#vuong I'm looking at you | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

illuminatedquill · 7 months

Text

Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger:

Star Scar-Crossed Lovers

They don't know how much they'll miss At least until you're gone like this Talking to the mirror, say, "Save your breath Half your life, you've been hooked on death" Twice the dreams, but half the love Be careful what you bottle up The chemistry is a mess, it seems But me, I'm still a sunbeam I will never ask you for anything Except to dream sweet of me I will never ask you for anything Except to dream sweet of me Tell me, when the party ends Will you still love who I am, I am? - Fall Out Boy, Heaven, Iowa

Here's the thing - Ezra's disappearance and subsequent absence from Sabine's life was always going to hurt her in a way that no one else's did.

All because Ezra was kind. That's the horrible, tragic irony of it all that keeps me up at night. Sabine has lost so many loved ones throughout her life: ran from her own family; her fellow Mandalorian and friend Ketsu Onyo left her for dead; Kanan died to allow her, Hera, and Ezra to escape Imperial forces; and, later on, her master, Ahsoka Tano left her shortly after the Purge of Mandalore.

It's arguable that even Hera and Zeb presumably became estranged from her at some point during or after the events of the Original Trilogy. The Ghost Crew split up. Sabine is alone on Lothal and clearly is not accustomed to visitors when we see her in the Ahsoka premiere.

Sabine, as we know, is accustomed to this. She has developed a method of "moving on" and forging a new path ahead. She internalizes the pain, for better and worse, and keeps moving.

It's served her fairly well.

But not with Ezra. He does the one thing none of those others did: he leaves a message, just for her, shortly before his disappearance with Thrawn into another galaxy.

With that message, that act of unconditional love and kindness, it leaves an indelible scar on Sabine's heart.

With the others who left or died or she ran away from, she could ignore the pain. Sabine could justify it for being due to one reason or another.

Ezra's message does away with that defense. Slips past through her hardened exterior and nestles deep within her heart.

Because he's kind. Because he's Ezra and he didn't want to leave his friend without saying good-bye and wanted to give her some sense of closure.

"Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined." - Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

She doesn't close the door on Ezra. But she can't cross through it either. For the next ten years, Sabine becomes stagnant, keeping that fire of hope burning for her lost friend but unable to act on it.

And she plays that message every day, probably.

Plays it again.

And again.

She dreams of that recording; has Ezra's statement memorized to where she mouths along the words with him and can even copy his mannerisms. Sabine takes to heart every little one of his movements and how shy and awkward he looks when he says she's "like a sister" to him.

(And she scoffs. Every single time. But doesn't quite know why that line irritates her.)

The tragedy is that Ezra's message was meant to reassure Sabine and let her move on . . . only to do the exact opposite.

It becomes a burden to bear - one that she does so willingly and with all the ferocity and determination she can muster. But, still a burden it is, despite Ezra's good intentions.

Sabine eventually does the unthinkable - she takes on the mantle of a Jedi.

Think about it. Never, in the entirety of Rebels, had she ever shown an inkling of being interested in following the Jedi path.

Why now? What's changed?

It's simple. Ezra's gone.

Maybe it's a desire to get closer with him but, equally likely, Sabine sees it as a potential avenue to find him someday. She's seen it's power and the abilities it produces in those who are able to wield it.

But even that path forward to Ezra fails. Her people - and her family - are purged by the Empire and Ahsoka cuts her Jedi training short out of fear for Sabine becoming dangerous should she reach her full potential after such a tremendous loss.

More years pass, but the fire never dies. But Sabine cannot do anything. She stays locked in Ezra's watchtower, seeing the galaxy return to life but not feeling any of it for herself.

And then, eventually, Ahsoka returns with the map to Thrawn.

We know the rest.

The planet of Seatos. The map. Ahsoka's fall.

Sabine's choice. The only choice. The grand calculus of the universe demands that she place duty over love; that she throw away Thrawn's one chance of returning to finish what he started.

And, in doing so, doom Ezra to die far, far away from home.

And Sabine makes her choice. Gambles the fate of her galaxy, the hard won peace that so many had fought and died for - all for love.

The Ahsoka finale seems to find Sabine and Ahsoka making peace over her choice. Yes, Thrawn has returned to the galaxy - but so has Ezra, thus fulfilling Sabine's promise to herself of getting him home.

Ahsoka reassures her that the Force has plans in motion - that although they are stranded in another galaxy, they are meant to be here. Just like Ezra is meant to be back home.

Trust in the Force. Sabine and Ezra will find their way back to each other, no matter what.

. . . But there's always consequences to a decision. Always.

I don't believe that Sabine sacrificing her desire to be with Ezra after being kept apart for so long is the true cost of what she did. I don't think that's her real trial.

I think the real reckoning is yet to come.

Because Ezra never found out how she came to find him.

Sabine could not bring herself to tell him. Because she is, appropriately, scared of how he will react. She does not want to lose him again.

(The weight of that will break the galaxy.)

Helping Thrawn return is not only a betrayal of everything Ezra and others had sacrificed for but it places Lothal, Hera, Jacen, Zeb, and countless other beings in extreme danger.

In making her deal with Baylan to find Thrawn, Sabine may end up losing him again in a way more permanent than being trapped in a distant galaxy.

Sabine got him back after so long . . . only for her choice to cause an irreparable rift in their relationship.

The loss of Ezra's love, trust, and respect for Sabine is something I cannot fathom how she would handle. She saved him, only to lose him because of it.

And to think from it on Ezra's side - that he doesn't know how his message came to define Sabine's life these past ten years. He's Force-sensitive and, more importantly, knows Sabine better than most people; he knows she's hiding something from him.

But I don't think he could guess it was something like helping Thrawn. He wouldn't even consider it being in character for her, let alone especially for someone who is training to be a Jedi.

Ezra would never, for a single second, consider that Sabine is a traitor. It's unthinkable for him. It's probably why he never questioned Sabine further after she showed up on Peridea with little explanation.

For what reason would she risk the galaxy? To throw everything into the hands of the galaxy's most feared and cunning Imperial warlord?

And when he finds out it was all for him . . . . my heart breaks for Ezra.

The scar of Sabine's choice would mark him long enough for several lifetimes.

How do you fix something like that? How do you come back from a betrayal that burns everything you've ever sacrificed for, everything you've ever stood for?

How do you face the person you trusted to safeguard all of that, only to find out that they're the one who lit the flame?

How do you reconcile that they did all these terrible things for you?

(Ask Vader how well that turned out for him.)

It's Sabine. It's Ezra.

And the scars they've given each other . . . all for love.

If Filoni is brave enough, then this could be the most interesting relationship in all of Star Wars.

#sabezra #ezrabine #sabine wren #ezra bridger #star wars rebels #ahsoka #ahsoka show #star wars #ahsoka spoilers

91 notes · View notes

me-a-mess-morelikelythanyouthink · 7 months

Text

a dedication to someone that doesn’t deserve one

AroarA // june gehringer // sue zhao // ashstfu // ryebreadgf // sue zhao // rvbhleo // osamu dazai // ojibwa // ashstfu // anna ahkmatova // trista mateer // margaret atwood // unknown // mahmoud darwish // ocean vuong // yves olade // unknown // ocean vuong // lucille clinton // fleabag

[text IDs: Image 1: AroarA, #6: “that the house is slowly on fire / that the house is slowly on fire // and I can't get you to leave it / and I can't get you to leave it // and I can't leave without you / and I can't leave without you”

Image 2: june gehringer, I love you, it looks like rain: “the worst part of love is / that I remember it. // I walk around all day thinking: I'm going to die in the universe you loved me in. // I get so jealous of euthanized dogs.“

Image 3: sue zhao: He asks: “"how do I get over somebody I never had?" And says: // I did not love you but I almost did. At one time, I might have loved you - at least, I felt I might have. If you were never loved by me, then nevertheless you were lovable to me. Last night I dreamt that your head lay on my stomach and traced the rise and fall of my breath. It felt complete natural - even though I knew once, we had left each other. Even though I knew we had wounded each other. In the dream state, forgiveness comes easily. I never loved you but I almost did. There are days when the breadth of ambiguity feels much worse. There are days I wish I would have loved you so I would know how to stop.

Image 4: ashstfu, tumblr: “girls vs getting over anythings thats ever happened to them in their life”

Image 5: ryebreadgf, tumblr: “YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK! YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK! YOU CAN BITE AND SCRATCH AND BEG BUT YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK!”

Image 6: sue zhao: “How often are you violent against yourself? Does it horrify you? Can you stop? Do you want to? And if you did, would you know how to?”

the last three sentences spanning from “Can you stop?” to “would you know how to?” have been underlined in blue

Image 7: rvbhleo, all caps: “WHAT IS THE POINT OF LUKEWARM LOVE? IF IM NOT DROWNING IN IT I HAVE NO DESIRE FOR IT”

Image 8: osamu dazai, no longer human, highlighted in pink: “the wound has gradually become dearer to me than my own flesh and blood”

Image 9: ojibwa, tumblr: “Grieving, grieving, constantly grieving./I mourn what could have been, what will not be, what I can't save.”

Image 10: ashstfu, tumblr: sometimes getting over something is accepting you will never get over it”

Image 11: anna ahkmatova, parting: “I am very calm. Only do not talk to me about him.”

Image 12: margaret atwood, more and more: “there is no reason for this, only a starved dog’s logic on bones”

Image 13: unknown, all caps: “OTHER BOYS ARE BORING AND YOU ARE A BURNING HOUSE I WANT TO LIVE IN”

Image 14: mahmoud darwish, formatted as if in dialogue between two people: “ -Do you have any weapons on you?” “-I have a longing that's killing me.”

the second sentence is highlighted in yellow

Image 15: trista mateer, honeybee: “I've gotten so good/about not flinching at the sound of your name/that people don't know I'd still throw myself/mouth-open into the ocean/for the chance to drown somewhere you might see it.“

Image 16: yves olade, bloodsport: “All that/matters is that you want to hurt me. // All that matters is that you want me/Say the word & I'll burn for ten days.”

Image 17: unknown, all caps: “LETS GO TO THE GARDEN./LETS BE KIDS AGAIN./I’LL CHASE YOU IF YOU CHASE ME.”

Image 18: ocean vuong, on earth we’re briefly gorgeous, highlighted in yellow: “When does a war end? When can I say vour name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?”

Image 19: lucille clifton, climbing: “maybe i should have wanted less./maybe i should have ignored the bowl in me/burning to be filled./maybe i should have wanted less.”

Image 20: fleabag, season 2 episode 6: a screenshot of the priest looking at fleabag, captioned, “It’ll pass.” below]

#silv's back on her bs #web #web weave #web weaving #quotes #AroarA #june gehringer #sue zhao #ashstfu #ryebreadgf #rvbhleo #osamu dazai #ojibwa #anna akhmatova #margaret atwood #mahmoud darwish #trista mateer #yves olade #ocean vuong #lucille clifton #fleabag #on relationships #on past relationships #on love #just #the person who defined over five years of my life doesn’t deserve to have a post dedicated to him #he doesn’t deserve to live in the corner of my brain he doesn’t deserve the sick feeling I get when I walk past him #but at night when I can’t fall asleep I can’t help but think that if he told me he loved me one more time it could change something #that I could swallow the bile and pretend that this is the love I’ve been waiting for #i don’t even know how to tag this because every moment I have is an exercise in love and grief and moving on

58 notes · View notes

counttwinkula · 10 days

Text

@spicymangoman this is such a thought provoking question (re: my jeffrey jerome cohen's monster culture (seven theses) post)

i think the shortest answer is that the monster is polysemic; it is a sign with multiple simultaneous interpretations and meanings. ocean vuong writes that a monster is a "hybrid signal"; any contradictions it may hold are, in some way, part and parcel of being a monster.

the monster does often introduce category crisis regarding the difference between self and Other! this is an extremely common monstrous trope:

the hivemind is the most obvious example of a monster that blurs the boundary between self and Other

the blob also comes to mind, as an Other which quite literally threatens to incorporate the self into its body

through the same logic as the blob, we can see this same threat of the self being annihilated and incorporated into the Other through any monster that engages in cannibalism or consumption

(i'm currently researching The Haunting of Hill House and boy howdy is that theme present)

infectious monsters (vampires, zombies, werewolves) pose a similar threat, the Other whose influence may cause a loss of selfhood and subsequent incorporation into a noncontiguous monstrous body

frankenstein's monster and shapeshifters both challenge the stability of the self, or the self as a singular, knowable body, thereby posing a problem for the self/Other binary

we must also keep in mind that the Other represented by the monster is quite often a coded representation for the racialized, gendered, sexed, classed, etc. other. i think that here we find a general anxiety of category crisis with regard to "you look like me but you're not me" and the differences then being exaggerated through the monster's nonbinary and excessive body

so, while the creature from the black lagoon or guillermo del toro's amphibian man do not pose these same threats of losing the self to the monster, they still represent a sort of me/not-me problem through their anthropomorphism alone (while simultaneously standing in for the racialized, "savage" other)

cohen also writes that "one kind of alterity is often written as another", meaning that not only do the metaphors within the monster often overlap, but the monster often troubles multiple binaries at once. he gives the example of the cynocephalus, a human with a dog head and intersex characteristics, thereby sitting at the border of human and beast as well as the border of male and female

regarding category crisis, cohen writes that the monster "defies easy categorization" and continues:

This refusal to participate in the classificatory "order of things" is true of monsters generally: they are disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration. And so the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions.

i would say that the monster's nonbinariness stems, in some ways, from the fear of the unknown, and more specifically the fear of the unknowable. by existing across binaries and disrupting systems of classification, the monster presents a challenge to defining it and knowing it

knowledge is typically the antithesis to fear. Alien and Child's Play both rely on the audience not catching full glimpses of the monster, utilizing a half-seen, in the shadows, out of the corner of your eye aesthetic to maximize fear. the first step to solving a monster of the week episode is mulder or giles defining the monster. the longer the monster challenges knowledge, the longer it remains a threat, a danger, and an object of horror

similarly, the fear of the Other is a fear of the unknown, because the body outside the self can never be wholly, comprehensively, reliably known. in my opinion, this is probably the source of that overlap in the metaphor: the monster embodies category crisis and the dread of difference due to their common roots in the fear of the unknown

#long post #monster theory #spicymangoman

23 notes · View notes

batmanisagatewaydrug · 1 year

Text

every single book I read in 2022. all 129 of them.

jesus christ

let's start with the best of the best; everything else will get listed beneath the read more because I'm not an animal. even just picking out my favorites is honestly probably going to get pretty lengthy, even though I'm trying to keep the synopses short.

batmanisagatewaydrug's noteworthy books of 2022

Complaint! (Sara Ahmed, 2021) - necessary for anyone doing diversity work in higher education, tbh

America is Not the Heart (Elaine Castillo, 2018) - achingly gorgeous novel of heartbreak and healing.

The School for Good Mothers (Jessamine Chan, 2022) - honestly? I feel very good calling this my favorite book of the entire year. sensitive, smart, chilling.

Black Feminist Thought (Patricia Hill Collins, 1990) - truly ashamed to say I didn't read this sooner. Collins' clear-eyed analysis remains crazily spot-on 30+ years later.

Hurts So Good: The Science and Pleasure of Pain on Purpose (Leigh Cowart, 2021) - I read this book so early in 2022 and literally have not stopped thinking about it since.

Batman: King Tut's Tomb (Nunzio DeFillippis, Christina Weir, José Luis García-López, and Kevin Nowlan, 2009) - dare I say the most fun I had with a comic all year.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (Akwaeke Emezi, 2022) - a romance unlike any other. queer, fun, sexy, bold as hell, and joyfully life-affirming.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (Mariana Enríquez, trans. Megan McDowell, 2021) - DELICIOUSLY creepy short stories that will lurk in your brain forever.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (Kim Fu, 2022) - if a more perfect short story collection exists I am yet to find it.

The World We Make (N.K. Jemisin, 2022) - I normally hesitate to include sequels on a list like this, but god DAMN Jemisin is the queen of modern spec fic for a reason.

We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Mariame Kaba, edited by Tamara K. Nopper, 2021) - excellent collection of Kaba's abolitionist writings, drawing on years of organizing experience and wisdom.

Jade City (Fonda Lee, 2017) - look out! new favorite doorstopper fantasy series alert!

Priestdaddy (Patricia Lockwood, 2017) - about the best damn memoir I've ever read. heartbreaking and hysterical in turns, poetry the whole way through.

Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, 1996 and 1999) - it's always so exciting when something much-hyped lives up to the hype in every way. Batman at his grim and moody Batmaniest with a Gotham that’s deliciously bleak.

Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel, 2014) - I didn't think I'd like this book much at all, then ended up proposing on the second date. oops!

I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy, 2022) - you will also be glad McCurdy's mom died, and also experience every other known human emotion along the way.

Kaikeyi (Vaishnavi Patel, 2022) - SPLENDID mythology retelling + political fantasy.

My Body (Emily Ratajkowski, 2022) - haunting haunting haunting personal essays about Ratajkowski's life as a model and subsequent alienation from her own body.

Batman: Bruce Wayne, Murderer? (Greg Rucka et al, 2002) - genuinely what can I say I'm a messy bitch and I love when the Bats are having a terrible time.

The Batman Adventures Vol. 2 #1-17 (created by Dan Slott, Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, Terry Beatty, and Bruce Timm, 2003) - a continuation of the Batman: The Animated Series universe that frankly just fucking rules.

Little Rabbit (Alyssa Songsiridej, 2022) - a potent and erotic adult coming of age story.

The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century (Amia Srinivasan, 2021) - thorny, difficult, vital essays.

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (Sabrina Strings, 2019) - jaw-droppingly thorough research into the role of fatpobia played and plays in the project of race-making.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong, 2019) - yeah so it turns out no one was REMOTELY exaggerating. Vuong really is That Good.

Hench (Natalie Zina Walschots, 2020) - wild fun with a ruthless protagonist and her sex villainous beetle man boss; what more could you ask for?

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021) - learning about queer history makes me feel like I’m holding something so vibrant and fragile and precious right in my little queer hand. this book is an emotional journey in such a shining way.

Never Have I Ever (Isabel Yap, 2021) - EXCITING short story collection centered on girls having Just The Weirdest Time.

and everybody else:

fiction:

Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki, 2021)

Our Wives Under the Sea (Julia Armfield, 2022)

A Tiny Upward Shove (Melissa Chadburn, 2022)

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Becky Chambers, 2022)

Disorientation (Elaine Hsieh Chou, 2022)

The Laws of the Skies (Grégoire Courtois, trans. Rhonda Mullins, 2019)

The Monster Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson, 2018)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson, 2020)

Greenland (David Santos Donaldson, 2022)

Dead Collections (Isaac Fellman, 2022)

The Halloween Moon (Joseph Fink, 2021)

A Dowry of Blood (S.T. Gibson)

Nightmare Alley (William Lindsay Gresham, 1946)

The Vegetarian (Han Kang, trans. Deborah Smith, 2015)

The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, trans. William Aaltonen, 1915)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi, trans. Geoffrey Trousselot, 2019)

Woman, Eating (Claire Kohda, 2022)

Long Division (Kiese Laymon, 2014)

Jade War (Fonda Lee, 2019)

No One is Talking About This (Patricia Lockwood, 2021)

Portrait of a Thief (Grace D. Li, 2022)

Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger, 2020)

A Snake Falls to Earth (Darcie Little Badger, 2021)

Glitterati (Oliver K. Longmead)

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2019)

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2020)

Nona the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2022)

The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa, trans. Stephen Snyder, 2019)

Even Though I Knew the End (C.L. Polk, 2022)

100 Boyfriends (Brontez Purnell, 2021)

Flowers for the Sea (Zin E. Rocklyn, 2021)

Any Way the Wind Blows (Rainbow Rowell, 2021)

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice, 1976)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 2012)

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 2022)

Into the Riverlands (Nghi Vo, 2022)

Siren Queen (Nghi Vo, 2022)

Strange Beasts of China (Yan Ge, trans. Jeremy Tiang, 2020)

short story collections:

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (Janelle Monáe, Yohanco Delgado, Eva L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas, 2022)

Walking on Cowrie Shells (Nana Nkweti, 2021)

Terminal Boredom (Izumi Suzuki, trans. Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan, 2021)

nonfiction:

Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Judith Butler, 1990)

How to Read Now (Elaine Castillo, 2022)

Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Melissa Gira Grant, 2014)

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Aubrey Gordon, 2020)

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color (Ruby Hamad, 2020)

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (Da'Shaun L. Harrison, 2021)

Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service (Tajja Isen, 2022)

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter (Scaachi Koul, 2017)

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (Revised Edition) (Kiese Laymon, 2020)

Sister Outsider (Audre Lorde, 1984)

Conversations with People Who Hate Me: 12 Lessons I Learned from Talking to Internet Strangers (Dylan Marron, 2022)

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism (Amanda Montell, 2021)

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Aimee Nezhukumatathil)

Histories of the Transgender Child (Jules Gill-Peterson, published as Julian Gill-Peterson, 2018)

Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance (Jessamyn Stanley, 2021)

A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk (edited by Valerie Steele, 2013)

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution (Revised Edition) (Susan Stryker, 2008)

The End of Policing (Alex S. Vitale, 2017)

The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (Michael Warner, 1999)

Read My Lips: Sexual Subversions and the End of Gender (Riki Wilchins, published as Riki Anne Wilchins, 1997)

poetry:

Short Talks (Anne Carson, 1992)

Content Warning: Everything (Akwaeke Emezi, 2022)

Prelude to Bruise (Saeed Jones, 2014)

Alive at the End of the World (Saeed Jones, 2022)

Bright Dead Things (Ada Limón, 2015)

Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals (Patricia Lockwood, 2014)

Nature Poem (Tommy Pico, 2017)

Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Ocean Vuong, 2016)

Time Is a Mother (Ocean Vuong, 2022)

comics:

Batman: One Bad Day - Mr. Freeze (Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera, and Dave Stewart, 2022)

Spandex - Fast and Hard (Martin Eden, 2012)

Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour (Tee Franklin, Max Sarin, and Marissa Louise, 2022)

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, 2009)

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcom Jones III, 1988)

The Sandman: In the Doll's House (Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Malcolm Jones III, and Steve Parkhouse, 1989)

The Sandman: Dream Country (Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Colleen Doran, and Charles Vess, 1991)

The Sandman: Season of Mists (Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcom Jones III, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, P. Craig Russell, George Pratt, and Dick Giordano, 1992)

The Sandman: A Game of You (Neil Gaiman, Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, Stan Woch, and George Pratt, 1993)

Run, Riddler, Run (Gerard Jones and Mark Badger, 1992)

Catwoman: When in Rome (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, 2005)

Batman: Year One (Frank Miller and David Mazzicchello, 1986)

Batman: One Bad Day - Penguin (John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, and Arif Prianto, 2022)

Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive (Greg Rucka et al, 2002)

Batman: One Bad Day - Two-Face (Mariko Tamaki, Jaiver Fernandez, and Jordie Bellaire, 2022)

Batman & Robin Eternal Vol 1 & Vol 2 (James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, 2015 and 2016)

Batman: Their Dark Designs (James Tynion IV, Guillem March, and Tomeu Morey, 2020)

The Joker War Saga (James Tynion IV and Jorge Jiménez, 2021)

Papergirls Vol. 1-6 (Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, 2016-2019)

Real Hero Shit (Kendra Wells, 2022)

Poison Ivy #1-6 (G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara, 2022)

and some gaming guides!

Monster of the Week (Michael Sands, 2012) - great game. so cool. cannot wait to actually play it someday.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians (April Kit Walsh, 2021)

special shame zone because I want you to know how bad this sucked, do not read this:

Rethinking Sex: A Provocation (Christine Emba, 2022). patronizing, puritanical, reductive, painfully cisheteronormative. weirdly afraid of group sex. not actually that provocative, just aggressively Catholic.

and last but most certainly least, a comic that I want to remind you all fucking sucked just one more time before the year is done.

Batman: One Bad Day - The Riddler (Tom King and Mitch Gerads, 2022)

Tom King, go fuck yourself. Mitch is cool though, the art slapped.

#bookblr #if you find a typo in here no you didn't xoxo #feel free to tell me your thots or ask about any of these i love to talk about my unhinged reading habit

183 notes · View notes

flowerprose · 1 year

Text

writeblr intro ♡ flowerprose

hi there! call me krys. i'm a libra sun, in my late 20s, and i love to escape into writing. ultimately, my goal is to finish my novel, namesake, by the end of march, revise it throughout april, and spend the rest of 2023 querying until i land an agent.

please note that this blog is a side-blog. i follow, reply, like, and send asks from @peresephones!

greek mythology, fairy tales, science fiction, and fantasy have always burrowed closely within my heart, and really shaped the sort of writer i am now.

i chose my username because i write in what others have described as a "flowery, lyrical, or poetic” style.

a little about me: i recently started work at a new job that i love. i have two tabby cats who happen to be sisters and gorgeously precious. my fondness for flowers and plants tends to leak into my writing, more obnoxiously in namesake than anywhere else.

for me, writeblr is a sense of community and i love getting to read another person's craft and talk with them about their process. i'm less receptive to asks these days bc of how busy i am, but i do try to send out asks whenever i see games flooding my dash!

i'm also gay and will probably favour your female characters above all else.

you are always welcome to tag me in tag games or add me to a tag list of your wip if we are mutuals. (in fact, tagging me is a lifesaver bc i can't always check the dash anymore and i'm prone to missing things!) i'm not stingy about who i follow, although i personally try not to follow or engage with minors.

favourite books: lullabies for little criminals by heather o'neill, the girls by emma cline, circe and the song of achilles by madeline miller, all the ugly and wonderful things by bryn greenwood, the princess bride by william goldman, deathless by catherynne m. valente, we are okay by nina lacour, fangirl by rainbow rowell, her body and other parties by carmen maria machado, bunny and 13 ways of looking at a fat girl by mona awad, sharp objects by gillian flynn, writers & lovers by lily king, son of a trickster and dogs in winter by eden robinson, poison study trilogy by maria v. snyder, on earth we’re briefly gorgeous and night sky and exit wounds by ocean vuong, and lastly, red hood and damsel by elana k. arnold.

favourite writers: anne carson, madeline miller, heather o'neill, louise gluck, emma cline, gillian flynn, leigh bardugo, elana k. arnold, richard siken, eden robinson, mona awad, ocean vuong, and maria v. snyder.

works in progress

n a m e s a k e ⛓🏛🌷💀🌿🌾

summary: a hades and persephone myth retelling in which kore, newly dead, is taken to the underworld to rot as mortals do. when hades discovers she is the godly offspring of his older siblings, he tricks her into eating pomegranate seeds and siphons her abilities into his own domain, unleashing a curse that ultimately causes him to start to decay.

wip intro | writing | character intros

at home, with graves 🪦💀🥀🐺🌒⚰️

summary: Nearly eight years prior, Lovey and Olly were rescued from a man they called “Bishop”, a serial killer who imprisoned their mother and raised them like his own. In the present day, a documentary about Bishop and his infamous slayings starts filming in their hometown. As the twins near their eighteenth birthday, true crime enthusiasts begin to reach out, requesting intimate insight of what really happened in Bishop’s cabin. While their grandfather, their now sole guardian, slowly loses his battle to grief, Lovey starts to keep track of how much of Bishop was implanted in Olly, and how to avoid the fate of a victim.

wip intro | writing | poetry

#writeblr intro #reintroduction since i hit a follower milestone!

125 notes · View notes

jaydeiswriting · 7 months

Text

A Mini Dissection of Ocean Vuong's Craft Choices in Night Sky with Exit Wounds

On a recent reread of Ocean Vuong's Night Sky with Exit Wounds, I indulged my rabid fascination with understanding a poet's repertoire of poetic devices and investigating the specific ways they use them in a body of work. This time, I was particularly drawn to specific uses of repetition and rhyme that and the ways they help craft meaning by creating theme and structure throughout the whole collection. Looking at two of the poems from this collection available to read online, I'm going to try to point some of these out.

Repetition Techniques

Vuong uses a lot of repetition in Night Sky with Exit Wounds in general, but the most interesting to me were his use of anadiplosis and his use of repetition as a structural element. These are both evident in the poem Eurydice, specifically here:

In these circled instances, Vuong uses anadiplosis in using a word or phrase at the end of one sentence and then repeating it in the beginning of the next sentence. [Yes, I had to expand my repertoire of literary terms to understand how to refer to what was going on here. Here's a great article on repetition techniques that taught me a ton.] The sentences are then more closely linked than the surrounding sentences, which compels me to read them together for a fuller meaning. In this specific instance, the text expresses instability (things change "depending on where you stand", gravity changes/breaks things) and the language compounds it with its shifting nature, repeating only to diverge. In some other poems, the same technique works as if to destabilize meaning, to establish an understanding of a phrase and then completely shift the context so it means something else. This is incredibly interesting when considering the context of the collection as a whole and how displacement, uncertainty, and the immigrant experience are thematically relevant. This use of repetition then expands on theme and creates a form/content agreement where the text embodies its meaning.

Here, repetition also works as a structural element, linking all the phrases in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. The repeating "depending on where you stand," "your name," and "gravity" connect the sentences and offer momentum and cohesion. This technique grounds even otherwise disjointed poems so they're still easily digestible.

[Note: if you're interested in these usages, I highly recommend checking out Billy-Ray Belcourt's "Duplex (The Future's a Fist)" in NDN Coping Mechanisms.]

Rhyme as Emphasis

Another tendency of Vuong's is to use rhyme to create emphasis, specifically where it elevates theme. Most of the poems in the collection are free verse with no set rhyme scheme and very few rhymes in general. This makes the rare rhyme much more jarring, causing it to emphasize certain words and its associations. For example, this technique adds meaning to the poem In Newport I Watch My Father Lay His Cheek to a Beached Dolphin's Wet Back, in which the rhymes highlight moments of violence and their association with the speaker's state of being.

The first instance is:

The semi-automatic is a signifier of violence, attached through rhyme to the speaker's "static" state (also automatic, as indicated by the enjambment of the phrase). This can, in the poem's context, indicate the jarring difference between the chaos and cacophony of violence and the speaker's opposite reaction of stasis, possibly even representing trauma.

Here, the rhyme between AK-47 and the speaker's age, eleven, makes a connection between violence and youth that lends to the theme of the poem, colouring the speaker's relationship with their father.

Rhyme works to create connections between words that add to meaning and theme throughout most of this body of work.

Bonus: Enjambment

As seen in the poem just above, another technique that theeads the collection is Vuong breaking compound words into their component parts over enjambments. This is present in the first excerpt of the second poem, as it goes "semi / -automatic." This specific use of enjambment can do so many different things, but I'm interested in why it comes up so much in a poetry collection with the themes listed above. I keep coming back to its use as a show of disconnection and fragmentation that feels incredibly relevant to the thematic landscape of the book.

Conclusion

Honestly, the most interesting thing about the choices poets make about when and how to employ certain poetic devices is how it often lends to the "point" of the book as a whole. The content and form echoing each other, in this poetry collection, makes it all so much more visceral and engaging.

#am reading #poetry #poetry craft #poetic devices #poetry craft talk #next i wanna look at k-ming chang's enjambments because i am obsessed w/ them (+more)#ocean vuong #night sky with exit wounds

33 notes · View notes

astrronomemes · 9 months

Text

ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS: STARTERS

a collection of quotes, phrases, and sayings from the 2019 Ocean Vuong novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. change & alter as needed.

"Grab your coat. I'll get you McDonald's."

"You have to get bigger and stronger, okay?"

"The human eye is God's loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil, and still, it holds nothing."

"A survivor is the last one to come home."

"To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once."

"You're a monster. But so am I — which is why I can't turn away from you."

"They say that trauma affects not only the brain, but the body, too — its musculature, joints, and posture."

"Stop crying! You're always crying!"

"Whether we want to or not, we are traveling in a spiral. We are creating something new from what is gone."

"Theories are for people with too much time and not enough determination."

"I don't know if you're happy, [name]. I never asked."

"It is a beautiful country, depending on where you look."

"It is a beautiful country, because you are still breathing."

"It is a beautiful country, because you are still in it."

"There are no animals here but us."

"Everything good is somewhere else, baby, I'm telling you. Everything."

"The most useful thing one can do with empty hands is hold on."

"I'm not scared of dying anymore."

"I fucking hate my dad."

"This is my superpower — to make a dark even darker than what's around me."

"What do you call the animal that, finding the hunter, offers itself to be eaten?"

"Sometimes, being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined."

"Do you remember the happiest day of your life? What about the saddest?"

"Do you think we'll still hang out when we're a hundred?"

"I don't like girls."

"I can leave, [name]. If you don't want me, I can go. I won't be a problem, and nobody has to know."

"For the first time in a long time, I'm trying to believe in heaven. In a place we can be together after all this blows over."

"They say every snowflake is different. But the blizzard, it covers us all the same."

"I don't celebrate my birthday anymore."

"They say nothing lasts forever, but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

"I think I just deep-throated an invisible cock."

"I miss you more than I remember you."

"Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desperation to keep it."

"If there's a heaven, I think it looks like this."

"Maybe in the next life, we'll meet each other for the first time — believing in everything but the harm we're capable of."

"Don't cry on me again. Don't you cry on me now."

"What have we become to each other if not what we've done to each other?"

"What are we if not what the light says we are?"

"All this time, I told myself we were born from war. But I was wrong, [name]. We were born from beauty."

"They say if you want something bad enough, you'll end up making a god out of it."

"I know you believe in reincarnation. I don't know if I do, but I hope it's real. Because then maybe you'll come back here next time around."

#rp meme #roleplay meme #rp starters #roleplay starters #dialogue prompts #rp prompts #roleplay prompts #rp memes #roleplay memes #sentence memes #sentence prompts #sentence starters

53 notes · View notes

alittlebitofmuse · 28 days

Text

WHAT FORM OF LOVE DO YOU EMBODY?

Astarion: Love as Violence

[ love as bloodshed, crimson as a knife slipped between your ribs ]

When Ocean Vuong said, "To arrive at love, then, is to arrive through obliteration," and when Franz Kafka said, "You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love," and when Ada Limon said, "How do you love? Like a fist. Like a knife," and when Richard Siken said, "Sorry about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine."

Halsin: Love as Light

[ love as a luminous force—warm, radiant, and golden ]

When Mary Oliver wrote, "Light of the world, hold me,” and when Charles Bukowski said, “I look at her and light goes all through me,” and when David Viscott said, “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides,” and when E. E. Cummings said, “Lovers alone wear sunlight.”

I was tagged by: @windwithinmyveins <3 I'm tagging: @lunespariah, @mournmeal, @wildskissed, @threadsandwings

#{;ooc}#{musings; astarion}#{musings; halsin}#{so there are two kinds of people--}

9 notes · View notes

malinaa · 7 months

Text

TOP 9 BOOKS

tagged : @hmsharmony ty jennifer this was SOOO hard oh my god like. genuinely agonized me for days to think about what to choose but it was SOOO fun tho <3 tagging : @rosesau | @evcndiaz | @pendrgcn | @gayarthur | @the-tenth-arcanum | @oretsev | @wherepoetsdie | @bellamyblakru | @ryekat & anyone else who wants to do it !!! rules : list your top 9 books obviously. i cheated a little and put series as as one option because that's just who i am as a person. most of these i chose at random from my 5 star reads from the past few years btw

1. percy jackson and the olympians (series) by rick riordan

i was never a big reader in elementary school—or at least not to the extent that my classmates had been. my sixth grade english class required us to bring a personal book from home for silent reading and i stole my brother's spine-cracked copies of pjo and brought them to class. i finished the whole series in less than a school week (i had to scramble to the library to pick up another series because the single novel should have lasted me at least three weeks). pjo literally kickstarted my love for reading as a hobby and i truly don't know how to state the importance it had on my little ten-year-old brain fr

2. on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

i have never read a book more beautiful in prose and so uncommonly human than this. there's just something so incredibly heartbreaking knowing this whole book is the narrator's letter to his mother who can't read! like what the fuck

3. alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

this came as a surprise to Me when i first read it. i meandered through the first quarter, loving the writing style but feeling disconnected from the characters until the Church Hand Scene™ and it was hook, line, and sinker at that point (i have since come to love the disconnectedness in subsequent rereads, knowing that the feeling was the Point). i have read this book four (4) times since i read it first last year. LAST YEAR!!! olivie has like... fundamentally altered my brain chemistry or something because i feel like everything i have written since having read this book has been somewhat influenced by it.

4. much ado about nothing by william shakespeare

what can i say! this is theeeeeee romcom ever. i have watched so many adaptations of this play, read it countless of times and can recite some iconic lines, and still the banter between benedick and beatrice is sooo elite. cannot be topped!!

5. a place for us by fatima farheen mirza

fun fact: seed rec'd this book to me and has been reccing it to anybody who would listen. the prose is so lush and melancholic. it's one of those books where nothing Really happens, but you feel Every Emotion Under The Sun and you're just like. altered by reading it

6. the song of achilles by madeline miller

obviously.... OBVIOUSLYYYYYYY this had to go here. if i had two nickels for every greek myth retelling i read during school that fundamentally changed me etc etc u get it. i read this as a junior in high school when we, yet again, had to bring a personal book to read durin class. i think at that point of my life, i've never read something that tragic yet so beautiful at the same time and now i am always looking at the beautiful and tragic in media. so! there u go! brain cells rewired and whatnot!

7. the grisha trilogy by leigh bardugo

this is funny because i . technically did not rate any of these books 5 stars i'm sobbing. but like, considering the fact that my url is what it is and the way i always have them in the back of my mind, it's no wonder that i put them here. i have such an odd attachment to these books and these characters. i had copies of these books since their release but didn't touch them until ... before the sab tv release which is so fucking funny. like i don't know what i would be like if i read this as a t(w)een. i would've been so fucking insufferable ngl

8. when my brother was an aztec by natalie diaz

i actually read this for an assignment and had to write a report on it and i had SO much fun doing it. diaz plays a lot with hunger and her imagery is literally unmatched. i think about the way she contructs sentences and am filled with such envy. my beginning sentence for my paper was a nod to her style (though i failed miserably). it was: "in a paradoxical sleight of hand, hunger feeds in natalie diaz's debut." she is just. so fucking good at words i need to CHOMP on it

9. sharp objects by gillian flynn

you know the thing where you see a really popular author for a really long time and they have their work adapted to the screen and it's so good but you still haven't read their actual writing? yeah, that was me with gillian flynn (specifically about gone girl). i read gone girl, i read sharp objects, i read her short story the grownup, i'm currently reading the last novel of hers that i haven't read, dark places, and flynn is just so... incredibly good at constructing harrowing stories. it's no wonder why all three of her novels got adapted to the screen! her prose is so grounded. vivid. there's this ease to her writing that, whenever i concurrently read another novel, i always find the other piece to be lacking. i slink back to flynn's prose and immerse myself in her awful, human worlds.

#tag games #book recs #text #tais toi lys

23 notes · View notes

ohmeadows · 8 months

Note

Do you have any author/book recs for literary fiction? Or recs for beautiful writing (i.e. poetic, thought-provoking, interestingly structured sentences, haunting vibes, etc) in general?

tons, but i had to think on this so sorry it took me a while. i'm not including trigger warnings because honestly i'd forget half of the stuff others might find triggering, but you know. stay safe and research.

maddalena and the dark by julia fine had extremely poetic and beautiful writing, as well as a haunting vibe echoing through the pages.

the lonely city by olivia laing is a series of essays on art and artists and loneliness. probably one of the most thought-provoking books i've read on loneliness and the lengths we go to over it, as well as having an artistic practice rooted in it. highly recommend.

mourning diary and a lover's discourse by roland barthes. master of short fragment form, of turning just a few words into something you digest for days afterward. his theory books are rather heavy for me, but these are precious.

greek lessons by han kang. i love han kang's writing and this one delves into language in a very gentle, soulful way. painful and beautiful. probably a top 10 read of this year for me.

y/n by esther yi. i'm of two minds on this one. i wish it had been braver and weirder, but it is also really weird. it's about a woman who gets obsessed with a kpop band and it's very trippy, in the most positive way. i rated it a 3.5 because i felt it didn't carry itself to the finish line in a satisfying way, but it left me thinking.

love me tender by constance debré. on the limits of love in a corrupt system; debré came out as a lesbian and lost custody of her son because of it after her ex-husband made false accusations about "degenerate actions". she processes the slow, systematically enforced loss of time with her son and realizing he's a stranger to her now.

anything by maggie nelson, annie ernaux, édouard louis, sarah manguso, vivian gornick, anne carson. they all have very prolific releases to their names, i prefer their creative non-fiction/autofiction. i'd suggest looking through what's available and seeing if something grabs your interest here.

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong. masterpiece. i admire vuong's style and way of storytelling so much, i think he said "tell it true but tell it a slant". either way. love it.

natalia ginzburg is going through a revival as of late. i love her writing for the atmosphere, but think i prefer little virtues the most.

and for a tenth and final recommendation (for this round) the undying by anne boyer. nonfiction memoir/essay at its finest imo, she's unpicking illness and particularly her own cancer while exploring the cultural and historical aspects of illness, connecting it to other bodies of works. (can you tell i read a lot about illness and disability specifically?)

#ask meadows anything

26 notes · View notes

earthtooz · 9 months

Note

hello! i love your works so much everything you write is perfect! i stopped writing more than a year ago but reading your works inspired me to write again 😊 it’s crazy how we are the same age but our level of writing is completely different, yours blew my mind 🤯🤯🤯 (in a good way!!!!!) i was wondering if you could give me some tips to improve my writing as i feel like i’m lacking in many departments (if you’re comfortable in doing so, ofc!) thank you! ❤️❤️❤️

this ask was send march 5th, and i'm happy to report that four months later, for the first time in a while, i think i'm finally at a point in my writing where i'm confident giving out tips that are not generic and stock standard. i do not know if anon is going to ever see this, but i hope you do, and i hope that you're still as inspired to write as you were when you sent this :) a lot can happen in four months!!

i'm just going to get straight into it. you'll find that the further you go, the more... catered the advice might be to you (it's long, and maybe a bit rambly, but i hope it’s useful in some sort of way 🥲)

# ONE - THE MOST BASICS:

the most DEVASTATING thing you can do for your writing is not have a purpose for each scene or snippet you write. give your scenes a point, don't let them be just images that you sit on the document to take up space! are you trying to prove that character x oc's relationship is growing? are you trying to show that it's breaking apart? are you trying to set up the character as someone who's beginning to fall in love and hates it? give everything a purpose. every word must be linked to your intention.

you know what they say about chekhov's gun, if you are going to mention some little thing, give it a purpose later! you mention reader likes sweaters? let character give them a sweater! this works in many-a-ways.

this all comes down to the planning, which i would give tips on, but i'm writing this part too late. i'm also trying to keep this first part brief because this is a very long post.

for english speakers, the second most devastating thing is to not know your grammar LOL (i cannot criticise those who speak another language as their first! kudos to you, keep doing what you're doing.)

# TWO - FIND YOUR STYLE: easier said than done, but it's an essential part of any art. writing takes time, and only time will evolve your skill and therefore, your style. if you do not like what you write off the bat and believe you are 'lacking' in some departments (no such thing, there is room to improve instead of being 'incapable' of doing something), then i always turn to some of my favourite authors, whether they are published or another fanfiction writer, turn to them and study them. DO NOT PLAGIARISE, just try and emulate what you see from their works and put them into your works, with your own sense of individual style.

i have my list of esteemed tumblr writings that i look up to, as well as writers that i adore. ocean vuong will always be one of my favourite writers, i listen to him frequently when i am stumped by my own writibg. he has this sort of creative aura that drips of his own idiosyncrasy that inspires me every time i try to listen to him, him just speaking calms and invigorates me so much.

so yeah, find your writer, and learn from them :)

# THREE - THE 'DEPARTMENTS': the departments that i have included are:

characterisation

dialogue

description and artistic expression (this one is long, bear with me.)

like i said earlier, there are indeed departments are writing that we all have room to improve in. i will talk about the few that i might find specific to fanfic writing because i am nothing like an actual author :,)

characterisation: a fickle little thing T^T the worst thing ever. to characterise properly means you know the character like it's your own, but in fanfiction that's just truly not possible :,) so i can try and give you my own tips on how i deal with characterisation.

listen to the english dub (or your first language) - DON'T CRUCIFY ME. PLEASE. BUT LET ME SPEAK. for my fellow fluent english speakers, listening to a dub in a language we do not understand can only go so far in the way we understand a character. when listening to english, we hear the intricate ways of their tone and personalities work, and what kind of dialogue best flows with them (toji fushiguro is excluded from this. never listen to that man's english dub.). when i was writing for bakugou- he's not the hardest character to understand, but with the help of the english dub, the dialogue that i wrote for him flowed a lot easier than if i had just tried to internalise his jp dub. he's gruff, and rude, and cocky, and his english va captures that in quite an adorable way! ofc you can never just ignore the original, the original is there to provide you the blueprint, but sometimes a little help explaining the blueprint goes a long way !!

characterisation can also be perfected through the subtle changes in dialogue that you see. a big part of character is how they talk, and even just the subtlest of changes can go far. let me start with the example "this is a really bad idea." if i were writing itoshi rin, then i would change the sentence fit to his speech and embody how he'd actually react to a 'bad idea'. he's curt, doesn't say more than necessary, and unashamed to be cold so he'd probably just say "this is stupid." before walking away LMAOO if i were writing someone like gojo, then the sentence also changes too. he doesn't mind talking and adding more to his point, so i would write something like: "you sure? this doesn't seem like the brightest idea." and if i'm really trying to sell a romantic relationship, i'd add a 'sweetheart' there or something.

dialogue: this is a personalised experience, so as is everything in writing. i have been complimented on my flow and dialogue a lot of the time but in truth, i am merely having a conversation with myself in my head. i try to become the character i am writing about and then i just chat with myself :3 it can be that simple. dialogue does not need to be something you over-complicate, i am my own, ethical character.ai.

description and artistic expression: look, i can't say much on this one except that you're all on your own. i am still trying to perfect my own skills in this department because this is perhaps one of my most vexing parts of writing. i truly am just not... as poetic and imaginative as i want my words to be, but i am trying and i am improving.

my biggest tip regarding description and artistry is: if the reader can imagine it, you don't need to write it. you don't need to fill in the gaps with actual scenes, if your characters are walking through the park as a filler for getting from destination A to B, then that park scene does not need to be as descriptive as A or B. a mere 'you took a shortcut through the park' will suffice. or even better, just go straight from A to B.

say my 'A' scene is starting at a cafe, and my 'B' scene is going to the mall, you could just go 'calling for the waitress to get the bill, you then find yourself in the mall within 15 minutes'. spend time on the gaps that require a bridge to cross, not the gaps that you can merely step over.

these kind of things appear in your planning and admittedly, i don't even plan ROFLLL but i have primary scenes that i have sketched out which i sometimes add to. like spider webs, when going from one thread to another, sometimes the journey is not all that important if it does nothing for your plot.

again, i find inspiration in a lot of the writers i look up to. a recurring motif is something i love adding, whether that be dialogue or a recurring item that symbolises something (like the hairband in between love and lies - a nagi fic). techniques like motifs or an extended metaphor add a lot of depth in your writing that you can't find otherwise. you can also omit going too over the board with reader's emotions too, or just the character's. if it's obvious that they are angry, sad, happy, you don't need to go too far in detail about said emotions.

another so crucial thing is to take note of the things you see in real life and apply it in fiction. the most mundane of things you are doing can have beauty in words.

are you at the beach? why don't you take a look around. tell me about the people that sit on towels, minding their own business. tell me about the way the sun sits high in the sky, unforgiving and burning before going into the main plot.

are you sitting on a bench, killing time? tell me about the breeze you feel, or perhaps the heat that overwhelms you. tell me about what you hear- bikes, children laughing, whilst you're waiting for your date to show up- all of these minute things, so long as you don't go overboard, will matter a lot to the imagination of the reader!

# FOUR: TAKE CARE OF AND LOVE WHAT YOU WRITE writing will always be hard :,) not a single draft goes by where i do not find inconsistencies and flaws, but i love them all the same. i love the drafts that i read over once and posted and i also love the drafts that i poured blood, sweat, and tears into. neither of them are more special to me because they were all born from a simple idea.

to look back on what you wrote and going 'i can do this better now' is beautiful, no? i love the end product for what i learnt on the way.

i know me giving this advice is kinda hypocritical because you'll find me going 'i hate this' in the tags, and you can choose to believe me or not, but i adore all of my stories the same. some of them i just hate that i couldn't give them the attention and love that they deserved, which shows through in the end quality. not that you guys seem to care, it's all in my head sometimes lMFAO.

# FIVE - KEEP THE POV CONSISTENT: now we are getting to the tips that i've been learning myself recently. how funny is it that i learnt this whilst reading from a writer that i so admire?

whilst reading a long fic, i noticed that the flow is satisfying because there was no swap of perspectives. the character was in the focus the whole time and the reader was the reactor, the catalyst being the character's actions and internal dialogue. on the other hand, the reader's thoughts and feelings being in the spotlight can also be significant.

i had always known that keeping the pov consistent would influence your writing, but i never knew how much.

which pov you might want to choose is all intuitive. writing is intuitive- every other tip that i have revealed is all intuitive and i'll cover more of this later. more importantly right now, which perspective you want to execute is all on you, and no one else. if you know your character, your storyline, and your skills, you will simply know how the story shall go. it is just as powerful to write it from reader's pov as it is the character's because it comes from your knowledge and authority as the writer!

# SIX - LEAVE THE COMFORT ZONE: this kind of returns to tip four. sometimes the only way to evolve is to do something we are bad at and that advice applies to writing too. writing is a path set by previous writers but it is not one that we have to follow all the time, why take a shortcut when the long way is prettier, and more rewarding? your journey of improvement is dependent on what you realise and give yourself opportunities to improve in.

for example, recently i have been trying to improve the depth of my descriptions and- don't laugh, but the way i've been doing so is as followed:

i input myself into the scenario, i empathise with the characters within the scene and i describe it. maybe it's emotional and the character can't look you in the eye because they don't have the heart to, not when their chest is filled with a smoke that is so unbearable that all they can focus on is not turning to ashes. maybe it's a happy scene and all you can look at is the character. maybe it's confronting, and the only thing you can think about is defending yourself against their clenched fists that will never actually hurt you, but you know damn well can break your walls in one swing. leave the comfort zone, write new au's and new dialogue pieces, write new metaphors and similes and use rhyme, listing, repetition- just try something new every time and let it be meaningful to the story.

# SEVEN - GIVE YOURSELF TIME. like the growth of your muscles or the mobility of your limbs, or the way your hands flow along the canvas or keyboard, writing is a skill that can only be improved with time. fanfic writing is intuitive and completely reliant on your own tastes.

i can sit here, speak for ages about writing, but the only way you can learn is to do. i have people who see what i do and praise me for being one of their favourite writers, and as honoured as i am every time, i am merely born from the six years i have put into this craft, as well as the hours i put into writing and planning what they see. if you could see the behind the scenes, you would go 'what the fuck am i looking at' LMFAOO.

when i write and then i reread and i know what it is missing, but i cannot speak about this like it is easy, like i have not spent the past few years of my life consistently writing for various characters and growing along the way. to be fair, you don't need to take six years to get good at writing, it can be a very smooth process! i don't think i was the brightest cookie at 12 ngl but i took my characters and rewrote them into different scenarios and here i am today, at 18 and (marginally) better.

as long as the urge is there, worship it, take the step and write. then post, if that is a step you want to partake in. simple as that :)

that's all for now! sorry this is so long, now that you've reached the end, i just wanted to say that i have no authority over what you produce and how you do it. these are simply just things i've learned along the way and i hope they can provide you some sort of revelation.

#please read the last sentence too beyond NO.7 :<#reinforcing that i am not some writing mastermind so please take all of my advice with a grain of salt!#earf's inbox hours ✌️

26 notes · View notes