#first time using the new post editor i hope it all goes well
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pathetic wet men collection (32/?)
#userdramas#legend of anle#cdramaedit#cdramasource#han ye#安乐传#tloaedit#gong jun#*mine#*mine: wet#useryd#lextag#userrenee#roserayne#tuseryibo#belsmultifandommess#usergooseras#thoresque#useralihi#first time using the new post editor i hope it all goes well
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drizzle
for once in my life, i finally asked him out. it's quite a ride really, we had our ups and downs but for once, its official. well, not yet at least, but a date is a start to it; that being a few minutes later so. all i could do as of now is just wait. he's always been a little shy in the brinks of our eyes meeting, but i hope today changes that thought of his - it just has to. a change in our ever-so-cycling routine of constant interactions, it's about time.
it's 8pm and drizzle began to drip down as the night sky shuts its starry gaze with a camouflaging haze. at that point, i was already near arriving the supposed place of where everything should unfold. its a pity really; i didn't bring an umbrella and what else a ruiner it is that an outfit meant to please the eye be ruined by smudges of small drops and stops.
as i stepped out of the cab i ordered; giving the payment for my ride, i felt this uneasy feeling of warmth and shiver - two sets of emotion polar opposite to eachother yet are intertwined at this moment on. expecting the light from the cafe shine onto the car instead blocked by a shadow. with instinct, i turn around to not be surprised by the gentleman who we offered dinner to.
i say so as i know it's one of his attempts to persuade, but let me remind you it isn't yet the main event
"can't stay wet yet, you know," he says. "save that thought for after-dinner at least". silence fills the room until he breaks into laughter while taking back his words into a joke.
i love that about him
we've been friends for quite some time, hearing stuff like this is normal - though an occasion as this? i can't help but think different of it
as we escort ourselves to the entrance of the cafe, we ask whether seats are available; no, says the receptionist. "wait, I thought you did the reservations," i say. "but you asked me out???," reply he.
as our eyes lock during a stressful exchange, a conclusion was set that a change of plans had to be made. we apologised immediately to the receptionist and bid our fairwell amidst the rain.
so, what now?
the rain is beginning to catch on into a more intense weather; leaving us two in the rain beneath a singular umbrella. drips, tacks and taps could be heard from the umbrella; the cold breeze finishes as the cherry on top, but what stops me from thinking of those struggles is just being beside him.
he's warm, so very warm. i could listen to his heavy breathing despite the loud shudders of the surroundings - you could say it's alarming. from this on, all i wanted to do was just get closer to him. feel all the more warmer, i want him to be my blanket or at least just a hug is enough.
i couldnt help but get lost in thought until he began to speak his mind - "you know, we should really find something to do before things get worse, maybe find cover or at least the nearest restaurant? it doesnt need to be fancy."
"you hungry?" i ask
"not really," he answered, then in a panic: "but let's not waste any more time, we gotta find someplace before it all goes away"
"right," i say. i take my phone out and start loo-
all of sudden, my hand was dragged - we're both running now. phone still being held; the umbrella was shut closed and whats left is just us two sprinting through the rain ontop of the city pavement.
he's laughing, and i can't help but chuckle a bit as well. his hand wrapped around my wrist, all i could focus of now is just the sight of him and me running through the streets. the city lights shunning our eyes uniformly as we pass through them one by one.
as we ran, i asked while out of breath "where are we going?"
"no idea!!!!" he replied with a burst of ecstasy.
editor's note: sooo uhhhh this is my first ever post and one shot, if there's anything that u guys think i should write or maybe if u wanna share ur thoughts, feel free to say anything! also, im a bit new to tumblr so pls do share on what i should do and most importantly, hope u enjoyed this one shot :D
#x reader#one shot#friends to lovers#rainyweather#date night#crush imagines#crush scenarios#boy crush#crush x reader#reader x crush#gender neutral reader#male crush
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Halloween Horror Fest 2023!!!
Hello Fanders! Welcome to our first horror themed sander sides event!
Halloween Horror Fest Links:
Ao3
Tumblr
Discord
-Main Information-
**What is this event?**
A writer and an artist come together to create something wonderfully horrific~
After a writer comes up with a storyline, the artists choose a scene (or more) to make
**What Do I Have To Do / What Are The Requirements?**
There are Three options: You can submit a fanfiction as a writer, be an artists for a writer, or be a beta reader for a writer. (Yes you can be all three if you want)
Artists:
- Complete piece and colored
- Can be digital or hand drawn
- No sketches or incomplete works
Comic style is also allowed, as long as you provide a link to all parts. If you choose to hand draw you must take a clear photo that isn’t blurry and is well lit.
Writers:
- At least 5,000 words
- Complete fic and edited
- No reuploading older fics and calling it new
It can be a multiple chapter fic. You can write more than 5k. Getting a Beta reader/editor highly is recommended but not required.
Check-ins:
Check-ins are mandatory. This gives writers, artists, and betas time to give us an update with what they have so far and if they have any questions or concerns. This will also tell us if anyone is falling behind.
**Important Dates**
Sign up will be from April 27th - June 21st
Post dates are from October 2nd - November 5th
Check-in dates:
June 23rd - June 26th
July 21st - July 24th
August 18th - August 21st
September 15th - September 18th
-Concerns-
**Is there an age limit?**
Yes. You must be 18 years of age or older. If you lie about your age you will be taken out of the exchange as well as any future events and will be blocked from this blog and our personal blogs
**Vultures**
Vultures are needed!!! Vultures are people who pick up dropped ideas from others who decided to leave the event. Vultures will be Artists and/or Beta editors.
We are looking forward to your jaw dropping creative pieces and we hope you join this wonderful event!
Please send an ask if you have any questions. Anon asks are available. You can also contact the mods at any time by Tumblr Dm’s.
[Sign up for Halloween Horror Fest 2023: Sanders Sides]
**Disclaimer**
The discord is an adult only safe space for all adult fanders - including pro-shippers! This means remrom is mentioned there, which also means that yes people can write/draw remrom for this event if they wish!
As long as it’s horror themed anything goes!
#halloweenhorrorfest2023#halloweenhorrorfest#Halloween horror fest#sander sides#sander sides horror fest
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Reviving Bionicle in 2023 (10-year Anniversary Update)
2023 is fast approaching and that means one thing: so is episode 5.
This is it. This is the end of the series. I gotta bring my A game in writing, production value, everything.
It has to be the best thing I've ever made.
Where is everything standing though? Well, it's still an outline. It won't be soon! I am getting a new laptop for school, and I have free time in between a few classes this semester, and I'm gonna use that as "writing time". I'm expecting a first screenplay draft around February, and I'll use the rest of the year to film this ridiculous mountain of a project… if some people who volunteered to read it (and agreed to be quiet about it) give it the green light.
It’s going to be… a long script.
Right now, however, I'm stuck because I don't have that previously mentioned laptop. (my current one is having difficulty even writing this into the Tumblr post editor). I enjoy writing in a nice environment, like a calm coffee shop or something. I’m really excited to write this thing. Last time I wrote everything at work and that was not optimal. This time I’m going to do it right.
I'm sure there will be a trailer at some point. I don't know when, though. Right now I will say this- if everything goes to plan, 2023 is definitely the release year. 2022 wasn't easy and I was consistently sabotaged youtube-wise all year. I will totally give you a all a heads up if the 2023 release changes.
It’s coming! It really is! I’m going for the gold on this one. I hope I’ve shown that I can prove myself, despite the long wait. I’m gonna prove myself again.
Remember: when we fall we go further.
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Thank you for the link to your other post (I was back sensation anon). And happy New Year! Please don't feel pressured about answering quickly (or at all lol), it's really fine. But yeah...so she has a pain editor, so she DOES have nociceptors still, but where, I wonder. Her legs are a given, but with a compromised pain editor and system functions at 23%, the first thing my mind goes to is that pain might be chronic, and she needs an editor to function normally (whether that be from implantation side effects or the sheer weight/physical stress the chrome puts on her remaining flesh). Which is like..... 😬 I hope not. Blood flow, nervous connection, digestive (she can vomit and has stomach pain {?}), excretory, and so on are even bigger mysteries to me now lmao, but I will have to content my "need explanation" rabies with the fact it's probably just rule of cool and there aren't concrete answers. What's clear, though, is that the FIA did not give a fuck about ergonomics or her comfort at all. There is only one function facilitated by that design -- netrunning. Like, that is not a body meant for living. And it's only fiction, but I guess it bothers me so much because I did BME, and a lot of the research I did at the time was in medical devices, prostheses, and biocompatibility testing. So it just feels mega evil and offends my sensibilities (lol).
Though I guess it highlights another aspect of the whole thing: the sort of psychological state she must've been in to arrive at the point she agreed to that level of modification. I have seen some people say the procedure was done without consent (or informed consent), and whilst I don't entirely disagree (it's definitely dubious/unethical at best), I wonder if it's not reflective of a coping strategy to deal with the guilt of what she had to do to Reed. This is verging into Pepe Silva territory, but in her path, she says something like, "Reed's only use [for her] is to feel good about what he's doing." And I wonder if she didn't experience the same dissonance in those seven years: pushing herself to be more ("better") and of greater use to the detriment (and eventual loss) of her body because what she'd done (and "invested") so far had to be worth sacrificing Reed (and her sense of morality). Easy to understand, but also a form of self-harm, certainly. I think it parallels Reed himself, really: killing staging coups, appointing himself executioner, and god knows whatever else he's done as a field agent for the fantasy CIA. But most obviously in his path (if Song is alive) where he's trying and clearly failing to convince himself that everything that happened is worth it, all the deaths worth it, whatever she next suffers worth it, as long as she's still alive. Can't think too much about what dogma is costing you otherwise your entire self-image/worldview unravels. Only difference is that Song reached her breaking point and never wanted any of it in the first place (which may even apply to Alex). Sorry this is so long, I definitely lost the plot here lol.
Thank you, anon for another ask!! I absolutely LOVE IT. I don't even know what more can I add, because you put it so perfectly well. The possibility of chronic pain? body that's not meant for living?? The psychological effects and also the things you wrote about Reed-Songbird relationship? Just perfect.
I recommend everyone reading the ask :D
#so many wonderful thoughts anon#thank you so much for sharing them!!#long post#song so mi#songbird#cyberpunk 2077#phantom liberty
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tuesday again 5/2/2023
some stuff i fucking HATED in this one
listening
new K. Flay AND new LUNA AURA singles out last friday but the thing that kept me company through several walks was this (billboard called it "industrial rager" which seems fine close enough) used for the yellowjackets tv show (something i have not watched and never will).
my brain has really craved repetitive lyrics recently. not sure what that's about. not a repeated lyric, but love one that goes "lipstick on the rifle". spotify
youtube
ty discover weekly.
reading
pour one out for the real ones, Vice's leftist gaming vertical Waypoint. if you've ever liked anything about the way i go about these posts you have them to thank. i would say they are the primary influence in the way i try to approach things like "is this a clever subversion that still holds a lot of love for the genre or does this not even know the rules it's trying to break". also a big factor in me going "okay this is what it says it is, this is the marketing copy and press releases" and a work says it's trying to do before assessing whether or not they do it well. may all the staff land softly, elsewhere, paid far more.
“There are a ton of destinations within gaming media that do a great job covering whether a game is worth your money. Instead, we want to focus on telling stories about why people play, and investigating how the games we love and spend so much time with come to be. Whether a game was a commercial success or has a small, dedicated community, we want to raise the conversation and take an in-depth look at the passion, people, and politics that underpin these worlds.” -Austin Walker, editor in chief until last year
the very last thing i read was this review of the new starred wars game, whose early review code sent to journalists was EXTREMELY different than what ended up shipping. this is uncommon but not unheard of, but almost nobody publishes a "null result" review like this one and it's a fascinating breakdown
This piece has, admittedly, gone off the rails, but if this had been a straightforward review, and at the end, I put an italicized section that said “based on 10 hours,” what would you say? If I’d finished the game but confessed at the end that the patched version was importantly different from the one I’d spent my time with, what then? Which review is worth more?
i also read Behind the Sun, Above the Moon, a non-binary scifi/fantasy anthology. i was not impressed with this collection in whole or in parts. it could have benefited from a stronger theme and editorial vision (i'm not actually sure this thing had an editor, now i'm looking closer?)
this has billed itself "a Queer anthology inspired by magic and the cosmos". what i was hoping/expecting this would be: a collection exploring what it means to be nonbinary through the lens of scifi and fantasy. it actually is: an almost completely human-centric collection about people who happen to be non-binary and happen to live in scifi or fantasy settings.
the critical problem is that most of them are very slice-of-life in a fantastic setting as opposed to a short story with uhhhhhh a theme and a point it makes. the worldbuilding, while often interesting, is not integral. 3/9 of these are set in a contemporary setting, and all of them could be set in a contemporary setting without losing much. 3/9 (one overlap) feature a protagonist or deuteragonist who is a cop, and all three of those read very gay assimilation-y/feel very concerned with perfect gay rep.
i don't really expect anyone to be the next o henry here, but none of them are self-contained. not the sort of ambiguous ending in the Ha Ha Im Going To Think About This For The Rest Of My Life way, they all feel like “first chapter of a planned new adult trilogy”.
i love anthologies. i am always rooting for anthologies. i am no stranger to imperfectly written speculative fiction. this one is just kind of nothing? none of these are good or particularly enjoyable examples of the form, either as short stories or as speculative fiction.
i don't actually know what tipped me off to this book, it's been on my overdrive for...two years.
watching
two out of three Magnificent Seven sequels are not worth my time, your time, or anyone else's. i have not bothered to watch Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969, dir. Wendkos) bc i have a finite amount of time on this bitch of an earth.
i reluctantly have to hand the original some heterosexual rights. that move had a genuinely cute romance that fit in well with a particular character's growth, even if it was lifted whole cloth from Seven Samurai. this will be relevant when we discuss this franchise's hatred for women later.
Return of the Seven/Return of the Magnificent Seven (1966, dir. Kennedy), starring exactly one member of the original seven, is so poorly paced that i paused the film during an "exciting" bullfight, got up to get more snacks, got distracted, and ended up cleaning my kitchen.
there is a great deal of untranslated, un-captioned spanish throughout this movie, including the entire opening sequence. i don't know how i feel about this. on one hand, yeah, fuck them americans, and i would not call the english-language dialogue particularly crucial to your understanding of the plot. on the other hand, what.
as opposed to the original seven all being men who are fairly polite and follow some sort of code, the replacement five are all kind of sleazy? one of them only signs on bc there's an entire village full of women on their own. in other relationships, there is the KERNEL of a really fascinating fucked up family dynamic between the villain and his sons, but we don't even get hints of that until well after the halfway point. this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier. the camerawork and effects simply are not there.
The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972, dir. McCowan) is a really, really awful film to watch, and not just if you're a woman. this whole fucking film uses three separate instances of rape or gang rape as plot momentum. if you are not trying to fill out lee van cleef's filmography (only a thing me and @birdcfparadise are insane enough to do) this is actively skippable.
like okay. let’s just walk through the first fifteen minutes. lvc's young, new, nubile wife convinces him to let a kid who robbed a store get off with a warning instead of what lvc really wants to do, send him to jail. in return, the kid shoots lvc, kidnaps lvc's wife, and rapes and kills her on the trail. the movie, which wasn't good to start out with, does not improve from there. like the other sequel i watched, this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier.
the one interesting choice this film makes: one of the seven is a failed journalist tailing lvc, hoping to get enough life details out of him to write a book. this is a fun period-appropriate twist and this could have been a fun proto-revisionist western/gracefully put the franchise to bed, but here we FUCKING are.
why'd i do this to myself: liked the original, like lvc.
playing
the steam collections i'm sorting things into areworking, bc i forgot i owned Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (2013, developed/published Techland). i do not remember buying this, i assume it was $1.99 in a sale at some point. this is a silly arcade-y first person shooter.
youtube
i suspect it will be the kind of thing i play through once and then completely forget about, but i will have a fun ten hours-ish.
this is a personal problem, but the moment you give me a long-distance rifle, i want to play as stealthily and perfectly as possible. (except in fallout, where it is way more fun to charge up to enemies like a very small freight train with a shotgun). this game is simply not built for stealth. this game wants you to move constantly. i do like how enemies are encountered in little groups or knots, and don't come after you if you've cleared out one group and haven't hustled along to the next. enemy AI was simply not very sophisticated in 2013. this gives me time to meander around looking at everything and going "oh i coulda got up on that water tower" or "totally missed that barrel of dynamite".
i like how over the top but un-self-serious it is so far. competent shooter, fewer of the bells and whistles we expect from a FPS these days, but we don't really need to be fucking around with health packs and more than one kind of ammo for a gun. nothing's really annoying me yet and i haven't fallen deeply in love with it, so i don't have a ton of thoughts other than "huh this is a decade old video game with decade-old design sensibilities, which isn't bad just different". stay tuned!
separate thought: i do think that the game's artstyle is about as detailed as i ever want a game to get. nothing ever really needs to be more realistic than this. i do think we peaked in 2013 and what 2013 CPUs could handle. we have better raytracing and particles and whatnot now, but that's at the cost of eerily hyperrealistic games where there is little to no non-signage visual signposting. nothing is guiding your eye through a level, things (consumables, collectibles, etc) are very easy to miss. if video games are an art form you need to pick a thing your game looks like. make a stylistic choice for christ's sake. not this game though. it's doing okay.
making
made some fake meatballs (shut up) bc the giant bag of bargain store brand meatballs i used to practically live on have risen to $20 a bag. angel hair and meatballs are easy to acquire and easy to eat, even if they do generate many dishes to wash.
making my own is not much cheaper, and raw ground meat texture is one of the worst things in the world. plus i had some carrots and oats and lentils to use up anyway. this required more chopping than my hands cared for, even though i bought pre-juilenned carrots and just sort of roughly diced them. the texture is UNSETTLINGLY like real meatballs. that sort of spongy? bouncy? mouthfeel. the taste is, of course, nothing like real meat. they are a little crumbly in actual pasta, but oversaucing whatever noodles are at the back of the pantry will help.
no pics bc they look awful. eating a lot of various lentil sludges lately partly bc i am trying to clean out my pantry before i move, and when i could still afford grocery delivery they frequently gave me green instead of the far superior red lentils.
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why are you even reading one piece if all you do is complain about it? like after 600+ chapters if you still don’t like how oda writes just move on it’s not for you and that’s okay!!!!!! it’s clearly not bad writing if it’s a well beloved franchise that’s been going strong for 25+ years and has millions of fans across the world, it’s just not your speed and that’s okay!!!!!!
Anon i don't know why you're here but since i have some free time i will answer you in good faith.
First and foremost i started reading one piece being fully aware of the fact that it wasn't for me. I never particularly liked it when i was a kid, i never enjoyed the character design and looking at some panels i never found them pleasing. But, as you said, it's been ongoing for more than i've been alive and it's widely loved and i wanted to understand why, and to do that i have to read it even if it's not for me.
Now i don't think that the entirety of one piece is bad, on the contrary i enjoyed most of my reading till enies lobby. Some parts weren't as good as the others (like drum was too long imo) but overall i had a great time. Honestly i will put Skypiea and arlong's park between my favourite shonen arcs of all time, because they're just THAT good.
My main problem with oda's storytelling after enies lobby is how he seems to drag the story on just because he can. We all know that one piece's story is built on some core mysteries, but, instead of answering them organically by giving some more information when the opportunity arises, oda style seems to be telling "you would like to know" to the reader and then move on (looking at you Rayleigh) which is one frustrating and two not good writing.
When it comes to the artsyle i already said that it's not for me, but oda showed again and again that he's good at constructing a panel. He knows what to do and how to do it masterfully, so when i got to marineford and every single double page is bad (and this is not an opinion those panels are bad) i get angry because i know that he can do better than that, because it looks like he didn't try and like he had no supervision on it, which from what i understand is exactly how it went. At some point the editor had no more say in how oda did things and it shows.
Getting to luffy's flashback (which from the look of it those are the posts that made you send this ask) i think that it's bad. There's no other way to put it, that flashback is bad writing. It completely discard everything previously established about luffy's past, his island and his childhood, and it goes against everything we knew till this point, all of this just to write in a new character to replace ace (because, let's be real, that's the only reason sabo was never mentioned before this). And this is bad writing, and it's not even subtle. You can see what oda is trying to do from a mile away, the execution is incredibly clumsy and it doesn't matter if people like it, that doesn't make it good.
I think that i've been pretty fair with oda and one piece so far, i praise it when it deserves it and i criticize it when it's bad. Last night i didn't have anything positive to say about it because that flashback is bad, but i hope that it will get better going on. I know that my posts can come off as too harsh but i like to complain, in particular when it's something silly that doesn't affect my life like a manga.
So yeah one piece is not for me but i will read it and blog about it anyway because i can. If you don't want to see my negative comments anon that's fair, and you should just block me or block the tag "iris reads un pezzo", it's the one that i use for my comments on the manga and it's there for a reason.
In the end i hope you had a fantastic day anon! See you around :)
#no hard feelings anon i appreciate you took time to read my ramblings#but if you decide to stick around be aware that i still have 1 chapter of flashback to get through#and i don't guarantee i will like what comes next#iris reads un pezzo#ask answered
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Alright, so I put together a Twitter thread about the recent queerbaiting that DC has pulled with Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. It's an interesting and frustrating story so I decided to repost it here. There is a demonstrable shift in how the two have been written in Future State and beyond. This is a long post but I wanted to be thorough.
First, some background: One thing that frustrated a lot of fans about Steph and Cass's friendship between Batman and Robin: Eternal and the beginning of Joker War was that there wasn't much interaction between them at all. They became friends off-panel, and Cass and Steph's relationships with Harper and Basil, and Tim respectively were much more heavily focused on than theirs. This led to the finale of Detective where they embrace feeling a little hollow for some. This changed w/ Joker War where we finally saw them being friends and they first started building hype to what seemed like an inevitable “Batgirls” comic.
It should be noted that this period where they weren't interacting much was also the time where we first got textual indications that they're both attracted to women, though it was never "confirmed" in that exact language.
Alright, preamble out of the way, let's get into the issue at hand. The story starts with Future State, which is really the REASON why everything else is so bad. The bait here is INTENSE. Throughout the story, Stephanie CONSTANTLY uses terms of endearment that are... well, it's literally just flirting. While it might seem like just taunting at first, the fact that she keeps doing it AFTER dropping her act says otherwise.
This alone would've been pretty blatant subtext... BUT the comic goes further once Cass starts opening up about things. The implication is extremely strong here that the two were romantically involved before and, by the end, are heading towards that again.
At this point, the only thing keeping it from being official was confirmation BY the writer and sure enough... The editor for Batgirls posted this panel in direct reference to the upcoming book and the Future State writer retweeted it with the bi pride flag colors and two girls holding hands.
That last bit is VERY important to remember going forward because some of what I post after this might not seem like bait out of context but remember this is the expectation Future State set: that Steph and Cass WOULD eventually get together. With that in mind, let's look at Batgirls. First, the backup story leading to the ongoing comic itself, which features lots of affectionate body language and Steph and Cass sharing a bed at a hotel. Not inherently bait but in the aftermath of Future State it comes across as a reinforcement of what that comic had promised.
With the comic itself, the most bait-y stuff isn't in the pages of the comic but in how it was promoted. The solicitations talk about "their love for each other" and how laying low is "that much easier to bear because they have each other".
Variant covers added fuel to the fire: Steph and Cass holding hands next to a pair of conspicuously rainbow-colored skis and Cass falling asleep on Steph's shoulder could be dismissed as a coincidence, but having them write "XOXO Cassie+Steph" on the Valentine's Day cover is... less subtle
Within the pages of the book itself, the baiting is more restrained, restricted to Steph using some of the same flirtatious language as in Future State and a rather suggestive panel of their faces VERY close together as Cass holds Steph affectionately.
MOST of this stuff isn't particularly egregious individually, but when put together shows a clear pattern, and so it shouldn't be surprising that when THIS line showed up in the solicits for Batgirls #9, a lot of people had some hope they were FINALLY doing something.
But nope. The solicitations for the next issue confirm that what's ACTUALLY happening is that Stephanie is being paired with a new male love interest who, based on the cover, seems to be Kyle Mizoguchi, brother of Maps Mizoguchi from Gotham Academy.
I think with all that put together there's a pretty clear case for this having been intentional bait on SOMEONE'S part. It's pretty frustrating to have your hopes built up (even to the tiny degree I allowed myself to hope) only to have one of the characters paired with the most random man possible.
#StephCass#Stephanie Brown#cassandra cain#batgirls#future state#queerbaiting#Bat Family#bat fam#DC comics#batgirl
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Writing Your First D&D Supplement
My bread and butter for almost 2 years now has been editing supplements for fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (aka D&D 5e). As I move on to the next chapter in my career, I wanted to share three things I've learned as an editor and a writer starting out in D&D design.
1. There is no course to teach you how to write for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.
While there are some amazing and helpful classes from the Storytelling Collective about writing your first encounter, adventure, or designing dungeons, the courses give you elements that you need to include in your designs, pointers on layout and resources you can use, but there's no instructions on the wording for skill checks or advice on how to write concisely.
These are all things you have to learn for yourself, whether that's through finding helpful professionals on the internet or blog posts on D&D Beyond or third party websites such as Kobold Press or Ghostfire Gaming. I highly recommend reading officially released content to learn the phrasing of certain rules and to see what you can learn about the types of things to include in your first supplement.
2. You don't need to drag official content down to make your thing look good.
Being dissatisfied with the rules as written or lack of options is a great motivator for making new content! If you're looking for something that isn't there in the core texts, chances are that someone else out there is looking for the same thing! The issue comes when writing introductions or summaries or marketing/advertising text; a lot of people get anecdotal or criticize the core content before saying how their product "fixes" that.
Don't. Do. That.
Why? Well, if you want to get hired as a freelancer or as a game designer for Wizards of the Coast [WotC], I doubt they'll take kindly to your words (words that they own if you publish through the Dungeon Master's Guild [DM's Guild]). Read introductions from WotC content or from best-selling DM's Guild titles to figure out what your introduction should say if you're stuck, but a good rule of thumb is to talk about the merits of your work outside of its relation to the official stuff.
Bad writing:
"As there are only limited tracking spells in D&D which shuts off a lot of the possibilities and tropes of the fantasy genre, this book of spells fixes that by adding 12 new location spells to D&D 5e."
Good writing:
"This catalogue of spells expands your abilities to magically track and locate people, places, and objects in your fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game! Live out your favourite fantasy tropes by incorporating 12 new spells at your table."
3. Publish something you're proud of, not something that is perfect.
Humans are prone to error all the time. Ninety-nine people can read the same book and not notice the one spelling error caught by person 100 and that's okay. You are going to improve as you go along. Adhere to the style guide as best you can. Read every sentence out loud to make sure it sounds right and correct it where necessary. But don't spend hours late at night the day before launch fixing loads of tiny things because you've decided it could be better. That's not good for your mental health and honestly, you'll make mistakes whether you obsess the night before release or not. Do your best but if you mess up, you can always fix it and republish at a later time if someone calls it out, or know better for next time if it goes unnoticed.
Proud of. Not perfect.
I hope these lessons were helpful! If you're interested in my work (and my own journey of getting better with each subsequent release), check out my portfolio or follow me on Twitter (while the website is still alive!)
#dungeons and dragons#ttrpg design#taytrpglessons#first time game design#writing your first d&d supplement#ttrpg community#ttrpg industry#dnd5e
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Soundless FV: Rebuilding the Screens
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Today, I’ll show you the nitty-gritty of rebuilding the screens for the port!
What's in a Ren'Py project?
The code of Soundless is old. Very, very old. I have been working with Ren'Py for a decade now, ever since I was in middle school. I created Soundless’s Ren'Py project way back in 2016 according to some of the files. Maybe even before that—the oldest “last modified” date on an ancient type of Ren'Py file in the directory had 2016 as the year. That’s all I have to go off of, because moving data from PC to PC changed the creation date.
Before the new GUI template was launched with Ren'Py 7 in 2018, you were greeted with a selection of themes when you created a new project. They all had generally the same layout with tweaks to borders and elements like bars, such as a theme that looked digital and another theme that looked like it was drawn with marker. The ideal way to customize your screens back then, if you were an amateur, was to completely trash the whole default theme and create imagemaps.
For those unaware, an imagemap is a type of displayable that requires at least three different variations to work: the “ground state” version, the “idle state” version, and the “hover state” version. You would essentially create your entire screen in one image editor file, text and buttons and all, and save these different variations, then feed Ren'Py some numbers that corresponded to a bunch of rectangular spaces on the map. You would then tell Ren'Py that these rectangles are buttons/sliders from there.
That is how Soundless’s old menus were created. Just me, Photoshop 7 (yes, in 2016+), and painstakingly measured-out rectangle numbers.
This method is painful, even with Ren'Py’s built-in rectangle picker. But if I really wanted to, I could have just upscaled the old imagemaps and copied and pasted my code…except I did not want to do that.
I Needed To Change and Add Things Jesse
The old way just wasn’t viable anymore.
For one, Ren'Py’s modern screen code is just much less painful to use. You can add and manipulate elements on the fly if you just take the time to create and style various types of buttons and frames. It’s also much easier and faster to make any changes if your element isn’t hard-implemented into images. That screenshot up there doesn’t have a single bit of text that’s a part of a picture. Those are all typed out in the code file and rendered by the engine. This method allowed me to make tweaks to make the menus a little more player friendly, like making it very obvious that page 2 of the options screen is selected through better colors.
Another issue is the fact that I don’t have the .PSDs for the original imagemaps anymore! I have no idea where they went. And even if I did find them, I use the latest edition of Photoshop, so I’m not sure what would happen to the text’s appearance. I needed to add things like the accessibility options screen, and without those .PSDs there was no hope of doing it the old way.
There were, of course, slight downsides to this. I had to recreate the background images (mostly because of the missing .PSD issue), and they didn’t look quite the same because new Photoshop versions means a different way of processing the effects I once used. Since I also committed to reducing images as buttons as much as possible, the main menu buttons are slightly different as well.
A Special Mention Goes to the Save Menu
Like I said, the code for the original Soundless is really old and sad. The method used to make the save slot screenshots appear elsewhere on hover was long deprecated. I had to figure out a new way to do it all by myself, and it took me almost an hour, but I managed. I actually had the correct solution at one point, but because of what I can only assume was something being slightly off, it didn’t work at first…I nearly tore my hair out LOL. I’ll put up the solution I came up with on my personal blog (link) at a later time so that everyone can use it for themselves if you’d like to also have the save screenshot appear elsewhere on hover.
Though, to be fair to myself, if you gave this problem to the me of 5 years ago, they’d just go “I can’t do that, are you crazy?” and walk away.
That concludes this issue. Next issue, I’ll be talking about the new way Ren'Py parses the NVL text in Soundless, the differences from the old way, and how I got it to look (almost) just how it did before.
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Week 2: Exploring Dublin
Surprise, it's me again. Although it hasn't been a full week days since my last post, plenty has happened, and whether you like it or not, I'm gonna fill you in.
Thursday (the day after my last post) consisted mostly of orientation sessions. I started with an engineering welcome breakfast and orientation session where I won a voucher for a free UCD hoody (fit pics coming soon). At this session they discussed how classes would work and how they'll be the same and different than classes in the US. I also got to spend some time in the engineering building, and like every UMich engineering building, it was a demonstration of some questionable architectural decisions. If you're on the fence about studying abroad at UCD, fear not, you'll feel right at home in the sparsely windowed and soulless Engineering and Materials Science Center.
The ever so lovely Engineering and Materials Science Building
One of the many orientation sessions I attended
Later in the day I went to an event called the great donate. This is an event held every semester by the UCD Students Union where they give away all the kitchen and housewares that previous international students left behind. I made sure to get in line early so that there was plenty of selection available, and even though I got in line 15 minutes before the event started, I still had to wait another 20 minutes to pick out my stuff. Fortunately, there was still plenty of stuff to chose from, and my kitchen is now well equipped.
The next day (Friday), I went into town to do a bit of exploring. First, I walked around the Temple Bar area, and then made my way over to Dublin Castle, which was gorgeous, albeit a bit small and not super castle-y.
The Temple Bar: nice to look at, not worth getting a pint from. It's expensive, crowded, and not very authentic
Dublin Castle
Afterwards I met up with some friends and we went to the National Leprechaun Museum. Here, we learned about Irish folklore, and I got to hold a very large spoon. Unfortunately there were fewer leprechauns there than I was hoping, but it was still very cool learning about Irish fairytales, and overall, it was worth it.
My and my spoon (flatteringly squished by Tumblr's silly little post editor)
After a quick bite to eat, we went back to campus where a big group of us saw the new Avatar movie at the campus cinema. My rating would be WayTooLong/10. It looked cool though, so that was nice.
Saturday was very chill. After doing laundry throughout the late morning/afternoon, I decided to hop on one of the free rental bikes available to international students and check out the coast. After getting used to Dublin's winding streets and riding on the wrong side of the road, I walked around Seaport Beach for a bit. Even though it was cloudy, dark, windy, and cold, I thought the view was beautiful
Views from Seapoint Beach and West Pier
Sunday, I went into town again with some other study abroad students for a guided tour around Dublin's south side. Our awesome tour guide Adam taught us about Irish culture, pointed out landmarks, and most importantly gave us some pub recommendations. After that, I went to a local climbing gym with some friends to do some bouldering. It was great fun, and now my arms feel like wet noodles. On that note, my fingers are screaming with pain and feel like they're about to fall off, so I'm gonna sign off.
Classes start tomorrow, so I'll let you all know how that goes next week. See ya!
Sam Adler
Materials Science and Engineering
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Dog goes viral after TikTok video shows it's overlooked at NY adoption event
New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-industry-news/pet-charities/dog-goes-viral-after-tiktok-video-shows-its-overlooked-at-ny-adoption-event/
Dog goes viral after TikTok video shows it's overlooked at NY adoption event
An emotional TikTok video showing a sweet dog missing his chance to be adopted at an event in Brooklyn, New York, has touched millions around the globe.
Bob, a 3-year-old white terrier, attended the adoption affair hosted by Brooklyn’s Badass Animal Rescue, on Oct. 29, as New York-based illustrator Andrea Caceres told Fox News Digital.
Caceres, who was at the event as a volunteer offering portraits to pet owners in exchange for donations to the rescue, recorded the moment Bob was passed up by hopeful pet owners.
She posted it to TikTok, where the video has since garnered more than four million views and counting.
GERMAN SHEPHERD UP FOR ADOPTION IN HAMPTONS AFTER HE WAS FOUND ‘EMACIATED AND AFRAID’
People from all over America and as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia reacted to the video; one TikTok user said the video made her “burst into tears.”
Now, Bob the pup has roughly 50 applicants offering him a forever home — all thanks to the viral moment.
Bob Parr, an adoptable terrier named after the Disney/Pixar character “Mr. Incredible,” missed a chance to be adopted in Brooklyn, as seen in a now-viral TikTok video recorded in Prospect Park at a pet adoption event.
(Badass Animal Rescue/TikTok/@petartbyandrea)
“When I was working I saw Bob across from me with his foster, who was the person handling [him] in the video,” Caceres said.
“I clicked with him. He’s very, very sweet and also shy.”
DOG QUIZ! HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR FACTS ABOUT CANINES?
“We did not expect that it was going to blow up,” she added of the TikTok footage.
“But I’m so happy people connected to him through the video.”
Thousands of TikTokers left warm and touching comments on Caceres’ video, with many expressing hope that he’ll find an adopter.
“SOMEONE ADOPT BOB RIGHT NOW!” one person wrote.
“My poor heart can’t take it,” wrote another. “The way he’s looking around like, ‘What about me?’”
Still another person commented, “Dude, Bob can come over to my place whenever he wants … if he wants to stay forever, so be it.”
Bob the dog is seen with his foster, Julie Zeilinger, in Brooklyn, New York, on Oct. 29, 2022.
(Badass Animal Rescue)
Caceres said she hopes Bob’s story inspires others to give shy dogs a chance.
FREEDOM! ADORABLE DACHSHUND USES BULLDOG AS STEP STOOL TO MAKE HER ESCAPE
Krista Almqvist, executive director of the rescue that brought Bob from Vidalia, Georgia, to New York, told Fox News Digital that Bob had been surrendered to a shelter down south over the summer.
Bob, seen snuggling in his dog bed, now has about 50 people interested in adopting him after he gained fame on TikTok.
(Badass Animal Rescue)
Once a year, Almqvist and team will travel to certain locations in the U.S. and bring them to New York, as they partner with several shelters in the country.
2ND GRADERS WRITE HEARTFELT STORIES FROM SHELTER DOGS’ PERSPECTIVES TO GET THEM ADOPTED
Almqvist said the adoption event on Oct. 29 took place in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
This was the second year her rescue hosted the meet-and-greet and Bob’s first time in attendance.
“He’s definitely a little bit shy with new people, but it’s always good to bring attention to rescue dogs and especially those that take a little longer to warm up,” Almqvist said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
She added that Bob’s TikTok moment was “well-deserved fame.”
Bob the dog (on the left) is seen with his pal, Helen Parr, a Chihuahua.
(Jen Hillenga)
“He’s very cute. He’s good with other dogs … He’s very sweet, cuddly and playful.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Almqvist said it should take up to one week before Bob is placed in a new home with one of the applicants who is eager to adopt him.
Nicole Pelletiere is a senior editor on the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.
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Seraphinite Games Update 2021
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I hope it's already starting off to be a great one for you all!
This is going to be quite a long update this time :D
So, basically, I need to change up the way I'm doing things. I was freaking out before Christmas because I didn't have enough time to do everything.
Thankfully, I have Nai on my team now, and wow, I am in serious awe of her organisation skills!
She sat me down calmly at our meeting and figured out everything that needs to be done as well as how to plan it in! She took everything I was anxious about and made it work!!
Things were fine for Book One and even most of Book Two, but I've got so much more social media, and other things, as well as Book Three being SO big. Like, the sheer amount of variations, branches and content going into it. You may not get to see it all in a playthrough, but I'm hoping replays will show just how much is going into it!
Now I'm not complaining about this in the slightest! I am so excited about what's going in this book and that I can put it in there. It's everything I've ever wanted to create in a story! Like, I can't spoil anything, but there's so many chapters in this that I am dying to write the variations for!!
But that doesn't stop the fact that it takes time. More time than I needed for Book One or Two, and I just couldn't find the time on top of social media and everything else that goes along with this last year.
Yet obviously, I still really wanna talk to you guys :D Getting to interact with you and get excited about what's coming and share in your enthusiasm keeps me unbelievably motivated!
It's just now I have a better way of doing it instead of getting so completely overwhelmed.
Nai reminded me that I brought her on board to help ease my tasks, so I need to actually use her for that, hehe :D
So Nai is going to take over the reblogs on Tumblr for me, as well as running my Instagram account. Tuesday and Thursday will still be the days for my pictures, it's just I will send them to her to post for me, then she's got so amazing plans on stuff she wants to do with Instagram too!
She already handles Facebook and Twitter for me, so that's all the same.
I will be cutting down on the amount of asks I do everyday on Tumblr, there will be about 2-3 asks and 2 matchups. But, Nai made yet another fantastic suggestion, so we're going to get a video up together once a month on Youtube where I answer Tumblr asks or asks from other platforms.
Hopefully that means I have more time to properly answer asks. Last year, I was trying to answer as many asks I could fit into my day, but I wasn't getting the time to really answer them as I wanted! I’m also just not willing to go through the amount of horrible messages I get anymore, so I need less of that everyday.
That video will probably be released on the last Wednesday of every month. Things might change as we bed in this new schedule.
Patreon will be exactly the same. I'll still be the main on that one for messages, comments, etc. Though I will be adding a monthly poll to the $5+ tiers...partly because I'm nosey and want to see how you guys play Wayhaven, hehe ;D
Nai also helped me come up with a whole year's worth of content ideas, and guys...there's some really good stuff coming, including the long awaited Book One first meeting scene from the LI's pov, and another Character Q+A!
The weekly updates and update+ will be the same.
Also in even more incredible news, SpunkyCatNinja has officially joined the Seraphinite Games team as editor!! Yay!
I mean, she was already a major part of it, but now it's proper official!
All of this should hopefully mean that I get to have more time for the thing we're all really here for...the actual game :D Somewhere we can go away from the world/internet/social media/real life to romance 4 hot vampires and feel like we're really part of a story and world.
I'm feeling super optimistic about this new plan of action, especially after how much I was freaking out before Christmas!
So here's to an amazing and productive 2021! <3
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More Than A Makeover
By: TalktomeinClexa
Rating: General Audience
Warning: None
Status: Complete
Summary: The Fab Five are tasked with helping baby gay Lexa Woods come out of her shell and shine. But maybe all the girl really needs is for someone to notice her. For example, a certain blonde camera operator on your favorite Reality TV Show.
***
The GMC’s engine purrs as the car passes the sign “Welcome to Polis.” It’s the first time Queer Eye comes to Maryland, and the excitement in the vehicle is palpable.
“So, Jonathan,” says Tan, “what are we doing?”
“Our heroine of the week is called Alexandria Woods. Goes by Lexa; sweet. Lexa is a student and a part-time waitress in a café. She lives here in Polis with her two cousins, Lincoln and Anya. She was nominated by Anya. Oh, God. I’m quoting verbatim: ‘Lexa is a baby gay who has a hard time getting out of her shell.’”
“Aw,” go the guys around, and Bobby’s hand comes resting on his heart.
“She works all the time to forget her loneliness and doesn’t know how to enjoy herself. She needs someone to help her see that she doesn’t have to be afraid to let people in. At the end of the week, Anya is having a birthday party, and she hopes that her cousin will have a date. Well, Lexa, we’ll see what we can do about you, honey. Right, guys? Oh, and there is a pic. She’s cute! Look at that, Tan. What do you think?”
“There needs to be a moratorium on flannel, but she’s definitely cute.”
“Look at those curls! I can’t wait to get my hands on them and see how we can tame this.”
Clarke’s ears perk up at the words. The previous episodes focused on a middle-aged man in an on-and-off relationship with his shower, a grandmother obsessed with her collection of dolls, and a young lawyer who kept looking at her cleavage while she was filming. A cute, shy lesbian? Sounds like heaven compared to those.
Pretending to want to show the future viewers what the girl looks like, she zooms on the picture attached to the summary. Cute doesn’t begin to cover it, and the “Wow” that escapes her will have to be removed in post-prod. Along with the Fab Five’s snickers. Jonathan isn’t wrong; there’s a lot of hair. Chestnut curls cover most of the picture and part of the young woman’s face. It’s not enough to hide the bright green eyes shining behind thick-rimmed glasses, and Clarke wants nothing more than to lose herself in them. Her bone structure is amazing, all flats and angles, with a jawline crafted by the gods and plump lips frozen in a smirk.
Interesting, she thinks. The girl does look shy, but with a mischievous side floating under the surface and waiting to be released. Oh, Lexa. I can’t wait to meet you.
--
As far as first encounters go, it’s not bad. Lexa is as shy as her cousin described her but not hostile or defensive. The camera seems to make her uncomfortable, though, so Clarke does her best to stay in the background. By the end of the second day, the number of zooms on her face borders on ridiculous, and the camera operator knows that she won’t hear the end of it once the editors notice.
Lexa slowly relaxes. She smiles more and even seems to be having a good time — frequent blushes aside. Her eyes meet Clarke’s whenever the blonde is not hidden behind her equipment, and they are even greener in real life.
She lets Jonathan straighten and braid her hair behind her head to reveal her face. It makes her look like a medieval warrior, and the artist in Clarke itches to paint her. The makeup is more of a struggle, and they settle on eyeliner for now. You can lead a horse to water and all that.
On the second day, Lexa listens to Antoni with rapt attention when the chef teaches her some new dishes, only using ingredients that won’t make a hole in her wallet. They all eat together every night, the discussion full of laughers and jokes, and the girl comes more alive with each passing day.
She agrees to let Tan take her shopping and only perfunctorily complains when he stops her from buying her 100th flannel shirt. She hesitates to get out of the fitting room when he chooses some nicer slacks and fit tops to compliment her figure, and Clarke turns off the camera. They can always reshoot it later. She wants to girl to have space to shine without getting pressured. And if the sweet man notices it, he doesn’t comment on it.
Letting Bobby redecorate is the funniest part of the show. Even Lincoln and Anya get excited like little kids when the house turns into a warmer, more organized version of what it was. The cousins get their separate spaces showcasing what they like, but the living room mashes the three styles in an elegant blend instead of the chaos it used to be. And Lexa’s bedroom, with the bookshelves and desk on one side and the brand-new waterbed on the other, in earthy, greenly tones… Clarke could live in it.
Keep Reading
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How To Fight Writers Block
hello, hello. hope everyone is doing well. as you can all tell, this post will be about how to fight writers block.
it’s really annoying to me when I hear people say “oh you don’t have writers block, you’re just lazy.”
first of all, yes, I am naturally lazy. second of all, how dare you. writing isn’t as easy as many think. granted, all you have to do is write down words on paper, but it’s not always easy to find the right words to express what you are feeling, or what you wish to say.
I have had terrible writer’s block for the last few days and it’s horrible! as a business owner or a small writing store, I have to be ready to write and fulfill my clients’ ideas and orders.
it’s not easy. It takes a heavy toll on my imagination, and digs me a deep pit of blockage, drowning in the lack of originality because of the constant writing and repetition or certain phrases and sentences in different projects.
i am making this post in the hopes to remind myself about over coming the dreaded and sometimes skeptically believed writer’s block.
What is writer’s block?
Yeah, I know. We all know what that is, but let me define it.
is the state of being unable to proceed with writing, and/or the inability to start writing something new
some people believe it to be a real problem, others believe it's “all in your head”
What Causes Writer’s Block?
in the 1970s, clinical psychologists Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios decided to find out
they concluded that there are four broad causes of writer's block:
Excessively harsh self-criticism
Fear of comparison to other writers
Lack of external motivation, like attention and praise
Lack of internal motivation, like the desire to tell one's story
How to overcome writer's block: 20 tips
1. Develop a writing routine:
Author and artist Twyla Tharp once wrote: “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.”
it might seem counterintuitive
if you only write when you “feel creative,” you're bound to get stuck in a tar pit of writer's block
The only way to push through is by disciplining yourself to write on a regular schedule. It might be every day, every other day, or just on weekends — but whatever it is, stick to it!
2. Use "imperfect" words:
A writer can spend hours looking for the perfect word or phrase to illustrate a concept
You can avoid this fruitless endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not
You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”
3. Do non-writing activities:
one of the best ways to climb out of a writing funk is to take yourself out of your own work and into someone else’s
Go to an exhibition, to the cinema, to a play, a gig, eat a delicious meal
immerse yourself in great STUFF and get your synapses crackling in a different way
Snippets of conversations, sounds, colors, sensations will creep into the space that once felt empty
4. Freewrite through it:
free-writing involves writing for a pre-set amount of time without pause — and without regard for grammar, spelling, or topic. You just write.
The goal of freewriting is to write without second-guessing yourself — free from doubt, apathy, or self-consciousness, all of which contribute to writer's block. Here’s how:
Find the right surroundings. Go somewhere you won't be disturbed.
Pick your writing utensils. Will you type at your computer, or write with pen and paper? (Tip: if you're prone to hitting the backspace button, you should freewrite the old-fashioned way!)
Settle on a time-limit. Your first time around, set your timer for just 10 minutes to get the feel for it. You can gradually increase this interval as you grow more comfortable with freewriting.
5. Relax on your first draft:
Many writers suffer form perfectionism, which is especially debilitating during a first draft
“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.” — editor Lauren Hughes
perfect is the enemy of good,” so don't agonize about getting it exactly right! You can always go back and edit, maybe even get a second pair of eyes on the manuscript
6. Don’t start at the beginning:
the most intimidating part of writing is the start, when you have a whole empty book to fill with coherent words
instead of starting with the chronological beginning of whatever it is you’re trying to write, dive into middle, or wherever you feel confident
7. Take a shower:
Have you ever noticed that the best ideas tend to arrive while in the shower, or while doing other “mindless” tasks?
research shows that when you’re doing something monotonous (such as showering, walking, or cleaning), your brain goes on autopilot, leaving your unconscious free to wander without logic-driven restrictions
showering is my favourite thing to do if I may add
8. Balance your inner critic:
successful writers have in common is the ability to hear their inner critic, respectfully acknowledge its points, and move forward
You don't need to completely ignore that critical voice, nor should you cower before it
you must establish a respectful, balanced relationship, so you can address what's necessary and skip over what's insecure and irrelevant
9. Switch up your tool:
a change of scenery can really help with writer's block. However, that scenery doesn't have to be your physical location — changing up your writing tool can be just as big a help!
if you’ve been typing on your word processor of choice, try switching to pen and paper. Or if you're just sick of Google Docs, consider using specialized novel writing software.
10. Change your POV:
great advice from editor Lauren Hughes: “When blocked, try to see your story from another perspective ‘in the room’ to help yourself move beyond the block. How might a minor character narrate the scene if they were witnessing it? A ‘fly on the wall’ or another inanimate object?
11. Exercise your creative muscles:
Any skill requires practice if you want to improve, and writing is no different! So if you’re feeling stuck, perhaps it’s time for a strengthening scribble-session to bolster your abilities
12. Map out your story:
If your story has stopped chugging along, help it pick up steam by taking a more structured approach — specifically, by writing an outline
13. Write something else:
Though it's important to try and push through writer's block with what you're actually working on, sometimes it's simply impossible
feel free to push your current piece to the side for now and write something new
14. Work on your characters:
It follows that if your characters are not clearly defined, you’re more likely to run into writer’s block
15. Stop writing for readers:
write for yourself, not your potential readers
this will help you reclaim the joy of being creative and get you back in touch with what matters: the story.
this is something I really need to do. because of my etsy business i don't write for fun anymore, but instead as a business and a deadline. i'm going to have to pull out my old crappy wattled fanfics or write some new ones.
16. Try a more visual process:
when words fail you, forget them and get visual. Create mind maps, drawings, Lego structures — ideally related to your story, but whatever unblocks your mind!
17. Look for the root of it:
writer’s block often comes from a problem deeper than simple “lack of inspiration.” So let's dig deep: why are you really blocked? Ask yourself the following questions:
Do I feel pressure to succeed and/or competition with other writers?
Have I lost sight of what my story is about, or interest in where it's going?
Do I lack confidence in my own abilities, even if I've written plenty before?
Have I not written for so long that I feel intimidated by the mere act?
Am I simply feeling tired and run-down?
once you identify what's wrong, it'll be so much easier to fix.
18. Quit the Internet:
If willpower isn’t your strong suit and your biggest challenge is staying focused, try a site blocker like Freedom or an app like Cold Turkey
19. Let the words find you:
meditate, go for a walk, take that shower
Word Palette is a great app that features a keyboard of random words, allowing you to simply click your way to your next masterpiece.
You can also try AI auto-completers like Talk to Transformer, where you can enter a phrase and let the app “guess what comes next.”
even though they often produce nonsense, it's a great way to help that writer's block.
20. Write like Hemingway:
And if your biggest block is your own self-doubt about your prose, Hemingway offers suggestions to improve your writing as you go
it's a pretty cool app if you ask me.
it highlights your sentences (if need be) and makes suggestions on how to improve them!
well, there you have it! a lengthy post on how to fight writer's block. now i just hope i can combat my own soon.
like, comment and reblog if you find this useful! feel free to reblog in instagram and tag me perpetualstories
Follow me on instagram and tumblr for more writing and grammar tips and more!
#writing#writing advice#writing tips#original writing#writers on tumblr#writerscommunity#writersconnection#writersofig#writersofinstagram#writings
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I LOVE No Straight Roads
Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.
But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it.
First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.
Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.
Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.
Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:
Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all.
Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness.
DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists.
As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.
Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?
Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.
DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor.
I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.
Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.
1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally.
Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.
Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.
Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one.
Tatiana and Spoilers:
Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.
I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.
It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start.
That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with.
Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.
Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too.
Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time.
And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.
But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.
#nsr#no straight roads#bunk bed junction#dj subatomic supernova#sayu#yinu#dk west#spoilers#1010#eve#tatiana#rambling#review#poole#etc#opinions#rant
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