• 3 Posts
  • 23 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Any tips people can throw out are always welcome.

    Whatever is going to work for you will probably be specific to you, but I think a good place to start is to read more stories. Try to nail down what it is you want to achieve with your story, and then find other stories that have succeeded at that, at least in your opinion. There are rules and tropes and formulas to storytelling that will make it easier to entertain readers, but at the end of the day, if you don’t like what you wrote, and you didn’t enjoy writing it, then I don’t think it’s worth it.

    In my experience, once you start reading a lot, you start thinking more like a writer. You’ll be watching a movie or a show and be thinking “How would I write this scene, how would I describe this to someone who wasn’t watching it, and how would I do that in a way that they got the same feeling I got when I was watching it?” or “How would I improve this story, in what ways did it fail to give me the feeling I was seeking?” or “How could I incorporate some of these same narrative devices in my story, what is it that I like about this and how can I convince people that they like my story for the same reasons?”

    You’ll especially start asking yourselves these questions when you know you have a good story, and you’re obsessed with getting your story on to paper. You’ll start filtering everything you experience through the lens of that obsession, and every piece of media you consume will become a piece of the collage you create.

    At least that’s how it is for me, maybe you’re completely different.





  • In that case, I don’t think it’s fair to describe yourself as someone who “doesn’t care”. I think when you say that you don’t care, it can come off as not caring if someone is being a piece of shit towards your gay friends. “I don’t care if you’re gay” can sound like “I don’t care if you get antagonized for being gay”, and I think the fact that you would stand up for your gay friends shows that you do care that they are gay, you care that that is seen as something worth standing up for and protecting. Saying you don’t care is minimizing the extent to which you do care.


  • Seconding Oxenfree. It’s one of the few multi-choice/multi-ending games where I was completely content with the ending I got, and didn’t feel like the game ever lied to me or ripped me off for choosing the “wrong” thing. I had stayed away from it for so long because I wasn’t ready to deal with choice anxiety that I get in a lot of games of that type, but for whatever reason, the game never made me feel like that.













  • this could be a great opportunity to change someone’s outlook in a positive way.

    It could, but I don’t have the energy to educate people these days. I might send them some links if I really cared about them, but I have too little time and energy to politely explain for the millionth time that sex != gender. Same reason I don’t have the energy to educate flat earthers.


  • I went camping last month in a bright, sunny area with minimal tree coverage. I’m currently on accutane, so I made sure to ask my dermatologist if there was anything special I should do to be careful about sun exposure. They mentioned that I should look into getting some UV protection long sleeve shirts, so I bought a 4 pack of those, and also a sun hat with similar UV protection rating. I’ll admit the hat was not stylish at all, but the shirts were lightweight and soft enough that they didn’t bother me at all. I think I put on sunscreen once during the 4 days we were camping, and I didn’t get sunburned at all. If you’re looking for a hat that might provide some sun protection but also looks nicer than the generic outdoorsy style, maybe look for a bucket hat.

    Also, beyond all of that, just don’t spend time around people who judge you for wearing any kind of sun protection. If you’re encountering people like that, then they’re the one in the wrong, not you. Remind yourself to address which actions are harmful or helpful. Which is more helpful: wearing sunscreen or criticizing someone for wearing sunscreen? Obviously wearing sunscreen is more helpful and criticizing someone is more harmful, and the harmful action deserves no energy put towards considering or reacting to it.

    Normal, polite, nice human beings that deserve your time and energy do not do things like make fun of you for wearing sun protection. They understand, sympathize, and sometimes they’ll even help you.