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zaniida(First part here.)
Okay, this is the more external section of the challenge:
Say what? Whoa. Moving a bit fast here; I've barely joined the site.
Magic Eight Ball says: Ask again later.
Also, between typing those words and completing this post, I totally did that by accident, so: Done! Now I never have to interact with anyone else here again ever oh wait am I still hosting that event? shoot.
I'll have to think this one over, but I'd like to point to Tiny Box Tim Day (June 28th) as the "holiday for helping others" that I created in 2016, after I watched Markiplier unpacking yet another deluge of gifts that he said was getting overwhelming -- he wished that the effort would go to help those in need, and so I made the holiday in the hopes of seeing people turn their creativity toward a more charitable cause.
So instead of sending Markiplier boxes upon boxes of physical gifts, do some charity on/for his birthday and, if you like, send him evidence in the form of (digital) photos and tweets under the hashtag #TinyBoxTimDay. (Maybe eventually he'll see it! The holiday is sorta my birthday present to him.)
I also committed to an act of kindness, in that we do the Extra Credits charity fundraiser every year, and we've raised about $350 for Seattle Children's Hospital.
Wait wait wait. COVID kinda got in the way of this, but: I have an act of kindness that I started doing years ago, and might fill this category: I'm a run-by complimentist. Not in so many words.
At some point I had read one too many stories where a person was two steps from suicide but then a random compliment improved their day enough to matter. So I decided to push aside the social awkwardness of briefly interacting with strangers, and if I saw anything to compliment about a stranger, and could do so in a way that did not compel either of us to continue the interaction, then I would tell them.
"I love your hair" or "Wow, that dress is cool" or "That's a gorgeous color on your socks" or whatever. Even, sometimes, "Your skin is the most beautiful color," said with as much honesty and conviction as I can manage because I realize that some people find it weird to even mention a person's skin color in the first place, but I figure it's a bit of a pushback against the people in the world who only bring up a skin color to disparage it.
(It's not always variations on "that looks pretty to me"; those are just the ones that I use most often and that are coming to mind as I type this.)
I will sometimes leave my mom/party in a parking lot to run over to a random other shopper just to compliment them, because I happened to see a cool hair color or something two lanes over. My family is used to this by now.
It's much harder to find unique things to compliment (in a natural, mostly-non-awkward way) about men (especially without it coming across like I'm hitting on them). I've managed a few, but I've noticed that men generally don't have that much that's outwardly distinguishing. Women have a lot of hairstyles and hair colors; men wear comparatively few. Women wear a lot of interesting clothing, while men tend to stick to basics. Not to say that I haven't run across exceptions, just that they're much less common. T-shirts with interesting pictures or wording are one big exception, though they're more common on men of certain ages.
It's not as awkward as I thought it would be, and almost everyone I've ever done this to has reacted in an outwardly positive way. Probably some portion of them are inwardly feeling awkward or troubled, but that's something I can't judge from their reactions. Many of them -- in fact, I would say the majority -- have reacted in a surprised-pleased manner, so I think the exercise has been doing good. Maybe the good mood will pass along to other people during the rest of their day.
(I have yet to figure out good advice to offer male people who want to try this. Because there's this long-standing history of guys using compliments exclusively as ways to hit on girls, which brings along a lot of baggage. Now, there's an article in Keys to Happiness (a Reader's Digest collection from like 1950) wherein the writer saw a guy easily interacting with women in a way that didn't reduce them to the level of a sex object and that the women saw as a positive without any awkwardness, and I could possibly find the book and pull out his advice, but it may well be that by this point society has gotten bad enough that (many/most) women reasonably assume "compliment from strange man" = "this guy's a creep," which turns the intended outcome (make the recipient feel good) on its head. Maybe this is one area where men in general can't join in, at least in the current social climate.)
The most intriguing result: If I compliment a woman's shirt or accessory, she will almost invariably respond with two details: Where she got it, and that it was cheap. (I've only had one man do the same.) It feels like a sort of automatic reciprocity, the idea that if I've complimented it I must want one for myself and it's polite to "pay me back" for the compliment by helping me acquire one.
Ah, something I can answer more easily.
Wendy Pini (ElfQuest), Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), and Eric Barone (Stardew Valley) are three of my top inspirations -- the first two for decades, and Eric Barone far more recently -- as people who've created their extensive artistic vision in a way that eschews the much more common "tone down your vision to a marketable level" process that leaves us with lowest-common-denominator stories that refuse to push boundaries or challenge readers.
ElfQuest's art and storytelling are at the root of my creative upbringing, and my room has stacks of drawings where I copied EQ art and even whole pages; it was also the source of some of my earliest fan comic attempts, and the effort I poured into my own set of elves yielded 230 years of who-begat-whom along with enough material to create my own story (not as fanfic), which may or may not someday see the light of day. (Incidentally, that set of data is how I made my first major database (to print elven family trees), and how I learned the problems that crop up when two entries share the same name. Whoops.)
Also, Spiderweb Software inspired me as far as gamemaking: extensive worldbuilding and so much content (in Exile, back before it got rebranded as Avernum) that by the time I reached the Shareware Demon who guarded the bridge to the main content, I'd spent hours and was thoroughly hooked; this, to me, is the high mark in how to handle shareware, ensuring that free players get a good long stretch of enjoyment and that the only players who ever reach the "please pay us now" event are those who've enjoyed the game enough to want to continue.
In addition, if you're up for darker fare, try these two:
Recoil by WhoopsOK includes suicide-adjacent issues and mishandling of a gun, both used to make a point about self-value.
Cutting Losses by DisposalUnit includes infanticide and a very dark version of Root, along with some of the most heart-rending content I've ever read in the POI fandom. Bring tissues and something soft to hug, and have some fluffy stuff to help bring you back after the ride.
For those fandoms not in my main two, try:
Related: I've developed a certain reputation in the AO3 comments section, and part of that reputation is of being able to direct people at fanfics that suit them. So if you're interested in the MCU or POI, and would like some recommendations of fics that maybe you haven't read yet, gimme a shot and I'll see what I can do to set you up ^_^
Dare I point you at TV Tropes? If that line hasn't made you run away screaming over that black hole of time and creativity, well, I'm the one who spearheaded the So You Want To... namespace, along with the Books on Trope page.
Books on Trope is a list of books/resources that deal with tropes -- personality systems, plot archetypes, lists of cliches, and so on.
So You Want To... is a set of how-to articles: Want to be the next Stan Lee? Want to create the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Want to craft a dating sim? Various genre-specific advice points you at the tropes that you ought to be familiar with, the cliches to avoid, and various ways to make the craft easier and more interesting. For example, in the Star Trek one, I made a list of ways you could handle the aliens, explaining the amount of cost and effort it would take to use that method: no aliens (easy on the budget, potentially very hard on the writing), invisible/tiny/telepathic aliens, tribbles (props that the cast react to as if they're alive), muppets, robots, etc.
By the by, here's my troper page. And I'm the one who first roughed up the design that led to the current TV Tropes logo -- that lampshade over the second T design is all mine, though it's been upgraded a few times and no longer bears the more bookish font that I chose originally. So that's the piece of art I made that has spread the widest and yet nobody would know to connect it to me ^_^
Other than that, I use the NaNoWriMo fora to ask odd questions about things I'm writing; it's a really useful resource that can pair you up with professionals who know the fields you're after, and nobody blinks if you ask something weird that makes you sound like a serial killer.
So... guess that's it for this piece. Onward!
Okay, this is the more external section of the challenge:
5. Interact
Say what? Whoa. Moving a bit fast here; I've barely joined the site.
Magic Eight Ball says: Ask again later.
Also, between typing those words and completing this post, I totally did that by accident, so: Done! Now I never have to interact with anyone else here again ever oh wait am I still hosting that event? shoot.
12. Commit an act of kindness
I'll have to think this one over, but I'd like to point to Tiny Box Tim Day (June 28th) as the "holiday for helping others" that I created in 2016, after I watched Markiplier unpacking yet another deluge of gifts that he said was getting overwhelming -- he wished that the effort would go to help those in need, and so I made the holiday in the hopes of seeing people turn their creativity toward a more charitable cause.
So instead of sending Markiplier boxes upon boxes of physical gifts, do some charity on/for his birthday and, if you like, send him evidence in the form of (digital) photos and tweets under the hashtag #TinyBoxTimDay. (Maybe eventually he'll see it! The holiday is sorta my birthday present to him.)
I also committed to an act of kindness, in that we do the Extra Credits charity fundraiser every year, and we've raised about $350 for Seattle Children's Hospital.
Wait
Wait wait wait. COVID kinda got in the way of this, but: I have an act of kindness that I started doing years ago, and might fill this category: I'm a run-by complimentist. Not in so many words.
At some point I had read one too many stories where a person was two steps from suicide but then a random compliment improved their day enough to matter. So I decided to push aside the social awkwardness of briefly interacting with strangers, and if I saw anything to compliment about a stranger, and could do so in a way that did not compel either of us to continue the interaction, then I would tell them.
"I love your hair" or "Wow, that dress is cool" or "That's a gorgeous color on your socks" or whatever. Even, sometimes, "Your skin is the most beautiful color," said with as much honesty and conviction as I can manage because I realize that some people find it weird to even mention a person's skin color in the first place, but I figure it's a bit of a pushback against the people in the world who only bring up a skin color to disparage it.
(It's not always variations on "that looks pretty to me"; those are just the ones that I use most often and that are coming to mind as I type this.)
I will sometimes leave my mom/party in a parking lot to run over to a random other shopper just to compliment them, because I happened to see a cool hair color or something two lanes over. My family is used to this by now.
Observations
It's much harder to find unique things to compliment (in a natural, mostly-non-awkward way) about men (especially without it coming across like I'm hitting on them). I've managed a few, but I've noticed that men generally don't have that much that's outwardly distinguishing. Women have a lot of hairstyles and hair colors; men wear comparatively few. Women wear a lot of interesting clothing, while men tend to stick to basics. Not to say that I haven't run across exceptions, just that they're much less common. T-shirts with interesting pictures or wording are one big exception, though they're more common on men of certain ages.
It's not as awkward as I thought it would be, and almost everyone I've ever done this to has reacted in an outwardly positive way. Probably some portion of them are inwardly feeling awkward or troubled, but that's something I can't judge from their reactions. Many of them -- in fact, I would say the majority -- have reacted in a surprised-pleased manner, so I think the exercise has been doing good. Maybe the good mood will pass along to other people during the rest of their day.
(I have yet to figure out good advice to offer male people who want to try this. Because there's this long-standing history of guys using compliments exclusively as ways to hit on girls, which brings along a lot of baggage. Now, there's an article in Keys to Happiness (a Reader's Digest collection from like 1950) wherein the writer saw a guy easily interacting with women in a way that didn't reduce them to the level of a sex object and that the women saw as a positive without any awkwardness, and I could possibly find the book and pull out his advice, but it may well be that by this point society has gotten bad enough that (many/most) women reasonably assume "compliment from strange man" = "this guy's a creep," which turns the intended outcome (make the recipient feel good) on its head. Maybe this is one area where men in general can't join in, at least in the current social climate.)
The most intriguing result: If I compliment a woman's shirt or accessory, she will almost invariably respond with two details: Where she got it, and that it was cheap. (I've only had one man do the same.) It feels like a sort of automatic reciprocity, the idea that if I've complimented it I must want one for myself and it's polite to "pay me back" for the compliment by helping me acquire one.
10. Who Inspired You?
Ah, something I can answer more easily.
Wendy Pini (ElfQuest), Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), and Eric Barone (Stardew Valley) are three of my top inspirations -- the first two for decades, and Eric Barone far more recently -- as people who've created their extensive artistic vision in a way that eschews the much more common "tone down your vision to a marketable level" process that leaves us with lowest-common-denominator stories that refuse to push boundaries or challenge readers.
ElfQuest's art and storytelling are at the root of my creative upbringing, and my room has stacks of drawings where I copied EQ art and even whole pages; it was also the source of some of my earliest fan comic attempts, and the effort I poured into my own set of elves yielded 230 years of who-begat-whom along with enough material to create my own story (not as fanfic), which may or may not someday see the light of day. (Incidentally, that set of data is how I made my first major database (to print elven family trees), and how I learned the problems that crop up when two entries share the same name. Whoops.)
Also, Spiderweb Software inspired me as far as gamemaking: extensive worldbuilding and so much content (in Exile, back before it got rebranded as Avernum) that by the time I reached the Shareware Demon who guarded the bridge to the main content, I'd spent hours and was thoroughly hooked; this, to me, is the high mark in how to handle shareware, ensuring that free players get a good long stretch of enjoyment and that the only players who ever reach the "please pay us now" event are those who've enjoyed the game enough to want to continue.
8. Recommend (at least) Three Fanworks
Marvel Cinematic Universe
- The Housemates series by Coneycat
- Loki falls from the Bifrost to Bristol and gets taken in by a household consisting of an Irish vampire, a bookish werewolf, and an endearing ghost, who teach him that just because you're a monster doesn't mean that you have to be a bad guy; he gets a job as a school janitor but keeps getting kidnapped/captured and pulled into various dramatic events, while also slowly reconciling with his family and befriending the Avengers (including Coulson).
- A Villain State of Mind by Mikkeneko
- After Thor's attempt to take Loki back to Asgard goes wrong, SHIELD has to call in Professor Charles Xavier (of the X-Men) to deal with Loki; the parallels between them are surprising (thanks to the prequel X-Men movies), and Loki eventually (in the later parts of the series) joins the School for Gifted Youngsters as a professor and befriends Beast, Illyana, and a teenage Nightcrawler (now that is a prankster match made in Heaven).
- My nephews, my mom and I filmed a script reading of the scene where Thor tries (badly) to apologize to Loki; it's hilarious but also educational. I get to play Darcy, as Jane and Darcy try to explain to Thor exactly what he's doing wrong ^_^
- Grievance by PeaceHeather
- When Odin lets the dwarves sew up teenage Loki's mouth in public court, Weaponmaster Tyr has had enough of this shit and claims his right to remove any of his students from an abusive household; Loki has to adjust to leaving his family and getting a father figure who honestly has his back and wants him to succeed (including promoting, rather than shunning, his use of seidhr, so that Loki gets the help he needs to become one of the greatest mages in the history of the Realms).
Person of Interest
- A Field Guide to Common Birds in New York City by Toft
- John Reese, ex-CIA covert ops specialist whose response to a question about games was "Does it look like I play video games, Leon?"... gets a Tumblr account for a case, and ends up reblogging pictures of borbs (round birds). It is delightfully ridiculous, and involves the best representation of a therapist that I have yet to see in fic.
- Damaged by Katica Locke
- I know that I truly enjoyed this one, and returned to it repeatedly, but all I recall offhand is that the main characters get seriously traumatized (repeatedly), that they have to take steps to undo that trauma in a self-therapeudic way, that they finally go off the grid to live underground (literally) until some of the danger is past, that the Machine surprises them, and that it was quite satisfying by the end.
Also that it falls under my mental classification of "fics with odd qualities" (old, cheesy, bizarre, amateurish, whatever) that are definitely good enough to offset the oddities -- though I don't recall which factors put in it that part of my brain. - Dangerous If Unbound by astolat
- The fic that got me into the fandom and introduced me to Dom/sub verse: Doms push orders on people with lesser mind-strength, subs pull information from others' minds, subs enjoy being brought to heel by a Dom whose strength level suits them, and Harold and John are unusual in that they've learned the tricks of the other dynamic, which gives them an odd edge and also makes them (eventually) perfect for each other. The whole domination thing is tied up in sex, which isn't my preference, but isn't that big a deal for me as a reader, either. The fic does some really cool things with characters like Nathan and Control. If not for this fic, I wouldn't even be in the fandom, and certainly wouldn't have gotten as far with my fics as I have in the past three years.
In addition, if you're up for darker fare, try these two:
Recoil by WhoopsOK includes suicide-adjacent issues and mishandling of a gun, both used to make a point about self-value.
Cutting Losses by DisposalUnit includes infanticide and a very dark version of Root, along with some of the most heart-rending content I've ever read in the POI fandom. Bring tissues and something soft to hug, and have some fluffy stuff to help bring you back after the ride.
Alt Fandoms
For those fandoms not in my main two, try:
- The Reorg by I Am Your Spy (Welcome to Night Vale)
- Carlos joins StrexCorp in order to get out of the desert and save Night Vale -- unfortunately, it's unlikely that he'll be able to save Cecil as well, and the near-brainwashing that he puts himself through in order to accomplish his goal is heart-rending.
- I'm gearing up to turn this one into a podfic; it's my favorite Night Vale fic.
- Poison by tsutsuji (Slayers)
- En route to the latest possible cure for his transformation, Zelgadis happens across Xellos, who joins him in his usual mysterious manner... but apparently has his own reasons for learning more about this "cure." Some neat worldbuilding and some of the best "Xellos on the ropes" scenes that I've ever come across. Also some interesting exploration of what sort of negative emotions help Xellos recover strength, and how Zelgadis can control his own mind to help Xellos (during sex, because fandom, but also elsewhere).
- Bittersweet by Dazzleberry (Harry Potter)
- It's been a while since I read this one, but it focuses on Snape's life as a double agent, in the aftermath of a tragic loss (from the prequel, which I never cared about), and how hard it is to keep everything together and protect the kids while trying to ensure that the Dark Lord doesn't realize what's going on.
- My favorite Snapefic, and one I'd really like to make a fanvid to even though I have no footage (sigh). I'm also debating about making a podfic of part or all of it, although the author hasn't posted since 2004 so I can't ask her if she'd be okay with that. Still thinking I might try it, eventually.
Related: I've developed a certain reputation in the AO3 comments section, and part of that reputation is of being able to direct people at fanfics that suit them. So if you're interested in the MCU or POI, and would like some recommendations of fics that maybe you haven't read yet, gimme a shot and I'll see what I can do to set you up ^_^
11. Recommend a Fannish or Creative Resource
Dare I point you at TV Tropes? If that line hasn't made you run away screaming over that black hole of time and creativity, well, I'm the one who spearheaded the So You Want To... namespace, along with the Books on Trope page.
Books on Trope is a list of books/resources that deal with tropes -- personality systems, plot archetypes, lists of cliches, and so on.
So You Want To... is a set of how-to articles: Want to be the next Stan Lee? Want to create the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Want to craft a dating sim? Various genre-specific advice points you at the tropes that you ought to be familiar with, the cliches to avoid, and various ways to make the craft easier and more interesting. For example, in the Star Trek one, I made a list of ways you could handle the aliens, explaining the amount of cost and effort it would take to use that method: no aliens (easy on the budget, potentially very hard on the writing), invisible/tiny/telepathic aliens, tribbles (props that the cast react to as if they're alive), muppets, robots, etc.
By the by, here's my troper page. And I'm the one who first roughed up the design that led to the current TV Tropes logo -- that lampshade over the second T design is all mine, though it's been upgraded a few times and no longer bears the more bookish font that I chose originally. So that's the piece of art I made that has spread the widest and yet nobody would know to connect it to me ^_^
Other than that, I use the NaNoWriMo fora to ask odd questions about things I'm writing; it's a really useful resource that can pair you up with professionals who know the fields you're after, and nobody blinks if you ask something weird that makes you sound like a serial killer.
So... guess that's it for this piece. Onward!
