and I’ll give you a follow :)

Thanks so much everyone! You can find me on FR as Eqquator #377303!

[eqqautor]

wip (lets stare into the audiences soul with mama)

[eqqautor]

loveeee when biology names are obvious. one of the junction types cells have is called the actin-linked cell-matrix junction..... tells you exactly what it does and what it joins. like hell yeah brother you are a cell-matrix junction and you do link intracellularly with actin

[eqqautor]

i feel like we need more kind characters, just in general. Actually, not just in general - kind characters who’ve been through hell. The kind characters who, when you first meet them, seem so sweet and nice and helpful, but when you learn more about them, you find that there’s a very painful reason for that kindness.

Maybe a character has become kind out of fear - they’re afraid of becoming like the people that put them through so much pain, and even now they’re still so scared. Maybe they’re kind in spite - spite of either the pain they’ve endured, or the people that caused it. Maybe they’re kind because they wouldn’t wish their hell upon anyone else. What if they’re kind because they couldn’t possibly put anyone around them through pain after the pain that they, personally, have gone through.

Or maybe they were the abuser, the one causing hell. Maybe they put others through pain. Their kindness could be born out of guilt, or maybe regret, or a need to make up for what they’ve done. Maybe they’re scared they’ll regress back to what they once did, or they constantly need to reaffirm that they’re better than whatever they did, and being kind is how they do that. 

My point is that characters whose dark past caused them to become cut off and broody are great, but they do get a little repetitive. Just like kind, sweet, fluffy sort of characters are so often just that, with no sort of motivation behind it. Let’s spice it up once in a while

[eqqautor]

i think a lot of writing advice would be more effective/helpful if it was framed as tools rather than rules. like, instead of saying do/don't do x, it should be more about x will have this specific affect. because writing is so unique that advice is never applicable as a blanket statement, so then authors are better able to know what will fit the story theyre trying to tell.

for example, a few years ago i saw some advice to, when describing a setting, never describe what isn't there - don't describe a desert through its lack of trees and flowers, for example. this is because then the reader is imagining trees and flowers, and less able to envision your setting. however it's not fair to say you should never do this, because this effect could be useful in some cases - what if you want to explore how the desert used to be a forest through reminding the audience what isn't there? wouldn't it be more useful to explain the effect of describing settings like this, so the author can use this advice to achieve their desired effect?

advice is better framed as information, not instructions.

[eqqautor]

sometimes, usually when i’m in a depressive period or not feeling good about myself but also sometimes just normally, when i’m drawing, i’ll look at whatever i’m making, and i’ll think something along the lines of “this is just a bunch of lines. anyone could draw this. there’s nothing that makes this special. why would anyone give this attention when it’s something anyone could do and replicate so easily.” and honestly? it just gives me a shitty kind of feeling that i can’t really explain.

here’s the thing, though: almost every single time i look at someone else’s art, i don’t think that. in fact, i pretty much think the opposite of that. i see a drawing, painting, whatever, and ninety-nine percent of the time i actively think something along the lines of “that’s incredible, and unique, and i’ve never seen anything like it.” 

pretty much, all the art i see around me is so unique and individual and even though it sometimes feels like there’s nothing special about yours, trust me, only you can do it. (believe me, because i’ve been there, as i stated - and while i know logically that people do probably think that about my drawings, but the idea of someone looking at my art and being amazed and thinking that it’s totally unique is a strange thought to me. a nice one, certainly, but not something that i can really imagine, to be totally honest.