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Spren of Kindness

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Everything posted by Spren of Kindness

  1. Dance a jig. Singing a heartfelt aria in an opera.
  2. I had time this morning to finish up the Maedhros art I posted last night.
  3. @CalanoCorvus, that's a good one, I like that. Also, thank you so much for the art style compliment! (I have a style?!) @Channelknight Fadran what's an art trade I've been away? New arts!
  4. This is one of my favorite character concepts for some reason: 'he's been in the woods for three years and hasn't spoken to another human in that same amount of time'. He's not Beren, and he's not Tuor either - at least, I don't think so. Anybody want to come up with a name for him? He needs one, but I can't think of anything.
  5. I've been aware of the fact that Blind Guardian has a Silmarillion concept album for a long time, and even tried to listen to it a couple years ago, but didn't finish. Well, yesterday I listened through the whole thing, and wow, these guys are good. I'm not a huge metal fan, but I'm really enjoying their music. They actually have a lot of songs inspired by different fantasy stories and I think science fiction as well. It's neat.
  6. The full trailer is out! The trailer, sorry I can't figure out how to embed it.
  7. Do you remember When seventeen used to seem old And years were long Days longer Before time whirled us by On wings of silvered age Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome! I've put a couple of my own thoughts in the spoiler box, so they don't affect initial feedback, though feedback on those would also be helpful.
  8. Kindness does a writing rant, vol. 2 yes, I've done one of these before, I didn't call it that.

    Inserted in a spoiler box because I'm like that.

    Spoiler

    So.  There's this thing that happens when I write where very often, my characters share very little with myself.  So I'm female, my protagonist is male.  I'm white, two of my protagonists are not.  I am mostly well physically, half my characters have some form of physical injury that affects their day-to-day life.  Stuff like that.  And because of this, I usually should probably do some research about the things that I don't know a lot about.  But I don't, because my first drafts are 'dumb drafts' that I'm basically just trying to get done as fast as possible.

    What ends up happening is that either I start worrying about what people are going to think about the things that I just set down on the page to revise later, that it's ignorant or offensive and people will be mad at me, and I don't finish the draft.  Or, I lose steam and stop for a while, and when I come back later, I have to go back and look at what I've written, start worrying that I haven't written something right and people will be mad about it.  And then I don't finish the draft.

    So what is the solution, I ask myself?  Finish the draft, go back, and do research to fix anything I messed up on.  Or all of it.  Maybe by not researching knee injuries well enough I've ruined my entire plot.  But I haven't finished a draft of anything, save one thing, in two years.  So I have all these unfinished drafts sitting around, that I'm scared to keep working on, that I'll probably never finish, because I don't think I'm qualified to do so.  Or something.  I'm not here to analyze my thought processes.

    Anyway, this is a really irritating thing that has hampered me repeatedly while I'm writing and I'm very annoyed by it and the way its making me walk on glass and eggshells in my own, private, will-not-be-seen-so-why-am-I-worrying, writing.  I should be able to just write, and I can't because I start thinking about thing x and how if I don't do it exactly right, I'll either make a bunch of people really mad by accident, or I'll never be able to get anything published for making one mistake in the adjectives I used.

    Peace out.

     

    1. Ixthos

      Ixthos

      That sucks Spren :( I very much know the feeling and similar feelings - you can do this! If you love writing then don't let fear stop you. If you love anything don't let fear stop you! You are capable, and whatever you are writing, if you are writing in love, will be acceptable and won't be offensive - you can do this! 

    2. Channelknight Fadran

      Channelknight Fadran

      *Author hugs*

      Them's the breaks, kid

  9. The second Dresden book was pretty okay. I feel like some things are done pretty well, and some things not so much, but that's to be expected for any story, really. I'm rereading The Great Hunt! I've noticed on this reread of the Wheel of Time that Jordan's writing style is a fair sight easier for me to read than Tolkien. Some of that is definitely font styles and line spacing, but in general, I was pretty surprised at how much I managed to get through today. I also have the added advantage of sort of understanding the plot and having characters drilled into my head for fourteen books. By golly, the characters we follow are so different from where they will be at this point in the story. I'm also reading Make, Sew, Mend by Bernadette Banner, which already promises to be very informative, and hopefully helpful for my own sewing hobby. After those two, I've got The Book of Lost Tales: Volume One, the first History of Middle-earth book and The Dragon Reborn. I'm really excited for the Book of Lost Tales, watching the stories change and seeing what stays the same is really fun for me, plus it's nice and dense, so it'll take me time and work to read it.
  10. I think a lot of it is a personality thing. Different people react in different ways. So Wit, who is good at reading people, can make choices on how to treat those he interacts with. It's the same thing I've done occasionally with kids, despite being pretty terrible at reading people. You can figure out where they are, and then respond in a way that makes them comfortable, or that they understand. I've noticed that Kaladin is more blunt, so that's how Wit responds. A little more sarcastic, more likely to insult, but still showing understanding. And that works, from what we've seen. Shallan comes from a completely different background, has a different personality, and has different issues and therefore, Wit responds differently.
  11. I think they usually announce them in the weekly updates, and maybe over social media as well.
  12. Ooh, I thought of another! I can be somewhat laconic, so when people see me in my chaotic element of being a very enthusiastic nerd, it's a surprise.
  13. My bet is Skyward and Mistborn, honestly. I recollect a while back he was working on a Mistborn script, and Skyward I think would do pretty well as an adaptation. But also, I think there have been rumors about this the whole time I've been on the Shard. It always does give excitement though!
  14. Especially at school, I tend to dress just a touch above what most people would consider casual. A lot of long skirts, tucked in shirts and blouses, and boots. I've never worn shorts or sweats or pajamas to school, and I think I wore a t-shirt once. And almost everything I wear is more cool toned and dark. So the time I turned up in a Marine Corps t-shirt and a light colored button down over it for warmth threw a few folks for a loop, since it was so unlike almost everything I'd worn to school before. I'm also very good at managing people and taking the lead, even though I intensely dislike it. I'm just very good at faking it until the situation is over. Those are the only things I can think off, I'm a bit of an open book.
  15. I didn't like Bridge of Clay as much as I expected to - it's definitely good, just not quite my style. Gold Unicorn was... interesting. That's the only way I can describe this book, and the previous one, Black Unicorn. They're good. But I can't help feeling like something is missing. I do like the way it reads almost like a children's fairy tale, but simultaneously is for an older audience. Blade of Secrets was definitely my favorite of this week. It's about a blacksmith with social anxiety who makes a very powerful magic sword. It's not the best thing I've ever read, but I did quite enjoy it. I think most of the characters were well done, and the romance was good - I was even rooting for it, which is not common for me.
  16. Ah yes.  The feeling when you realize that school is greatly exacerbating your possibly preexisting mental health issues, but you don't realize that and therefore don't tell your parents until the school year is almost over.  

    On a side note, I think that it's hilarious that I went from 'oh, this is teenage angst and something I can deal with' at the beginning of May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month, to 'oh heck, that's not supposed to be normal and I might not be able to deal with that on my own' by the end of the month.

    The awareness was done with all the grace and precision of painting the underside of a 2x4.

    1. dannnex

      dannnex

      your school year isn’t over yet?!?!?!?!?!?

      i’ve been out since Mid-May

      ouch.

    2. Spren of Kindness

      Spren of Kindness

      Oh no, it's been over for about three weeks now, I just didn't say anything about it on here until now.

    3. dannnex

      dannnex

      ahh gotcha

  17. I watched Sense and Sensibility, the Emma Thompson one, today. As such, I drew a house because I don't live in the countryside, and I don't really want to live in Regency England, but gosh that cottage was pretty! This may turn into a series of things and places that make me happy. I am in desperate need of that, after the prolonged misery of school. I liked learning, but a lot of the other things were not so great and I'm very glad it's over and I have time to myself again. At least for a few months.
  18. You can heal. It may take time and effort, but it is possible.
  19. Indeed. My art. I'm okay with faces, if I have a reference for proportions. Right now, my struggle is that I'm skilled enough to have ambitions, but not nearly skilled enough to make them happen. For example, these could be really cool, but right now I don't have the skill to pull them off. What am I good at? Mostly just faces. Sometimes scenes. I can also draw pretty nice looking dresses. (The secret is that there's no legs) Here's one of those: Even this, which is the best example I'm choosing to show here (I have a couple better, but those have plans), has lots of room for improvement! Hopefully I can show a few of those as I get better.
  20. Necroing, as I understand it, is posting on a thread that's been silent for over a year, or two. Basically reviving a very old thread, when it would probably be easier to just make a new one and start a fresh discussion. That way, people aren't getting quoted on things they said a year, two, even three ago.
  21. The last couple days, myself and a couple other people have been frequenting a street in a neighboring town that has a lot of small businesses and antique shops. I really like old stuff, so even without buying anything, it's really fun to go in and see things that have survived over a century, sometimes two, though rarely on this side of the country. However! I did buy something! I'm not sure how old it is, because it's entirely handmade and therefore has no tags, meaning fiber content and time of origin are unknown, but I bought a coat! Yes, it's July and I can't wear it for months, but that's probably a good thing, since it gives me time to repair a couple small things and do some slight tailoring to make it fit me just a touch better. I think it might be linen, it behaves like it. It's a dark red, and I really like it! And, today I bought two plants! A Hoya Australis and a purple African violet. I know I can keep them alive, I used to ahve a potted sage when I was younger, but I'm excited to have them! I think it'll do me good to have some green, growing things about. Makes me feel like some sort of elf or hobbit, which leads into my other happy thing... My hair has gotten really long, and I'm super happy about it. I've always wanted to have very long hair, and I'm well on my way there. It's a little bit of a hassle at times, but it's nice.
  22. I haven't even watched the movie, I just vibe with the theme, it's great.
  23. Two of my favorite cover artists released Top Gun: Maverick main theme covers today, so I've been listening to those. The Patrik Pietschmann one actually sounds like something I might almost be able to play, though I probably won't.
  24. Every now and then, I remember that Finrod Zong exists, and then I watch it. If you have no idea what that is, it's a rock opera about Finrod, a character in the Silmarillion, and also kind of about Bern and Luthien. And the whole thing is in Russian. It's my favorite Tolkien adaptation ever, after Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy, because I can watch the trilogy with my eyes closed and know what's happening perfectly. I actually really recommend it. It's pretty good, it has a pretty cool vision of the First Age despite being on what I assume was a severe budget.
  25. Black Unicorn was a vibe. I'm not sure if it's a one-off thing, or if I just like Tanith Lee's writing style, but that was a good, if short, book. Apparently there's a sequel called Gold Unicorn, so I'll read that next. Angel Island: Harbor of the Heart is the one based on a Thomas Kinkade painting, and it was exactly what I was expecting. Pretty simple, slice-of-life, everything turns out all right in the end, which was a very nice break from my usual fare of high stakes or heavy topic books. The first Dresden Files book was pretty good. I don't outrageously love it, but it wasn't bad, and a touch better than middle of the road. I suppose I'll probably get the next one - if the same premise holds true, where each book is a single case, so it's sort of episodic or serial, I think it'll make a nice break between books. Next up is Bridge of Clay, which I know next to nothing about (I found it on TV Tropes when it came up in a list of literature with a specific trope, which doesn't tell you much), but I'm excited to read. Then The Genesis Fleet: Vanguard, which I'm hoping I'll like a bit more than the other Jack Campbell book I read.
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