Wrey 🏳️‍🌈✍️

Shia, I'm'a need you to calm ALL the way the fuck down, bro. I'm not saying I would close the front door on you if you showed up as a grindr hookup, but ain't a single rainbowtastic motherfucker going out of his gay way to fuck with you, you little pick-me.

My example is: I'm writing a Game of Thrones series. I leave the canon untouched save for the end fate of two characters. Instead of becoming Kingsgaurds, they go a different direction that allows me to connect my post-canon series.

Is that enough of a change to count as "canon divergent"? 😶

... or those that tell a slice of the canon from a different POV than original deployed, aren’t all fics “canon divergent” to one degree or another? Other than the above, who's writing a fic that simply repeats the canon perfectly, with NO changes? (2/2)

Random #Fanfic Thought #237

I don’t understand the tag “canon divergent” because, with a few exceptions like fics that take place before the canon or after the canon that leave the canon untouched... (1/2)

This one is great for thinking about your characters, their interactions, how well-meshed they are in their setting or narrative.

bsky.app/hashtag/Awes...

This one is great for thinking about how well you’ve created and fleshed out your world. Are there bare patches, thin spots that need addressing?

bsky.app/hashtag/Febr...

This one is great to get a peek at what folk are working on, their actual writing.

bsky.app/profile/wips...

What’s been effective for me is participating in different WIP-based writing Q&A prompts. Basically, “Tell us about your WIP!” All of the following have proven to be fanfiction friendly 😉

Screen capture showing a message wherein the band known as Vector 23 is being propositioned by one of those AI scammers to provide them "choreography". It's everywhere and it's spreading.

This was received by my friend in Nebraska. Vector23 is his band. The "How'bout you pay me to visualize this for you via AI" is spreading...

#Fanfic

FEBRUARY WEEK 1: PHYSICAL WORLD 1: Does your world have a name? 2: What’s the size/scope of your world or story? (e.g. a planet, a galaxy, a few islands) 3: Got any maps? 4: Geography of a notable mountain or range 5: Got any deserts (of the hot OR cold variety?) 6: Flora/fungi found in a notable forest? 7: Any notable bodies of water? WEEK 2: METAPHYSICAL WORLD 8: Does your world feature any nonphysical realms e.g. a dream world? Inner mind world? 9: If your world has alternate planes of reality, how can a person access them? 10: Are prophecies or psychic abilities real in your world? 11: Does free will exist in your world? If there are prophecies or foretelling, how do you reconcile that with free will? 12: Are souls real in your world? Or do your characters believe in them? 13: Is the origin of your world known? What do your characters believe? 14: Any places where time works differently? (sped up, slowed down, travel to the past) WEEK 3: LAWS AND COURTS 15: Who makes the laws in your world? 16: Who upholds the laws (police force?) 17: What are the courts of your world like? 18: Are the laws in your world very strict? What kind of punishment might a person get? 19: What is your MC’s relationship with law or law enforcement? 20: Are there any deities or governmental figures strongly associated with laws or the courtroom? 21: Are there any laws in your world specific to something in your worldbuilding? A law that doesn’t exist in real life because it wouldn’t be relevant here? WEEK 4: GOVERNMENT 22: Who is a ruler in your world? What is their rank and what are they like? 23: Are there any councils or other groups of people who govern? 24: What is the system of government in your world (or in a single location you’d like to talk about?) 25: How does the government interact with other countries? Any wars or diplomatic trades? 26: How stable is your world’s government? Are they at risk of enduring a rebellion? (continued in post)

I've had a hell of a week (or two) but I'm recovering. I hope to spend some time with your posts in the coming few days!

For now, here's #FebruaryWorldbuilders! This marks the second birthday of the Monthly Worldbuilders prompts, started on Twitter, but getting traction here now. Enjoy!

Tell me you've given this due thought and diligence without actually telling me. 😜 Seriously, very meticulous. 😊

... because tukhé are poor liars. It doesn't mean they don't try, but the stress of "big lies" is written in their individual tumpa, which tukhé are as naturally adept at reading as you might read someone's body language. (2/2)

#FebruaryWorldbuilders - Given the variability in the Enclosure, a focus on the longhouse of Jobón, eldest of the Red Brothers: Grievances are brought to him directly as one might bring a grievance to a feudal lord or lady. But it's uncommon for him to have to decide innocence or guilt... (1/2)

And in the central plain, some of the most newly arrived, Forest Saka (Scythians) reenact their old lives, but there are no horses in the Enclosure and maosa (Denisvans) teach them to ride chalicotheres instead.

Again, tribal chiefdom is the general vibe. 😊 (5/5)

To the southwest, Rashiné is the leader of the Lake People. He was the first to brave the water, to build rafts, to create safety for his people during the aforementioned conflicts. (4/5)

The Red Brothers and their father, Maran, are blood family, extremely rare in the Enclosure. Each of the brothers rules over a rambling longhouse in the dawn redwood forest. They were generals in a bitter conflict that happened in the distant past when adaimag (Sapiens) first started arriving (3/5)

The majority of hominins (there are three species) live in small, widely scattered, often mixed groups where law in the more complex sense doesn't really exist. But there are population centers, like the longhouses of the tukhé Red Brothers to the southeast where life is more complex. (2/5)

#FebruaryWorldbuilders - In the Enclosure "tribal chiefdom" is the general juridical vibe. Population density is very, very low on the island - no more than about 30k people on a landmass the size of Borneo (actual population 23 million) and this makes for strong differences. (1/5)

Former Prince Andrew took out loan from UK royals to pay off sex abuse accuser: Report Andrew said to have relied on funds from late queen, King Charles, Prince Philip’s estate to settle US civil sex abuse claim - Anadolu Ajansı

Sorry, Season 3 of The Diplomat, but, no matter how many times your plot turns on a ludicrous dime, it's patently bland compared to real-world events just now, which are 🌶️🔥...

"To Catch a Predator" was cancelled because they caught a government official.

Who then offed himself.

Notice how I separate that last bit as a fragmentary sentence so it doesn't have shit to do with the sentence prior because IT AIN'T GOT SHIT TO DO WITH THE OTHER MTHFKN SENTENCE.

When Tourr'di's connectivity with the Steward is complete and fully activated, she doesn't just get access to the Steward, she subsumes it. In doing so, she becomes fully aware of the artificial, technological provenance of their world. (3/3)

They don't know where they are, but they generally realize they aren't "home", the most obvious sign being five moons in the sky, one large like our own, the other four small, perfectly uniform, featureless save for a dark spot on one - an asteroid impact. (2/3)

#FebruaryWorldbuilders - Initially, the nature and origin of the world that contains the Enclosure is unknown to any of the characters. But eventually, one does come to know the whole of the story - Tourr'di, the impossibly ancient Neanderthal woman. (1/3)

I just heard a comedian refer to them as "Rapepublicans" and I'm never saying it any other way.

I tend to write ensemble casts where the MCs are just more central than the others, and those ensembles come from all sorts of venues. People I know, faces I see on the street that catch my eye, something someone says that sticks with me. Can be anything, really. (2/2)

#AwesomeCharacters I admit that my MCs often strongly adhere to a physical archetype best described as Big Fellah and L'il Dude, which, if I'm honest, is likely a reflection of me being a 5'6" (167 cm) gay fellah living in a 6'5" (195 cm) world. 😊 (1/2)

Yep. 😊 It's an effective way to narratively limit the tech in a wide open setting, similar to how a story with magic needs some restriction on the magic, otherwise there are no stakes to the drama.

Timmor and Odé Qaxar join Ashrah on the fencing team. They were originally inspired by Nzinga Prescod and Race Imboden of the US Fencing Team. 😊

#AwesomeCharacters - Fencing, of course. 😜 I'm chuckling because Timmor Buckler and Odé Qaxar in my Westeros stories were originally inspired by Nzinga Prescod and Race Imboden, both previously on the US Olympic Fencing Team.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders - In my Westeros series, yes, most certainly both exist. 😊 There are greenseers and wargs and several prophecies giving rise to a bewildering array of fan-theories concerning how they will be resolved, if ever. GRRM is infamous for dropping pearls he later simply abandons. 😶