A Promiscous Pit of Dead Bodies

mosasaur

Actually yknow what. WTNV should be considered revolutionary and significant gay media that played an important role in the growth of gay representation in media especially in podcasts. When people talk about important gay media in the early 2000s I want wtnv to be one of the ones people talk about. No if ands or buts about it.

Actually I cant shut up about this. In 2012, people did not even think about putting gay representation in popular media. Gay representation wasn’t considered profitable yet. Gay marriage would not be legalized for another three years. The Legend of Korra, a show that fought to the death to have their main lead hold hands with another woman, just released their first episode earlier that spring. Steven Universe, a show well known for its gay representation, including having the first gay proposal + marriage on a kids cartoon tv show, would begin a year later in 2013, but wouldn’t show their gay representation hand until 2015 with the episode Jail Break. The Adventure Zone, a podcast currently well known for it LGBTQ+ representation, wouldn’t begin until 2014, and didn’t show their hand until 2015. In my young queer experience, representation was covert, secretive, only implied or dead. 

and then in the summer of 2012, wtnv introduced itself to the world, proclaimed its main character gay in the first episode, and played it gay (pun intended) for years. Being gay wasn’t a trope, or a goof, it was normal. Cecil Gershwin Palmer was just a canon, gay character who fell in love and stayed in love and was happy. and that was that.

if we talk about revolutionary queer media, we talk about Welcome to Nightvale. No exceptions. 

I think it’s really important Cecil Baldwin credit for this. I’m not saying Fink and Cranor and later Dylan Marron have nothing to do with it, because of course they do. But Cecil being gay was not something the writers intended. Because initially, Carlos was not intended to be a love interest for Cecil. He was just meant to be a character that showed up occasionally to be a tongue-in-cheek goof on scientist characters in shows like Fringe or the X-Files. But Cecil Baldwin made the decision to make his character utterly in love with Carlos, because he was gay, and wanted his character to be as well.

For those who don’t know Cecil Baldwin is HIV+, and he’s openly discussed his struggle with it. This is a large part of why his playing a man who is openly gay and sexually active is also really important. The importance I think of having LGBT people playing LGBT people really shines through with both Cecil and Dylan’s characters. They can be authentic, they can be a source of hope and representation. Behind the scenes, Night Vale is just as diverse as the show itself. Cecil Baldwin’s pretty incredible and it’s worth it to read what he’s had to say on WTNV if you have the time.

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

This is such good advice.

All I will add is: WRITE THOSE BREAKFAST SCENES if you want to, they can be absolutely critical in getting a handle on your characters. Or even on the setting. Write them all to fuck. Go hogwild.

Then cut them. They're for you, and for the characters. Not the readers.

Lo these many years ago, in an elevator at some convention or other, Larry Niven gave me some of the best writing advice ever:

"You can always burn it."

Go ahead and write that stuff. The breakfasts, the staring-into-empty-space scenes, whatever. Then pull them out of your work if they serve too little useful purpose. If you feel the need, shove such material into a separate folder to examine for possible usefulness later.

Even if you don't put it where other people can see it, no writing is ever wasted. Every sentence will teach you something. But if a passage or sequence doesn't help illuminate character, build the world, or advance the plot, get it the hell out of your narrative.

Your readers' time is precious. Do them the courtesy of not wasting it.

a five year old note among my 1588 saved notes that just reads: four-dimensional salmon

OH WAIT I REMEMBER WHAT THAT MEANT

a higher-dimensional creature whose life cycle involves 'swimming upstream' backwards through time from the end of the universe to their spawning site at the birth of the universe

Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch

Posts that remind me to nerd out about the intricacies of historical fiction writing

This isn't historical fiction, but period fiction, but I remember having a jarring OH reaction when discovering something that's just a standard part of English now was less than a hundred years old by reading a book. the book was Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers, published in 1930, and in the first chapter a judge is speaking:

(3/30: a poem about a legend)

instagram: hiitssky

you ever realise that you actually need to explain how your body is messed up, using only what terms you know? like how do i tell a physical therapist that i can crack my lower back by clenching my ass? or that i can bend backwards and create a 90 degree angle with my spine? “what’s wrong with your joints” well you see, sometimes they cause me such immense pain that i can’t breathe. but also i’m fine so nothing’s really the matter. i don’t know how messed up my body is, but i do know that my hips pop out of place if i walk for too long, so there’s that.

hopeless time loop. the way out isn’t to save everyone. the way out isn’t to save even one person. the way out isn’t to change anything. the way out is accepting how it happened the first time is how it always will be. that’s how you acted, that’s how they acted, that’s how you would have acted every time if you weren’t given the curse of hindsight. the way out is accepting you can’t fix the past; you can only forgive yourself for it.

Official Time Loop Post

i can't lie to you i loveee bad endings sometimes. what if nothing worked out. what if the characters gave into their worst instincts. what if they became worse. what if there's truly no hope left. what will they do out of desperation? who will they become as their worst selves?

something i've never truly reflected on about being in the ace spectrum is the feeling of absolute relief of discovering that it exists and you are truly not alone. its the feeling of "oooh... so that is a thing. that people are. and i... might be too? there is a NAME for it?"

i spent so long struggling to fit in but knowing in my heart that i was just pretending... so finding out that other people (real people!!! they exist!!!! they are out there too) feel what i feel (or in that case, lack these so-called feelings society claims to be the source of true happiness - lol) has been like taking a long deep breath after being underwater for too long.

so i'm here to tell you too. you are not alone. i understand you. i am like you. and we keep each other strong. we got this. yeah?

“there is no moral. the wolf eats you one day and until it does, the forest is beautiful.”

I made a stupid ridiculous hideous beastie, now you have to look at it