when lizzo said “self love is survival” and when hannah gadsby said “do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists in the margins? it’s not humility. it’s humiliation” and when mitski said “i used to rebel by destroying myself, but realized that’s awfully convenient to the world. for some of us our best revolt is self preservation”

when audre lorde said “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”

when Jenny Slate tweeted, “As the image of myself becomes sharper in my brain&more precious, I feel less afraid that someone else will erase me by denying me love”

employees are expected to wear

appropriate

attire

Egyptian gods by Yliade

please tell me this is like an oracle deck in the works or something.

Open Letter To Those Who Won’t Be Doing NaNoWriMo

It’s okay.

I know social media will be overflowing with people doing nano and talking about their progress the next month or so.

Please don’t feel like less of a writer because you go at your own pace. NaNo doesn’t fit into the schedules of a lot of people, and for many, it just isn’t possible with work, school, and so many other things.

Being competitive with yourself is good, but writing, especially for fun, should never be a chore. Don’t put too much stress on yourself.

Happy writing—at your own pace.

So, anyone looking for an unbelievably unsuccessful, but incredibly supportive NaNoWriMo buddy? 🙈😅

Reblog in 10 seconds and $1700 will come your way

I have nothing to lose and 1700$ to gain

Same

Fucking?? I trick-or-treated until I was 16 because I have 3 younger siblings and love Halloween, fuck you trying to take away kids’ fun

Turn off your damn porch light and don’t answer the door if you don’t want trick-or-treaters, it’s not that complex

Kids trick or treated through their senior year of high school in our old neighborhood, which was blue collar. We were happy to have them.

This is just wrong. Everyone is welcome to trick or treat at my house.

Stop stealing my dang book

HEY, UH

The people who are putting my tiny self published book (Here, the World Entire, aka the book I poured my whole dang soul into!) up on piracy sites / requesting a pdf of my book on piracy sites:

CAN YOU LITERALLY THE FUCK NOT

I’m very glad that people want to read my book! It brings me joy that I very truly cannot even begin to explain! It’s basically my dream come true! But please don’t steal my work!

I don’t have the backing of a big publishing house. I self published, so there’s no advance for me. The only money I make off that book is through sales, and although it’s not a lot at all per sale, it’s the only source of income that book produces. I very strongly believe that writers deserve to get paid for their work. That includes me.

If you want to read my book but really can’t justify using the funds you have to do so (because hey, we’re all in different financial situations, I get it), I know it’s in a couple of library systems so it’s worth trying that. I’m reluctant to send out free ebooks now because the last time I did that someone put it on a pirating site, but you’re welcome to ask and I may decide to do so on a case by case basis.

Please, please don’t pirate books. Authors really don’t generally make a lot as it is. We’re not all JK Rowling. Minimising our already low revenue stream, especially self published authors, is shitty. It actually upsets me to think that someone who follows this blog might be one of the people pirating or asking for pirated copies. If it is you and you see this, I’m asking you to stop. I will be telling you next time.

Ehhh im pretty pro.pirate if you cant afford it you cant afford it. Pirate sites get you more audience which means more people can share it.

If you wanna stiffle that be my guest.

But your only gonna damage yourself.

Literally no. Stop. Desist. This is a super Bad Take, and also incredibly inappropriate to add to my post here. Let me explain.

I don’t need exposure. I don’t need ‘audience’. That doesn’t pay my bills. That doesn’t compensate me for my months of hard work. I don’t need people to 'share’ my work for me free of charge by stealing it and distributing it for free without my consent.

You fundamentally misunderstand how the publishing industry works. It doesn’t work by people stealing books. That sure benefits the reader, but it royally fucks over the author. Work being shared on pirating sites does absolutely sweet bugger all for me as an author. Audiences who know they can get my shit for free aren’t going to suddenly start paying for it just because they’ve now heard of me, so your comments about building an audience are asinine; it’s not building a paying audience for me, but an audience of people who steal my shit. Some audience.

I’ve sold hundreds of copies of my book based on the quailty of it (presumably; either that or my mum has been bribing people). It’s selling itself pretty well, thanks. It’s been performed as a play! It has pretty good reviews! I don’t need to eschew being financially compensated in exchange for more audience, especially not if that audience isn’t going to fucking pay. An audience gained from a pirate site is useless to me. It does nothing for me. I have one book out currently. Every person who steals it is someone who doesn’t buy it. It’s another sale lost. It’s nothing gained. I don’t have a back catalogue for people to buy once they’ve heard of me. It’s theft and then fuck all benefit to me.

Writing isn’t all about making money and it’s a privilege to have your work out there and read, but it’s also work, and in a capitalist society, that merits being compensated for the acknowledgement of that work. I’m not just a money hungry piece of shit (or I’d have priced my book at an actually decent profit margin) but I need money to, y'know, eat. Writing is one way I do that. I can’t do that if people steal my work.

I don’t give half a sodden shit if you’re pro pirate. I’m not, and it’s my livelihood on the line here, so maybe consider people’s feelings before adding your two cents to a post. You’ve basically just ignored my feelings completely in order to add your spicy hot take to a post because apparently your misinformed opinion is more important than my livelihood. It’s not. There’s a time and a place to espouse your viewpoint. This was categorically not it.

PAY!!! FOR!!! BOOKS!!!

Or at least go to a fucking library.

It BAFFLES me how people feel they’re entitled to others’ creative work. Sorry if you can’t afford a book, but it’s not the end of the world if you have to save your money for a while. And this is from someone who has at points been so dirt-poor that she had to find meals in the dumpster. STILL never stole a book that was available for sale in my country, and never will–so please don’t make a fool out of yourself by assuming I’ve never struggled financially and “don’t get it.” Unless your name is Liesel, book thieves can fuck off entirely.

Reblog if you’d be down to be writer buddies

Always xx

Literally none of my story ideas come with a plot, ever. WITHOUT FAIL, it’s always just an Aesthetic, like two and a half characters, some very, very vivid settings, and a weird concept. Never plot. Not even an inkling of a plot. My brain tosses me this cool stuff and is like welp i’ll be back in 4-5 business months 

Don’t look for plots, look for problems. 

Examples: 

Pick a problem, give it to a character, and let them try and solve it. 

Bam: plot. 

This is exactly Stephen King’s approach, outlined in “On Writing”. He prefers to start with a “What if?” situation, introduce characters, and then see what they do.

Looking for new writeblrs to follow!

I desperately need to restock my queue, but there’s a severe lack of diversity in writing-related posts on my dash. It’s the same memes, over and over again.

So I’m going on another writeblr follow spree! 

Please reblog if any of the following apply to you! (If only one thing applies to you that’s okay, please reblog!)

Feel free to tell me a bit about yourself if you feel so inclined.

Please consider checking me out as well, I’m always looking for new mutuals to befriend!

All follows will be coming from my main @undinisms. If you follow back, please go follow my writeblr @pens-swords-stuff instead!

NaNoWriMo Prep: How to Write 2000 Words a Day

Two thousand is a big number. Sitting down to write 2000 words can be extremely intimidating, so the first thing you should do is make that number friendlier.

Write 500 words in 4 writing sessions.  

Chop up that big, intimidating number. Start with a goal of 500 words. In one session, with no breaks, write them all. Take a break, then write the next 500. Repeat until you reach at least 2000. 

If you write 650 words in one session, don’t aim for 350 in the next. Let those extra words add up. A few hundred extra words each day will get you to 50k quicker than you could imagine.

I recommend timing your sessions, aiming for 20 minutes each time. The deadline will help you get the words out, With 10 minute breaks between each session, you can reach your 2000 word goal in two hours. Which brings me to the next point: 

Write fast. 

Don’t stop and think about your words. Don’t go back and improve a previous sentence. Save all of your edits for later. Focus on writing as quickly as possible, throwing everything you have at that blank page. This will actually help boost your creativity. Make your brain work so fast, be so focused, that it doesn’t have any space to doubt itself and you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. 

But don’t worry if you can’t write 500 words in 20 minutes on day one. Writing quickly is a skill and it will take a few days of training. 

Let the words suck.

This is absolutely key if you want a high word count. When you’re writing an entire chapter in a day, you shouldn’t expect the words to be beautiful. You’re not aiming at lyrical prose. You’re mining raw material that you can work into art later.

Letting the words suck can include:

As long as there are 2000 words and they relate to your story, they’re exactly what you need. And if you hate having bad words on a page, once you have your 2000 for a day, you can go back and fix all of it. Take all the time you need. Just reach that word count first. 

Tip: if you do edit at the end of each day, make that a separate document from your official NaNo doc. This way, you can trim scenes, descriptions, and dialog without worrying about its effect on your word count. (If you make a scene/description/sentence longer, feel free to include that in your NaNo doc.) 

Don’t know what to write next?

So you’ve written 1200 words, completed a scene, and you have no idea where the story is going next. Here are some things you can do to get those 800 words in anyway:

Helpful tip:

Instead of breaking your writing session into four parts, break it into five. Use your first writing session to sketch out an entire chapter, like an outline, but with bits and pieces of dialog and description. Figure out where you’re headed and a couple of key stops along the way. Knowing what you’re writing towards will make doing the actual, fleshed-out writing much easier and quicker.

You can also do an outline for the next day’s writing after you’ve gotten your 2000 words for the day in. Future you will be extremely pleased.

Underrated & Under-reviewed LGBT+ Book Recommendations

To read for Pride all year long.

I see a lot of LGBT+ book rec pots going around because of pride but they rarely feature any of the obscure books that actually need to be found and read and supported to help new LGBT+ manuscripts break into the literary world.

So, without further ado, here is a list with books which have (approximately) less than 5k ratings or less than 1k reviews on goodreads. (Books with fewer than 1k ratings are bolded!)

Disclaimer: I haven’t read all these books personally, but they have been read by people whose opinions I trust. I tried to get as much content information as I could, but I might have missed some things so please let me know if I should adjust any of the content info!

Fantasy/Sci-fi

Thornfruit by Felicia Davin

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.

The Fever King by Victoria Lee.

More Than Enough by Elizabeth Wambheim

Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones;

Contemporary 

Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton.

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole.

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn.

Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates; 

Running with Lions by Julian Winters

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann 

Bonus Recommendations

Dragonsong a wlw fantasy short story by Audrey Rose B

Knit One, Girl Two a fluffy wlw contemporary short story by Shira Glassman

The Songbird’s Refrain a wlw fantasy by Jillian Maria, coming FALL 2019.

Please reblog with your own favorite underrated, under-reviewed LGBT+ books!

For the most part people who satirize Christianity in their books are right about the fact that Christianity needs to be made fun of, but wrong about what specifically is wrong with it

what happens usually: fantasy religion makes people have wildly irrational beliefs and no ability to challenge them. the irrational belief in a god is the source of the problems with religion

What I’d like to see happen: fantasy religion provides a fixed moral framework that can slowly end up being a crutch which believers depend upon for interpersonal behavior in lieu of a more fluid and nuanced approach dependent on empathy and compassion. the heavy institutionalization of religion provides an opportunity for powerful people to abuse the vulnerable within religious institutions. religion becomes weaponized by political and business interests for nefarious reasons and many religious people don’t realize what’s happening because they can’t separate their beliefs from the institutions and leaders. doctrinal disputes become really, really nasty. people are too invested in said doctrinal disputes to actually solve any problems, ever. problems in religion are caused by the same human vices that proliferate in other institutions but enabled both by the institutional structure of the religion and its people’s high level of trust and investment in it.

“To fight sexual harassment, we must start with better wages”

Claudia Chi Ku is a single mother of four who works as a server, food-runner, and bartender at a popular Mexican grill in Los Angeles. Like many in the restaurant industry, Chi Ku faces sexual harassment daily, while averaging just $10 in tips per shift.

She tolerates more than she might otherwise because she needs the money.

“You have to respond in a nice way so they don’t feel bad,” she says, “In the end, I depend on their tips – I depend on them being there.”

There are more than 11 million restaurant workers in the United States, and many of them have stories similar to Chi Ku’s, said Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California at Berkeley and co-director or the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United).

The food service industry is notoriously hard on its workers, in part because the federal minimum wage is just $2.13 for people who earn tips, Jayaraman said.

Those rock-bottom earnings all but guarantee a climate in which food servers put up with customer harassment just to eke out a living, she said.

Read the full story on Slate

you know, it kind of feels to me like a lot of the recent AO3 disk horse fails to take into account what AO3 is

not just on the “radically anti-censorship in direct response to previous moral purity crusades and overly litigious IP holders” front, although that’s definitely something we need to not lose sight of

but, uh, AO3 isn’t a social media site? It’s an archive. It’s community resource in that it’s a well-organized place to host our content but it’s not meant to function as the primary location Where Community Happens. there can be a bit of a learning curve to using the site to find what you want, but it really gives you much tighter control on what you see than tumblr or twitter does. by design. it’s highly efficient archival software rather than a social network that’s trying very hard to predict what, statistically, is likely to keep you engaged. they don’t have any reason to artificially inflate the amount of time you spend on things you aren’t looking for, because they’re not selling your time and attention to advertisers.

as was the case when social media was less omnipresent and fandom was less centralized, it’s still our job as fans to curate the fanworks that we consume and that we promote to each other. if it’s what you need to do to stay safe, it’s perfectly acceptable to never search the archive itself and just click through to things you see linked on blogs or servers that you trust. You’ve just got to spend time actively cultivating communities of people that share your interests, rather than waiting for an algorithm to deliver something that will get An Emotional Response out of you without caring what that emotion is as long as it gets you to click on something and look at a page with an advertisement on it.