lightly, lightly

on tiptoes and no luggage my writing on AO3 | my subs on YouTube | my photos | my art | krist p

[cheekonthefloor]

for people like me, fei said as she reiterated her real intention behind her line of work. i teared up with the way she expressed her words. it almost felt like a revelation, that finally she is doing something so valuable without any restriction for being who she truly is. for helping others using the power bestowed upon her.

fei, you are so, so important.

[thebroccolination]

Most! Important! Character! In 2026! Probably!

Like, we find out incrementally that she's trans, a medium, and a spiritual advisor to a politician, something she chose to do that the wu community vocally disapproves of and shuns her for because she believes she can work within the system to manipulate things to the advantage of the people she cares for. And then we see it implied onscreen in the fog that her greatest fear is that the people she's fighting for hate her for it.

She's by far the most complex and fascinating trans character I've seen in a Thai show and I love that Waa cast Godji so she can demonstrate how much talent she has to offer going forward.

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[hypokeimena]

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

[stargazing-enby]

And that’s that on that.

[stargazing-enby]

Happy Pride 2025. This post is 5 years old, and I’m in equal parts proud of it, and annoyed by how chaotic and tacky it is. So I’ve decided to make a new version: one where all the additions are in a single reblog, and with integrated image descriptions (thank you @oddler14 for providing most of these back then!). I would love it if people reblogged this version instead, even if I understand the previous version is much more widespread on Tumblr.

I am one of the people who, for a long time, didn’t feel queer enough. Specifically, as a nonbinary person, I struggled for a long time to believe I was trans enough to even deserve to label myself as trans. This post was the start of my journey unlearning that shame and guilt, which was caused in part by the gatekeepy rhetoric that was predominant in many online spaces. Today, I am confident and joyous in my trans, nonbinary, queer body and mind.

To my 20-year-old self, and to anyone else who might need to hear this: you are queer enough. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And always, always remember:

(Yes, these banners are free to use. Credit is appreciated!)

[stargazing-enby]

Happy pride! ❤️

[ansitru]

Manifesting. 💆‍♀️

[aromanticduck]

There's wholesome ships and there's toxic ships, but I'd like to coin 'sodium chloride ships', where the individuals involved are both horrible and dangerous people, but somehow being together renders them surprisingly well-adjusted (if a little salty).

[seagullseverywhere]

andreil

[mobydyke]

one thing about me is that I'm looking stuff up. you mentioned something and I don't know it? I am pulling out my phone and googling that shit. an actor? theoretical physics? a world leader? a vocabulary word? I am on the wikipedia page as we speak

[voidandradiance]

the most disorienting thing thats ever happened to me was when a linguistics major stopped in the middle of our conversation, looked me in the eye, and said, "you have a very interesting vernacular. were you on tumblr in 2014?" and i had to just stand there and process that one for a good ten seconds

[booksandchainmail]

#i was in a car with a linguist i had never met before the car trip and like half an hour in he looked at me#after i finished describing a geology thing that was happening out the window and asked if i'd ever spent much time on tumblr#the fuckor of it all#and then we spent six more hours driving#it sure does leave linguistic markers! i'm not sure i'm good with it (tags via @thoughtsformtheuniverse)

[issela-santina]

it is one thing to be a linguist and another to be a linguist who knows enough of 2010s Tumblr to spot one of its enjoyers

[lierdumoa]

Oh! @meret118 see above comment! The use of the word "enjoyers" instead of "users" or "bloggers" -> You left a comment a while back asking, "Does this just mean vocabulary words? Other than blorbo and sweet cinnamon roll etc, I can't think of what a Tumblr accent would be." I almost never see anyone use the word "enjoyer" anywhere outside of tumblr, but I see it on tumblr fairly frequently.

Another one is the verb "perceive" i.e. "don't perceive me" "I am perceiving" "I am being percieved." That's something that feels very specific to tumblr parlance.

There's the thing where people on tumblr have an emotional reaction to something and instead of, or in addition to telling you how they feel about it using emotion words, they will narrate a fictional action in the present progressive tense. "I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure "I am kissing you on the mouth" "you are going into the soup" "you are getting all of the awards"

I once saw someone use that response format in ... I think it was a restaurant review, or a doordash review, or something like that. It was very unexpected seeing it outside of a tumblr post.

There are a lot of other tumblr linguistic quirks I can't currently remember off the top of my head, but I'll instantly recognize them if I see/hear them outside of tumblr. It's always a bit startling to see them out of context.

[pacificnorthwhore]

[i-wear-the-cheese]

when I was in university one of my modules was about internet slang and for our grades project we had to compile and analyse a small database of 100 words used by a specific community of our choice. I chose tumblr and that's how I stumbled across Gretchen McCulloch's research and discovered that yes not only did tumblr have its own vernacular and syntax (as @lierdumoa demonstrates), it was at the time a crucible of slang and memes probably unrivalled by any other part of the internet. and it's stayed that way! even the very title is McCulloch's book because internet is an example of this specific phraseology.

sadly my project is lost due to the website being wiped from the university database after graduation and my then laptop having a major hardware failure. backup your backups people! but the crux of the entire module was that the internet is full of communities using language not only as jargon for specific purpose but also to signal membership in said community. I even wrote a bit about non capitalisation and punctuation useage as a visual cue on tumblr and how including information in the reblog body or the tags indicated different levels of importance or intimacy of thought

I am holding the side of your face and looking deep in your eyes and telling you that love is stored in the syntax, and that we are rotating words together all at once as we all nod at their new and baffling meanings. if the devils sacrament be tumblr then the devils gospel is our collective voice. thanks for coming to my tedtalk

[weirdchristmas]

I am being perceived.

[toolightly]

Sawasdee krup! It’s rocker!Krist again!

He also dances like an uncle. What a cutie.

[strongermonster]

perhaps some will disagree, but i think the world got worse when we changed the colour of the night

[strongermonster]

this is what i mean

[degenderates]

Via @bulbaderp

[itistimetodisappear]

To be clear, THIS is how nights of the future should be lit

This is bat friendly street lighting, which not only looks sick as fuck but allows bats to pass through without disturbance, as they cannot see red.

orange and especially white lights deter bats and prevent them from reaching feeding grounds at nighttime. Please if you can, write to your local council and encourage red street lights!!!!

[anarchistmemedistro]

ALSO! red light doesn’t fuck up human night vision much so you can go in and out of lit areas without readjusting

[anarchistmemedistro]

[thicque]

the red light not fucking up human night vision is also why a number of older cars had gauges that lit up red at night

[depsidase]

[ysphcpb-ii]

Prioritise your own happiness.

[toolightly]

lol, remember this?

look what he just did:

smart move, or whatever, I guess ✝️

[ao3commentoftheday]

I absolutely 100% without question believe in the power of betas, and I advocate for getting one as much as possible, and I think they are amazing. The only problem is dealing with beta feedback without crushing despair and endless self-doubt. How the heck do I take critique gracefully and build something better without lying face down on the floor for three days first? (PS you are amazing, thank you!)

If this is your actual reaction to critique and not hyperbole to get your point across, you might want to read up on Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and see if that’s something you’d like to talk about with your doctor. This level of a reaction to beta comments feels extreme and might be a sign of something else going on, whether that’s RSD or something else. 

If that’s just hyperbole and you feel a sense of disappointment or dejection as a result of hearing critique then you might just need to talk to your beta reader about how you want that critique to come at you. Do you want a negative to be balanced out with a positive? Do you want a critique to come with a plan for how to fix the problem? Do you want it phrased as a question rather than as a statement?

We all have preferences when it comes to receiving feedback, and we all respond differently to different styles. If you’re receiving feedback in a form that doesn’t work for you, then try a different form and see if that works better. 

Another thing that’s important to remember is that these comments are not about you as a person, they’re about your writing. The person who is giving you this feedback is invested in making your writing better. They want you to succeed and they want you to tell the best version of your story possible, and their focus is on helping you do that. 

Nothing that we write is ever going to be perfect, and a first draft is even rougher. There’s no shame at all in needing to improve. If there’s nothing to work on, then there’s nothing to learn. Accepting critique means accepting an opportunity to do better next time, to learn a new technique or concept. Doing something badly means that you’re doing something that’s hard for you, and it’s only by working beyond our capabilities that we can improve. 

Be proud of your mistakes. They prove that you’re willing to take a risk. You’re striving and reaching and pushing yourself to do more. Keep reaching, anon. You’ll get there. 💕

[thevikingwoman]

Another perspective: 

It sounds like someone has convinced you that the only way to improve is having a beta, or that the only way to write ‘good’ fanfic is to have a beta. 

But the thing is - if having a beta is not something you enjoy, don’t. 

You don’t owe anyone any particular way of doing things. I think it is very important to keep in mind that fanfic is a hobby - something you should enjoy doing. Don’t do it in a way you don’t enjoy. 

No matter if you have a beta or not, if you get comments or not - just the act of writing does make your writing better. 

I don’t generally use a beta, because I know it would be stressful and un-empowering for me. I write the way I enjoy writing, and I think you need to step back and consider what are the reasons you enjoy writing? What do you get out of it?

Of course - if you write with a goal of commercial success for your Original Novel, and you write fanfic to prepare for that, then it might be different. Maybe you do need to face your growing pains. But do reflect over the purpose of your writing. 

[whetherwoman]

YES. I love having a beta reader and there are still fics where I do not get a beta. Either because it’s not the style or fandom of anyone I’d usually ask to beta, or because it’s good enough and I just want to post it, or because the content is personal enough that I know I couldn’t take any critique, or because I just plain don’t feel like it.  Having a beta reader is the most useful to me when there’s something very specific I want them to do. Maybe it’s spelling and grammar - frequently I get to the point with writing where I KNOW that one sentence just isn’t sounding right but I have no clue how to tweak it and someone else’s eyes will see what mine won’t. Maybe I’m stuck on plot and need someone to tell me where they think it’s going, or help me brainstorm. It just works a lot better for me when I can say “I’m not sure this character’s voice is right, and also I’m not sure whether I need a clearer explanation of this particular plot point, and if you see any typos let me know” instead of just an open ended “go forth and edit”. I’m most likely to get that “I need to go throw myself into the ocean now” feeling when I get feedback I’m not expecting. And also - sometimes you need to take some time with edits. There have absolutely been times when I’ve needed to read through suggestions and then shove it in a metaphorical drawer for a week. Usually with bigger edits like plot or pacing edits, but frequently even with tiny ones. Crushing despair and endless self-doubt sucks and is definitely no fun to feel, but there’s also no need to beat yourself up over not feeling enthusiastic about feedback. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer or a bad person if it takes you a while to be ready to act on critique. Sometimes you just have to take your time.

[cesperanza]

Can I make a suggestion as someone who loves betas? Flip the beta process: ask your beta to read the story or WIP or scene cold, don’t tell them anything about it and don’t ask for any initial/overall/global response from them.  Then, once they’ve read it, ask them questions. 

Start with reading comprehension questions--and there is no such thing as a too dumb question!  What happened in that scene you just read?  Can you summarize the story or scene back to me?  Then, if there are any tricky points to your story, ask about those:  what did character Y do there?  Did you get what was happening between Y and Z--can you narrate back to me what you read? The next level up is motivation and feelings/interpretations: Why did character Y do that, do you think? How does he feel? How did scene V make you feel about this person place or thing? When did you think X and Y first had sparks?

Do not give your poor betas any answers to these questions, or give hints as to the “right” answers--because they’re not wrong or right. YOU are either coming across or you are not coming across: if the beta isn’t picking up what you are putting down, you have to go back and fix the story so that the words in that particular order create the feeling you want in the reader. If the scene is supposed to make you cry, and the beta thinks its funny, you gotta redo it.  If your brilliant plot point got missed, you were TOO SUBTLE and you have to add pointers and cues. I have been surprised btw that sometimes I have not gotten my straightforward plot points across--literally my reader doesn’t know what the hell happened, let alone why it happened or have feelings about why it happened. If they don’t know that Fred is dead, they sure won’t know who killed Fred or be sad that Fred’s dead or feel John’s pain at Fred’s untimely and tragic death!

Then here’s the thing--once you’ve done all this, then you CAN tell Beta A what you were on about and ask Beta A, like, okay, how could I have better clued you in to the fact that Fred is dead? Why didn’t you think Fred was dead? Work your way with them through Fred’s death to who did it and how you feel and all that.  This beta can now be your collaborator/partner in crime.  But THEN, like, sadly, you really can’t believe them really when they say the story is fixed, because now, like you,  they know what they were supposed to be getting from the story. You can’t know that the words on the page alone are what’s doing the work, and that’s what writing is.  So ideally you need to find someone ELSE, Beta B, and say, again, “Hey, can you read this and can I ask you some questions?”  Then ask Beta B--what happened? why did it happen? Can you tell me how that scene makes you feel? Who’s right in that argument, X or Y?--and when they’re like, *sobbing,* Fred he’s dead, he deserved better, I am keysmashing my way through John’s grief, you bastard--then: post! :D 

For me, this helps, because I’m not asking the beta to solve my problems and I’m also not asking for their evaluation. I can thank them totally sincerely regardless of what they say (and you should--and also make them feel comfortable summarizing back to you, cause whatever they say is good data.) I also hate this thing where you feel like a beta wants you to write a different story than the one you’re writing, or when you get contradictory advice.  I’m not asking them “what they’d do.”  I’m asking them to literally say back to me what they think the words are saying, and adjusting my story based on it. 

[elljayvee]

I have worked with a lot of betas over the years, and in many different ways. It's always a negotiation, working with someone new, and you as the author have to let them know what you want out of them as a beta.

Generally, for example, I am not looking for spelling-and-grammar. It's great if someone can catch typos, but I am a good speller and I make stylistic choices that I am absolutely not going to change no matter how a beta feels about it.

On the other hand, I like working with betas who are willing to function as developmental editors; they're not interested in changing my style and they barely ever touch the sentences themselves. Instead they are looking for plot holes, continuity errors, character motivations, the clarity of events, timelining, flow. Often these types of betas also cheer me on and help me untangle occasional thorny rat's-nest sentences that I just can't make work; I've usually called this type of overall beta work "midwifing". (There are a lot of things I write, particularly short things, that really don't need that at all. There's a fair amount of unbeta'd fanfic in my ao3, and for the first few years I wrote, I didn't use a beta at all. And then there's stories that absolutely needed it, that never would have seen the light of day without betas.) This isn't an easy kind of author-beta relationship with the wrong person! I do not recommend this with a new beta; it should be someone with whom you are familiar and who you know you can work with, AND who you know is likely to be good at this. Sometimes you don't have that person, though, and need to find them. (I was once told by a previous beta that she couldn't work on a particular story, but that I should try a rather well-known reccer in the fandom, to whom I had never spoken. That worked out fantastically, but boy was I nervous about it.)

I have found it cannot be a passive relationship, working with a beta. You have to talk to them. You have to ask for what you think the story needs and what you need as an author, however that looks. Maybe it looks like the open-ended questions that @cesperanza suggests. Maybe it's intense developmental work. Maybe you really want a spelling-and-grammar edit and nothing else. But it won't happen by magic. It's working with someone to make your story better, without making it any less yours, and it is work. It can be amazing work -- it can be generative and fun and a wonderful part of being a fannish writer -- but it's work.

[isawken]

june vision board

[toolightly]

learn Thai with KristSingto!

You've probably seen these tweets lol and while lots of fuss has been made about teerak already, I think the language of it is more fun:

Kit posted the first exchange between him and Singto with the caption "Basketball, right - shooting hoops, playing sports...."

K: 555555 เล่นเกมกันเถอะที่รัก Let's play games together, darling S: วันนี้น่าจะไม่ได้จ่ะ ดองรูปเขาไว้ ยังไม่ทำส่งซักที พี่นุกรี๊ดละมั้ง. Probably not today, I've been putting off working on them and haven't sent a single photo, P'Noo is going to scream. K: TT ชั้นไม่ถูกชู้ต I'm not the chosen one TT S: ชั้นก็ไม่ถูกเธอชู๊ตค่ะ. 🥹 I haven't been your chosen one either, kaa. 🥹 K: ไปต่อไม่ถวกเลยงับ55555 I don't know what to say to that, ngup 5555

... and Singto follows up with the second captioned "Go ahead, screenshot it all if you dare"

K: ทำเสดกี่โมงงง what time will you be doneeeee K: เล่นคนเดียวก้ด้าย 😭 I can play alone, too 😭 K: ถึงมันจะเหงาก้ไม่เปนไรหรอก Even though it's lonely, but it's okay S: ไม่รู้ ยังไม่ได้เริ่มเลย. Don't know. I haven't started yet. S: ใช่มะ ถึงเหงาก็ไม่เป็นไรหรอก. That's right. Even if it's lonely, it's okay. K: อย่าย้อนสิ 😭😭😭 Don't replay my words to me 😭😭😭 S: 😒 K: งั่มๆ ngam, ngam

Anyway translation aside I've colour-coded some fun features of their texting: In blue we have cute deliberate misspellings for... vibes Kit uses ชั้น in place of ฉัน chan, "I", and Singto copies him in his reply He also says งับ ngup instead of ครับ krub and later, ด้าย in place of the usual spelling ได้ dai

In orange we have just straight up misspelling because we can't be bothered to press the shift key: เสด instead of เสร็จ ก้ instead of ก็ เปน instead of เป็น Yes, in the latter two cases Singto helpfully shows us the right spelling in purple when he mockingly repeats the sentence. This sentence is a fun one that goes OBJECT - got (ถูก) - VERBED:

K: ชั้นไม่ถูกชู้ต I didn't get chosen S: ชั้นก็ไม่ถูกเธอชู๊ต I didn't get chosen by you either

I also added purple annotations here for helpful teacher Singto because he shows us

How to place ก็ gor (= "also") for emphasis/contrast: [topic] ก็ = [topic] ALSO

Where the subject goes in this sentence: OBJECT- got - by subject - VERBED where the subject is เธอ ter (="you"), ie I - also - didn't get - by you - chosen

In green we have Kit's hotly-debated wordplay: ชู้ต or ชู๊ต chood (Krist and Singto spell it with a different tone accent, both seem acceptable) which is a loanword for shoot, as per Kit's basketball caption. However, the pronunciation chood could totally also sound like the loanword for choose. Arguably it makes more sense to spell that as ชูส (like they do here) since it ends with the 'S' consonant, but when ส appears at the end of a word, it's just pronounced 'T' anyway. Like in Krist's name คริส :D So since we've established earlier that we can play around with spelling things the way they're pronounced, ชู๊ต chood easily stands in as wordplay for choose. There's no verb conjugation so it's always just 'choose'.

Bonus, in pink: Singto uses the 'feminine' 'polite' particle ค่ะ kaa in his retort instead of krub, to emphasise his petulance and sense of being-wronged-ness.

Wasn't that fun! :DDD

[lifes-pinata]

One of the compelling things about Project Hail Mary is that you can't fix it.

"What if Stratt didn't force Grace to go?" Then the Earth dies.

"What if Yao and Ilyukhina had survived?" Then they all would have died in space, not enough food to get to Earth or Erid

If the Taomoeba hadn't escaped then Grace would have never seen his best friend again. Returning to a world he loves but no longer recognizes.

If the stars weren't dying then Grace never would have met his best friend at all. Living content but alone.

Project Hail Mary is a hopeful story. It is a story of friendship and what it means to be brave. It's a story about saving the world.

But you can't remove the tragedy of the story without making it unrecognizable. It's written into the bones.

[oflights]

AI fic voice is so distinctive to me now that it's given me incredible confidence in my own writing lol. like even when i struggle or overthink sentence structure, at least i'm not doing that incessant "not x. not y. but z" shit, or those terrible one-line paragraphs for ~drama. or that annoying second person POV structure like "a did b, the way you do b when c is happening in the middle of a terrible anthropomorphism or weak figurative construct"

claude syntax is so rampant and i have so much disdain for it and it makes me appreciate the ways i learned to move beyond certain prose crutches. i grew out of using "the thing about f is" but claude loves that. what sucks is that fic writers tend to form their styles around the fic they read, and when it's a lot of AI writing, they'll pick up those claude choices without realizing why they suck. the solution to this, which i will always tell every single fanfic writer if they ask me how to improve their writing, is to read more tradpub books. as many as possible. this is the only cure.

[toolightly]

Preserving op’s tags