Your Daily Dose Of Cat Memes

New ARG Name!!! :D

When I originally sent out the casting call for the ARG, I wasn't quite sure what to call it. I didn't really have anything in mind for a title. I put it down as "Interstellar ARG" because that was what I knew about it. But I recently came up with something! It sounds pretty cool, I think! It is now called, "Welcome To Interstellar". So with that being said, Welcome to Interstellar, friends! :D

Caves are weirder and more varied than you think

Writing Advice: Chapters

A lot of my advice comes down to, having beta readers, and “it’s up to you” which doesn’t sound like good advice but when it comes to writing, everyone writes differently so there are different ways of doing the same thing. So, what’s my advice when I talk about chapters?

To me, a chapter is a section of the book which talks about a certain event. There’s no right or wrong way for how long the event should be, and there’s no right or wrong way of how the event can start or end. Here’s how I write my chapters and what I’ve learned along the way.

Starting the chapter:

Before I start the chapter, I need to figure out what the main event is gonna be. Will this event be informational? Action pact? Suspenseful? It can also be a combination of a few events as well, such as having my characters find information, but something goes wrong and now they have to escape.

After I figure out what the main event is gonna be, I start writing and once I complete that event I end it and move on. I try not to carry on too much after the main event has finished because I feel like my chapters might drag if I do.

Writing the chapter:

When it comes to a chapter, I try to have a beginning, middle, and end section. (Keep in mind this doesn’t work for every chapter.) Let me explain what I meant about those sections. The event in this example is Nix and Dante are tryna get information, but something goes wrong after they get said information. So the chapter starts at the beginning where Nix and Dante enter a secured location. The middle is where they get passed all of the alarms and hacked into the network. The ending is they got the information but an alarm gets triggered anyway.

Expanding the chapter:

So, I wrote the beginning, middle, and end, the event is done, but it was kind of boring. Let’s expand it to them escaping. This is where I think chapters start to become long. Some people combine two events into one chapter and some events are longer than others. Escaping a secured facility sounds more difficult than sneaking in. So, adding an escape attempt can spice up the chapter, but you need to be careful with how you do it.

I think when people complain about long chapters, one of their reasoning is “This feels like it could’ve been split into two chapters”. It might be the fact there are two separate events, both with their beginning, middle, and ends. If you want to expand upon your chapter, I would change how the beginning, middle, and end originally played out so it feels more natural when you go from one event to the next. This will take practice and beta readers can help if a chapter sounds too long or just right.

So instead of sneaking into a place, getting the information and having to escape. I would get rid of the middle part where Nix and Dante were sneaking and just show them entering the building, maybe talk for a few paragraphs before they reach their end goal because I already know escaping is gonna add several more pages. It’s a trial and error, and some readers might prefer the sneaking portion, while others might enjoy the fast pace. The end result is what do you like?

Continuing chapters:

What about chapters that don’t need a beginning, middle and end? Those chapters are what I call, continuing chapters. The most obvious examples of continuing chapters are the final climax of a story, like a big battle. The big battle might take multiple chapters to get through, and starting at the beginning, middle, and end of each chapter where the main event is the final fight, might get a bit tiresome. A simplified way of taking a large event, like a big fight, and breaking it over several continuing chapters is having each chapter be its own thing. Let’s say it takes three chapters to finish the final confrontation. The first chapter is the beginning, so there’s lots of build-up, but nothing too bad. The second chapter is the middle and is normally the longest out of the three. It’s the one with the most fighting and maybe a character dies at the end as a cliffhanger. The third chapter is where the villain is defeated and the fight is over thrust concluding the three sections.

That was a very simplified way of explaining continuing chapters, but yeah, not every event can be told in a single chapter, sometimes you have to space them out a bit. I would recommend letting the readers know that said event will most likely take a long time to complete so they'll be aware it's gonna be a long read.

Length of a chapter:

People often ask, how long should a chapter be, and there’s no real answer to that. Some can be a page, and I’ve seen others that are thirty. (Looking at you DragonFire). I personally don’t try to go for a word count or page limit. Often times when I try to make my chapters reach a certain goal, I find there’s a lot of filler that could’ve been cut. This is why I like to write my chapters as if I were writing an event and just focus on the event itself. If I need to expand or get rid of something, I can do that later.

My chapters are normally three pages in length, whenever I go over that, I try to tell my readers the next upcoming chapters will be long. This kind of tactic will depend on your story of course, but let’s go back to Nix and Dante.

In the example, Nix and Dante went into a secured location, took some information and got caught, now they needed to escape. If I want to add the escape portion in the same chapter because breaking in was kind of short, I might tell the reader before said chapter even began that “This mission won't be an easy one”, or “You’ll need to be real careful stealing the information because if you get caught, guards will come.” So, by the time Nix and Dante do get caught, the reader should be aware, the chapter will continue for a few more pages.

Oh yeah, if you’re gonna write a long chapter, make sure to have at least one smaller chapter to break it up. (DragonFire) Having long chapters, after long chapters, is, at least for me, very tiring. I don’t like to stop reading midway through a chapter, but reading thirty pages in a day is very difficult. So if you know you have some long chapters, throw in a few short ones.

Readers might also hate long chapters because they feel like there’s a bit too much filler in them. (Filler-in chapters aren’t the same thing as filler chapters).

Filler-in chapters might appear in one of two ways, either there’s too much filler to get to the main event, or there’s too much filler and the chapter should’ve ended already. Beta readers are a good way of telling you if there’s filler in a chapter or not. Keep in mind, that you, as the writer know what’s best for your story. Readers can only tell you how they feel. If you feel the “filler” part isn’t filler, but a lot of people say it is. Finding a workaround can be difficult. Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice on this kind of topic because this kind of writing problem is unique for every writer. Writing groups might be able to help as they’ll have your text and can help figure out what's going on.

Filler chapters:

There’s nothing wrong with filler chapters. Not every chapter needs to focus on the main story. I personally like filler chapters. They’re fun chapters which explore the characters and the world. A bit of a refresher after an intense fight is fine. When people complain about filler chapters, it’s often because there’s a bit too much of them. Or they came out of nowhere and killed the pacing. For example, if everything has been dark and gritty, having a chapter that’s more on the upbeat side is strange. Also if the chapter ends with a character's death and the next one ignores it, readers might not like that. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like POV swapping between every chapter. If someone dies in character (A) POV, and the next chapter switches to character (B) POV where they’re on the beach…I might get a bit annoyed. Even if Character (B) POV isn’t filler, I just witnessed someone die, I wanna know what’s going on and not swap to another POV.

Also filler chapters tend to be on the shorter side as well. If a filler chapter goes on a bit too long, then it might feel like the story is losing its focus a bit.

Beta readers can help point out which chapters are filler and where to add in filler if that's something you want to do.

Chapter Endings:

Ending a chapter is always interesting, do you want to end it with a cliffhanger or not? Does your chapter flow smoothly from one to the other? I don’t mind cliffhanger endings but try not to make every chapter a cliffhanger. At some point it becomes a bit much for some readers such as myself, I prefer to stop reading at a good stopping point. Cliffhangers aren’t a stopping point, I need to see what’s gonna happen next. Creating a cliffhanger after a long chapter, for me is a bit much. Long chapters already drain me, and forcing me to continue to get to an actual stopping point will make me enjoy your book less. (I understand no one is forcing me to read a book, but I just really, really hate stopping at cliffhangers). Not to mention if there are multiple cliffhangers in a row, I might put the book down and not pick it up for a long time because I’ll have no idea how many cliffhangers I’ll have to deal with before getting to an actual pause in the story. Personally, as a reader, I feel like there needs to be good stopping points. Places where it’s safe to stop reading and the reader can pick it back up later.

If you end a chapter in a city and the next one starts in a jungle, that kind of scene change might be a bit confusing so again, just send it through a couple of beta readers and see how you did with the transition portion of going from one chapter to the next. The same thing goes for tone as well. If the last chapter ends with a death, and the next one is in a circus, the tone shift might be a bit much. Just pass it along with a beta reader.

That’s about it for chapters. If you want some more detailed advice on certain chapters then let me know, but chapters are one of those things where it comes with practice. The length, the event, the ending, all of this stuff will be determined by your ability to write. Beta readers are a great way of pointing out how they felt while reading a chapter and you can go from there.

I love this thought :0

the summer art for hattytime (which i'm also talking about the sandy memories art, the art of mu and hat kid chilling on pool chairs and that one acrylic standee of hat kid and conductor playing volleyball, ect.) implies that hat kid visits the planet again during the summer time and that's so cute to me that she probably comes back every year just to see everyone again

Hiya, Hello, and Howdy-do! 

We bet our beagle that you weren’t expecting this! In partnership with Makeship, we are happy to bring you Welcome Home’s brand new, never before seen except in your dreams, the funniest fella this side’a the neighborhood; the official Barnaby B. Beagle Makeship plush toy! With a loyal friend like Barnaby by your side, you’ll never have another lonely day again! But now that you’ve got a Wally and Barnaby of your very own… What’s next? You’ve got to dress them up with something nice! Or maybe something to match with your very own best buddy! Grab the official Prized Pals enamel pin set and be the talk of the neighborhood! Hot dog!

Just like last time, we can’t do this without you, neighbor! To get this fully-funded, we’ll need to sell 200 of these hilariously happy and humorous hounds! Head on over to https://www.makeship.com/products/barnaby-jumbo-plush  to order one for yourself for $37.99! Then, skedaddle on down to https://www.makeship.com/products/welcome-home-enamel-pin-collection  and grab the enamel pin set for $19.99! 

If you purchase both at the same time, you can get 10% off your entire order! For folks who’ve already purchased Wally, keep an eye out in your inbox for additional savings from Makeship!

Don’t delay, this boisterous beagle and these prized pins are a limited-time offer, so order now!

This Showcase wouldn’t have been possible without folks in our crew! Please read below!!! Everyone worked so hard!

Special thanks and credits to!

Thank you to Huck for his astoundingly beautiful work designing both the pins and the plush!

https://www.tumblr.com/downydig

https://twitter.com/downydig?t=5ZvBlbfOA9qqgd6ACRreHw 

Thank you to Puzz for always helping to organize and plan this all out!

https://anonymouspuzzler.tumblr.com/ 

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Anonymous Puzzler! (@BigPuzz) on X

Anonymous Puzzler is on Twitter now! | she/they | lesbiab | 29 | art, fic, games & shouting into the void | DM for professional info if mutu

Thank you to Synth for his stupendous voice work as Barnaby and Howdy!

https://www.tumblr.com/syntheticcharmva 

https://twitter.com/SynthCharmVA 

Thank you to Frankie for his magnificent voice work for Wally and Frank!

https://www.twitch.tv/facefullabugs 

https://www.youtube.com/@frankenbugvods 

Thank you to Joshua for their phenomenal voice work for Eddie!

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Joshua Waters (@TunnelVa) on X

🐝Enby VA| They/He | Miyano in #sasakiandmiyano, Gilbert in #UnicornOverlord, 💌Eddie Dear in #WelcomeHome, Inu-Oh in INU-OH, and MORE!~ Rep:

Thank you to Jake for building a gorgeous Frank plush! (Seen here and on the update!)

Thank you to Triniitea for her wonderful help Co-writing the scripts and filming the commercials!

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Triniecia🌻Harbor (@triniitea) on X

BLACK storyboard revisionist & Character designer. Creator of SUNNYDALE🌈🌻🌞.Lvl 1 hippie puppeteer.

Thank you to Merrimonster for their fantastic assistance Co-writing the scripts and filming the commercials!

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FairyGodMonster (@MerriMonster) on X

A tiny monster doing a storyboard. He/She/They themerrimonster@gmail.com

Of course, thank you to Makeship for this opportunity! They put so much love and care into his final product! They have gone out of their way to make him fuzzy, huggable, and accurately spotted! I couldn’t be happier and I hope you will love him as much as I do!

Lastly, thank you all for supporting and loving this home! Without your attention on the update and our work, this opportunity would not have been possible! Even if we do not make it this time, I’m so thankful for your gaze! Have a wonderful day, don’t forget to wave up high!

emily gwen, the creator of the sunset lesbian flag that we’ve come to commonly use, still continues to live in poverty.

multi-billion dollar companies have used their design and made profit from it, and yet they have not seen a cent for their creation.

i’ve been friends with emily for years, and i have not once seen them be financially stable the entire time. i’ve seen them homeless, unemployed, starving. right now, they need our help more than ever.

please consider donating to emily’s ko-fi, especially if you’ve used their design to create something and profited from it.

Ko-fi

Support Emily on Ko-fi! ❤️. ko-fi.com/emilygwen

Support Emily Gwen <3

Guess what I have an Instagram now! Y'all should follow! :D

my handle over there is @kai_does_stuff_

I was originally planning on an ARG, but I'm starting to question if it is that, or if it is just a cool little series with hidden lore and stuff. This is my first time doing something like this, so I am still learning! But I am hoping it will count as one, I am trying my best! :)