hi originally posted this at the end of a long thread of back and forth, here’s the og post if you want full context but i feel like this needs to be its own post especially bc i keep seeing this argument being made—the argument that the kids (in this case it was annabeth) SHOULD just know the monsters are monsters and who they are and how to defeat them before ever encountering them, that it’s a problem if they don’t.

the problem is not if 12 year olds should recognize a trap when they see one, even if they’re smart 12 year olds, and if that’s realistic. that is entirely beside the point.

the problem is rick riordan wrote a book series whose formula is bringing myths to the modern age and he’s not sticking true to that in the show—percy jackson and the olympians’ Shtick is taking these classic, ancient threats and giving them a new face. these traps work because these kids are not walking into a cave marked with Get Out and getting ambushed by monsters—the monsters are disguised as harmless mortal human beings, in harmless mortal human being places (for the most part) and i think we—and more importantly, the show—are all forgetting the mist, the magic involved here. it’s not just that medusa is a “creepy lady with her eyes covered” it’s that there is ancient magic at work here, magic that, like the systems of abuse pjo exists to criticize, has been evolving and continuing its malevolence for millennia. it’s formulaic, that’s the point. it’s the same trap you’ve learned about all your childhood, the same trap a thousand children before you learned all their childhoods, and still, it works. you fall into the trap. because that’s how generational abuse works. it’s a trap. it isn’t enough to learn monsters exist, what they look like from a second hand story that originated thousands of years ago. if you want to escape alive, you have to adapt as quickly as they do, recognize their face, and ultimately, beyond any individual trap, the game itself has to change. real, generational change.

so. the problem is rick riordan wrote a series with a formula for action that perfectly captures the overarching, systemic conflicts he was commentating on, and then threw that formula out in the show because it was “unrealistic”. i don’t give a damn about realism when it works to the detriment of the story. this is a story about generational abuse, yes, but it’s told through ‘a tale as old as time’ and that’s why it works so fucking well. and when it comes to basic storytelling, if your characters know the threat before they even walk in and you do practically nothing to then make up for the stakes you have removed, that’s a flaw. now you’ve lost the entertainment value for your audience, on top of also lessening your themes.

something else that is so. honestly soul-crushing as a writer and a creative, is that to me this is reflective of the way we are now afraid to tell earnest stories. stories where we care not for listening to the people who want to pick apart fictional, mythical, fantasy stories for not being “realistic” instead of aligning with our target audience who acknowledges reality is not what makes a story. think of your favorite movie, show, book, comic, what have you—has the reason for your favoritism ever been because it is the most reasonable, the most grounded, the most practical out of any you’ve seen? or is it because of the emotion? the way it speaks to you, to your life and the person you are? the journey it takes you on? is the percy jackson and the olympians book series so good because it’s inherently realistic?

the secret to storytelling is, very simply, focus on your story. everything else is secondary. if it’s written well, it doesn’t matter to me that the characters walk into a trap that, to the audience, is obviously a trap. because i can understand how the characters don’t know it, and how the story falls apart if the narrative just tells the characters it’s a trap from the jump. that’s what dramatic irony is—first used in greek tragedies! this is literally a tale as old as time in every sense except for the end—where it’s happy. and it’s not earned if we don’t first see, over and over, the status quo as a tragic trap.

it’s not about if annabeth (or the other kids) is “smart enough” to not walk into a trap, or about if she’s just too prideful to not walk into what she knows is a trap (or any reason that could apply to the other characters), it’s that annabeth, at the end of the day, is a character. she is a storytelling tool for the messages of the narrative. that doesn’t make her any lesser. in fact ignoring it reduces her, because it reduces what she represents. it’s about how rick riordan, or whoever else at disney, has fumbled the storytelling bag so ridiculously hard that they can’t take the simple, effective formula outlined from start to finish (by good ol 2009 rick himself) and adapt it to the screen without answering the most unimportant, derailing, anti-story questions.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 100 FOLLOWERS ! — i genuinely can’t believe i’ve come this far with posting my brainrot for hazbin. it has and will continue to be such an honor to keep posting for you guys, and to celebrate you guys i’ve prepared a little something for you guys, hehe!

requests.

i am willing to do any requests you guys might have which includes art, gifs, character ships (radioapple, huskerdust, etc) and of course character x reader ships despite generally being an x reader blog. though of course as any sane person would, i am not entertaining angel x val.

some fics along the way …

i have been cooking up something specifically for lucifer though nothing is confirmed yet except for the fact that i want to make a longer fic for him (AT LEAST 10k words long), but i’m kinda having trouble for the plot so this kinda connects to the first thing which if you have any ideas for me to write i am implore you to hit up my askbox, please! i’m gonna need all the help i can get! i’ve also gotten a radioapple worm in my head and the premise is too good not to act on though i will say it will be shorter than the lucifer fic. because of this both of these will be on my ao3 so stay tuned!

selfships.

i thought it would be cool for you guys to tell me a bit about yourself and then from there i pick a character from hazbin/helluva (depending on which show you prefer) that i think you would like/be with romantically (or even queerplatonically for the aro/aces out there)!! i’ve seen other people do this as well and they do 3-pic moodboards sometimes and i’d love to do that for you guys! or if you guys wanna go in depth i could also make short fics dedicated to you personally upon request!

get to know me + qna!

besides all the stuff that’s stated in my pinned, i’ve been writing since i was 10 (i am 18) and i’ve wanted to be a published author for the longest time, though as i grew older i realized there’s a lot of other ways i can get my stories out to the world, like screenwriting, animating (or being both the creator and writer of my own show AHEM totally not talking about hazbin) so i’m not really sure of things yet, but i will say i’ve learned a lot about writing since i first started and even though i know this is all for fun, i take the way i write things seriously, so any constructive feedback you might have will be valuable to me! anyway, i have A LOT of opinions on everything hazbin/helluva so you can ask about those or more about me! i’m a very open person so i like to give in depth responses. but yeah feel free to ask about my opinions on helluva/hazbin as well as my personal life too!

another thing i wanted to disclose about myself since i feel comfortable after having met such wholesome people after starting this blog, is that i have been through abuse very similar to angel dust’s meaning his character meant a lot to me and he was my favorite character when the pilot first came out so yeah! definitely ask me about angel too if you have anything to ask!

Alright, this is a writer’s tip that helped me a lot even though the learning that happened from it was completely unintentional. I’m sharing it here, because it 100% is why I’m where I’m at in terms of writing.

Take a book - any book, from any author and any genre, your favorite book if you want - and rewrite that shit front to back. Change some things if you want, add a spin to it. But point is to have that book next to you as you rewrite or retype it cover to cover.

I did this when I was eleven-years-old with my favorite book series (I was trynna rewrite it to incorporate a side character I REALLY loved into more of the story because I thought it was a disservice she wasn’t that prominent until later lol. I’m autistic, can you tell?) and it helped me a lot in many ways I didn’t even know way later when I started writing my own stories.

I learned how formatting a prose novel worked, aware that new paragraphs needed indents and that new dialogue started with a new paragraph and that not every dialogue needed a dialogue tag but could be followed by action or nothing at all and so much more.

It made it so a lotta the rudimentary mistakes weren’t ones I had to worry about, and even ones I could teach other writers to avoid. I literally have vivid memory that in my high sophomore year writing class - the first ever official writing class I’ve ever taken - it was basically me & the teacher describing how to properly do dialogue tags when we had that lesson, and I’d jump into answer questions based on things I remembered either reading or usually rewriting from that very book series I retyped. Ntm the first writing assignment I did for that teacher, she said she loved how I could balance action and dialogue, which I learned from retyping a published book.

And I’m sure to an extent it helped me with actually creating the content I was making, not just formatting. Especially how to make characters interact more fluidly and naturally, because I internalized that. There’s SO many benefits to this.

And this, of course, applies to more than just prose writing. It can be for screenwriting, playwriting, comic scripts or possibly comic formatting (if you’re an illustrator as well, mayhaps?), and so on and so forth. And it can be for any level of writer you are, whether you’re a beginner, middle ground, professional, or any other level.

So yeah! I recommend it 100% because it WILL help a lot!

Alright bye.

hii! i'm a big fan of your fanfics, and as an aspiring writer myself, sometimes I feel sad 'cause I know and feel like I won't ever be as good as you are ☹️ I know I shouldn't compare myself, and I'm trying to get better at it, so I would genuinely like to ask, are there any tips you'd give to authors out there trying to improve? either their writing skills, plot ideas, planning and stuff. thank you, either way, love you! can't wait for your next work ❣️

So, the first thing I want to say is that I have been writing for a long time. I published my first fanfic when I was 12 years old and I’m 31 now, so I’ve been actively writing for the past 19 years (!!!) with almost no break. The way someone explained it to me once was to look at your years writing like levels in a video game. I’m currently at level 19. If you’ve been writing for ten years, you’re at level 10 and it’s certainly not fair to compare yourself to me because the only thing that’s truly going to make you a better writer is to write.

I’m assuming since you called yourself an “aspiring writer” that your eventual goal is publication, so I’ll gear my recommendations towards that. Fanfiction is a completely different animal, but a lot of these tips are applicable to both. The biggest difference is that there’s a lot more freedom in fanfiction. You can write what you want without worrying about three-act structures and you don’t have to invest any work in making people care about the characters because they already do. It is worth noting, however, that if you write, you’re already a writer. 

First, I highly recommend that you read “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder. It changed my life and I’m not even kidding. It’s an absolutely fantastic book on writing and although it’s geared towards screenwriting instead of novels, everything is still applicable. (There’s actually a newer version called Save the Cat Writes a Novel, but I’ve never actually read that one so I don’t know if it’s as good.) He goes over how to plot a story and also how to write likable characters, which is surprisingly one of the hardest parts of writing original fiction.

The second biggest tip I can give you is to let yourself write badly. Editing is easier than writing. The most important thing is to get words down on the page. You would not believe how bad my first drafts are—and that’s not just me being coy. Honestly, the next time I sit down to write a fanfic, I might save my first draft for anyone who’s interested to read because my first drafts are always bad. Like legitimately. There’s a lot of freedom in letting yourself fail and your writing will turn out better for it.

I would also recommend getting a professional critique if you are able to because you’re never truly going to know what it is you need to improve upon unless someone tells you. Signing up for a writing retreat is a great way to do this or you can look for online critiquing services. I’ve gotten several chapter critiques from Scribbler in the past and I found them very helpful.

But truly, the most important thing is to just have fun. I heard Lin-Manuel Miranda talking about writing Hamilton once and he said that what he constantly kept asking himself was, “If no one else ever sees this, will writing it still have been worth it?” And for him, it was. That’s the kind of energy I try to write with. I write what I want when I want and if I find myself struggling to write a scene because it’s boring, I do something to make it not boring instead. Change things up! Have fun! Because otherwise, what’s the point?

About six years ago, a friend of mine said virtually the same thing you did in this ask: “I’ll never be as good as you.” She had been writing for less than a year at the time. We lost touch when I left fandom to pursue original fiction, but when I came back last year, I looked her up again. She has a Tumblr ficlet pinned at the top of her page with 10K+ notes. I could never.

So don’t count yourself out yet. Just keep writing.

Ok I got a little carried away so you can choose all of these or just like one or two. For the Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

🍓 🔪 🏜️ 🦴

Thank you!!

You absolutely did not get carried away! Thank you, this was fun. I don’t usually do this on my phone, but I’m too tired to get up so please bear with me. (Is it bear or bare? I argued with my grade 11 English teacher about this and I still don’t actually know the right answer…)

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

I started writing fan fiction when I was probably about 12 or 13? I literally did not have any reference point to the concept - I just loved TV and creating things and writing was an important hobby. I think I was frustrated with a topic not being given the attention I wanted in the show Ghost Whisperer (I was obsessed) so I just wrote it myself. The only way I knew to connect with fandom was through YouTube, as I’d been making fan montages for a while. I edited my story, chapter by chapter, into videos and posted it there. I didn’t end up finding fandom spaces for writing and community until I was about 18, when I joined tumblr and started reading on livejournal and fanfiction.net. I discovered screenwriting around that time, too, and fell in love with the idea of combining these things to make a career. (Only took me another decade to finally bite the bullet and dive in.) I’ve been writing and telling stories literally my entire life, and have studied the art form profusely throughout my education, but I definitely think I’ve seen the most growth in my work through the act of writing fan fiction - it fuels so much discipline while still giving you the space to experiment.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I looooove to research. I spend a lot of my time looking up words in other languages and reading articles about child development. For Vofreude I read a lot about the history surrounding the clitoris and its accurate portrayal in diagrams. I think the weirdest thing I dove deep into was how to hotwire a car, for Epithet.

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Anything. I get really overwhelmed by long comments and freak out on how to respond, even though they mean so much. (I worry that people think that means I don’t care about those ones.) I love when people make jokes or compliment in a way that’s silly. Also a huge fan of bookmark notes - I go and read those a lot. I die when someone mentions that they loved something else I wrote for a different fandom and that they’re happy to find me again in a new fandom - that feels pretty life changing. In real life, anytime I can create something that makes my mom cry is an absolute win in my books - she doesn’t cry often, but I’ve gotten her with a few specific things through the years.

I will say, I find it easier to respond to comments in the first few days after a piece is posted. I adore getting comments later - that email notification is one hell of a dopamine boost - but I get anxious about answering. And then I get anxious about there being a comment I haven’t responded to. And then I get anxious about how much time has passed since the comment was posted and I’m not sure if it’s too late to answer. Vicious game.

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? 

Music. Everything I create always leads back to music. It’s how I yank myself out of blocks, usually. When I listen to music, I start to visualize how things might look or feel and then I try to emulate that in whatever I’m working on. It’s easiest for editing videos, as I picture the scenes that will match up to things. For writing, I just go with the vibes. Most of my stories have an accompanying playlist that I listen to when I’m writing in that universe.

Hello! I’ve been making a big google doc explaining why I think Kyman is an intended ship and the subtext involving their relationship, however I hit a roadblock when I heard about Trey and Matt’s commentary at the end of the Imaginationland Trilogy. Trey said that Cartman only wants to humiliate Kyle but that there’s nothing more going on, however there are so many different pieces of information that clearly point towards this claim as false. Your amazing long ass posts about Kyman are the reason I started believing it’s canon, so I was wondering what you have to say about this dilemma??

well first of all i’ve said before how kyman may not even be canon and a lot of it is just trolling from matt & trey making jokes about them being gay bc it’s funny lol and yeah the imaginationland is def not meant to be taken seriously that whole plot with cartman trying to get kyle to suck his balls was clearly just humorous lol. but ofc there have been more serious kyman moments later on where shit gets all emotional so that’s when i started being more led to believe there’s def more going on especially with the drama in s20. it could be possible that all these gay moments started out as a joke like cartman making kyle suck his balls or making kyle stick his finger up his ass and all that LOL, but then when people started to notice this shit was a pattern and suspecting cartman is gay especially in s11 maybe matt & trey decided to take kyman more srsly later on and just run with it lol. they might just enjoy writing stories with deep romantic or passionate subtexts in them bc their dynamic is fun, but they may not want to actually make them a couple over fear it would ruin the show. as someone who’s written screenplays myself writers tend to just write from their own experiences and use it as an outlet to let out their complex emotions through their characters. sometimes things can turn out a certain way in ur work that the people who absorb it will interpret and dissect a certain way but it meant something completely different to the writer when they wrote it bc these complexes the writer has tends to come out in subconscious ways in the characters’ actions. so i think when they were explaining that episode they were just explaining the plot as they wrote it that cartman was trying to get kyle to suck his balls to humiliate him (bc cartman consciously doesn’t understand that he was doing that for gay reasons). and when u write simply from a character and their goals and motivations (which is typically where all good screenwriters start by figuring out what their main character’s goal is in the story and what they’re trying to accomplish, for cartman his goal was to get kyle to suck his balls to ‘humiliate’ him), other complexities will end up coming out of the story and you kind of learn more about your own character as you go lol. i tend to joke around that screenwriting is basically the introverted version of acting. in acting you have to get into your character in some way by relating parts of urself in them, like when a director tells an actor to cry in the scene by remembering something sad that happened to them if you know what i mean lol. screenwriting is the same way you’re writing dialogue that the characters say by putting yourself in the shoes of the character and understanding their perspective. it’s like improv acting, you get into a character come up with some lines and learn more about your own character as u go on. a theory i’ve had (i shouldn’t be talking abt this bc it’s fucked up to speculate abt someone’s sexuality publicly LOL) is that all these subliminal gay scenes between cartman and kyle has just been trey writing any unresolved gay feelings he has for matt. (and matt voices kyle, but i mean i’m not the first to speculate this there was also that lazy joke they cut from family guy about it, matt & trey may have even joked about them being a couple too) they’re two men who work very closely together so it wouldn’t surprise me if thoughts like that pop up every now and then. and i def feel like cartman is loosely based on trey, obviously stan is the character he based off himself but i def feel like there’s some of him in cartman too which is also why he voices cartman. i def feel like trey’s more lighthearted funny side is what he lets out through cartman also the side of him that’s scheming in business (i mean how do you think south park became such a huge franchise? this didn’t happen by chance lol) which we also see through cartman.

I just wanted to say that your recent analyses on Lego Monkie Kid have been excellent and well-constructed arguments.

Screenwriters are human, so they'll have narrative holes in their writing, likely by mistake. Thank you for helping to expose the plot holes in Lego Monkie Kid, for this will help other writers to avoid similar plot holes in the future.

I doubt I'm the only one who appreciates the firm way of how you backed up your arguments in your takes, and I have to say, I agree with the recent three you've posted. (The ones concerning Macaque, Red Son, Sandy, and Bai He.)

Awww this is really sweet!

I love this show so much, but it does have some flaws in the writing and I think it’s fair to point those flaws out without being accused of hating the show or the staff. Heck, the last post about Macaque was actually focused on how I LOVE how they wrote him and closed out his character-arc and WHY I loved it. The initial hot take that started this conversation was mostly a hot take about what I DON’T want to see happen and was against a very popular fandom expectation for the show as opposed to what the show actually did. Granted that post included pointing out flaws I’ve noticed in the writing (mostly about Sandy’s character) but the main point was more a cautionary “oh I hope they don’t do this…” thing.

Double granted I do have other issues with the writing but rushing through things and adding unnecessary stuff in there when they’re already working with not-enough time is the main problem.

(Seriously - what they did with Tang in “Benched” was weak and annoying and I’m actually bothered by how that episode started with a character feeling useless and ended with saying “You’re not useless cause here’s some magic powers” instead of “You don’t NEED to be useful to be a beloved family member and friend.” Or at least say he’s not useless by having him use the skills we have already seen him have. Like wtf actually did they do to our boy)

The only thing in the show I believe was an actual mistake that genuinely makes me UPSET to think about is Porty being in “Embrace Your Destiny.” (Even ignoring why I’m kinda meh on the specialty clones appearing after Duplictnation in the first place)There was no justification for that. At all. Not even any character reasoning. Like, him being there did. NOTHING. I feel bad saying that cause I’m mutuals with someone on Twitter who loves the clones - Porty especially - a heck of a lot and I love that for them, I really genuinely honestly do. I love their content that includes Porty and Mixtapeshipping and their original stuff for Porty is great! And they loved seeing Porty in EYD, and I don’t want to tell them that THEY have to hate that he was there all because I do.

But I just… I love Porty, too, he was really fun. His “Never forget… da music…” line before his ‘death’ was the moment I went “Oh shit this show is actually hilarious af” but the issue of time constraints being so glaringly obvious made Porty in EYD being better left on the cutting room floor and yet still in the episodes all the more frustrating.

And I always feel the need to say this just in case someone thinks I’m being unreasonable:

I do recognize that there was a possibility something he was doing with the car was making it go faster but that is SUCH a stretch because they did NOTHING to express that directly. We’ve never even seen him do anything like that before! And the ONLY REASON I can say that that MIGHT have been the intent was because of his line about the car being at “Maximum Porty” but, again, I’m stretching to make that connection. Because what does “Maximum Porty” mean, anyways??? Genuinely I stand by my theory that there was a whole episode cut after the initial drafts and the crew had to scramble to cut and paste things together.

Good fanservice? We get to see Red Son with his hair down. It didn’t interrupt or negatively impacted the writing.

Bad fanservice? Porty in Embrace Your Destiny. Gonna be really hard to get me to change my mind on that.

Now, as much as I appreciate the compliment and the point of how pointing out flaws in writing is not some terrible evil thing fueled by hated, I still feel the need to point out that I wouldn’t call these criticisms “plot holes”.

Nothing in what I said contradicts or actually makes the main plot of the story fall apart, imho. My criticisms are mostly about characterizations and feeling like arcs were dropped or mishandled and wanting to see better. The story is still solid but the characters and their arcs could have had more weight and meant more if these flaws in the writing weren’t there.

Heck, even my whole Porty rant - His biggest crime for existing is taking up time when he had no reason to be there. He didn’t break anything, he just… wasted everyone’s time.

Like you said, though, the writing staff is human. I don’t think they’re any less a talented crew for these flaws - far from it! And I still love this show and get a lot out of the characters and the stories otherwise I wouldn’t care to talk about it.

And remember!

The Lego Monkie Kid interpretation of Sun Wukong has never done anything wrong ever in his entire life and pissing in Buddha’s hand does not count.

What makes a great story?

If your aim is to take writing from hobby to profession, you have no doubt asked yourself ��what makes a great story?” What is it that takes a story from enjoyable little diversion to a truly great read?

Human beings are creatures of pattern. In fact, pattern recognition is one of the things that defines our humanity. So, it only makes sense that successful stories will have some similarities in what makes them successful.

When I think about what makes a great story, my mind flits to classic archetypes, memorable characters, and relatable plot points — even if we’re talking about sci fi and fantasy. Lord of the Rings? Middle Earth may not be real, but the enduring bond between Frodo and Sam is something that affects us on a human level.

Today I’ve gathered together what readers and writers collectively think makes a story great.

5 Elements of a Great Story

1. Setting

I already mentioned Lord of the Rings so let’s continue with that, shall we? Tolkien is known for his detail and depth in every aspect of storytelling, including setting. I’d argue that The Shire itself is just as much of a character as the hobbits that exist within it.

Immersion is incredibly important in any novel — you want to draw your reader in and convince them to stay; and while a relatable character can do this, our egos can draw us even more to a place that we can picture ourselves in while reading.

So, rather than shoot of a quick“Sarah arrived home, exhausted, and immediately went to bed”, try something more along the lines of:The usually-easy walk up two flights of carpeted steps to her apartment door was exhausting. Upon opening the flimsy portal, she turned the multiple locks within to keep out unsavory elements of her neighbourhood and turned to face her surroundings: dimly lit and simplistic, the building had been built in the 1970s and was by no means her dream space to live. Still, it was home. She crossed the linoleum-tiled entryway making a beeline for her bedroom and collapsed on the unmade bed, immediately falling into a fitful slumber.

Point out elements of Sarah’s surroundings tell you a bit about Sarah herself too. Never avoid a good chance to characterize your settings!

2. Character

Why is the Harry Potter series so successful? There are many elements. Timing allowed a generation to grow up as the characters in the book did, the school houses created a feeling of team loyalty among readers, but most importantly, the archetypes of its characters gave everyone reading someone to relate to. But how do you create a relatable character?

In Jungian psychology, archetypes define a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern or thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches. By looking to these, you can avoid the Mary-Sue trap and build relatable characters that your readers can latch onto that are not simply reflections of the writer.

Harry Potter is The Hero. Dumbledore, The Magician. Fred and George — The Jesters. And so on. Character archetypes are the closest a writer can get to a cheat sheet for a winning novel — as long as they know what they’re doing in the other parts of their writing too.

3. Plot

Perhaps this goes without saying, but a good story needs a good plot. But, this is something that is easier said than done. There are a multitude of outline structures that you can find online if you do a bit of searching, but I really love the ‘Save the Cat’ method.

Blake Snyder was an American screenwriter who published the novel ‘Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need’ in 2005. The outline divides a plot into ‘beats’ that can be applied to any genre of writing well beyond the screenplay.

First, divide your story into three acts. From there, divide each act into scenes.

I’m going to be talking to you more about Save the Cat in a future blog but a resource I highly recommend to break down plot in your mind and apply it to your own story is savethecat.com’s listing of Beat Sheets.

4. Theme

No, no, we’re not talking about a fevered elementary school paper about what we want for Christmas (sorry, couldn’t help it). We’re talking about the overarching theme of your novel — the message you want to get across, the meaning that you explore throughout your literary work!

Like with characters and plot, there are patterns when it comes to themes, tried and true options that tend to do the trick in pulling in a reader and helping them to relate to your story. Themes are nearly endless, as you’ll find if you take a spin through this listing, but five that you’ll see time and time again are:

Good vs Evil

Love

Coming of age

Courage and perseverance

Redemption

… I’ll also throw in a bonus, of ‘Revenge’, which can act as the darker side to your Redemption theme.

5. Style

Think about your top three favourite authors. I bet that as each name comes to mind, you also get a feeling about them, reflective of their works. My feeling for Chuck Palahniuk is very different from my feeling for Audrey Niffenegger. A comparison between the two could perhaps be described as sharp vs soft.

As a writer, you want to find your style. A writer’s style is their voice, so of all areas this is the hardest to advise on. But some tips I would suggest for bringing your own voice out would be:

Write in the point of view that feels right to you. Don’t let anything else influence this. If you are using a comfortable POV, your voice will have more room to grow.

Meditate on your prevalent internal moods. Are you by nature a positive person? Let that shine through. Are you anxious? Don’t hide that — allow it to colour your work.

Has a particular writer inspired your own writing journey? Start off by paying homage to them. An artist learns by tracing and copying — a writer can do the same. Eventually your own voice will make its way out.

Identify why you write. Is it just for fun? Is it for commercial purposes? Is it to get a deeper message across? The gravity or lack thereof should be felt in your words.

Ernest Hemingway once said: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

This applies very much to finding your voice. Don’t hide any part of yourself — let it come through in your writing and you’ll have cemented your style.

Prep your story formula and get writing!

I hope that this has given you a base from which to work on when crafting your next novel. As creative types I know it can be in our blood to go against the grain, but when it comes to honing your abilities as a writer, there’s nothing wrong with trying out methods that have worked for hundreds of others in the past.

Make them your own, find your voice, and I’m sure you’ll have a winning novel out in the world in no time!

Hi it’s the countdown to my birthday... and as a person that normally hides in the shadows and likes to pretend my birthday does not exist, I have no idea why I’m doing this and exposing myself... 

Actually, I do have some idea.  I used to write hp fanfiction almost 20 years ago. My very first story was a y/n 2nd person POV that finished books 6 and 7 in the series because they were not written yet.  I posted on Quizilla a story called American Exchange: The Exchange of Lifetime.  Y/N was an American Exchange student and her friends, Julie, Shayne, and Catherine helped her, Harry, and Draco defeat Voldemort.  Her Patronus was a doe (before we had any idea about Snape’s). And when I killed Dumbledore before book 6 was even out, I got so much hate mail that I decided to write he was hiding in Aruba the whole time. If anyone remembers this somehow, someway... hi i missed you. 

I went to college for creative writing after that. It was hard. It burned me out.  I was so inundated with schoolwork and writing that I really didn’t have any creativity left for myself.  I got into RP forums too. None too surprising, everyone loved and asked me to play Draco on their invision-free forums (rip IF). I went and got my masters in screenwriting after that. And then I was... so... fucking... done. Everyone says just start writing and you’ll write again, that writers' block isn’t real, to just scribble down whatever and it’ll come back to you.  and maybe it does for some people, but for me? it was dead. i was dead.  I got to a point where I'd get angry when people tried to give me writing help or suggestions to get back into it.  I remember, actually sometime in the past couple of years, telling my mom to stop considering me as a writer because it was over, I was never going to do it again. 

But, well, fucking Harry Potter got me all over again.  Last year around this time my cousin told me I just had to read Debt of Time. I did. I liked it. It... reminded me of the me I’d forgotten.  I told her to give me more recommendations. I read a lot of the big dramione ones... bm/bs, manacled, etc. and they were good. really good. but they sparked something in me.  It wasn’t I could do this better, but oh man I want to tell my version now.   It was my first want to write in over a decade. 

so i just started writing. And I thought, if I can write a chapter a week as my new years resolution, then I can teach myself to want to write again. To want to write my own stories again, to finish all the tv scripts I have waiting for me in my drafts.  I’ve been living on Tumblr RP for the past decade now so of course, my first thought was to make a Tumblr to find the community. and fuck everyone, it’s like coming home again.  

So, for my birthday on the 22nd, I wanted to post some of my favorites I’ve read this year to celebrate the community that made me write again.  So it is what it is- messy just like me. 

They’re just fics that made me realize this is still a part of me and it always be.  Because it’s with me, as the matching tattoo my cousin and I got says, Until the very end. 

i’ll tag them all ‘#thefrancakes birthday pancakes’ so you can find them and post a list when its done :) 

I'm trying getting back into writing fanfiction. I got several WIPs. And I've been focused on one to have this feeling of accomplishment. It's supposed to be on the shorter side, under 1k.

Thing is, I have four or five versions of the story, but all of them feel like a first draft, no matter how much I work on it. Yes, every version is better than the one before that, but nothing feels like THE version I just have to polish.

I don't even know if I am making any sense.

No, you’re making sense. I’ve gotten that feeling before, too.

For me at least, I have to attempt to write when I’m in the mood to. If I’m not in the mood, then no matter what I write, I won’t like it. Maybe you have written THE version, but just not THE version for your mindset. If you think it’s trash, your mind is gonna tell you it’s trash and you’re not gonna like it. So don’t force yourself to write or you’ll just wear yourself down and you’ll want to abandon the idea all together, even though it still has plenty of potential. Once you’re in the mindset, maybe you could combine your four or five ideas? Take the bits you really like and combine them. That’s what I’ve done before when I have two different fic ideas that are somewhat similar.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a professional screenwriter, and I asked her how she deals with writers block while under a time limit. She said that for her, time limits actually help motivate her. So maybe that’s something you could look into doing? Set aside some time, maybe an hour or so, to focus on that fic. That time limit won’t allow you to go back and constantly doubt what you’ve just written, you just have to go with it. There is no four or five ways it could go, just the one you went with.

Honestly, stories are never really things that are *finished*, writers have to just find a good stopping point. You could go to any of your fics and add on what happened before the start, what happens after, some scenes in between… but if you did that, you’d never find THE version. You’d never get to “polish”. Maybe your version needs to focus only on one point in time. Start small, you know? You’re just getting back into it. Don’t write about a character’s entire year when there’s plenty that can happen in one week.

Alright, it’s late, that’s all the advice I have for now. If you need me for anything else, feel free to message me. There’s also some other amazing writers out there that could probably give you way better advice. 😂 @aelaer has been around for a long time and is wise regarding the fanfic world. @whitefoxgone has also been around for a bit I think. @webtrinsic1122 is in a few different fandoms and posts pretty regularly. @trickstress333 has given me good advice on how to structure fics. You could also try talking to them.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Inspiration will come.

Ang bilis ng July grabeee hahahaha. I guess if you really have a busy schedule, you’ll never notice how fast the days go by hehehe. Ang daming nangyari so I’ll just share everything down below:

WARNING: Long post ahead. 

On medication

The doctor prescribed me on meds last April, but I was really hesitant to take it because of the side effects and possibly the long term damage on my body. It took me 2 months before I decided to try it hehehe.

A month after taking the meds, I was asked to do a lab test just to check any repercussions. Thankfully, wala naman. She just said to continue taking the meds for 5 months. Honestly, the meds are too pricey so goodbye sahod talaga huhuhuhu~

Ortigas Art Festival 

While preoccupied on my meds, the post about Ortigas Art Festival appeared on my feed a week after July started. Sadly, we were not able to attend their first workshop, but since it’s a month-long event, I registered on some of their upcoming workshops and activities I’m interested to. Good thing it was scheduled every weekend so no conflict with my work.

Mr. Thomas Daquioag, a professor from UST College of Fine Arts discussed preservation of art. He tackled proper techniques how art should be stored considering the climate here in PH and few factors why art deteriorates, etc. Actually, his talk was a bit underrated I think? Few people participated, mostly targeted art curators and collectors, so di ko rin sure bakit kami nandun hahaha but it was fuuun!

Mr. Arjanmar Rebete, discussed mobile filmmaking. Now I won’t bore you with the details but if you read my prev post, his talk was the reason why we decided to join the contest. Ayun, my takeaway: your smartphone may be small, but imagine the big stories it can tell. That’s how powerful mobile filmmaking can be. 

Mr. Lilit Reyes, the writer of Changing Partners (if you haven’t watched it yet, pleeease watch this masterpiece), discussed screenwriting. The topic was not new to us given our college degree, but my god he’s so good! Yknow the structure of screenplay, on point gago! I’m really amazed! Iba talaga when you’re speaking from experience. Ang dami kong natutunan na di tinuro ng prof ko lol hahahaha. I swear, he’s that goooood!

*Side note: by the time screenwriting workshop happened, we were already done with the shoot, but pending post-prod. So while listening to Mr. Lilit Reyes talk, somehow we were recalling if we did the screenplay right hahahaha.

Aside from workshops, there were art activities as well like pottery, paper cutting/sculpture, wood carving, and live portraiture sketching. May fashion show din, ballet, and exhibit. *Check Jade Gacuan’s painting here.

Film showing

Also part of the Ortigas Art Festival was film showing of Lino Brocka’s ‘Insiang’ and ‘White Slavery’, and Ishmael Bernal’s ‘Manila by Night.’ The only film we didn’t watch was ‘White Slavery.’ The films shown were newly restored version. 

Anyway, I liked Insiang better than Manila by Night. I have already watched some of Brocka’s films so I’m already familiar with his style, and I really love his storytelling. Nonetheless both films were good!

‘Sa Bahay Lang’

Going back to our production (perhaps I’ve already told you some of these), the script was written immediately after we got home from the workshop. Nag-allot ako ng 5 days for pre-prod, including casting call, script revisions, ocular visit, set preparation, production design, and dry-run of technical equipment. Since it was a one-day shoot, I had to make sure everything’s okay.

On the actual day of shoot, everything went well according to plan, aside from the time of course hehehe. We extended an hour just to shoot the remaining scenes. Then another week allotted for post-prod. I don’t wanna rush the editing bc I know how delicate it is even if it’s just 2 mins. Hindi na ko masyadong nag-ambag sa editing, I only reviewed the shots, the audio, subs, and scoring.

So ayun, we’re able to submit our entry on time naman, just a few minutes before the deadline ganun hahaha. *Check the stills here.

Goodbye Apple Watch

You might remember my listing here re selling my Apple watch hahahaha. 

Initially posted it on Facebook marketplace, pero sobrang tumal so I had to bring my A-game. I joined multiple groups and posted the listing there as well. I think I got 26 inquiries overall, but only one of them agreed to my selling price. I told him he can get it lower pa if he’ll pick it up in Pasig hahahaha, he declined lol. So we agreed to meet in Greenhills, and it was a smooth transaction. Easy money baby hahahaha.

So that’s it for me this July hehehe. Hello August!

Special Guest - Daryl Wood Gerber - Author of A Twinkle of Trouble (A Fairy Garden Mystery) #AuthorInterview / #Giveaway @darylwoodgerber

A Twinkle of Trouble (A Fairy Garden Mystery) by Daryl Wood Gerber I am delighted to welcome Daryl Wood Gerber back to Escape With Dollycas today! Hi Daryl, Please tell us a little bit about yourself. I’m Daryl Wood Gerber, author of mysteries and suspense and, yes, even a Christmas romance. I love my goldendoodle Sparky. I enjoy gardening, cooking, and golfing. I’ve been writing for a number of years. Before I became a writer, I was an actress and performed in  TV shows as well as on stage and in commercials. I love to read mysteries and thrillers, gentle romance, and some paranormal stories. What is the first book you remember reading? I read lots of Dick and Jane books, but I wasn’t much of a reader.  Then, when I got the measles, my mother gave me her set of Nancy Drew. I read all of them in one week.  Yes, a week! I couldn’t put them down. That’s when I fell in love with reading. But when I was given A Wrinkle in Time, I knew I was hooked forever on books. The story blew me away. What are you reading now? I’m reading a little bit of everything. I just finished Gigi Pandian’s Secret Staircase Mystery #2, The Raven Thief. It’s a closed-room mystery series. Gigi is masterful at that.  I also just finished the first by Marjorie McCown, Final Cut, set in Hollywood with a costumer as the protagonist. Marjorie was a costumer, so there’s some wonderful insider knowledge.  Next up is Ginger Bolton’s Double Grudge Donuts. This is the 8th in the Deputy Donuts series, and they are a tasty treat if you love cozy mysteries. What books have most inspired you? As I said above, I adored A Wrinkle in Time. I really enjoyed The Three Musketeers with all its action. I loved Hawaii by Michener. I devoured the James Bond spy novels.  And I read The Bourne Identity in one sitting. What a character! I love reading any books by Krista Davis. She is the queen of cozies in my humble opinion. I adore her Domestic Diva mysteries, and her Wagtail Mysteries (aka Paws and Claws Mysteries) are a must for anyone who loves animals. What made you decide you wanted to write mysteries? My first foray into writing was as a screenwriter, and I wanted to write thrillers, but when my husband and I moved across country for his career, I couldn’t pursue that dream from so far away, so I decided to write a thriller novel. I didn’t sell that and wrote another and another. Then a good friend suggested I try my hand at writing cozy mysteries. I boned up on current ones, having read most of Agatha Christie growing up, and realized I might have a voice for them. It turned out I did. An agent put me in touch with a publisher that wanted a cozy set in a cheese shop in Ohio. I got the first crack at submitting chapters for it, which secured me a deal. I wrote The Cheese Shop Mysteries under the pseudonym Avery Aames. Do you have a special place where you like to write? I write most often in my office.  It’s arranged nicely. I have a lot of space. But sometimes I’ll write in my backyard, sometimes at my dining table (when doing page edits by hand) and often at a coffee shop just because I have errands and can squeeze in an hour or two over a cup of coffee while tootling around town. I believe that writing is a “butt in the chair” activity. Sit and write. At some point you’ll have a complete book and that’s when the fun begins. I love to edit! Where do the ideas for your books come from? I watch people. I study them. I listen to conversations. Sometimes I just think “what if?”  There are so many what ifs going on around me at all times. What if someone killed that person who just cut in line at the grocery store? What if you walked into a house for sale and there was a dead body at the foot of the stairs?  You can see where this is going. I let my mind tap into the What If universe all the time. Is there anything about writing you find most challenging? The muddy middle can be daunting. It’s where you have to get all the clues and action to move the story forward but not allow it to be obvious or trite. I always start a story knowing where it begins and where it ends, but I’m not always sure what the middle scenes will be. I outline and that helps, but that is often quite fluid. What do you think makes a good story? The clues and suspects and secrets are the most important things that must be woven into a mystery. And pace. Each chapter should end on a page turner. It can be a question, a knock on the door, a body dropping. Something has to happen so the reader will press on. Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you? I think Jenna in the Cookbook Nook Mysteries is most like me. She came from the world of advertising. She suffered some sorrow in her twenties. She’s very sane and methodical. She’s caring. However, all of my protagonists are sane, caring people. So maybe they’re all me to some extent? On the other hand, I like to think none of them are like me. That makes me focus on their total character arc. What makes your books different from others out there in this genre? My Fairy Garden Mysteries are considered “paranormal” or magical.  There’s  no other sleuth fairy in mysteries that helps a human that I know of. I love the bond between Fiona and Courtney. My Cookbook Nook Mysteries are the only ones I know that are set in a culinary bookshop. My standalone thrillers, The Son’s Secret, Girl on the Run, and Day of Secrets are each unique as to the story. I would like to think that my pacing and voice are what make them solid reads. The Aspen Adams novels of suspense are set in the serene resort of Lake Tahoe, not your typical place to find murder and mayhem. What’s next on the horizon for you? I have a new series coming out in October called the Literary Dining Mysteries. I’ll be sharing more about this series as we draw nearer to the release. They are set in a charming fictional town outside Asheville, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains and features twin hooks that I hope cozy readers can’t get enough of—classic books and delicious food Thank you, Daryl, for visiting today. ____ Keep reading for more info about Daryl and her new book!   About A Twinkle of Trouble A Twinkle of Trouble (A Fairy Garden Mystery) Cozy Mystery 5th in Series Setting - California Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington Cozies (April 23, 2024) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1496744934 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496744937 Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CFGF36NM Carmel-by-the-Sea garden shop owner Courtney Kelly sees things others can’t—like fairies, and hidden motives for murder . . . Courtney is delighted when her tiny friend Fiona returns from the fairy realm, appearing at the base of a Cypress tree. When her Ragdoll cat, Pixie, emerges from her own portal—aka the cat door—the three set off for a busy day. Busier than usual, since Courtney has rented a small plot of land at the Flower Farm, where she hopes to grow her own supplies for her fairy-garden business. Plus, the annual Summer Blooms Festival is coming up, and Courtney has booked a booth . . . But the murder of Courtney’s friend, Genevieve, casts a pall over the festival. Ever since Genevieve sold her floral business, she’d been building a career as an influencer. She was perennially opinionated—but in her new role she’d become surprisingly vicious, dissing local entrepreneurs with nasty posts and unwarranted bad reviews. That’s landed a couple of Courtney’s other friends on the suspect list—including Flower Farm owner Daphne Flores. And when a second victim is discovered, seeds of doubt about Daphne’s innocence sprout in Courtney’s mind. With only a germ of a clue, Courtney will have to overturn every rock to get the dirt on the real killer . . . More About Daryl Wood Gerber Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber is best known for her nationally bestselling mysteries, including the Fairy Garden Mysteries and Cookbook Nook Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes suspense including the well received The Son’s Secret, Girl on the Run, and the popular Aspen Adams series. Recently Daryl, who loves a challenge, published a Christmas romance, Hope for the Holidays. Fun Tidbit: as an actress, Daryl appeared in “Murder, She Wrote.” She loves to cook, garden, read, and walk her frisky Goldendoodle. Also, she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. You can learn more on her website: https://darylwoodgerber.com Author Links WEBSITE    FACEBOOK       BOOKBUB      YOUTUBE    INSTAGRAM     PINTEREST     GOODREADS     TIKTOK    AMAZON    NEWSLETTER Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Bookshop – The Rest of the Series Coming Soon from Daryl Wood Gerber Also by Daryl Wood Gerber The Cookbook Nook Cozy Mysteries Find more books by Daryl Wood Gerber here. Click on the covers for more information or to order by Amazon. 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hello 🌻 so I'm kinda new to thai bl, since my tl started going crazy. I saw the discussion under your recent video, I gathered you know things, so I was wondering who is the director you've mentioned and why people are going insane on twitter. or is it not common getting projects so close to each other?

Lol yeah I see lately more and more western fans are joining the madness, can't really tell if its good or nah, cause its totally not the safe place for "unproblematic purists", but we'll see how it goes xD

Oi, I’ll try to do this somewhat shortly, don’t hit me if I’m bad at expalining haha. Tee is most known for directing "Tharntype" and "Lovely writer", Aof directed "1000 stars", "Dark Blue Kiss"… "Bad Buddy". In the world of thai BL, they fall into a category of a very high quality ones, that fans love.

Long story short like we know that directors as it is everywhere play one of the most important parts, but when it comes to thai lakorns it basically can determine not only the quality of the shooting and the whole tone of the creation, but also the quality of the portrayal of the relationships/closeness etc. They in most cases decide everything up to the intimacy scenes and it's even up to them to say "do korean dramas fish kiss bc thats how I see it" (here's the fun fact about thai bl actors/directors for you, sometimes actors themselves don't wanna kiss normally, sometimes directors don't allow actors who wanna kiss normally to kiss normally). It's also their vision that decides how to twist the character and turn him into a complete opposite from the original material kind etc. They just literally hold everything in the hands most of the times, including scripts.

So fans already kinda split directors into categories who either make the original material worse than it is and fail to guide the actors into the right direction and those who can make a candy out of basics by bringing out the best in both the original material and actors.

That being said the two cookies right now due to the fact that they stole everyone's hearts and fired up everyone even just with looks + the fact that they want to keep doing bl together and having too much fun with it are now there basically the perfect snatch.

So the fact that P'Tee is doing a workshop with them already and both of the best directors want them and some famous screenwriters there too, means that they see a huge potential in them. And for fans it means that they can have quality content with their faves.

To describe their vibe/type of directing, I mean, it's different depending on the story for sure, but it's very I'd say.. natural. There won't be any "we're in a relationships but don't touch me" stuff or other "old classic intimacy cringe" you'd see in many lakorns. And when it comes to Tee, he has this great balance between tasteful steamy with all the emotions you need, which is also lacking these days.

So I yelled a bit too, I really was rooting for someone to see the beauty, but aparently everyone did, so it's all good. Good luck to them.

As for the last part. It's definitely not common, but getting projects so close to each other happened before. For example, Earthmix have two bl dramas coming out this year and short movies along with it too (that without counting all of their entertainment shows). What's not common is for P'Tee to grab on GMM actors so fast, but I don't blame anyone in this situation haha.

Hope, I explained it somewhat okay, sorry if its clumsy, it’s a bit hard to explain, depends on how new you are and what you’ve watched so far <3

Hello, I recently read some of your work and I really really like your writing style! I’ve loved everything I’ve read so far and if it is not a burden to you and you are okay with doing so, I was hoping you could answer a few questions?

I was wondering if you had any formal writing education? Any advice for writing? Also wondered what kinds of books and authors you read, if you read?

I am sorry for all the questions, and if they’ve been asked before (I tried to find any answers you may have given to these or ones similar and I’m sorry if I missed them but direct me if need be).

I am also a writer and I’m always very curious about writers I look up to/ really like- most of them just happen to not be among the living so I do t really get to ask them any questions. Thank you for your time! It’s a pleasure to be able to read your writing!!

Thank you!

I am blushing extensively, thank you for all your kind words!

As for writing, I have had no formal education in it. I tried - and might not have dropped out of university if I'd succeeded - but creative writing required higher general scores than I got in school. I've read a lot of books on writing... like, a LOT... and always taken an interest in plot structure. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who walked out of House Of Flying Daggers (I saw it in theatres, I'm that old) rhapsodizing about the way they visually represented traditional storytelling metaphors (ie 'a rain of spears').

I will note that while it seems that absolutely everyone recommends Stephen King's 'On Writing', I've never read it because a) I found the little bit I read wordy and self-indulgent, and b) the very mention of that man's name enrages me because my partner once got into a serious hyperfixation and we didn't have a single conversation in which King's name was not mentioned for OVER A YEAR. This is not King's fault, but the name still fills me with intense fury.

Books on writing I would recommend:

K. M. Weiland's 'Structuring Your Novel': I like her 'voice', and her chosen examples, and pacing longer stories is one of the things I have the most trouble with.

J. Michael Straczynski's 'Complete Book Of Scriptwriting': It's an old book now, but it's still one of the best I've ever read, and my long-standing favourite. There's a ton of fascinating history about the evolution of screenwriting, and a lot of very pithy advice that applies just as well to novels and short fiction as it does to movies and television.

Chris Baty's 'No Plot? No Problem!': I haven't reread this in quite a while, but I remember it as being really helpful as well as fun to read. I also recommend NaNoWriMo in general. I've been participating since 2002 - this year will be my twentieth anniversary of NaNo - and my writing has improved enormously in that time. Writing is like everything else, insofar as the more you practice, the better you get. I've hit 50K every year since the beginning, so even if I never got a novel I wanted to finish, polish, and put out there (and a couple of them are promising), that's still 950,000 words I've written.

Also? Fanfiction. Fanfiction is a GREAT way to practice the craft. Because the characters and universe are pre-built, you can focus on the writing itself, on things like examining nuances of character, identifying and using tropes, and building a compelling story. Between NaNo and fanfiction, over the last 24 years, I have written over 2,000,000 words, and you can't do ANYTHING two million times without getting better at it.

As for who I like to read, I can't recommend Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce, and Georgette Heyer too highly. Not only do they write good stories, they were/are very, very technically skilled. Reading their work is an education in itself. I also recommend consuming narratives from other cultures - I learned a lot about different narrative conventions from things like reading translated novels, myths, and fairy tales, reading manga, and watching Chinese and Korean movies and dramas. It really gives you a different perspective on the mechanics of storytelling, and shows you how many 'default' or 'obvious' plot tropes are actually really culturally specific. (I have consumed every re-telling, re-imagining, or re-translation of Journey To The West, including the old tv show AND the Hallmark movie. I really recommend this, as it is FASCINATING how many ways different people interpret the same story. The Korean 'Korean Odyssey' and Netflix's 'New Adventures Of Monkey' are my favourites)

Bonus reading: When Books Went To War, by Molly Guptil Manning. It's not about writing, but it's about why stories are important, the lifeline a novelist can throw to someone experiencing the darkest of times, and what I believe may have been publishing's finest hour. I cry every time I read it, and it makes me proud to count myself a writer. If you ever wonder why you're slogging away so hard at learning so fickle and difficult a craft, this book will remind you.

“The therapeutic effect of reading was not a new concept to the librarians running the VBC (Victory Book Campaign). In the editorial Warren published on the eve of commencing her tenure as director, she discussed how books could soothe pain, diminish boredom or loneliness, and take the mind on a vacation far from where the body was stationed. Whatever a man's need—a temporary escape, a comforting memory of home, balm for a broken spirit, or an infusion of courage—the librarians running the VBC were dedicated to ensuring that each man found a book to meet it.” ― Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II

Ever since I watched Your Name Engraved Herein two weeks ago, I have wanted to talk about Jiahan as whole but in particular this scene right here that starts around the 40 minute mark. 

CW’s: discussion of religion, internalized homophobia, violent homophobia, choking, and lack of consent. Generally, the same cws as in the movie. 

Read more bc it’s uh.. 2.7k

all images are described in alt text

As soon as I watched this scene I just knew it had to be really significant and now rewatching YNEH, I realize that this is a major ideological turning point for Jiahan as a character. From this point on he slowly begins to accept that he’s gay and starts to consciously act on his feelings for Birdy. However, I must first add some context and insights on Jiahan’s prior behavior before I dive into this scene as a whole. At the beginning of the movie, we see that while Jiahan feels different from the rest of his roomates, he still sneaks out with them when they go hook up with girls, despite not showing any interest in the girl he’s with. He feels very different from the rest of his friends, but still goes along with them due to peer pressure. Later, he tries to dissuade them from violently hazing the gay student, Xie Zhenhong, (his name is never said in the film but it says so on his uniform shirt, and that what I’ll refer to him as for the rest of the post) but is reluctantly influenced to gang up on the student as well. He closes his eyes while he’s about to strike the bat down on the student, until Birdy rescues the student-- and Jiahan in a way-- from what is about to play out. After this, his friends accuse him of being in the same stall as Birdy (which he was) but he denies it, not wanting to explain why he was there and the ensuing taunting from his friends.

 While its obvious that Jiahan has feelings for Birdy, he isn’t confident enough to pursue them outright. Birdy is the more confident one in both their friendship and in his sexuality, not caring about how anyone perceives him and does what he wants regardless of the consequences. Jiahan is the one worried about societal stigma and goes along with things he doesn’t want to do. However after this encounter with the gay underclassman pictured above, Jiahan become more brave and honest about his feelings towards Birdy. Interestingly enough in the scene directly after this, Birdy begins to conceal his true feelings for Jiahan and pursue a straight relationship with Banban. He doesn’t do this hurt Jiahan, as he does reciprocate Jiahan’s feelings, but to discourage him from coming out and becoming a social pariah for being gay. Birdy himself doesn’t mind being an outcast, but he does not want to see the same thing happen to the one he loves. So instead of letting Jiahan do that, he tries to discourage Jiahan from ever pursuing him by getting a girlfriend and suggest Jiahan does the same. In the same day, both Jiahan and Birdy come to opposite realizations about their feelings for the other, thereby changing their dynamic for the course of the movie. Someone else has picked apart Birdy’s scene in their own post. If you haven’t read that analysis, please go read it, because its really good at explaining Birdy’s character since most of his story isn’t directly revealed to us. We must read inbetween the lines and piece it together, which can be confusing on a first watch.

Anyways, now we can focus on Jiahan. At this point in the movie, Jiahan is trying to understand why he’s upset that Birdy is showing interest in a girl in their band while dealing with his own internalized homophobia and denial over his sexuality. He then turns to the only out gay person he knows -- Xie Zhenhong, who he sees in the cafeteria with new bruises on his face. He looks at Jiahan with a smile. This makes me feel like Zhenhong probably picked up on Jiahan and Birdy’s feelings for each other since last year, when he saw them exit the same stall in the bathroom. Having been the Distinguished Out Person in a group before, I can definitely relate to the way Zhenhong reacts to Jiahan. It the typical “oh honey, you don’t realize it yet, but I know you’re gay” reaction. 

 Jiahan waits outside the cafeteria and calls out to out him from behind. At first Zhenhong ignores him as we can see that he smirks a bit when he first speaks. He definitely heard Jiahan but doesn’t answer him until he repeats himself a few times. Zhenhong purposely stops when the two are in front of the stained glass window, away from others. Jiahan’s word choice towards Zhenhong is also interesting as he addresses him as “學弟” which is a term for an underclassman. To my understanding, it’s not overly formal nor is it overly familiar, however it is the nicest way that anyone has addressed him all movie. Jiahan than asks him who gave him those bruises, showing concern for his well being. He then reveals why he stopped Zhenhong saying “Actually I want to ask you, when did you start liking boys?” This really seals the deal to Zhenhong that Jiahan is talking to him to try and sort out his own feelings towards Birdy. While his suggestion that Zhenhong perhaps “see a doctor” or “consider getting a girlfriend” read as a microaggression to most viewers, Zhenhong himself can tell that Jiahan is asking him this in good faith. And perhaps, this might be the most understanding anyone has been towards him since Birdy helped him out prior. Before he responds, he looks up at Jiahan and fixes his bangs. This all stumps Jiahan whose eyes dart around, speechless. Zhenhong then circles his arms around Jiahan’s neck, a very intimate gesture, and studies him for a moment. We cannot see Jiahan’s face at this moment but he does shuffle slightly, his body language nervous and confused, but not upset. After looking at him, Zhenhong then goes in closer, assumedly to kiss him. At this point, Jiahan physically stops him and grabs him by the throat. However, Jiahan’s face doesn’t seem to be angry, if anything, his face looks more scared and confused-- akin to a ‘what are you doing?’ moment.

Initially Zhenhong’s choice to kiss Jiahan read very...strangely to me. Why would the screenwriter, as a gay man that grew up in the 80’s, choose to include this? What was there to gain? To me it seemed like it was reinforcing the stereotype of gay men being overly flirtacious and viewed as predators. Why show a nonconsentual attempted kiss at all? I thought about it a lot, both for this scene and the following one with the old man and later between Jiahan and Birdy because it seemed?? Odd to me?? Isn’t that a disservice in representing gay men? I don’t fully have the right answer but I feel like by writing the scene like this, it goes to demonstrate how Jiahan still isn’t fully comfortable with being gay. And also that lgbt people, especially teens, aren’t always going to be good rep. Liu Kuang-hui wasn’t writing the movie to be an perfect, morally uplifting, santized gay narritive. He was writing something that spoke to his real life experience as a gay man in 1980’s Taiwan. In real life, people do questionable things and good narratives are supposed to make you question characters and their actions and judge for yourself whether what they did was right or wrong. The narrative isn’t looking to condemn Xie Zhenhong for doing this. Xie Zhenhong is ultimately a victim of violent homophobia, that will not hide himself or his sexuality despite the violence he faces. He isn’t perfect, nor is Jiahan, nor is Birdy, nor is anyone in the film. 

Although now having rewatched this scene upwards of eight times in writing this, it feels like Zhenhong didn’t assume this action to be without consent. Of course, no words were explicitly exchanged about kissing, and I’m not trying to make the case that it’s okay to kiss someone without their consent, that’s harassment. However, Zhenhong did gave Jiahan time to express his discomfort before proceeding. Zhenhong first got close to Jiahan by brushing his bangs, Jiahan did not say anything or look visibly uncomfortable. He then put his arms around Jiahan’s neck, and stared at him for a good ten seconds. At this point, Jiahan had time to say he was uncomfortable. As we know it, consent does indeed entail a verbal, understood yes from both parties. However given the context, I can understand why Zhenhong thought that Jiahan was consenting at that moment. However the moment Jiahan revoked his consent Zhenhong stopped trying to kiss him. Zhenhong shouldn’t have gone in without getting verbal consent, and Jiahan could’ve done something other than grabbing him by the throat. They were both in the wrong. Violence shouldn’t have been the reaction, nor should’ve kissing someone without their verbal consent. The lines were very blurred, and proper communication could’ve resulted in a better interaction but like I mentioned above, I don’t think the writers wanted to portray the scene in that way. The intent was not to say that Zhenhong’s actions were romantic or something to emulate. It was very purposeful in showing to interplay of homophobia, gay desire, and religion.

The scene is set up like a religious confession. Zhenhong purposefully leads Jiahan to the stained glass, a metaphor for his religious guilt. He doesn’t look Zhenhong in the eyes, his voice is hushed, and body language nervous, and troubled-- it communicates to Zhenhong that he thinks he may be gay and wants either reassurance that he isn’t or acceptance that is. Regardless, it’s a very vulnerable and intimate moment. Jiahan is facing him like ‘hey, I know my friends were bullying you and I wanted to save you but was too much of a coward and almost took part in harming you. I’m sorry. I know you saw that me and Birdy were in the same stall together, and that you saw me just telling him not to talk to the girls, and neither of those are heterosexual things to do. Please, help me.’ He’s asking Zhenhong to pass judgement on him, is he gay or not? By virtue of even asking that question, they both know the answer -- Jiahan is in love with Birdy, but whether Jiahan can accept that or not is up to him. In a way, Zhenhong is testing Jiahan to see how honest he can be with himself. By approaching him like that, he’s testing to see whether Jiahan can accept being intimate with a man or not. It’s not a good or ethical test, but it sure is effective. Because in his head, Jiahan is coming to realize that he doesn’t mind a man being close to him in a romantic way. Although, he isn’t fully there yet. He still grabs Zhenhong. But as Zhenhong stares at him despite the hand around his throat, Jiahan really has to think about his actions. Is that what he really wants to do, or is that what he’s been taught to do? It illustrates his internalized homophobia perfectly. Jiahan is literally staring gay desire in the face, rejecting it, while in front of his religion. Zhenhong finally answers Jiahan that “he has always loved boys since he was little, it’s never changed.” Upon hearing that his grip loosens and he pulls away. And the fact that we can hear him well means that Jiahan was never choking him, his hand was there, but not gripping. Zhenhong pulls him in closer and tilts his head, and says “and it never will.”  Zhenhong’s words are very deliberate. It’s as if he anticipated this might happen and knew exactly what to say. He wants to carve it in Jiahan’s brain that no one chooses to be gay. They always are and no amount of denial, like the kind Jiahan is showing, will change that. He then finally lets go of Jiahan, who is speechless, he thanks him, and leaves. Jiahan, however, stays there for a second, processing everything that has happened, and breathes heavily before the scene cuts to later that day.

Finally, I would like to examine exactly what Zhenhong’s “thanks” even means. Why would Zhenhong be thanking Jiahan? On the surface, it lookslike Jiahan waited for this guy to finish eating, then asked him invasive questions about his sexuality and suggest he should get help and then almost choked him. This should count as a microagression at best and an attempted hate crime at worst. But, as I just dived into, this wasn’t a bad faith jeer by Jiahan in order to bully Zhenhong, this was a genuine cry for help made by a deeply confused teenager. I feel like the “thanks.” at the end of the scene was perhaps just as puzzling to me as when I thought about why the staff would have that scene play out like that in the first place? I think his thanks is conveying many things. Firstly, thanking him for not actually hurting him and allowing him to have a semi normal interaction with a student of the same gender. As far as we know, many,  MANY different students have tried to hurt him in the new semester alone. Hell, we literally do not even know his name as everyone refers to him by the q slur or some other derogatory term, which speaks a lot to how he is treated. He also may be saying thanks for actually asking him about his sexuality. While Jiahan still followed it up with a suggestion he see a doctor, he still genuinely wanted to know why rather fully assume he has something wrong with him. Also, I feel like he might be thanking Jiahan for being brave enough to actually confront his sexualtiy and ask Zhenhong for help in the first place. Zhenhong really seems to be alone as the only gay student at the school but now knowing that Jiahan is realizing thathe’s gay as well, might make him be hopeful that things may slowly begin to change. Sadly, this interaction is the last time we see Xie Zhenhong all film which sucks because I really liked him. And I feel like it would’ve been really nice to see him after the time skip or at least have Jiahan mention him because this moment was one of the things that really made Jiahan start to accept his sexuality. A cut scene with Father Oliver also contributed, but I really wish Xie Zhenhong got more narrative than being the only out student that was then violently bullied. But, I acknowledge that MANY scenes were cut from the film for length so I can’t complain to much.

Oh god, that was a lot to say about a scene that was literally a minute and thirty seconds long. In conclusion!! I just had a lot of things to say about this scene and the scenes surrounding it. I think Jiahan is just a very painfully relatable character for many LGBT viewers and he was incredibly relatable for me which is why I felt the need to spend my day off writing this as opposed to doing homework. This scene is incredibly rich on many levels and I really appreciate YNEH as a whole for not spoonfeeding the viewer information and letting us interpret and question the scenes on our own and come to our own conclusions about the characters and yea. There’s so much going on and a lot of nuance and idk how to properly convey a lot of my thoughts but I tried really hard bc i really do love this movie. I really was puzzled by this scene at first, but now having examined it, it is my favorite scene in the movie. If this scene was changed in any way to make it more palatable, it would’ve been nearly as impactful which was a hard decision to come to, but I stand by it. I don’t know if I feel the same about other scenes but I will be reviewing YNEH as a whole in a different post. I have much more to say but my thoughts on this scene were far too long to not make it a separate post of its own. In essence, YNEH is about growing up and accepting yourself in all ways. Not all of those things are pleasant but if you cannot accept those things about yourself, you’re doomed to be miserable until you can live life unburdened by your own and societies limitations. Goodnight, my fingers hurt.

Alrightly, I’m currently in bed with a heating pad cuz it’s just that time. I’m watching some Lifetime movies (on LMN) and I’m sure Brasil probably has that channel with either subtitles or dubbed line reads. That last time I visited family there, they had a channel that I watched. Lifetime movies are a genuine love of mine because they’re so terrible that they’re amazing. The reused plots, reused sets, reused actors, terrible acting (most of the time), awful stunt work, I just can’t get enough of their “steamy” thrillers. Now I will admit that there are good movies but the majority are not. If you look up a few trailers for Lifetime movies, you’ll understand what I mean (you’ll also basically watch the whole movie through the trailer).

I wanna know which LIs you think would sit with MC to watch these movies either genuinely enjoying them or just to make MC happy.

oh yeah! i know the lifetime movies, it's become a running gag in the movie community. just as famous as "cw production value" when something is terrible or cheap looking.

let's go li by li and whether they would or not, and why:

lucas. "this looks awful" he says while reading the sinopsis.

'that's why i want to watch it... that's the point!"

"why would you do that to yourself? watch something you know you're gonna hate, on purpose?"

"just watch, you'll know what i mean." by the time the movie ends he's hiding his face because he kind of likes how bad they are.

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kassam. i already headcanon him, multiple times, that he's a lover of trash movies, like sharknado or any zombeaver variation. he's probably not as excited but he'll sit down and watch because mc knows how to convince him: "babe, you think sharknado is a masterpiece."

"yes! because it is! it's so bad it's actually fun!"

"trust me, you'll love to hate this so much you're gonna thank me later." and he kinda does. he loves to hate these mushy movies.

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gary would also sit down and watch. he's already used to watching bad soap operas and telenovelas with his nan. what's a 2-hour movie? but be aware, he's the type that talks when frustrated, so he's definitely pointing out mistakes and bad camera work, or stunts.

lottie might be reluctant but i can even see her sparing a couple of tears at the end, saying something like "nobody is gonna believe you" when blowing her nose. remember... she cries with titanic 💀

bobby might say exactly what you said: "it's so terrible it's actually good." he's not mad about it at all, and might be even excited, especially if one of the characters is a baker. pointing out mistakes in food themed movies is a hobby of his.

carl. he's gonna sit down, have his food and drink ready, only to fall asleep in the first ten minutes. and snore loudly. and eventually wake up and pretend nothing happened.

henrik. he's gonna have an edible beforehand because he doesn't like movies, but that will make him have even more fun. he might even cry when the little kid says something sweet, or when the couple gets together in the end. "that was so... terrible. i love it." and start laughing.

noah. he hates them. "no one is that corny." but he sits down and watches it with her because even though he doesn't like to admit it he loves to hate them.

hannah might actually like them, unironically. she's a writer and will definitely pick up mistakes the screenwriters committed but like... it's a guilty pleasure of hers. she even has a favorite actress and theme and it's princess related. poor girl meets prince, prince falls in love, there's a conspiracy to split them up that often involves a letter for some reason, girl leaves humiliated, prince finds out and tells his mom off, princen catches up with poor girl, poor girl becomes princess. rinse and repeat. she eats that shit up every time, and often cries over the movies.

marisol, priya, elisa and ibrahim would never. and i respect them for that. after a first try they would have the answer ready to go whenever mc asked, and it's 'NO 💙'