New Venice, by Ben Nicholas

Neil Gaiman: I’m going to BURY you!

editing is so fun. I'm learning what the story I wrote is about

sometimes after you learn what your story is about, you resolve to write a thematically appropriate sequel. this, unfortunately, means you have another section to edit, and now your story means two things. maybe more. imagine.

This post understands editing like nobody else. Everybody else delete your blogs. I want to be alone with OP so we can talk.

Writing Resources

I'm back to working on more Obi-Cress and after finishing Padawan I needed to gather my thoughts and some resources because there are only so many ways to describe a kiss! Anyhow, wanted to put some of the great resources I've found across Tumblr here to share with you guys! Happy writing!

Writing Tips

Writing Prompts

Other Tools

Guide to Figuring out the Age of an Undated World Map.

No but take the time to actually read it because I lost like 15 minutes.

I have a friend who is really good at this type of thing.  He once found an old globe at a garage sale and he was able to pin the date of it’s making down to like a 6 month window, because it only would’ve been correct during a specific point in WWII.  

I was mad impressed, because I have no mind for geography.  I can barely remember my own state’s capitol.

Having finally read the Nimona comic (it’s very good, everyone please go read it) I can’t help but find describing it as being about the power of incredible violence to defeat an authoritarian state, as I've seen done, to be both kind of misleading and ultimately reductive to the story as a whole.

Yes there is incredible violence in the comic and it was in the end what tore down the corrupt system, but it was also Nimona's downfall, destroyed her relationship with her only friend (and led to her (temporary) death by his very hand as he could no longer stand by her and her actions, even as he never judged her, recognized her role as a victim and tried to save her until the end), put countless civilians in danger, and ultimately did little to nothing to address how to actually fix the problems of the system to keep them from returning. In fact, Nimona as a character shows little interest in fixing anything. She suggests killing the king and having Ballister take his place, despite Ballister neither wanting this nor having the experience to pull it off (and would, in fact, only result in replacing one king with another rather than lead to an entirely new system, as is often the case with bloody uprisings). When people start dying from the illness they spread, Ballister wants to immediately stop it; Nimona suggests they let more people die to further rile up hatred and anger against the institution. Nimona isn't a good guy looking to save people; she's an angry, hurt girl looking to hurt those who hurt her and those who have the potential to hurt her in the future (even when Ballister is one of those people). She is the villain the state turned her into.

And that is kind of the point I see the story making. Not 'you need incredible violence to tear down an authoritarian state' as something good and celebratory, but rather 'an authoritarian state will ultimately lead to its own downfall by creating monsters of its own making, and while said downfall is needed the fact that it has to happen at all is deeply tragic because there are no winners here'. Nimona isn't a villain-villain (the true antagonist is obviously still the Institution), but she isn't a hero either. She's a tragic figure with a tragic end that the state brought upon itself by mistreating its people. She doesn't stick around to help rebuild and heal, and she doesn't (to our knowledge) get to see her home become a better place. It's a bittersweet end where the very person who tore down the oppressors is too broken to enjoy the end result. It isn't a story about rebellion, it's a story about the inherent and justified self-destruction of authoritarian systems.

(Writing it out like this, I realize that, thematically, it’s very similar to n.k. jemisin's broken earth trilogy, which you should all also read because it is incredible and not very friendly to authoritarian states.)

tweet

Something like this would be so colossally helpful. I'm sick and tired of trying to research specific clothing from any given culture and being met with either racist stereotypical costumes worn by yt people or ai generated garbage nonsense, and trying to be hyper specific with searches yields fuck all. Like I generally just cannot trust the legitimacy of most search results at this point. It's extremely frustrating. If there are good resources for this then they're buried deep under all the other bullshit, and idk where to start looking.

>:)c

May I present to you, nationalclothing.org?

It doesn't have everything, but it's still my first source when researching traditional clothing from other cultures.

There's also this resource on historical fashion: Claire’s Historical Fashion Reference & Resources

“Take Me To Church” by Azra T. (insp)

Take Me to Church, by Azra Tabassum!

Sign up for the Good Omens Song & Poetry Exchange here!

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

Someone who says they don't care if dudes wear dresses and makeup is a better ally than someone who says they're a safe space for women and non-binary people. I am not joking.

yeah I went to a gay bar recently with my husband tumblr user beemovieerotica, and a VERY confused capital S Southerner straight man in cargo shorts and a trucker hat showed up

apparently he (who through my drunken memory I remember only as Earl) liked some woman, and she told him that he wasn't cultured enough and needed to attend his first drag show (she also flaked on him)

Now I'm reasonably androgynous and was wearing makeup, a short leather skirt, and black heeled boots, but still when this guy came up to me when I was standing off alone and asked "So. Do you come here often?" with a very earnest expression, I thought. Surely not. This guy doesn't think I'm a straight woman does he????

Anyway I start talking with this guy and he has no idea what the fuck is going on but he is just a very kind and earnest dude and asked a lot of questions (while asking if it was alright if he asked those questions). I track down my husband and friends and I'm like y'all. We need to make sure that Earl has a Good Fucking Time tonight.

Man was completely out of his depth. At one point they put on a puppy auction to raise money for Pride, that started with a 6 ft drag queen in all her glory leading a leather pup out on a leash to the tune of that damned RSPCA "in the arms of the angels" song

We look at Earl. Nervous. He squints, laughs, and then goes "I was wondering why people were dressed like that!" He turned to me and asked "So they're like dogs?" And I said yeah pretty much. And he just chuckled and went "Yeah I thought so with the tails! Never seen this before!"

When the first drag king came out, Earl looked at me wide eyed and went "There's a dude version too?!" And I said yeah they're called drag kings. And he said, low, "Drag kings."

During one of the queens performances, he frowned, shook his head and told me, "Your legs are better than hers." in a tone that implied he thought there was some travesty taking place and I should also be getting paid

When he found out I was there with my husband (and that I am not a woman) he profusely apologized and said "I'm so sorry, it's dark in here and I thought you were a hot chick! I wouldn't have said nothing if I knew you had a husband, I'm so sorry about that."

When beemovie invited me to the dance floor with him later and I still had a drink in my hand, Earl said "Oh don't worry about that I can hold your drink, you get on out there and shake your ass with your husband!" Then before we left, Earl bought me drinks for "Putting up with me all night and answering everything. Y'all helped me have a great time tonight."

like. You gotta recognize there's going to people who have never had interacted outside of their of their own community. This includes you. And just because your community is familiar with all the right vocabulary and how to correctly say something, it doesn't mean they're actually going to support you. If someone like Earl shows up, confused and out of their depth but kind and curious and earnest, you gotta have patience and truck through the small things, so when he goes back to his friends and his coworkers and they snicker asking how the drag show was, he can genuinely talk about how included we tried to make him feel and that he had a great time

The person matters more than the language

Could a homosexual lend me, an asexual, a single use of the word flaming?

YOU have obtained:

I, a flaming asexual, need someone to please call the fire department. It is an emergency.

Perfectly executed joke, no notes

⬇️ A lot of notes

Here's an article about it from the new Yorker

The judge was a Reagan appointee lmao

1. The person who twerked in court was Richard Montez, co-owner of 360 Queen Entertainment (a business that organises drag performances).

2. The New Yorker article is a really good read.

3. I'm in love with this picture from said New Yorker article. Dude on the left is a Big Mood.

honestly good for him? he didn't know what he was supposed to be ruling on, so he asked for a demonstration, and the demonstration convinced him it was art. good on him for being willing to accept new data

You couldn’t write this, people would tell you it’s bad writing

Let me tell y’all, as someone who does drag in Austin, TX, seeing your friends become part of national media coverage because of this is pretty fucking wild.

The far right kind of honed in on Brigitte (queen in pink) as the object of all their ire, and the moment she saw that happening she kind of seized on it. Brigitte is AFAB, nonbinary, and asexual out of drag (these are all things she’s very public about, I’m not outing her). She knew that a right wing hate movement that is obsessed with portraying drag as something sexual done by pedophilic gay men wouldn’t know how to deal with her. So she stepped up and basically was like “you want to make me the face of this? Fine. I’ll use that opportunity to show every single one of you how wrong and ridiculous you are.” And it’s been such a curve ball for them, it’s been working. They don’t know what to do with an AFAB queen. She ruins all of their arguments. They don’t know how to write their laws in a way that excludes her from doing drag without being so broad it excludes literally half the population of Texas from existing, and that’s what is a huge part of these laws not holding water. She also has been pretty tirelessly doing a lot of very public activism, and was the only individual drag performer part of the suit against the state of Texas.

It hasn’t been easy for her, because obviously being a public figure like this means getting a lot of hate. But it’s also cool as hell. And leads to hilarious moments like the fucking Daily Mail writing bullshit like “Bandit CLAIMS she was born a woman” and her literal biological mother being like “so as an authority who was indeed there…”

lol and in the same trial as the twerking, she explained to the judge what a breast plate was and why she wears one sometimes, and used Dolly Parton as an example.

Costume. Chitons.

Marjorie & C. H. B.Quennell, Everyday Things in Archaic Greece (London: B. T. Batsford, 1931).

Wait, wait…. Is that seriously it? How their clothes go?

that genuinely is it

yeah hey whats up bout to put some fucking giant sheets on my body

lets bring back sheetwares

also chlamys:

and exomis:

trust the ancients to make a fashion statement out of straight cloth and nothing but pins

Wrap Yourself In Blankets, Call It a Day

Wear blanket. Conquer world.

That last one looks dope

Squares and rectangles: easy to weave!! No cutting means no hemming.

And easy to construct, you don’t have to have complicated seaming and patterning to turn fabric into clothing!

ancient Egyptian robes

This sort of clothing solution wasn’t just for the Mediterranean, or northern Africa, either. Behold the Belted Plaid:

(auto generated captions)

Has anyone already reblogged this with saris? It’s cool how many cultures have similarities like this hidden in plain sight.

https://kalaavarsha.com/how-to-wear-or-drape-a-saree/

Since we are here might as well share the dhoti and the lungi

https://www.wikihow.com/Wear-a-Lungi

https://www.wikihow.com/Wear-a-Pancha-Kachcham?amp=1

It’s only men in the photos but really anyone can wear them. I am wearing a lungi right now.

I also know Thailand and Sri Lanka have their versions of a lungi as well.

reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics

Deceiving wunk

— Chuck Palahniuk