#starlightswitch

[footnoteinhistory]

End of year asks: 16!

16. Post a picture from the beginning of the year

You get TWO pictures from the beginning of the year ‼️‼️

[kerra-and-company]

Ship question Love #1 for splitshadow, please!

Sure sure!! :D Thanks a bunch!

1. Who said “I love you” first?

Brook, in a very teenager-overanalyzing-things way. They realized it abruptly in the middle of a conversation they were having with Casca about something they absolutely cannot remember now* and proceeded to bluescreen for a solid thirty seconds--during which they were doing way too much thinking about secrets and truth and what you do with that in Relationships (TM)**. After said thirty seconds (which involved Casca asking them various versions of "are you okay"), they did indeed just basically blurt it out xD

(*It was a conversation about the best way to get Casca's whetstone back from their primus.)

(**Downsides to following Kormir and being a teenage charr trying very hard to make their own path--you might overthink stuff like this! Though immense props to them for the fact that their overthinking took a solid thirty seconds and that was it.)

[e-lisard]

Soooo I just went looking for someone else doing the Motivation Experiment and you seem to be the only active person except Zac... I like your rule of which WIP to write for! My question is for SCAL-- why 13? In a meta sense, that is. Why did you have the pivotal age for Near be 13?

Hi hi! Thanks! I thought it would be a smart way to keep myself from getting burnout from only working on one WIP the entire time. (Never mind the fact that I rarely answer asks anyway because I keep forgetting, but shhhhh.) Also thanks for the ask!

At first, I chose 13 because, well, a lot of people consider it an unlucky number. So one of the worst things in Near's life happening on his 13th birthday just made sense.

When I started worldbuilding I decided I also wanted a 'pre-adult' sort of period, kind of like our teens. And when thinking about it, I thought 13 would be a pretty good number. You're young, but not too young. It's the kind of age where you start to grow into yourself - at least, from what I've noticed.

That tied together to make 13 the perfect timing, because Near becoming a 'pre-adult' would also be the perfect time for his mother to tell him that they're actually Hallows. You wouldn't tell it to a child, but you also don't want to wait until someone is an adult.

And so in one life she was killed right on the day she wanted to tell him, and in the other life, she got to tell him. Which really makes his 13th birthday something for him.

-

For this ask I wrote 128 words for SCAL, putting my motivation experiment total at 776 words.

[scriptshrink]

I love your image descriptions. I've found very few writers/bloggers/etc who write them with the same style and flair as the rest of their content so I think it's very cool that you do.

Aww, thank you! I do my best :D

If there’s anything else I can do to help make my blog more accessible, please let me know!

[scriptmedic]

This might be a Scripty Saturday question? It's definitely not a consult. The question is: In your answer to the bloody cough question, you referenced "the most estoteric medical show ever written" as if you had a particular show in mind. If so, what was it?

Wow, this is going back. 

I was referring to House, MD. The show that looks at medicine, goes, “Gimme the weird stuff,” and runs with it. 

It’s interesting. Before I started watching House, I thought all medical shows were dramas. That they were soap operas. 

But House isn’t a soap opera. It’s a detective series. The brilliant but crotchety House (a type of Holme, who just happens to live in Apartment B in house 221 on an unnamed street), who’s got a good, smart, doctor bestfriend-8cum-sidekick-cum-only-person-who-can-stand-him named Watson Wilson... 

House is an esoteric medical show because it’s about catching a villain (disease) at the end of the mystery plot, before time runs out (the patient dies). Because of that, the plots have to challenge even the brilliant mind of Holmes House. 

ER didn’t need mystery diseases, though I’m sure it had plenty, because it was at its heart a soap opera -- the show is driven by the interaction between the other characters. 

Scrubs didn’t need them because it is, at its heart, a sitcom. 

Grey’s Anatomy didn’t need them because the characters are too busy banging in closets and someone’s sister is sick this week and ERMERGERD MCSTEAMBOAT WILLIE TOOT TOOT. Also they cut a bitch some bitches. 

I’m going to have to do an actual post on the genre of medical fiction someday. 

THANKS FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY DRIVEL! Side note: it’s 3am. Hooray?

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[did-i-do-this-write]

Ha, I saw your "struggling to write, maybe asks will help" post and went "if this was the person with the motivation experiment, asks would make them write" and then I went "is it that person...?" and it turns out you are! Mwahaha. So here you go (stolen from a tag game I enjoyed): describe your WIP(s) like a helpless bookstore customer who only vaguely remembers them. (e.g. "It's the one where they're trying to...")

Haha, that's so funny and made me smile reading your train of thought after seeing my tags about needing motivation. Guess I'm making a name for myself if you were able to recognize the experiment 😅 thank you for stopping by!

As for your question, I absolutely adore it. Very fun activity. If a bookstore customer was looking for a copy of Paragon, I think they would sound a little like this:

"Yeah, it's the one where they have element powers and the characters are like fighting a war..... No, it's not Avatar: The Last Airbender, there's more than four elements, I think.... And there's cool weapons involved, too. I don't remember their names, but the leader has fire and there's two sisters who like tragically lost their parents- oh! And it's gay..... Yeah, that's it! We found it! :)"

I really went for it haha.

And you achieved your goal of making me write, thank you! 🤗

This ask motivated me to write 133 words for How an Angel Gets Its Wings.

Experiment Total: 53,465

[bluejay-in-flight]

For the winter ask game: 🌲

Ahh actually meant to reblog the ask game with my writing blog @bluejay-in-write but thank you so much for the ask!! ☺️ This is from a prompt I had gotten and I still have a decent amount of editing to do before I post the whole thing but I hope you enjoy 😄

🌲Pine Tree: share a snippet that shows a character being strong (whether that’s physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.)

“I told you not to underestimate me! I'll defeat you right here and right now!” The girl shot back, leaping into action as she swung her sword in unnecessary motions; stalking towards the throne on which he sat.

“If you can, that is,” The Villain replied, obviously goading her on. Although, he doubted she had the clarity of mind to recognize it in the moment.

She snarled once more before she leapt up onto the dais and sliced her sword down in a straight trajectory towards his neck. The Villain did not make any motion to stop her. He would do nothing to hurt this child and if she knew what he suspected she did, he believed that she would do nothing to harm him as well.

He was right.

The sword stopped a centimeter from his throat. The girl was even better with the sword than he expected. Although moved by her heaving chest and heavy breathing it edged forward and grazed him slightly, causing him to hiss under his breath.

“Why didn't you stop me?” The girl demanded, as she pulled the sword back to her side in a precise motion. Her eyes were glued to the small cut she had made on his neck where a drop of blood was building at the surface.

“As I said before you are a child,” The Villain began, pausing to put his hand up when the girl opened her mouth to argue. Thankfully she kept silent and let him continue.

[footnoteinhistory]

Oh thank goodness you were cool with Catcher in the Rye. I was beginning to feel like the only millennial who didn't actively hate it.

Ahaha I read the whole thing this morning and I liked it!! Salinger isn't my favorite writer ever but I felt pretty sympathetic towards Holden, I think it helped I didn't read it for the first time as a teenager — I probably would've thought it was pretentious asshole stuff in high school, but now that I'm somewhat older and realize 16 is SO young I feel for this poor kid going through all that shit