#rambling writer

[mediumsizetex]

Commission: How the Tantabus Parses Sleep by harwicks-art

How the Tantabus Parses Sleep by Rambling Writer

[newwritergirl]

I wanted so badly to update both my stories before I go on my four weeks holiday road trip next week, but here I am, with two not finished chapters of Starting Over and a very small beginning of the next part of On the Brink 😭 life was crazy the last weeks and I had so much to do at work, I’m literally burned out.

The chance of an update before my holidays is very low, so sorry!

💕

[myquadratur]

I’m currently being overrun by SW plotbunnies. Lots of them dealing with Obi-Wan’s childhood and him  getting a new master. Or finding a different one right from the start. So, I’ve been doing some research and rereading the Jedi Apprentice books. Bandomeer and Melida/Daan are just the gifts that keep on giving, aren’t they?. Anyway, Star Wars world building is a catastrophe, isn’t it? So much stuff doesn’t make any sense.  Granted, the JA books are now Legends and no longer Canon, but still in what world does a system make sense, where kids have to chase after Knights and Masters to ask them if they want a padawan? There’s so much wrong with that. Anyway, on to the Councils. Which ... make even less sense. So, there’s the Council of Reassignment and the Council of First Knowledge.  Both Councils have five members each and some of these council members also sit on the High Council. Considering that there are roughly 10.000 Jedi, and probably at least 1.000-2000 kids, that’s a very small number. Especially if some do double duty. I mean, my current home town as roughly 3.500 citizen and we have twelve people on the city council, plus the major and his staff. The Council of First Knowlegde is responsible for the Jedi Academy, the Temple Archives, the Holocron Vaults and the eradication of the SIth and all Sith articfacts. And the Shadows. Acording to wookiepedia, as part of their duties regarding the Jedi Academy, they not also handle the education of the younglings and padawans, but also offer advice and help to knights and masters in need.

 Five beings handle all of that. Really? Just the Academy would require more if one considers the age-range covered. And the various species found in the Star Wars universe.

They must have a massive staff in the background. Which makes me wonder if Jedi Knights make up that staff or if they recruit their staff from the various corps. Why is there no Administration Corps?  Or a Kitchen Corps? Someone must provide all these Jedi with food. Which, considering the wide array of races, sounds like a momentous task.

The Caretaker of First Knowledge has their position for live or unless they decide to step down. That puts way too much power in the hand of one person for a long time. Master T’un, who sits of the Council of First Knowledge has been 

Again, according to Wookiepedia most members on the Council were from long-lived species. Supposedly because they had the experience and the knowledge to advice and guide knights and masters asking for their help. Maybe that’s a personal thing, but I’m a fan of term-limits for elected or nominated positions in government or the judiciary.

 Then there’s the Council of Reassignment. They handle the Service Corps and ... Jedi younglings unable to find a master.

 So, initiates and their training and education is handled by the Council of First Knowledge, but when they can’t find a master (by chasing after them and pestering them?), they are somehow somewhere handed over to the Council of Reassignment? Who then finds them a place? Somewhere?

 Reading through all of that, I also ended up wondering if masters wanting to take on a padawan were in any way of form screened or tested for suitability. Or if they had to classes on pedagogy?

 Lots of stuff to consider and lots of fodder for fanfics.  

[syusukerambles]

Me: Alright, I'll put the finishing touches on this chapter

Also me: *listens to music until she finds a song that fits the mood*

Also also me: Go, Tobi! Make a move! xD God knows Madara won't get his shit together and do it instead..

[amabiliaaa]

i keep wanting to to make my characters say ‘y’all’ in every other sentence and it’s becoming a problem because they live in NEW YORK not TEXAS so they don’t say y’all as often as we do and it’s driving me c r a z y

[mama-orion]

who gets to tell the story?

I was at a panel of children’s book authors & illustrators discussing the enormous importance of inclusion in children’s books.

They had given us two-mommy books, books about worms that were really about gay marriage, and black and white children surmounting racism together.

I love these creators. I read all of their work to my kid and aspire to be inclusive in my own stories.

So when a question arose about ‘the importance of finding books for my black son only written by black people’ and the panelists gave her kudos for seeking authenticity, I froze.

Wait. What?

Am I only allowed to tell my own stories?

Um. Can I call Bullshit?

I am white. Female. Straight. I write reams of gay fanfiction. I have a gay, interacial magical fantasy story fermenting in my brain that I’m hoping I’m good enough one day to write. I pepper my stories with all relationships and genders and skin tones and ancestries. Because, duh, that’s what the world - my world! - is made of and hell yes I’ll write what I know and give everyone a piece of the stage.

But am I actually allowed to write these stories?

I asked this panel of queer creators how they felt about a maker telling a story for a skin tone or orientation that wasn’t their own. They had each just shared what it was like to make works about topics unfamiliar to them - locations they had dutifully researched.

They got in.tense.

Do your research.

Make sure you sit at their table, first.

Hold their babies.

Get those you characterize to read it for accuracy.

Don’t do it to be trendy (I died)

Make sure it’s your story to tell.

If you feel in your heart it’s right, ok, but maybe it’s still not yours to tell.

And... I felt horrible. Presumptuous. Naiive.

As a writer, I never questioned my right to tell a story. Of course I would do my research. Of course I wouldn’t write it to be trendy. Of course I wouldn’t tell a story I couldn’t tell from my heart. Of course queer and black and Latinx and everyone under the sun should go become makers and tell their stories and represent what they know best from their individual perspective.

But I took it as a given that a skill of a writer is her ability to wear the body of whomever she writes. To wear it and walk around the world, envision a past, relationships, bad habits, traumas, favorite foods. To know that no two experiences are alike - not for two straight white girls, not for two gay black men, not for two transgender people. To know that we also all have some things in common.

Would they have problems unique to their gender and color? Yes! Would they experience similar patterns of repression and stereotype? Of course. Could someone not in their skin not fathom their experience?

Well...

But that’s writer’s work, right? The hard work, stepping past your personal experience, watching and listening to others to get a fresh perspective. Doing your research. Asking questions. And more questions. Knowing what story you can tell well and what you simply cannot.

I thought we trusted storytellers to do this hard work. A bad writer does it poorly - the characters feel off.

When it’s done well, the author is invisible. A woman writer can tell the story of an orphaned boy magician, a male writer can tell the story of a girl in a post-apocalyptic world, and we clamor for more.

I’m still wrestling with this. I don’t want to be a presumptuous asshole, but I also want to tell stories that call to me.

What I came away with is this: as under-represented groups are FINALLY being included in the historical record of our printed stories, tread carefully.

Don’t fuck this up. It’s too important.

[kayla-the-rambling-writer]

the wraith

i cannot say that what i see     is you dying, tiny and thin.         bones, carrying the world,              and i worry     that my hug            will be the weight that puts you over.

[aliibii]

Breaking A Ridiculous Notion

Note From The Writer

This has been a long time coming. I told myself nobody wanted to read about my day-to-day habits or what I thought about various aspects of writing. I told myself, “That isn’t what they’re coming for”, in order to throw my all into my current writing challenge without any regrets.

And I did.

I dedicated my time to prompts instead of reflections and character building. I took…

View On WordPress