ficionalmanenthusiast

Latest Posts by ficionalmanenthusiast

When I was a kid, my dad hated when I hung up anything on my walls. My art, band posters, movie posters, anything. Not with taxks, not with tape (it “ripped the paint off”) not with anything. At one point in 5th or 6th grade he came in my room and found me hanging up a Diary of a Wimpy Kid poster with tacos and he was like “EVERY HOLE YOU PUT IN THE WALL TAKES $10 OFF THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE.” so when I was mad at him, I’d insert tacks into the wall in places he couldn’t easily see just out of spite. Whoever owns the house now is probably wondering about it.

Not every day has to count. Some days are for repairing, resting, mourning. You don't have to perform every day. Some days are for doing nothing. For sleeping all day or being on your phone. Relaxing is ok, allowed and encouraged. Do what you need to do.

Sometimes it's really hard being emotionally intelligent and self-aware, and also being good at analyzing people and yourself, especially when combined with being an overthinker. I know I'm right, even if it doesn't appear true yet, because my brain recognizes the patterns and has this cycle of self doubt that probably leads to self sabotage. I'm so tired of people not being able to be as emotionally intelligent as me, as it just leads to the loss of relationships and me being jaded, when everything could have been avoided with just simple communication

also the fact that on ttpd she's a huge mess of a person is great. i don't love everything about that album but i love the messiness of her public persona on it. she's too big to be knowable, yes yes, and she's the tamest of all the pop stars we have, of course. but by her own standards of decorum, she let it rip on this album for once. she said "I get myself off to people i'm not dating sometimes and i hate a chunk of my fans more than sometimes. i have terrible judgement. i kind of am a stalker lowkey. i drink way more than you think (and i should). and was fucking miserable for about half of that tour btw." among other things and then she hit post. good for her.

For Novice Writers: the quick test for Are You Being Scammed Or Not...

I read a sad case today of a young writer who had had her story rewritten into illiteracy by a so-called publisher, who then abused her in email when she wrote to complain. She wsn’t getting paid for her story – instead she was actually buying copies of the anthology to show people that she had sold a story. And I thought, it is time to remind the world, and to enlighten young writers, about…

Yog’s Law: 

Money flows towards the writer.

That’s all. All writers should remember it.  When a commercial publisher contracts a book, it will pay an advance against royalties to the writer. Money flows towards the writer. Literary agents make their living by charging a commission of between 10 and 20% on the sales that they make on behalf of their clients, the writers. When advances and royalties are paid by a publisher the agent’s percentage is filtered off in the direction of the writer’s agent but the bulk of the money still flows towards the writer. If a publisher ever asks for any sort of financial contribution from a writer, they’re trying to divert money away from the writer, in direct contravention of Yog’s Law. If an agent ever asks for up-front fees, regardless of what they call them (reading fees, administration costs, processing fees, or retainers), then they are trying to divert money away from the writer, in direct contravention of Yog’s Law. It’s a brilliantly simple rule. We should thank James D Macdonald for it in the best way there is. Buy his books

Money flows toward the writer.

No, that doesn’t mean that the author should get paper and ink for free, or that he won’t pay for postage. It does mean that when someone comes along and says, “Sure, kid, you can be a Published Author! It’ll only cost you $300!” the writer will know that something’s wrong. A fee is a fee is a fee, whether they call it a reading fee, a marketing fee, a promotion fee, or a cheese-and-crackers fee.

Is this perfect? No. Scammers have come up with some elaborate ways to avoid activating it. But it’s still a good and useful tool, and will save a lot of grief. Any time an agent or publisher asks for money, the answer should be “No!”

this is so dumb but there was that interview andrew garfield did with stephen colbert where he said grief is just all the unexpressed love we have left for someone who is gone and that no matter how much you tell someone you love them or show them, you will still have all of this love leftover when they're gone, and it's really helped me frame loss in a healthy way. like grief isn't a weakness. you will have it no matter what. it's proportional to the amount of love you had for someone and tried to show them every day and that's something you can take comfort in. or at least i do.

I can't believe the eras tour is over. I really want to thank everyone for listening to the audios I made for this tour, I never imagined so many people would care about my little passion project to collect all the live versions of the surprise songs. This has been an amazing journey to go on with all of you <3 <3 <3

No one warned me that coming into your own also includes grieving the life you were conditioned to believe you wanted.

There comes a time when fandom becomes less of an escape from anxiety to being the source of anxiety. Sometimes I need to remind myself what’s important to focus on, and I made this chart to help me with that. 

(Posting this at the request of a few people. The design/concept was inspired by an instagram post about covid-19 located here). 

just found out that stoats hunt twice the size of them like rabbits by aggressively and eccentrically dancing around it with their little slinky rigatoni bodies so it can confuse the absolute fuck out of its prey until it can get close enough to jump on its back like some shadow of the colossus shit and take it down

i just have this persistent feeling of “i’m not doing enough” combined with “i don’t have the energy to do anything” and it just really fucking sucks

Ending your Novel

When ending your novel, there are a few things to consider.

You’ll want to build up tension during the climax, and wrap things up during the resolution. Don’t forget to conclude your main storyline and finish up your subplots as well.

There should be some room left for readers to interrupt things on their own, such as the fate of certain characters.

Not only is it important that your ending makes sense, but it should also evoke emotion.

Knowing how your novel will end sooner than later will help guide you to its finish without wandering too much on pointless scenes.

📚 Here are some endings you can consider:

1) The Classic Cliff Hanger

Done wrong, this can leave readers unsatisfied. But if it’s done carefully, it can leave your audience yearning for more. Your protagonist’s main quest/goal should be concluded by the end of your novel, but leaving questions unanswered or a problem unresolved can be an intriguing cliffhanger. Cliff hangers don’t have to be groundbreaking, they can be small.

For example, Katniss survives The Hunger Games (concluding her main goal) but by tricking the Gamemakers into allowing two victors, we are left wondering what the consequences will be. Not only that, but we question what will come of her relationship with Peeta as he painfully realizes all of Katniss’s affection towards him was simply for the cameras.

2) End where you started

In a symbolic circle of events, you could potentially end your story in the location where it began. However, now the protagonist has newfound strengths or knowledge and can reflect on how they started. This cyclical ending can also work with a mirrored scene (ex. starting and ending with a sword fight). 

3) The What-If Ending

Instead of a direct cliffhanger, this conclusion focuses on leaving the ending up to the reader’s imagination. In The Giver, Jonas successfully leaves behind his town and approaches Elsewhere on a speeding sled. He is barely holding onto consciousness and we are left wondering if he will make it there alive—and if it’s even a real place to begin with.

4) The Twist

An unexpected (but planned) ending that can excite and surprise your reader. While a twist should be unexpected, when a reader goes back, there should be breadcrumbs and hints that make it intentional.

5) Simply… Resolved.

There are no open-ended questions or cliffhangers. Everything is wrapped up neatly in a satisfying way for your readers.

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

It’s fine because I’m actually using a secret technique called writing it in my head and nowhere else.

look at the republican calendar and see which animal/plant/item is associated with your birthday ok. if you're born january 14 you get the day of the cat

👍

A Writer's Guide to Character Development

I don’t know about you guys, but I can only answer “what’s your character’s favorite flavor of ice cream” so many times before I realize those lists are not going to help me actually write the character.

So, instead, I like to drabble practice. Answer these ten key questions about your character (answer in character). Then, after you know them a little better, write ten scenes (NOT part of your planned story) with the ten prompts below. Set it in your world, but it can be whenever you want—pre-story, or post-story, or mid-story. You could even write two scenes for one prompt, contrasting where your character starts the story and where they end up, or write one in first person and then write it again in third.

Just has to cover events that are NOT plot points. The point of the exercise is to come up with scenes you can toss out as soon as you finish them. You might end up using some of the lines or scenes you come up with, but for now you’re just playing around. 

QUESTIONS

What does your character tell everyone is their greatest fear? What is it actually? Is it the same? Why or why not?

What is their greatest strength and greatest weakness? 

Name the most important people to this character. All of them. Family and close friends and lovers.

Does your character have enemies? Who and why?

What is your character’s favorite holiday and why? 

How does your character like to present himself/herself? How do they dress? How do they act? Are they friendly or standoffish? Do they like to make a scene, or are they a wallflower?

What is their love language? How do they express it, and how do they best receive it?

What is their highest virtue? What is something that peers would praise about your character? What do they value most in other people?

Are they messy or neat? Why or why not?

If your character could change one thing about their life, what would it be and why? And, conversely, if they could only save one thing from their life, what would it be?

PROMPTS

Your character has had a bad day. What happened?

Your character’s loved one is sick. What do they do?

It’s your character’s birthday.

Someone is hiding something from your character. How do they uncover what it is?

Your character has just heard the news. A character they loved is dead. Describe the rest of their day.

Your character is on their own for dinner.

Your character has the day to himself/herself. No responsibilities, nothing. What do they do?

In the middle of the night, your character hears a noise in the house.

Your character knows they will die at midnight. What is their last day like?

Your character suddenly develops amnesia. Their loved ones try to jog your character’s memories by taking them to familiar locations and reminiscing. 

people who only use conventional social media are so funny bc they’ll casually be like “can I see your tumblr??” are you Insane. this is no instagram or twitter. this is my vault of secrets

my favourite instagram account is "wheredoesthepeecomeout" and it's run by a girl who asks men on tinder where cis women pee from and then documents their answers

"Don't vote to teach the Democrats a lesson!" Great thanks my Jewish disabled queer ass will just die then

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

I've been obsessed with how the first ten Hunger Games were in an actual arena, like with seats and an event floor and turnstiles and everything. Something that was so clearly human-made, without so much as a weed growing inside of it.

Then Coriolanus goes off to Twelve and has his own private Hunger Games with Lucy Gray in the middle of the woods and comes to the conclusion that humanity is violent, and it must be contained by the Hunger Games. Some point after that, the arenas are still human-made, but mimic nature like Snow's own Hunger Games with Lucy Gray. Some are deserts or tundras or jungles, but all are made to appear like a natural environment. Only they're nature that's been constructed and manicured by humans, just like the Games are.

Fitting, then, that the first hit against this arena is made by a boy from District Twelve. Then a quarter century later, this arena is destroyed by a girl from District Twelve who learned to shoot arrows in the very trees that saw the future dictator of Panem emerge from it with his worldview now set against the natural world.

What is or isn’t a slur can be highly contextual, y'all.

“Jonny Sims bummed a fag off my ma” doesn’t contain a slur, but “What are you, some kind of fag?” does.

“Queer studies”, “the queer community” and “I’m queer”? Not a slur. Some bigot calling you a “dirty queer”? Slur.

“Be gay, do crimes” and “He’s gay” ≠ slur, but “Ew, that’s so gay” = slur.

In conclusion, stop buying into this fucking “q slur” bullshit. Queer people talking about the queer community aren’t using it as a slur any more than a gay man calling himself gay is using that term as a slur.

Today I explained why I can't really travel to Florida right now to my dad & watching him get increasingly frustrated with the realization that Transphobia Exists was honestly something else.

him: "well if you're not allowed to use the men's bathroom, just go to the women's! that'll show them."

me: "yeah but I'm just as likely to have the cops called on me for 'using the wrong bathroom' in there. have you seen me lately?"

him: "but if one of the options is wrong and not allowed then the other one has to be the right option. what do they want you to do?"

my grandma, helpfully: "I think they want trans people to not go to Florida"

my dad: spluttering frustratedly

me: "I think the thing is that you are more logical and reasonable than Ron DeSantis."

the face of a semi-reformed(?) conservative when realizing with dawning horror that laws can be unfair on purpose is truly special tbh

idk who needs to hear this but get your ass up and start living the life you kept saying you wanted. chase the dreams you kept on dreaming about. don’t just write it down, go execute it.

If you’re like me and you have the debilitating habit of beating yourself up over things, look yourself in the mirror and just go “I am young and I am allowed to make mistakes. It’s not that serious.” Bc it really isn’t. It is not that serious at all. This is not our second time living. We did not have a rehearsal for what the correct way to live is. This is our first time and we are allowed to stumble. It’s fine. It’s not that serious.

carpenters who weren't able to secure a ticket during today's pre-sale please come get your cuddles.