NICOLA COUGHLAN As CLARE DEVLIN Derry Girls (2018-2022)

10 Tips for New Writers

Find people to write with (another beginner writing buddy, critique groups for beginners, a mentor or teacher, online writer groups that you trust)

Accept all feedback, but you ultimately decide what changes to make

If you want to traditionally publish your writing—don’t post it online. Anywhere.

Be choosey with who you share your writing with

Rejection does not determine your writing’s worth.

First drafts are meant to be bad—you can’t edit a blank page

Write as much and as often as makes you happy

Try out lots of different techniques until you find the one that really works for you

Write what interests you—not what you think others will be interested in

Ultimately, writing is supposed to be fun—don’t be afraid to have fun with it!

stop trying to be influencers we need good hackers who will leak Immortality and Eternal Faith tapes now more than ever

Every time I see mxtx fandom discourse about how villains and antagonists “had no choice” in doing evil and how we should feel sympathy for this cowardice because “it’s not like they (actual factual ruling class) had the real power to break the mold,” I think of:

Si Xiyan, imprisoned disgraced cultivator, being told that she can be accepted back as the most beloved disciple of one of the most powerful cultivation sects in the world if only she would kill her baby, and her choosing to ingest the poison on her own so that her child could be born safely at the cost of her life.

Gongyi Xiao going against his entire sect to rescue Shen Qingqiu from the Water Prison despite already having an increasingly tenuous relationship with the sect leader and his daughter.

Shen Qingqiu, certified scum villain, risking his life over and over again to do right by Luo Binghe even though he is certain that Luo Binghe will repay his kindness with death.

I think of:

Lan Wangji, a clan heir, fighting his own beloved family to protect one of the few people in the cultivation world willing to stand up for what’s right, and accepting being whipped for it.

Jiang Yanli, a clan heir’s widow, running onto a battlefield and giving her life for her little brother.

the Wen siblings, labor camp escapees and remnants of a reviled clan, sacrificing themselves so that their protector wouldn’t be killed for the crime of self-defense.

Mianmian, a servant only just elevated to becoming a disciple, publicly defecting from her sect in protest of them slandering a hero.

I think of:

Yin Yu, a banished god, choosing death over regaining his godhood by harming Quan Zizhen—the shidi he’s always been told to had “stolen his rightful status” in life.

the street performer, a poor man who could only make money performing humiliating entertainment for the well-off, choosing death over saving his own life by harming the man who for all intents and purposes stole his business.

Mu Qing, a staple god for about 800 years who had betrayed friendship for the approval of other gods, finally choosing to make an enemy out of the ruler of the heavens over betraying his former friend again, even if it meant that said former friend would never believe that he didn’t betray him again.

Of all of these characters, some of them were people of privilege, but many of them were the very bottom of their social hierarchies. Some are staring down the edge of the knife with their only hope of survival and living well being to make the immoral choice. Nevertheless, they chose to be moral people by putting themselves on the line rather than sacrificing others for personal gain, a choice that no antagonist—all of whom are people of power and means even if they didn't start out that way—makes in an mxtx novel. “But everyone would have hated them!” is not an excuse for participating in evil. “But they would have died otherwise!” is not an excuse for participating in evil. If other characters of less means could do it, if their peers could do it, then why didn’t your fav?

the hardest lines ALWAYS come from fanfics and I stand by this

(credit to the authors!! I can't remember where exactly they all came from but if u recognise their work pls tag them :) they deserve way more recognition!!)

I'm starting a collection

kim dokja is everything. he's just some guy. he's the kindest person in the world. he's Jesus Christ. he's also Sun Wukong somehow. he's the personification of love as a force that powers reality. he died for our sins. he's a demon. he's an angel. he's suicidal. he's the more important being in the universe. he could be anyone. he's an inconceivable existence that expands along countless of world lines. he's a nerd. he's a concept. he's just some strings of text badly tied together. he's also the prince of the greek underworld. he was bullied in high school. he's an analogy for all the suffering in the world and also everything that is human and worth saving (but there's nothing in this reality that is not worth saving and everything deserves to be loved). he's a god. he's the sacrificial lamb. he's a yaoi man. he's an eldricth horror. he's ugly. he's your friend and also he's you. he's a very complicated anti-suicide metaphor. he's adorable. he's repressed and depressed. he has ptsd. he's the father of various human and non human entities and also the son of various human and non human entities. he's an office worker. he's simultaneously loved and hated by all the universe. he's a gary stu. he's bisexual. he's a murderer and also the most tragic victim of the irrepressible machine of universal suffering. he's a lover. he's a fox boy. he likes isekai novels.

kim dokja and bihyungs dynamic before they get used to each other is so funny. me and the guy i keep trapped in my torture dungeon for entertainment (he keeps torturing himself and the others in new and creative ways i hadn't thought about before. hes actually kind of better at this than i am. im kinda scared)

*clutches fist* I just … the impact of the two children cannot be overstated … a girl and a boy, in some ways representative of all the girls and boys lost to the Games before their time … the way they are a noted synthesis of their parents’ features, the marriage of Seam and town, and the culmination of many other characters of the series with these same distinct features … the way they are described as dancing … and chubby … when their parents starved and fought … these little ones get to play … and be so well fed their mother calls attention to the healthy fat her toddler has … how Katniss and Peeta intend to teach their children how to be brave and intend to show them the good things people can do … but this isn’t something they’ll learn on their own by the harsh experience of cruelty and loss … their parents are loving and gentle and will guide them in ways their own parents could not or did not … these babies who are free to take Maude Ivory’s lullaby for granted … babies who have a father who wanted them so much, and have a mother who felt a joy so strong it tamed her most primal fears when she held them … her children … given epithets like their father … unaware of the fact that they walk on a graveyard … but also unaware, like their mother is, that a songbird and snake once walked here, and that with their existence, the legacy of the songbird’s nearly prophetic music has come to fruition and the snake is crushed … *help*