your advice of creating/experimenting with the wackiest ways of reading tarot that one can think of (said very affectionately) actually inspired me to use a card game i was developing before to communicate with the spirits around me to get an idea of what they would like from me! very briefly the premise of the card game is that you and your friends are rulers of kingdoms, and various npcs approach you with problems to solve. you have limited cards with singular solutions on them that depending on how well they fit the problem, will either increase the npc’s goodwill towards you or decrease it. so i was able to modify this and have the court cards (i prefer playing cards to tarot for this sort of thing) substitute in for the npcs and hence the spirits im contacting, and the other cards be the solution cards, with the two jokers as null cards. im sure there will be future kinks to work out but i’m so pleased with the system thus far, because previously i had been unable to figure out how to get specific mundane answers from my spirits but this has both magical and mundane solutions that can be interpreted based on the question :D
oh and i wanted to give an example but forgot! today i asked a pepper plant on our balcony what would be most helpful/pleasurable for it, and the answering card said that i should ‘seek advice from neighbouring kingdoms’, which i interpreted to mean ask another human (as i represent my kingdom, so another human would represent another kingdom) what would be helpful for the plant. so i asked my mum (who is really the gardener of our house) if there was anything that had happened to the pepper plants and she said that that one specifically had been nearly fully uprooted by a strong wind storm the other day and needed to be restaked and stuff (which i was unaware of). anyways that was a really decent and unexpected confirmation that the communication had worked :)
This is simply so marvelous, thank you for sharing (and sorry in my delay in replying!)
Is there any chance you'd like to share the rules of the game? This sounds like such a fun system, I'm sure at least someone (besides me!) would be interested.
hi! sorry if this is a question you get a lot but i looked at your tags and i didn’t quite see the answer - i was wondering what software you use to code link rot? i’ve been trying to figure out what to use for my own project that i want to be multimedia/be able to click links and such and hosted probably on neocities and i just can’t figure out what program - if any - these sorts of projects use. (i would assume it’s html and css at the least, but is js needed too?) like can you still use twine for this kind of thing or rarebit or? if it’s a personal program/code i completely get if you don’t want to share it!! thank you either way :)
i use html, CSS, and javascript/jquery! you can absolutely use twine if you so choose, that's just a different language to learn to accomplish the same thing. most people code in visual studio code (its free!) and upload to their website, but if you're sick in the head (me) you can just code on the website directly
hi! perhaps you’ve done this sort of thing before but i have been trawling your book reccs tag (and getting heinously sidetracked by other delicious sounding books) and didn’t find an ask like this so! i was wondering if you have any book recommendations (preferably creative nonfiction) for me that would give me hope, or at least provide a glimmer of light in the dark. for context i’m an igbo biafran from nigeria who lives in so called australia. i have identified as a man since i was 14, but my family is very transphobic in a traditional roman catholic way (it is both an affront to our culture AND our religion, so a double whammy) and i think all of this plus being raised in a very sane fatphobic white cisheteroallonormative society (like most people to be fair) has particularly eroded my sense of self and my desire to transition. while i can’t see a future for myself where i do not present as and actively identify as a gay man, i also am crushed by the amount of oppression i have endured. thus i am kind of detransitioning because my family is difficult and the structural difficulties in accessing a life i want has been so difficult that my brain, in an attempt to shield me from further pain, has completely gone the other way on transitioning, and doesn’t believe that i will ever accept myself, or be accepted, as a gay man and find love. all my friends, since i was very young, have been white (often progressive queers raised in accepting families - who were too afraid to stand up for me), which has left me with this sense of not belonging and total alienation. and not to ramble too much but i have faced a lot of structural oppression and pain, and coming to them and saying ‘my parents are transphobic and physically abusive but they are my only connection to my culture which also does not like me but has been oppressed and mangled horribly’ is something that they simply cannot grasp. i have socially detransitioned several times, gone by a variety of pronouns, tried to get on T and failed, had my gender identity chalked up to my ‘mental illnesses’ and been unable to express my gender as i would like, and because my (now ex)friends have not faced a majority of these issues, they have been at best apathetic and at worst incredibly ignorant. thus, i am asking for recommendations that can help me maybe come to terms with both the pain of my past and my present, and also that gives me hope that someone somewhere understands me, and that they’ve been through this and are in a better place with a supportive community, and people that chose them and that they’ve also chosen. i am totally socially isolated, and it is so difficult to motivate myself to meet people and push through my fear of vulnerability and rejection. anyways this is so long i’m very sorry, but i hope it provided some context for the nuance of my situation 😅
totally makes sense, and i relate to + appreciate the long-winded thoughtfulness of your messages! here are some recs that engage some of these themes, mostly CNF.
Nonfiction:
Lamya H, Hijab Butch Blues
Eli Clare, Exile & Pride
Akwaeke Emezi, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dirty River
Samuel R Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Larry Mitchell, The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions
Fiction:
James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room (not trans, but required reading. also is, to me, one of the best pieces of prose in the english language, full stop)
Kai Cheng Thom, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
Casey Plett, Little Fish
I wrote a trans book about despair and resistance that you might like.
you've probably heard of some of these, but i hope you find something useful!!
hi! i’ve had a lifelong interest in reading and writing as a craft and a skill, and owing to my friction with many systems that demand hegemony (i’m a black mad fat trans man from the global south) i enjoy writing and sharing my work related to these topics, as it is incredibly cathartic for me and simultaneously i want to share experiences that disrupt people’s perception of the world around them. i preface with this as i would like to begin submitting my work to magazines on a larger scale. while i have been lauded with my deftness with words (this is not to gas myself up or anything, this is just me being frank), i recognise that honing my talent would be incredibly beneficial to me and help me grow my abilities as a writer, which i am really wanting to do. thus ive started reading yours and others’ book recommendations, and i have a few questions related to that. firstly, do you think that going to university for creative writing/english provides a benefit that cannot be acquired otherwise? if not, what would be your best advice for acquiring those skills, as someone who is getting eir phd? do you have advice on developing the skill of dissecting a prose piece or poem to understand the techniques the writer has used? particularly prose, while i did well with analysing poetry when i took a (one) university course in english, i struggled significantly more with prose, even as it is what i write more of (particularly creative nonfiction). and finally, while i have read your writing tag and seen your advice related to submitting to literary magazines, do you have advice on finding and getting opportunities for intensive writing focused courses/accolades (like residencies, fellowships, contests and the like)? and when should you start seeking out those sorts of things? this is quite long sorry, but id love any advice you have at all!!
ty for the message! i'm going to tackle these questions one at a time; let me know if i missed anything!
do you think that going to university for creative writing/english provides a benefit that cannot be acquired otherwise?
in short, yes, though with nuance (keep in mind also that i do not have any actual creative writing degrees) you don't need to pursue a BA/MFA/PhD in creative writing to be a successful writer by any measure; however, college is a tool with both academic and social/career benefits.
as an undergraduate, creative writing courses will generally give you 1:1 access (at least a little) to professors who have publishing experience, the ability to workshop pieces with peers, and the opportunity to get direct feedback on assignments specifically designed for relative beginners. you will also be able to read texts and analyze them on the level of craft rather than just content, which is new for a lot of undergrads who have only ever taken literature-based english courses before.
as a grad student, the main things an advanced degree will give you are 1) time (typically 2 years ish for an mfa; 6+ for a phd) to devote exclusively to a writing project, and 2) networking access. at the institution where i'm getting my phd, I've taken some MFA courses for my own edification, and am struck by the tight-knitness of cohorts as essentially micro-generations of future writers who have regular contact in class, at readings, and while workshopping. there really aren't any other situations in which you have license to drop everything and spend years on a project with others also obsessed with their projects. grad school is a very singular environment, and i can say that with confidence.
where the nuance comes in: as i said, none of this is required to be a good writer, a well-read person, or someone proficient in literary/craft analysis. people without any formal education at all are capable of that! the benefits that are not transferrable are the intangibles: time, individual attention, community, structure, and, of course, a dedicated space to go, ask questions, and learn in a dedicated environment.
if not, what would be your best advice for acquiring those skills, as someone who is getting eir phd?
going off of my previous answer, my #1 tip is to join some kind of reading group, or simply find a study/reading buddy. you can learn a lot self-studying a work, but at some point, you need to talk to someone else about it - there's no point in theory, writing, etc. without communication. maybe you seek out someone who is studying some of this in college/grad school; maybe you get together a group of autodidacts willing to share the challenge of difficult work. maybe you find a text that has already had quite a bit written about it and assign yourself/your comrades secondary material, too, as your own makeshift course syllabus.
here are two examples from my time in grad school:
i was the most advanced member of a disability justice reading group a few years ago. other members picked some texts, and every week, in addition to refreshing my memory on them, i'd look up some pieces with relevant themes and suggest them to the group. when we discussed, people would share their thoughts and connections, and i was there to provide further context/further reading (and also to learn new insights from members!)
I was definitely NOT the most advanced one in a reading group in which we slogged through Capital vol. 1. We built a shared zotero and read 1-2 chapters per week; the more advanced/econ-focused members (some of whom had read it before) made study guides, a rotating member took notes, and we were each invited to contribute our thoughts on the chapters of that week. Every week, we'd connect something we read to a current news item and sometimes have a supplementary news reading. I didn't speak much in this group, and felt out of my depth a lot. But I learned so fucking much!
do you have advice on developing the skill of dissecting a prose piece or poem to understand the techniques the writer has used?
the best way to do this is also, i think, the best way to learn a new math technique: find some problems (pieces) with solutions (analyses) already written - stories/poems/other texts that might be a little older, or are very popular/well-cited. first, go in for a few read-throughs, annotate heavily (even if you think your notes are "wrong"), take a breather, come back and do it again. think about who the author was, their identities, when and where they lived, and how that contributed to the construction of the text.
think about where it was published, and if you want, do some research into events happening around the same time. take note of techniques, even if you don't know the words for them: repetition? a particular poetic structure? were there allusions to something biblical or mythological? what is the role of color, or family, or nature, or other common images; can you think of other texts where they have also appeared, whether contemporary or historical?
once you've exhausted these ideas, hop onto jstor or google scholar and see what others are saying - who/what is this text being analyzed in conversation with? what are analyses arguing, and do you agree? what else has the writer of the piece you're analyzing written, and are there any pieces out there talking about themes from their oeuvre overall? these are some questions that propel me when I'm still forming my thoughts on a particular writer's work/technique. every question is also not necessary every single time you read, ofc, and as you practice, it gets easier to find themes intuitively.
do you have advice on finding and getting opportunities for intensive writing focused courses/accolades (like residencies, fellowships, contests and the like)? and when should you start seeking out those sorts of things?
yes! ChillSubs is...a complicated platform, but they have a regular newsletter with opportunities. BOMB does too, and Poets & Writers, and Hyperallergic. I also recommend following writing folks on social media and seeing where they go/where they advertise workshops! I've found some great opportunities just seeing where my favorite writers are teaching.
I think there's no bad time to start looking. Opportunities open up all year-round. One thing to note is that most will involve some cost to you, whether the opportunity itself has a fee, or if there's an application fee, or if you simply need to pay to travel there, or 2+ of the above.
Also, keep in mind that some opportunities are geared toward mid+ career writers (those who have published 1 or 2 books or more) and/or those who may have a certain amount of teaching/editorial experience. These will be stated clearly in the application guidelines, and don't worry -- there are plenty of opportunities for early career writers, too, including those with no books.
if you're definitely interested in pursuing some of these, i recommend starting with what you already plan to do - submitting work to magazines! this way you'll also have an archive of polished work and more credits on your CV to put you in the best possible position when applying to fellowships, residencies, and the like.
i hope this very long and unwieldy response helps!
