Perfectionism Is A Liar And A Hater. Write Your Messy Little Heart Out.

i'll be real, sometimes when i'm writing my own stories and i'm trying to be poetic with my fifteenth metaphor i have to sit back and be like. actually you're doing too much when what you mean to say is "i love you." like sure, maybe the fruit rots on the vine without hands to cradle it or a mouth to press itself against, or maybe the heart is a house, half-lit, with your ghost in all the windows, but all i mean by that is i love you, i love you. what's more poetic than that

"why doesn't this thing in a movie/book/tv show happen exactly like it would in real life" is the most brain dead criticism the internet has to offer, and yet I see it EVERYWHERE.

Speaking of which, hey, I have a song recommendation blog for those who are interested.

Songs For Your OCs

Hi hi! This is a blog run by @moremysteries to help you find songs for your original blorbos and original works. Please review the information below, and happy requesting.

Ask Rules

I am not comfortable with minors interacting, so begone minors!

Always assume I am not familiar with your OCs and give the relevant information for whatever you are requesting. If you plan to send me a character bio, awesome! But please point me in the right direction so I know which parts are most relevant for whatever you are requesting. (EX: Can you read the section on their teen years and give me song recs that fit?)

Yes, you can request songs for NSFW scenes. Just please do not request songs for assault scenes, as I find that too triggering. Outside of that, please let me know the vibes of the scene or the character dynamics so I know what kind of songs you're looking for.

I will rec songs for abusive relationships, but please don't send in requests asking me to do so through a romanticized lens. I am also not comfortable giving song requests for CSA or incest, sorry.

I am fine with people sending multiple requests, but please limit yourself to six requests max. I will take my time on requests, so don't pressure me.

I reserve the right to not complete any request that makes me feel uncomfortable for any reason.

What you can request

Recs for songs that fit your OCs or a certain aspect of your OC.

Recs for songs that fit a certain scene.

Recs for songs your OC might listen to based on their tastes.

Recs for songs that fit a relationship between your OCs.

Recs for songs that fit the vibes or a certain aspect of your WIP.

Recs for songs based on a playlist you already have, a song you strongly associate with the OC, wip, scene, and so on, a moodboard, etc.

Just always remember the more relevant details you give me, the more accurate the recommendations will be. For instance, "my OC is named Bill and loves dogs". That's sweet, but will their love of dogs help me find songs that suit them? I personally doubt it. A sentence like, "my OC is named Bill, and he's a sweetheart that works at the local dog shelter because he loves animals," is much more informative. This is just an example of a helpful sentence, but please give me more than just that sentence. 😅

I adore this so much. The emotions of the characters can just be felt. I don't know the full context, but even so, it was clear how much they cared about each other, and they truly felt like family.

I wish we could love.

WIP; Out of Sight and Mind

Context: Ari, who has returned to his hometown following his parents death, was a teenage runaway who faked his own death to escape abusive parents. This is a conversation between him and his brother about being in love for the first time since he left, and the childhood that pushed them apart.

Neptune is Ari's childhood best friend, who he loved but dragged into some shit situations.

Edward is Ari's current love interest.

Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial

--

"I loved her, and I haven't loved another person since," Ari whispered with intense soberness to the ceiling. His eyes were red in the glare of the morning sun, yet dark as if the night had never left him.

"I know," Eli sat down with surprising tenderness in his voice - a moment of peace he rarely had, given only for the expressive heartache Ari rarely showed. Not even time could truly sever a brother's love.

"It feels...wrong, somehow."

"Because you love him, or because you're loved at all?" Ari breathed in the air, and it turned into something sickening in his stomach. Nausea fell like waves upon him, his hand finding his forehead just to press down, feel less like every piece of him was falling away.

"I suppose I don't have a leg to stand on, to be upset she lied to my face...after leaving her."

"It broke her into pieces, but it pushed her to her own freedom."

"I was a chain on her."

"You were," it was solemn, truthful, "...you pulled her downwards, and letting go was the only way she'd see the sky again." Ari felt the tears burn, hearing it spoke so plainly. "But you were a teenager, forced to make decisions no teenager should have to make - it'd hardly a blame you chose the wrong one."

"You never forgave me." What if he hadn't changed, what if all these years were a mirage, and he only ended up breaking Edward the way he broke Neptune?

"I never understood." Ari pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes and begged the tears to stop. His body felt hot with the want to curl up in a ball away from Eli, from Neptune, from everyone. He'd hardly had a second of silence since he'd got to this god-forsaken place. "But I overheard you talking to Edward, and I do now."

"I never wanted you to know."

"I know," Eli's voice cracked, "...you subjected yourself to years of my anger to protect me from the truth."

"I wanted you to have good parents, and they loved you-"

"But they hurt you."

"It made me stronger."

Eli shook his head "...not stronger, traumatised, look at you Ari; a boy tells you he loves you, and you feel like it's the end of the world, that's not strength, that's pain."

"I just don't understand."

"You are so much more lovable than any of us have ever made you feel," Eli's voice shook with a deep tremble that reminded Ari of thunder rumbling through the sky. The natural order, disturbed by a tremor in the humidity. "Alicia is better at this than I," he laughed with discarded mirth, "...you are my brother, and you came here for me knowing it would tear you to pieces, and I love you."

Ari didn't know what to say, his mouth opened and closed, but the words burned and stopped in his throat. He desperately wanted to say it, to tell his little brother he would jump in front of a bullet for him, that he'd tear apart the world to keep him safe. But he didn't. He looked at Eli with something dejected and fearful, and just prayed that he understood.

Ooo this has me so intrigued! I did not see that last part coming at all. /pos

Spooky Short Story in a Forest

"This is as far as I can take you." The man driving the taxi said as he placed the car into park on the outskirts of a lush forest. A forest that very clearly has a path wide enough for a car to drive on.

"What do you mean? Can't you drive through?" The man was looking out the car's windshield, he looked like he didn't want to deal with customers anymore.

"No. Cash or card?" He says it with a finality that makes me give up on my curiosity enough to dig out the needed cash and hand it to him. I pushed the car door open and as soon as I stepped out and shut the door, he started zooming away. I turn my head to look at the forest. Hiking my bag higher up on my shoulder, I start walking towards its entrance. When there's a will, there's a way, and I need to get to my hotel at some point today. With each step that takes me farther into the forest, my footfalls get heavier and the impact my feet have on the ground makes bigger and bigger clouds of dirt on the path. With each step, I feel a greater need to go deeper into the forest. The dense fog of leaves over the tops of the trees block the light of the sun, clouding the interior of the forest in a kind of darkness that usually only comes at night. I pull out my phone and use it as a flashlight, which doesn't prevent me from getting my foot caught in a root that grew in the middle of the path. As I lay sprawled on the dirty ground, I feel my resentment for the taxi driver grow, and now, with a bruised ego and a skinned knee, I decide to take a break. I pick myself up, walk over to a tree off to the side of the path, and drop to the floor with my bag. With my back leaning against the hard surface of the tree's trunk, I take a deep breath in. I let my eyes slip closed as I take a few more deep breaths.

"Help!" My eyes shoot open. There are quick footsteps pounding against the forest floor. A young man came from the direction of the scream. "Help!" I scrambled up off the ground, briefly forgetting how to use my legs. Following closely behind the young man is a larger man dressed in black. I quickly looked around for something I could use to defend myself, the only feasible option being a branch that had broken off of the tree I was resting at. It was about the same length and width of my arm, and when I picked it up it seemed to be as sturdy as a baseball bat. During my search, the larger man had knocked the young man to the ground, pinning him with black clad limbs. The young man was struggling to get away, moving this way and that like a mouse caught in a trap. I move as quickly and quietly as I can, stopping just behind the larger man. I raise the branch up high over my head and bring it down with every ounce of force in my body. There is no impact. The branch falls straight through the man's body, hitting and creating a dent in the ground.

"What?" I gasped, forgetting about being quiet. It doesn't take long after that for the young man's screams of terror to turn into screams of agony. All I could do was watch as a knife was plunged into the young man over and over again, creating a pool of blood that just got bigger and bigger. As the man's screams die out, both men start to become translucent. My mouth hangs open as they become more and more transparent until they're completely gone. Slowly, I turn my back and head back to the tree to grab my bag. There's a jack rabbit in my chest as a bend down. At the base of the tree, there's a name. Adam.

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

Think I sent an STS ask to everyone. If I missed anyone, I apologize in advance! My brain fog causes me to forget blogs at time. And as a pro tip, when people send me asks I always do my best to send one back.

I hope you don't mind me reblogging, but I love this addition.

As a college writing major, I am imploring some of you to understand seeing a work in a different way than the author intended is not "media illiteracy". This is not a church and the writer is not the pope.

I am gently encouraging y'all, if you think this, to look into literary theories, because then you will realize there are multiple valid ways to study and interpret a work. And guess what? Some of these theories do not explore the author's original intent at all, but rather let the work speak for itself. That is a valid way of reading a work just as much as researching the writer's intent or background. I am especially concerned about this attitude I am seeing in the younger generation that there is only one way to interpret a piece of art. That is not the beauty of art.

I am especially tired of seeing posts like this about the classics, usually by individuals who make jokes about how people who don't view a work the way the author intended "need to go back to high school". I do not blame them for this ignorance, but I am begging them to learn about media analysis outside of the high school classroom, because high school only teaches you one way to approach stories.

Also, nothing makes me roll my eyes more than when people yell "media illiteracy" towards someone interpreting a work differently due to their unique experiences. The amount of singlets who yell "media illiteracy" when I, a plural person, try to explain my discomfort towards most possession stories, is so annoying. Like, it isn't an attack, it's sharing a different view point based on my unique perspectives as a plural person. This is a great opportunity to learn about experiences other than your own, not to trounce people.

I need your opinions on what story to work on next!

Choice A: Chel's story [unnamed atm]. She's a Hunter that fights demons with holy water guns and salt filled hula-hoops while skating on inline skates and playing AC/DC on one side of the tape in her walkman, and exorcisms on the other side of the tape. Chel's lover is possessing her pet marmoset that she named after him after they saved it together, but it turns out that her lover was a nephilim who lost his physical form temporarily and he can't reform until she figures out that she needs to erase the sigils blocking him from doing so that's carved into her walls to protect her from various mythological creatures from entering her home. She later becomes an Archivist and a central hub of information for Hunters all over the country.

Choice B: [unnamed atm] The story of the school with animal familiars (basically when you hit puberty, you get the ability to speak to a specific type of animal - crows, house cats, horses, etc.) and there's this guy that can talk to house cats and his dad can talk to horses, a girl that talks to ravens, and the school is divided into prey and predators. The girl with the ravens ends up with a network of spies through the city because the ravens see everything and report back to her.

Choice C: The Blind Piano Player Girl [aka Tea and Treason] who is shipped off to her uncle's house (he's a general in the American army during the war for independence) and her father was a composer that was secretly making codes in his music and teaching them to his daughter. Everyone thought he was just a failed musician because his music sucked ass, but when you decipher it, it's plans he smuggled from the British side of the lines and only she has the key. But she's blind and everyone think's she's useless. She ends up being able to smell when people are smuggling things they aren't supposed to (like drugs in the tea to poison people in charge) and can trace it back to who touched it because they have it on their hands. Her uncle uses her to turn the tide of the war.

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'