Enjoy For Those That Didn't Get To See It Or Experience It.

Hi! White writer here, I’ve been going through your folklore tag and didn’t quite see what I needed to know. Anyways I’m working on a novel which features a town populated exclusively by preternatural/supernatural beings, which acts as something of a sanctuary for beings from all over the world. There’s more than one of these towns, again all over the world, but people immigrate. Anyways my question is about folklore and respectfulness? I don’t want to turn anything into a stereotype or be (a)

(B) disrespectful with cultures which, obviously, aren’t mine. It’s a small town and there’s a lot of borderline horror in the story, but I guess I’m asking about any recommendations on how to not end up reducing them to stereotypes. (This includes things like kappa, ghosts, various types of vampires, werewolves and shifters, fae, etc. no wendigos, I did read that post.) sorry if this is too broad or anything similar! If you’ve any advice though I’d really appreciate it!

Using folklore respectively

The key is showing a balanced perspective.

Every folklore, belief system, and religion has good and evil forces. The problems happen when you start to pull too heavily from the good or evil sides of any one folklore belief set.

For example, your kappa— do you have any positive Shinto forces in there? Or are you just pulling the monsters? If you’re just pulling from the monsters, especially if you’re pulling mostly marginalized belief system monsters, that’s where it gets very, very troublesome.

This might mean your core cast has to shrink down to account for a balanced perspective, and a few chaotic forces, and/or you’ll have to be careful with side characters to mention them (like, a line of dialogue about how a negative force is a threat and a positive force from the same belief system is handling it), but this is your basic formula for using folklore.

You’ll also have to be careful not to discredit certain beliefs that might make people uncomfortable (it has been expressed a few times that adding Judaism and Islam to all-myths-are-true gets touchy), so that sort of research will be required.

Bonus points that you learn more about each individual set of beliefs and end up more likely to stray away from pop culture sensationalist lists that focus on the weird Other Folklore. By spreading your focus to the less written about but just as important good characters, you create the sense of something whole.

I would also suggest considering looking at how each folklore treats good and evil. Western views tend to treat it as end points— evil is defeated [end], evil wins [end]— while other belief systems are more likely to acknowledge that good and evil will always coexist and the key is keeping them in balance.

As for the Wendigo:

It isn’t completely off limits. What that post is referencing is making sure to use the Wendigo in its original context. This means having it be a villain/ force of pure evil, and having some good Native beliefs to balance it out.

For example: if the Wendigo (or any other marginalized demon) is defeated by a Christian witch, that would have colonialist overtones by showing the “savage marginalized beast” be subdued by “good Christian people.” Even if you had a non-Christian European belief, that turns to “civilized Europeans.” There’s a lot of racism in this option. 

Meanwhile, if you had the Wendigo defeated by Wisakedjak (or the equivilent heroic figure in a marginalized belief system), then the Wendigo is being defeated by an equal, showing a balanced representation of the beliefs. You end up showing internal processes for handling our own demons, showing our cultures more thoroughly.

Tl;dr: so long as you show good and bad parts of the folklore, and don’t make blends that end up stepping on toes/are colonialist in the form of Europe Being Better, you’re worlds ahead and with proper research can flesh it out.

~ Mod Lesya

Just gonna say I love all kinds of music and try to look for anything really. So uh- yeah- that's all I got to say.

i hate this sites music taste so much its literally Racism The Music Taste site. you guys dont like rap you dont like jazz you dont like country you dont like blues you dont like ska you dont like reggae you cannot CONCEPTUALIZE listening to foreign artists you dont even know what turbofolk is you cant conceive of music existing out of anglosphere you think that mcr is punk and its the end-all of definition of "punk" for you i hate everyone here like WHAT music do you people even listen to what the fuck is left

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infinitycow.eplay

I'm not sure I wanna click on that- sorry- please don't send me random links expecting me to click on them. /nm

(this was a while ago and I didn't post it for like- ages.)

Greetings bugs and worms!

This comic is a little different than what I usually do but I worked real hard on it—Maybe I'll make more infographic stuff in the future this ended up being fun. Hope you learned something new :)

If you are still curious and want to learn more about OCD, you can visit the International OCD Foundation's website. I also recommend this amazing TED ED video "Starving The Monster", which was my first introduction to the disorder and this video by John Green about his own experience with OCD.

The IOCDF's website can also help you find support groups, therapy, and has lots of online guides and resources as well if you or a loved one is struggling with the disorder. It is very comprehensive!

Reblog to teach your followers about OCD

(But also not reblogging doesn't make you evil, silly goose)

THE KOSA TAG IS TRENDING BUT DO NOT GIVE UP WE STILL HAVE TIME TO SPREAD AWARENESS AND DO SOMETHING TO STOP IT !!! STOP KOSA !!!

link to the kosa masterpost + what you can do

my post about the bill

Snom!

how to have a healthier relationship with your stats page

1. Understand what stats can tell you - and what they can’t

AO3 stats tell you whether or not another user clicked something. That’s it. Hits tell you whether a user clicked the title of your fic. Kudos tell you that a user clicked the little ❤ at the bottom of the page. Comments tell you that a user typed something into a box and then hit the comment button. 

Stats do not tell you why a person did any of those things. They also don’t tell you why a person didn’t do them. You know why you do those things yourself, but there are many types of people in the world and we all have our reasons why we do things. You can’t assume that every other user of AO3 uses the site the same way you do. 

Stats are not a reliable way to find out if you’re good at writing. They’re not a way to tell if you are loved. They have nothing to do with the quality of your work or your worth as a person.

2. Don’t compare yourself to others - or yourself

Because stats are not a reliable way to judge quality or skill or the effort you put into a story, comparing your stats against another author will also not tell you which of you is the “better” author or which of you has a “better” story. They can tell you which story was more popular, but popularity itself has very little to do with skill or quality. 

This is also true of your own work. Chances are very real that the story you’re most proud of is not the story with the best stats. Don’t let one story’s relative success or failure affect how you feel about another’s. 

3. Focus on things you can control instead of things you can’t

Once you’ve posted your story, the reaction to it is out of your control. It will get however many hits, kudos, and comments other people decide to give it and you can’t do much about that at all. 

What you can control, however, is the work you put into the story before you post it. Celebrate statistics like word count or time spent writing or the number of WIP you’ve managed to finish. Those are all numbers that are in your control, that you have the power to alter and affect. 

Find something in every story that makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be the whole fic. It could be one particular characterization, a scene, or a line. Maybe you wrote a particularly funny joke or a really moving description or a hot love scene. 

Highlighting positive emotions and being proud of your own work will make you less reliant on the opinions of other people. You’ll develop more confidence, and that will help you avoid the stats spiral in the future. Finding motivations inside of yourself is much more reliable than getting motivation from people who might or might not continue to provide it.

4. If you can’t ignore stats, avoid them

The first time I had an unhealthy relationship with my stats page, I ended up quitting fic entirely for about a year. I still wrote, I just didn’t post anything on AO3. I couldn’t trust myself not to focus on the numbers and make myself crazy, and so I didn’t allow myself to look at them at all. 

The second time I found myself starting down the stats spiral, I knew the signs and I was able to pull myself out of it. I stopped looking at my stats page, but I was able to continue posting work. I still refreshed the page for the first day to see the hits/kudos/comments but after that first day I only returned to the fic in order to post a new chapter or answer another comment. 

There are tools you can use to help you avoid stats. This AO3 skin hides stats entirely. This code hides hits. Here’s one for hiding kudos with additional instructions on how to hide any stats you choose. 

5. Be your own cheerleader

When it comes right down to it, the reason why we focus in on stats is because we’re looking for reassurance. We want to know for sure whether we’re a good writer or not. Unfortunately, our stats are never going to tell us that. 

A lot of us are also told by others that being proud of something we’ve done or liking something that we’ve created is boastful or bragging or other negative personality traits. But there’s a difference between bragging about how good you are and acknowledging your own skills. 

Give yourself permission to like your own work. You might never get that permission from someone else, so you need to take that on yourself. 

Start talking to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend of yours who was working on a fic or a piece of art or doing anything else that requires time and skill. You wouldn’t tear them down, so don’t tear yourself down. Build yourself up. That positive self-talk can be difficult at first, but it’s a habit that pays off over time. 

6. Know that I’m proud of you

It takes courage and strength and determination to have an idea and then to act on it. It’s easy to think. It’s a lot harder to write things down. No matter whether you post your story online or you keep it to yourself. No matter whether you get a thousand hits or a dozen. You’re still amazing, and I’m so glad you took that leap ❤

I love chain lightening what a classic spell. fuck you and you and you and you and you and

I don't need to say much do I? I'm against AI mostly as a whole for stealing art and such, as well as writing. It's wrong, and it decreases creativity as a whole. It even pushes people away from their passions, me included. I almost lost motivation for art. But I'll say this, I won't stop.

pro-AI in the sense of "they taught a bread scanning computer to recognize cancer cells" etc etc

against AI in the sense of "we stole artwork from hundreds to thousands of artists, didn't credit them and didn't financially compensate them"

When Bluesky, an app I just found through a friend, makes me feel like I'm taking a breath of fresh air. Here just take a look at it, I already like it despite having not used it yet. I just had to look around and it's nice- a break from the shitty bullshit of the Internet

It looks better then Twitter/x to be honest. For me anyway.

(the link will take you to the app on Google play. Idk if it's on any other devices. And obviously it's called Bluesky) ((if you're uncomfortable with clicking the link just look it up.))

Bluesky