Hogwarts First Year: PART 1

my dad–also a writer–came to visit, and i mentioned that the best thing to come out of the layoff is that i’m writing again. he asked what i was writing about, and i said what i always do: “oh, just fanfic,” which is code for “let’s not look at this too deeply because i’m basically just making action figures kiss in text form” and “this awkward follow-up question is exactly why i don’t call myself a writer in public.”

he said, “you have to stop doing that.”

“i know, i know,” because it’s even more embarrassing to be embarrassed about writing fanfic, considering how many posts i’ve reblogged in its defense.

but i misunderstood his original question: “fanfic is just the genre. i asked what you’re writing about.” 

i did the conversational equivalent of a spinning wheel cursor for at least a minute. i started peeling back the setting and the characters, the fic challenge and the specific episode the story jumps off from, and it was one of those slow-dawning light bulb moments. “i’m writing about loneliness, and who we are in the absence of purpose.”

as, i imagine, are a lot of people right now, who probably also don’t realize they’re writing an existential diary in the guise of getting television characters to fuck. 

“that’s what you’re writing. the rest is just how you get there, and how you get it out into the world. was richard iii really about richard the third? would shakespeare have gotten as many people to see it if it wasn’t a story they knew?”

so, my friends: what are you writing about?

Doing my daily reading (scrolling through motswolo’s tumblr for any extra Cadence content I can get my hands)

idc what anyone says the marauders tiktok kate bush “babooshka” era was sublime and i’ll be chasing that high for the rest of my life

I can't stress enough how much I miss StumbleUpon

“The bisexual community should be a place where lines are erased. Bisexuality dismisses, disproves, and defies dichotomies. It connotes a loss of rigidity and absolutes. It is an inclusive term.”

— Martin-Damon, K., “Essay for the Inclusion of Transsexuals”. Bisexual Politics. New York: Harrington Park Press. 1995

why am I not drawing (I live with my family). I like to draw (I'd kms before letting them see me doing something I enjoy). I want to draw gay people kissing (I need serious psychological help)

“litanies to my heavenly brown body” by mark aguhar 

What AO3 is Named After

I’ve posted about this a few times, but it bears repeating because lots of people don’t even think about AO3′s name.

It’s a reference to A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, which is a feminist essay about how society stifles women’s artistic expression.

I love looking at old zines, like nothing fucking compares. One my favs is "Shocking Pink", a feminist youth-led magazine published between 1979-1992. (Link to all the zines here.) In it they talk about sexism and access to abortion resources, queer and gender rights, lesbianism and LGBT+ bookshops and all-female bands, racism and historical movements, equality for girls/women in trades and youth-led movements in the midst of Thatcher's Britain. If I could tell anyone looking to research this period I would tell them to read the zines made by the people they want to write about <3

sex isn't sexy unless it's a little bit gross. have you forgotten that you are a divine ape? plastic smooth skin, plucked hair, painted faces, scripted reactions, scrubbed til only the smell of perfumed soap remains, proportions that are conflictingly cookiecutter yet unattainable, none of this is even a little bit interesting.

you can laugh at napoleon's "home in three days, don't bathe" letter to his wife, but there's more sexuality in that one line then there is in the entirety of the hypersexualized but painfully unsexy internet.