There so much… animosity towards nanowrimo and tbh as someone who 1. was primarily shaped as a writer by nano and 2. usually throws out 90% of their nano words, I want to say it’s completely possible to part peaceably from an event.
I know there’s social pressure involved when you’re a writing blog around November. That pressure is generally going to come in the form of people asking “are you doing nano”? And I want to clarify before that gets into full swing that the pressure involved is not intentional on their part. They didn’t mean to push you into doing something you know won’t be good for you. They’re just looking for people they can add to their buddy list and agonize with while they’re stretching their writing muscles. Please don’t take it personally. ((And please don’t pressure others ffs))
That said, the presence of that animosity kinda seems to imply that people have had some serious struggles with nano in the past. So let me say this:
1.There is no shame in a reduced wordcount
2.Giving up is an option you should seriously consider if you realize the strain is negatively impacting your life and your writing
3. Nano is supposed to be motivating, uplifting, and an enriching social activity. If it’s not hitting any of those points and doesn’t have some added benefit not on that list, it’s not helping you. (A lot of people get really, REALLY down on themselves during nano. It’s… extremely unfortunate, actually)
4. Discovering your own limitations as a writer is a big part of this event, but you need to remember to watch for when it’s pushing you too far, and scale back when you hit that point. Making yourself hate your writing like I and so many others have does not help you.
Pushing yourself until you hate seeing November come up is not healthy, and you shouldn’t put yourself through that. But holding a grudge against a well-meaning event that excites and motivates plenty of other writers isn’t a good look, either.
Please, just do what’s best for you and let the rest be excited if they want to.
i fucking love taking the bus for real. the only thing i love more than taking the bus is taking the train. choo choo am i right. i think most human distress can be alleviated by listening to dramatic music on public transportation.
Here at the beginning of February 2022, I have some recs from 2021! What, it’s only a month late… All fics were posted in 2021, presented in alphabetical order, and all of which I enjoyed very much.
Alive at the Wake, by @herenortherenearnorfar. Silvergifting, explicit, ~25k - A canon divergence AU in which the Elves find the strength to unmake the Three, and things go differently wrong. Melancholy and tragic, and the last scene is amazing.
A Mistress Of Her Own Lust, by @i-am-a-lonely-visitor, Celrond, explicit, ~2.5k - I was dithering over what fic of Visitor’s to rec, but I had to go with this because there’s Ungoliant erotica and sexy spider roleplay and I can’t think of anything more perfect.
At the Water’s Edge-@crackinthecup. Gen, teen, ~3.5k - Elwing and Idril talk prior to Idril and Tuor sailing, and it’s bittersweet in the best way, with a wonderful Idril and Elwing coming into her own.
Dance Macabre, by @elennaloreand@sakasakiii. Gen, teen, ~10k - A collaboration from the TRSB. It’s about Tar-Mairon in the War of the Elves and Sauron and his relationship with Celebrimbor’s corpse. I loved the look into Sauron’s mind and his unique view of the world, and also there was post-mortem dancing! The art is amazing.
Echo as of a Child’s Voice, by @starspray and CateWolfe. Gen, teen, ~5.5k - A TRSB work, so there is both art and fic, and both are wonderful. Elurin and Urwen Lalaith meet in a canon-compliant story, and so the background is just as tragic as you might think, and yet it’s also sweet and affecting and made me a bit teary.
Getting Along, by @aipilosse. Annatar/Celebrimbor/Galadriel, explicit, ~8k - it was an Innumerable Stars gift for meeee! Loved it. And also a wonderful and sexy story about the best disaster threesome, with great worldbuilding!
In the Halls of Sorrow, by Avia_Isadora. Gen, teen, ~2k - A very affecting conversation between Celebrian and Celebrimbor in Nienna’s gardens. I loved the characterization and worldbuilding both.
Notes on Self-Adornment, by @catadromously. Silvergifting, teen, ~2.5k - also a gift for me! (I won Innumerable Stars with the two fantastically wonderful stories I received). Fantastic Annatar POV, with his alien perspective and fascination with how Celebrimbor is at once utterly unlike him and yet the recognition of the self in someone so other. Also sexy cellular respiration.
Now Free, by Maglor_still_lives and Tethys_Resort. Gen, mature, ~15k - this is an amazing look how some OCs survive the last days of Beleriand. The worldbuilding is excellent, the characters great, and it’s very affecting. A TRSB piece, and the art and fic are equally lovely.
These Newborn Shores, by @kazaera and Iferion. Gen, teen, ~14k - Another TRSB collaboration, and the lovely art is a quilt! The story is just as lovely, an ensemble piece about trade and textiles in the very beginning of the Second Age, and underneath that about moving on after surviving an apocalypse.
When Summer Warms the Hanging Fruit and Burns the Berry Brown, by @cycas, with art by @ettelene. Multi & F/M, mature, ~6k - About the relationship the two POV characters have with Yavanna and her fruitfulness. Great worldbuilding (finally, tropical Valinor!) and I really liked the writing style and bright, gorgeous art. Also sex pollen.
As for myself, I’m going to cheat and rec two of my own stories, not just one: A Long-Expected Climax is possibly my favorite (silvergifting, explicit, ~14k) and it’s kinky and romantic, but a shell that speaks has Peredhil family feels (gen with Elrond and Arwen as POVs, G, ~2.5k).
I know captive prince is a story about like, healing and love and understanding and not revenge .. but goddammit damianos should’ve gotten to fulfill his promise and slit the regent’s throat. As a treat
I’ve been on a Discworld re-read for about a year now, and it just struck me how Pterry gets progressively angrier and less subtle about it throughout the series.
Like, we start out nice and easy with Rincewind who’s on some wacky adventures and ha ha ha oh golly that Twoflower sure is silly and the Luggage is epic, where can I get one. Meanwhile Rincewind just wants to live out his boring days as a boring Librarian but is dragged along against his will by an annoying little tourist guy and honestly? Fuck this.
We get the first view of Sam Vimes, and he’s just a drunken beaten down sod who wants to spend his last days as a copper in some dive but oh fuck now he has to fight a dragon and honestly? Fuck this.
The first time we see Granny Weatherwax, she’s just a cranky old woman who has never set foot outside her village but oh fuck now she has to guide this weird girl who shouldbe a witch but is apparently a wizard all the way down to Ankh Morpork and honestly? Fuck this.
Like, these books deal with grumpy, cranky people. But mostly, the early books are a lot of fun. Sure, they have messages about good and evil and the weirdness of the world, and they’re good messages too, but mostly they are just wacky romps through a world that’s just different enough that we can have a good laugh about it without taking things too much to heart.
But then you get to Small Gods, in which organized religion is eviscerated so thorouhgly that if it was human, even the Quisition would say it’s gone a bit too far while at the same time not condemning people having faith which is kind of an important distinction.
You get to Men at Arms and I encourage everybody with an opinion on the Second Amendment to read thatone.
You get to Jingo, Monstrous Regiment, Going Postal (featuring an evil CEO who is squeezing his own company dry to get to every last penny, not caring one lick about his product or his workers or his customers or anything else and who, coincidentally, works out of Tump Tower. I’m not making this up).
And just when you think, whew, this is getting a bit much but hey, look, he wrote YA as well! And it’s about this cute little girl who wants to be a witch and has help from a lot of rowdy blue little men, this will be fun! A bit of a break from all the anger!
Wrong.
The Tiffany Aching books are the angriest of all. But you know what the great thing is?
The great thing is that Pterry’s anger is the kind of fury that makes you want to get up and dosomething about it. It upsets you, sure. But it also says It’s up to you to change all of this. And you canchange all of this, and even if you can’t. Do it anyway. Because magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
It’s the kind of anger that gives you purpose, and it gives you hope. And that concludes my essay about why the Discworld series is so gloriously cathartic to read when it seems like all the world is going to shit.
So go. Read them, get angry and then get up and fight. Fight for truth. Justice. Freedom. Reasonably priced love and, most importantly, a hard-boiled egg.
actually carly rae jepsen was a genius when she said “before you came into my life i missed you so bad” and everyone who hated on that lyric just wasn’t smart enough to understand
menstruating in the summer should be considered a violation of human rights they should defund the police and give the money to the girlies in stem so they put an end to this
thinking about how so much of the fandom thinks will is just a little dude and is the weakest of the group when he loaded a gun and aimed it at the hellsent monster chasing him when he was 11, survived the upside down after being dragged there by said monster, survived a whole ass mind flayer in him, and more. Will Byers is probably the strongest out of the og party and I’ll die on this hill
