My main URL and my Ao3 account are both "SilverStark". This sideblog is for fic-writing inspiration/references. The "next" button is a very light color on the bottom corner.
Have you ever written an epilogue before finishing a work?
I have an epilogue almost completely written and im not even 100% sure how they get there. I know basically how i want the story to end but the details need work.
I am here to tell you that I wrote what will be the epilogue for The Door Into Starlight (when it finally gets completed...) in 1980. I absolutely knew—even at that early stage—what was going to happen, and how it was (and is) all going to end.
And I had no damn idea how my characters and I were going to get there, either. (In fact, some of the most important details have only become plain to me in the last few years.) ...So don't despair.
The development of story is rarely linear, no matter how much we'd like it to be. A whole lot of writers have run up against this simple fact, at one point or another in their careers, and—trying to brute-force the situation into compliance—have wasted vast amounts of time and energy bashing their (figurative) heads against a rock-hard wall of resistance as they've tried to force story to grow in a linear way.
Sometimes, however desperate you are for it to do that, it just will not. (Though sometimes, I think just to throw us off our game[s], sometimes it does.) At such times, the thing to do—because frankly, you don't have much choice—is this:
Write down what you've got and then move on.
...This is something I've become used to over many years. In (pausing to attempt an estimate) maybe thirty out of fifty novels, I've absolutely routinely gotten the beginning first, and then the end... and have wound up spending a while staring at an empty-looking middle. (Though this staring period pretty quickly became a lot shorter for me once the habit of a reliable outlining workflow settled itself in... making it a lot easier to quickly structure and exploit what out-of-order pieces manifested themselves.)
Your own writer-brain's typical story-development pattern will probably take some time to develop and settle. This is fine, so don't sweat it. The beginning of your career will be about building and deepening the neural channels in which story runs as it grows, and all kinds of life- and work-events will affect this gradual development. Everybody's storygrowing patterns differ... so just let yours proceed to ingrain themselves at their own speed.
Writing Advice that Will Save You from Crying over Chapter 3 Again
☽ Sometimes “writer’s block” is actually just your story being broken and your brain knowing before you do. Respect the vibes, go back. Something stinks.
☽ If you’re stuck in the middle, skip to the part you’re excited to write. Chronological writing is a suggestion, not a law.
☽ “Kill your darlings” is not about deleting every cool thing you love. It’s about not hoarding scenes like a dragon with dialogue you wrote in 2017 that doesn’t even make sense anymore.
☽ You do not need to write like your favorite author. You need to write like you, caffeinated and slightly unstable.
☽ Talking to yourself in the mirror as your character is not weird. It’s called method writing. You’re not unhinged, you’re dedicated.
☽ Aesthetic Pinterest boards and playlists are writing progress if they make you feel like a god again.
☽ You can write the climax before you finish Act 1. You can rewrite Chapter 1 thirty times and then delete it anyway. You’re not behind, you’re in hell with the rest of us.
You’re allowed to write stuff that’s not “marketable.” You’re allowed to be weird. Write the story that would make you feel seen. The niche finds its freaks.
☽ Beta readers are not gods. Take what resonates, ignore what doesn’t. If five people say your story drags at Chapter 8? Maybe listen. If one person says “make it all about the dog,” maybe don’t.
super simple low-effort ao3 summary methods that are 1000% better and 1000% less annoying than just saying you suck at summaries:
copypaste the first few lines of the fic. u already wrote ‘em. let ‘em be their own damn hook
if ur feeling fancy & don’t mind showing ur hand a bit, copypaste the first few lines of the fic that u feel are esp. Important or Interesting - the ones where u first start getting into the real meat of things
state the main tropes! theyre probably already in ur tags - just say them again - maybe as a full sentence if ur feelin fancy. or with a joke if ur feelin Extra fancy
ask a question. pose a hypothetical. eg what happens if u take [character] and put them in [situation]?
make an equation. [character] + [thing] = [outcome]
just write like a one-sentence summary of what the fuck is going down. just one (1) sentence. doesnt matter if it doesn’t cover every important aspect. or if it sounds bland. any summary sentence is gonna be miles better than “idk i suck at summaries”
just…explain the fic like u would to a friend? it doesnt have to be a polished back of the book blurb. it can just be “[pairing] coffee shop au, but like, still with murder, and also i made everyone trans. enjoy”
just stick a meme in there
honestly who cares
just put literally anything but a self deprecating comment in there & ur golden
writing badly and cringily is actually an essential part of the writing process, both in terms of individual projects and in gaining voice and confidence as a writer in the long term. there is no way around the cringe. there's no way around the work.
You're going to have to do it sooner or later. Do it sooner.
...In the late 1970s, David Gerrold told me, "The first million words are for practice." He was right. This fact won't necessarily stop you from putting some of those first million words out where other people can read them, or even selling them. But you will still be practicing for a good long while.
A common problem writers face is "white room syndrome"—when scenes feel like they’re happening in an empty white room. To avoid this, it's important to describe settings in a way that makes them feel real and alive, without overloading readers with too much detail. Here are a few tips below to help!
Focus on a few key details
You don’t need to describe everything in the scene—just pick a couple of specific, memorable details to bring the setting to life. Maybe it’s the creaky floorboards in an old house, the musty smell of a forgotten attic, or the soft hum of a refrigerator in a small kitchen. These little details help anchor the scene and give readers something to picture, without dragging the action with heaps of descriptions.
Engage the senses
Instead of just focusing on what characters can see, try to incorporate all five senses—what do they hear, smell, feel, or even taste? Describe the smell of fresh bread from a nearby bakery, or the damp chill of a foggy morning. This adds a lot of depth and make the location feel more real and imaginable.
Mix descriptions with actions
Have characters interact with the environment. How do your characters move through the space? Are they brushing their hands over a dusty bookshelf, shuffling through fallen leaves, or squeezing through a crowded subway car? Instead of dumping a paragraph of description, mix it in with the action or dialogue.
Use the setting to reflect a mood or theme
Sometimes, the setting can do more than just provide a backdrop—it can reinforce the mood of a scene or even reflect a theme in the story. A stormy night might enhance tension, while a warm, sunny day might highlight a moment of peace. The environment can add an extra layer to what’s happening symbolically.
Here's an example of writing a description that hopefully feels alive and realistic, without dragging the action:
The bookstore was tucked between two brick buildings, its faded sign creaking with every gust of wind. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of worn paper and dust, mingling with the faint aroma of freshly brewed coffee from a corner café down the street. The wooden floorboards groaned as Ella wandered between the shelves, her fingertips brushing the spines of forgotten novels. Somewhere in the back, the soft sound of jazz crackled from an ancient radio.
Violence: A Writer’s Guide: This is not about writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.
Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.
Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism to your stories and novels.
10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world.
Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re inflicting matters.
Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook
So so honored to get THREE separate mentions in this list! (I haven’t read the first few, but the first one sounds fascinating!)
To differentiate the last 3, which are mine:
10 BS Tropes: this is how not to piss off medical folks in storytelling. It is short, and it was free the last I checked.
Maim Your Characters: this is a guide to injury as a plot structure tool. As in, how and when do you make the most out of a good character thrashing, from a plot perspective?
Blood on the Page is the book that tells you how long a specific injury might take to heal, what the character would go through, and details about their treatment.
Also, if cash is an issue, most of Blood on the Page and Maim Your Characters is available in my blog archives if you can navigate the hellsite. (The #masterposts tag is your best bet). And 10 BS Tropes was free the last I checked!
(Since I’ve had people ask: I priced the books so that, last I checked, I earn equivalent royalties whether you buy paperbacks or digital.)
xoxo, Aunt Scripty
P.S.: While I no longer answer asks about specific scenarios or injuries, I’m happy to answer questions about the books themselves via DM or ask box. Including the “hey I want this but REALLY can’t afford it could you PDF me?” ones.
(hi anon, I know you only asked about Hua Cheng’s title, but I went off a bit in a groupchat elsewhere some time ago and figured I’d fix it up for public consumption, so here, have a quick look at all four of the great calamities.
Full disclosure I wrote this maybe thirty chapters into reading TGCF, so I apologize if I’m missing crucial context for any of these)
All righty, so we have: 黑水沉舟 heishui chenzhou，青灯夜游 qingdeng yeyou, 白衣祸世 baiyi huoshi, and 血雨探花 xueyu tanhua.
Terms You Might Want To Know For Your Wuxia/Xianxia Fic
MXTX's danmei are getting increasingly popular, and the fandoms are getting more fic-happy. I've noticed that some writers seem interested in writing their own fics but are concerned of making mistakes with niche honorifics and titles. I've noticed some that have jumped right in, but have made innocent errors that I'd like to correct but fear coming off as rude or presumptuous. And so I've made this list of terms that covers the basics and also some that are a little more niche since they're usually directly translated in cnovels.
DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything one needs to know or would want to know concerning ancient Chinese honorifics and titles, merely what I myself consider useful to keep in mind.
Titles
Shifu: 'Martial father'; gender-neutral
Shizun: 'Martial father'; more formal than 'shifu'; gender-neutral
Shimu: ‘Martial mother’; wife of your martial teacher
Shiniang: ‘Martial mother’; wife of your martial teacher who is also a martial teacher
Shibo: elder apprentice-brother of your shifu; gender-neutral
Shishu: younger apprentice-brother of your shifu; gender-neutral
Shigu: apprentice-sister of your shifu
Shizhi: your martial nephew/niece
Shimei: younger female apprentice of the same generation as you
Shijie: elder female apprentice of the same generation as you
Shidi: younger male apprentice of the same generation as you
Shixiong: elder male apprentice of the same generation as you
Shige: elder male apprentice of the same generation as you, specifically one who has the same shifu as you or is the son of your shifu
Zhanglao: an elder of your sect
Zhangbei: a senior of your sect
Qianbei: a senior not of your sect
Wanbei: a junior not of your sect
Zongzhu: Address for a clan leader
Zhangmen: address for a sect leader
Daozhang: Daoist priests or simply a cultivator in general; gender-neutral
Daogu: Daoist priestess or a female cultivator; not as commonly used as 'daozhang'
Xiangu: Daoist priestess or a female cultivator; not as commonly used as 'daogu'
Sanren: a wandering cultivator
Xianren: 'Immortal Official'; a title of respect and power like 'General'
Xiuzhe: 'Cultivator', can be shortened to 'Xiu'
Xianjun: 'Immortal Master/Lord'
Xianshi: 'Immortal Master/Teacher'
Dashi: 'Great Teacher', address for monks
Xiansheng: Teacher/Sir; in ancient China, the connotation is very scholastic
Houye: address for a duke
Jueye: address for a noble lord, ei. a duke, marquess, earl, etc.
Wangye: address for king/imperial prince
Daren: address for imperial officials
Furen: Madam; the wife of an imperial official/nobleman OR a married woman granted a rank by the royal family
Nushi: Madam; the counterpart of 'xiansheng', connotation is scholastic
Taitai: Madam; address for an old married woman of the gentry, either wife or mother to head of household
Laoye: Old Lord; Address for an adult man with adult children of the gentry; possibly head of household
Nainai: Madam; Address for a married woman of the gentry, possibly wife of head of household
Ye: Lord; address for an adult man of the gentry, possibly head of household
Shaonainai: Young Madam; address for a woman married to a young man of the gentry
Shaoye: Young Lord; address for a young man or boy of the gentry, generation lower than head of household
Xiaoye: Little Lord; can be a synonym for ‘shaoye’ OR the son of a shaoye if ‘shaoye’ is already being used within the family
Xiaojie: Young Mistress; address for an unmarried woman or young girl of . . . the gentry and only the gentry, I believe. Correct me if you know for certain this is incorrect. (WARNING - It's an archaic term that should really only be used in an archaic setting if being used as a title instead of a suffix, because the modern vernacular has it as a term for a prostitute in mainland China. [Surname]-xiaojie is fine; Xiaojie by itself should be avoided.)
Gongzi: ‘Young Master/Lord/Sir'; ‘Childe’; young man from a household of the noble or gentry class
Guniang: 'Young Master/Lady/Miss'; ‘Maiden’; an unmarried woman or young girl from a household of the noble or gentry class
Laozhang: 'Old battle'; polite address for an unrelated old man of lower status than you
Laobo: polite address for an unrelated old man of a higher status that you
Laotou: 'Old man'; informal but not derogatory, implies fondness/closeness
Laopopo: 'Old woman'; informal but not derogatory, implies fondness/closeness
Please note that all of these listed above can be used as stand-alone titles or as suffixed honorifics.
Strictly Prefix/Suffix
-shi: 'Clan'; the suffix for a married woman, essentially means 'née'. (ex. Say Wei Wuxian was a woman and married into the Lan clan through a standard marriage. She would be called 'Wei-shi' by her husband's contemporaries and elders when not in a formal setting. It implies lack of closeness; used by acquaintances.)
a-: A prefix that shows affection or intimacy.
-er: A suffix that shows affection or intimacy; typically for children or those younger than you
-jun: 'Nobleman'; a suffix for a greatly respected man
-zun: 'Revered One'; a suffix for a greatly respected man
-ji: A suffix for a female friend
-bo: A suffix for an older man of your grandparents' generation
-po: A suffix for an older woman of your grandparents' generation
So glad to find this again because I knew there was a different term from 'senior not of your sect' to 'senior of your sect' but I could not remember it or find it again
Betrayal is a powerful plot element that is represented in countless stories. The gravity of betrayal brings a profound depth to character dynamics, plots, and themes alike, making it an indispensable tool for writers to explore emotions, conflicts, and the complexities of human nature. Let’s explore some quick tips on how to write betrayal!
Behaviour
Secretive actions
Dishonesty
Becoming emotionally distant
A sudden change in routine
Pushing people away
Nervous or fidgety movement
Frequent lying or making up stories
Unexpected aggression or irritability
Unjustified mood swings or emotional outbursts
Increasingly defensive
Interactions
Disturbed interpersonal relationships
Frequent misunderstandings or fights
Withholding information
Avoiding personal discussions
Insincerity in conversations
Frequently cancelling or missing plans
A sudden shift in relationship dynamics
Quick to deflect or place blame
Frequent subject changes
Gradual emotional detachment
Body Language
Avoiding direct eye contact
Defensive stance and crossed arms
Covering mouth or touching face
Shuffling or restless movements
Forcing smiles or laughter
Constantly looking around or at the ground
Stiff, tense posture
Heavy breathing or frequent sighing
Avoiding touch or skin contact
Exaggerated gestures
Attitude
A lack of concern or empathy
Increasingly personal and hurtful arguments
Erratic or unpredictable reactions
Self-centeredness
Insincerity
Dismissive or negative attitude
Callous disregard for other's feelings
A negative or pessimistic outlook
Inability to handle criticism
Withdrawal from relationships
Positive Story Outcomes
In the wake of a betrayal, a story can manifest various positive outcomes that add depth to the plot and its characters. Relationships can be strengthened, showing their resilience. Characters may discover newfound self-reliance and learn valuable lessons about trust and forgiveness, leading to an increase in empathy and understanding, personal growth, and the reinforcement of personal values. These experiences can encourage a clearer understanding of personal boundaries, prompt self-reflection, introspection, and the development of healthier coping mechanisms. Ultimately, these positive outcomes can bring about improved communication and honesty, forming the silver lining in the cloud of betrayal.
Negative Story Outcomes
The aftershocks of betrayal can reverberate throughout your story. This might include an irreparable fracture of trust and damage to relationships. Betrayal can trigger psychological trauma, leading to an increase in suspicion and insecurity. Feelings of inadequacy or self-blame may surface, and characters can experience a heightened sense of isolation. The fear of forming new relationships or trusting others can become overwhelming. There may also be an escalation of conflict or violence and the reinforcement of negative behaviours or patterns. Damaged self-esteem or self-worth may be another repercussion, and this can encourage destructive coping mechanisms.
Helpful Synonyms
Treachery
Deception
Double-crossing
Duplicity
Backstabbing
Two-faced
Disloyalty
Unfaithfulness
Infidelity
Falseness
Perfidy
Treason
Fraud
Deceit
Slander
Misrepresentation
Falsification
Chicanery
Double-dealing
Betrayal is a powerful plot element that is represented in countless stories. Let's explore some quick tips on how to write betrayal.
Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin?
What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots.
Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow.
Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear.
What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story. Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story.
What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.
Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours.
Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension.
Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work.
Pst btw if you've ever wanted to use / look at / make handwriting headcanons about Chinese calligraphy, this site allows you to search a character and then pulls up an image list of that character in tons of famous calligraphers' styles!!
It's also organized by different script styles (standard, seal, semi-cursive, cursive) for different uses!
If you click on the blue names under the pictures, the site pulls up a list of every character it has indexed as written by that particular calligrapher too, so very helpful to find individual styles : )
In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.
I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!
From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!
I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.
The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.
(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)
If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.
The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.
insert selection -> if you highlight a sentence in the fic it will be added in italics to the comment box
add to comment box -> once you're done writing your comment, you click this button and the entire thing will automatically copied to the ao3 comment box
delete -> self explanatory
on mulitchapter fics, you will be given the option to either add the comment to just the current chapter or the entire fic
The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.
Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.
Working on all these various translations has got to be the most educational fandom related thing that I’ve ever done. Now that I’ve pieced together a list of poetries that I’ve fully translated, and I’ve also translated an additional 18 more poems that aren’t posted yet, it’s quite interesting to see how different writers use these poems.
MXTX, for example, uses a lot of mainstream poems. She likes stuff from the Tang 300, with the occasional Song poem (example) on the side. For example, Wei Wuxian’s spell, Lan Zhan’s first appearance, Jiang Fengmian’s name, Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan’s namesake poems are all derive from the Tang 300. She did use the Liang Dynasty’s Beauty of Nanyuan 南苑逢美人 in Wei Wuxian’s spell, but that’s a really popular poem that’s used everywhere. MXTX also uses Yuan Zhen’s Mourning in TGCF, and that’s a poem that kids learn in high school. I’m guessing that this probably because she was pretty young when she wrote MDZS and, it’s stuff that she learned in school.
SHL uses poems in a different way. Wen Kexing uses everything from the Qing Dynasty (1912AD) to the Zhou Dynasty (256 BC), but he uses predominantly Shijing (Zhou Dynasty - Waring States 221 BC) poetry to express his sorrow when he realises Zhou Zishu was dying. (SHL list of poetries) Shijing were basically folk poems during that time period, so essentially, he was sprouting poetry like a gentleman to flirt with Zhou Zishu, but spoke like a layman when he was mourning.
MXS (Thousand Autumns) also has a different choice of poetry. She uses stuff from 李商隐 Li Shangyin twice in Chapter 1 (Regret Peak’s one of them. I’ll post the second one on the 25/2), and his poems are notoriously difficult to understand. There’s also reference to a picture, and she also uses really obscure poetries that aren’t mainstream.
Today’s weirdly specific bugbear: newborn babies in fiction being portrayed with colored eyes. This isn’t the case! Newborn babies have undeveloped eye colors that resolve over infancy, exactly like how a glass of muddy water resolves and clarifies into colors, patterns, and layers.
- people who will grow up to have brown eyes will be born with eyes that can appear brown, black, dark grey, or a sort of muddy navy.
- people who will grow up to have light brown, hazel, green, grey or blue eyes are usually born with the same eye colors as above: black, brown, dark grey or muddy navy (which is a weird bluish cloudy look, like brown with a blue overlay.)
- If you’re two brown-eyed parents whose new baby has a sort of cloudy unfocused blue eye color, don’t worry, they’ll almost certainly be brown-eyed - the melanin is still rearranging itself - and somehow that comes across as this initial bluish brown color.
- if the baby is white it’ll almost certainly go with the classic “muddy navy” to start with. Nobody is born with fantasy eyes, but white babies least of all.
- people whose eyes have distinctive patterns, such as central heterochromia, chips, shards, streaks, rings, etc will not display these while the overall melanin pattern is settling.
- very melanistic human eyes are almost greyish; a portraitist or photographer can explain this better than myself. The lovely clear warm browns that dominate the majority of humanity are still a complex pattern of melanin deposition and reflection, not “default maximised melanin.”
- people who will grow up to have “ice blue” eyes (with very little melanin) can actually be born with “ice blue” eyes that do remain; however, ice blue eyes at birth can also change quite a lot! after all, they’re the ones where a simple melanin rearrangement from week to week will change their whole color and appearance. So “Ice blue” and “indeterminate darkest greyish color” i.e. very little melanin deposition/maximum melanin deposition are two colors that humans can be born with, keep for life and be very happy with; but the average eye color of humanity is brown, so I’m not sure if relevant.
- babies aren’t really born with green or hazel eyes, which require exposure to light, development and ongoing melanin readjustment! You’ll probably see these colors resolve between 3-6 months with the general direction settled at 9 months.
Anyway, I’m sure if you poll a thousand people, you’ll find some of them insisting that they’ve definitely known babies born with Distinctive Family Eyes or Their Father’s Eyes or Violet Eyes or Chosen One Eyes, and when they were born they opened them wide for everyone to admire, but while they’re having fun with that, let’s just be real: newborn babies have muddy eyes of indeterminate color, that are normally shut, and their default state is to Imitate Prawn. Newborn humans look like nothing and nobody. And that’s okay.
I must say, i delivered baby#3 a week after this post, and while sharing the exact same indescribable muddy navy eyes as their siblings (who are now wildly different phenotypes) they distinguished themselves very early on by having wonky pupils, which are different sizes. This is a very common feature of a newborn eye, and usually means nothing more than “eye not finished cooking yet,” but it does give the baby a very curious boggle. If you want to have your baby described with a realistic boggle, everyone will be tremendously satisfied.
@boonsweetie don’t leave your genius maneuvers in the tags
Wearing high-contrast patterned clothing (like a top with black and white stripes) is an easy way to gain attention and admiration from humans under four months old.
Hi! First of all I adore your blog ,you are a godsend!
I have a question, if it’s not much trouble 🙏🏻. What do royal concubines and the empress call the emperor? It is just they address him with something that sounds like -sha in Cdramas, and I am a bit lost🙇🏻♀️.
Hey! Haha thanks!
Oh it's not a concubine only term. It's bixia 陛下 (I don't know how to spell it phonetically). It's literally a term for the emperor like Your Majesty.
So technically everyone calls the emperor that (except his kids and his mother lol).
