Review Of The Dresden Files: Peace Talks (spoilers Ahead)

OCEAN’S EIGHT (2018) dir. Gary Ross

Writing from Scratch is a series I’ve started on my blog as a way to get back to the basics of the storytelling craft.

I wrote well over 20 of these blog posts in April while I was out of work and self-isolating at home. I don’t have to say that since then a lot has changed. I considered not posting any of these at least for now; who needs my silly thoughts on writing silly stories when the world may finally be coming to the tipping point of the end of systemic racism? But I have always expressed myself through story – my hopes, my dreams, my fears – and for me, it’s gift to have this outlet. So I want to share it. Storytelling developed so that we could make sense of the world and shape it into a safe place by creating community. Stories won’t win this war against oppression that has been raging for centuries, but stories reveal the truth of our hearts, and for that, I believe they are essential.

i haaaaaAAATE descriptions of older women in books like “looking at her face it was easy to imagine how beautiful she once was” and the woman is like. 60 years old. 60. so she’s got like, some wrinkles? and gray hair??? but otherwise doesnt look that much different than when she was “young” and she’s still probably beautiful like a description like that isn’t even EDGING on acceptable unless the character is in their 90s and barely resembles what they would have 70 years ago and even in that case fuck you??? they’ve got more important things to do and recollect than missing an allegedly hot body byee

Story idea: the local Academy of Magic has an Archaeology Department. They have an ongoing feud with the Necromancy Department because necromancers keep stealing bones from the archaeological lab, and archaeologists keep interrupting necromancy rites to ask the undead about their funerary rites.

The two departments also keep arguing over which one of them has the highest count of “ooops-found-an-ancient-evil-thing-and-almost-destroyed-the-world”.

Why I’m Team Cap (and It Really Couldn’t Be Any Other Way)

#TeamCap and the big problem with the superhero genre #Arrow #Daredevil #CivilWar #MCU #DC

I recently started watching Arrow on Netflix; everyone on Tumblr seems to think “Olicity” is the greatest OTP since The One True Way or at least Destiel (neither Destiel nor Olicity reaching the heights of OTW obvi) and I wanted to understand (this is also how I ended up watching 9.5 seasons of Supernatural, but that is a story for another time). I also recently, like everyone else with a Netflix…

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Year 5: Surviving, Living, Changing

Surviving #TSS changed me. But one turn that I have never talked about is in my politics.

#WhenIWas is trending today on Twitter, and while that is about sexual assault and harassment, it strikes me as particularly, I don’t know, fateful that it would be today, April 19, 2016.  When I was 21, my world changed.  When I was 21, I died.  And when I was 21, I became alive again.  And everything that happened on April 19, 2011, everything that has happened in the five years since, so much…

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Now THIS is art. 😍

The war on drugs is rooted in racist policies . The failure of the war and drugs is obvious. We need to find a better solution, because people of color should never be the victims of racist policies. White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have used most kinds of illegal drugs, including cocaine and LSD. Yet blacks are far more likely to go to prison for marijuana, which is not a hard drug. Moreover , even when white people get caught , they get less time in prison. 

Writing from Scratch #5

The Inquiry Plot

The problem of an inquiry plot involves a question that needs answering for its solution. The classic is Whodunnit? But any who, what, where, when, why, or how style questions can provide the problem for an inquiry plot. Traditionally, try-fail cycles in an inquiry plot come in the form of following clues which can lead to more clues (or questions) or end up being red-herrings that have caused a set back in solving the riddle.

Let’s look at the classic mystery “A Night of Fright is No Delight,” Scooby Doo! Where Are You? Season 1, episode 16. (I went a little overboard on this one, but it’s just too fun!)

If you haven’t seen this classic episode, then a quick background is that the gang has been invited to spend the night in an allegedly haunted house for the chance to receive a part of an inheritance along with four other possible heirs.

The Question: Who is the Phantom Shadow?

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by Ashton MV