you can call me rae. 24. she/her. haitian-american. bi, queer, christian. intersectional feminist. if you’re not a woc i don’t give a fuck. terfs/radfems/maps DNI and die i’m fucking serious. from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. follow my writeblr @mooncricket. protect woc in media.
as someone who was on deviantart way too much in middleschool my relationship to the furry community is sort of like how athiest people still celebrate christmas.
I’m having feelings about Katara v Pakku again, and the fact that at this point in the series, Katara has never been in a fight that wasn’t to the death. Every fight she’s ever been in has had world-ending stakes. She’s not shooting to kill Pakku because she’s weaker and less trained than him - though she is - she’s shooting to kill because she doesn’t know any other way to fight. Friendly sparring, or fighting as a spectator sport, has not been a part of this girl’s life. Pakku’s fighting Katara to put troublesome teenagers in their place; Katara’s fighting Pakku because they’ll all die if Pakku doesn’t pull his head out of his ass and train the Avatar.
Pakku is genuinely surprised to see his own reflection in that disc of ice Katara shoots right past his face. If he hadn’t dodged, it would have sliced his head right open. He starts putting actual effort in after that.
good smut is really a character study and that is final. i need it to be about vulnerability i need it to be about trust or lack thereof and most of all i need it to be emotional agony. thats what sex is for
if it isn’t even a little bit about the monstrous potential of intimacy when paired with hedonism or a dissection of guilt-related neuroticisms regarding sexuality… unacceptable. how am i meant to jork my pingus in these conditions
‘i don’t like the conversations on ai because both sides are annoying’ well I think loudly denouncing slave labor and speed running the destruction of our planet is important so suck my dick about it
This, and AI is destroying the environmentwhere people live. Idk if there’s a misconception that these environmentally toxic super computer facilities are located in remote recesses of the world where no neighboring communities are impacted. But that’s just not the case. Elon’s super computer, for example, is polluting the air so bad in Memphis that residents are getting poor air quality warnings every day and health is being negatively impacted.
Elon had to break zoning laws and bribe officials to build his factory there. And nobody gives af because Memphis is a predominantly Black city.
Most residents impacted aren’t able to move because South Memphis (the area impacted) is a poor Black area.
This is environmental injustice. People’s health irreparably damaged for a quippy white supremacist AI named Grok. And ya’ll are cheering it on cause you’re either ignorant, indoctrinated, don’t gaf about people’s lives, or some combo of the above.
So turns out…..you guys are not gonna believe this…….but it turns out. Reading real books. Is good for you actually.
Let me be completely clear - I’m not being a sarcastic ass. I’m just realizing all over again, in real time, for myself, that reading a real life published book makes your neurons feel like they’re getting a spa day. Like I can feel my brain getting juicer and wrinklier with every page I turn. This shit is no joke, this is like hard drugs if hard drugs were good for you and made your brain feel revived and alive.
@7redmoon nothing against some good fanfic, I’m a fic author myself, but there’s something very necessary and mentally nourishing about reading a published book that isn’t just a recycled version of the same cast of characters you’re already familiar with.
@911boofer I hope it’s okay I snagged these tags bc YES!!!!! This is what I’m talking about!!! Diversify your palettes, my friends, it’s so so good for you!!
It’s true, though. As someone who loves to give away days to a deep dive into fic, you need a well-rounded diet. There are brilliant fic writers out there, both talented hobbyists and award-winning bestselling professionals indulging in some fun, but as stated above, we’re all using pre-fab characters/worlds/plots to fiddle around with ideas that interest us. Original fiction draws inspiration from all that comes before it, but still attempts to create something new. It’s all the retellings and reboots vs. a new movie.
More than that, even though people like to say “I read fic that’s better than anything published!” that’s… not widely true. Sometimes it is! But fic is a thing that can go up without editing, without any kind of checks. It can be bad and ungrammatical and typo-riddled and nonsensical, and that’s okay! Because fic doesn’t have to be in any way good! It’s for pure experimentation and fun for the writer.
Traditionally published works, however, are meant to make money. They have multiple sets of trained eyes that try to make the final result the best it can be. Sometimes the final work falls short of that goal, sure, but there are steps to at least try to filter out some of the worst elements, which means you’re ingesting and internalizing fewer bad habits, which is crucial when you’re trying to figure out how to do this writing thing.
To reiterate, reading actual books means:
You’re more likely to have solid examples to internalize during your own learning process.
You have greater scope to read original work that at least attempts to do new things you’ve never seen before.
You’re reading works that have been vetted and refined multiple times by multiple people who do this for a living.
You’re reading things made with the GOAL of being polished, deliberately crafted, enjoyable experiences (as opposed to fic, which can be dashed off and is for the writer, not the reader)
Anecdotally, reading a really good book has always made me feel creatively sated to the point that I then feel like I need to release some pressure via writing.
TL;DR: Read widely. Read voraciously. Writers do not live on fic alone.
Here’s the thing I keep trying to articulate and possibly failing: I don’t actually mind characters who are terrible people. I have enjoyed many. What I mind is characters who are terrible people while the narrative keeps trying to say that they are wonderful, often contradicting what the narrative shows us, with no self awareness
The problem is not the goodness or badness of the character, the problem is the extreme disconnect between telling (by the narrative, not other characters) and showing
