So I've been like.. too busy to write for a little while, and I've been pretty out of inspiration too. River shared this prompt tho and hey, maybe it will help? And thinking about it, maybe I could use prompts to write a little too.

River's original shout out on the fedi here, and her response here. 

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I got bored and ran out of snacks?

Jkjk. I needed somewhere to post longer stuffs and a blog made sense.

What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why did you choose it?

Right now I use write.as because it does not get in my way. Originally I was using it to federate but that feature is kind of meh in the writefreely system (not really conducive to engagement) but it is still the best for my purposes.

I might swap from write.as to self-hosted as part of my “give me back all of my things” quest but like... we'll see. 

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Yes.

Oh wait was I like... supposed to elaborate?

Okay so yeah I have obv used Wordpress before, not the like... commercial version but the installed version. If posting short stories on Masto counts, I have done that too. And I have “blogged” on paper too. I know how Tumblr works but I refuse to confirm or deny if I have ver used it. 

How do you write your posts?

I dunno, it depends. It can be anything from a scrap paper or a notebook and a pen to a text editor to Standard Notes to actually using a word doc to just like.. writing it directly into the system. Whether I revise is really up to the thing I wrote... sometimes things are ready right off, sometimes I need time to tweak them. 

When do you feel most inspired to write?

When I have free time and when my emotions are high, whatever they are. Or, sometimes... I just get a fully formed story and I HAVE to write it, it is not about inspiration so much as it is about something that WANTS to be read. So I am just the medium, I guess.

So get my emotions high?

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer?

It really depends. Like... for poetry, I might spend some time tweaking it the same day, but most of my poetry is fueled by the moment so if I wait to write it, I lose the heart of it. So those are pretty much written while the emotions are fresh.

For stories, they are not always shared. Throwaway stuff I do not mind sharing as-is. For 'important' things, I let them sit so I can work on getting the wrong parts closer to correct. Like... those things that want to be read HAVE to be correct. And sometimes I do not know what is wrong, so I have to wait to understand.

For spicy stories, it is usually a few days. I try to make the interactions feel right, feel real, so I spend time making sure the interactions are correct. And I mean to be real I need at least a simmer of ...well, you know... to make it work.  Writing for alternate me is easy, writing for other people takes a lot more work because I'm very much into making sure I portray them correctly (and yes, there is sometimes field research involved.)

What’s your favourite post on your blog?

Probably my Masks poem, that was one that just needed writing. And my favorite story, well, I have not posted it yet bc it is not right. 

Any future plans for the blog?

Contemplating splitting off some stuffs, we shall see.

Who will participate next?

Whoever wants to! So probs no one.

#writing #blogging

I tell people that we must not stoop to the level of those soulless monsters we fight. I advise diplomacy. I say that we must be better, I…

...I doubt they know how fucking hard it is for me to tamp down my rage… no, my fury. How hard it is to resist just saying “fuck it, let’s burn it all down.” How easy it would be to cede control, to let the chaotic insanity inside me loose. How very, very tempting it is in the face of everything.

I say “we can’t solve our problems with murder” but you know what, I don’t always believe it when I say it. I say it because… someone, one of us, has to remind all of us that we strive to be better than those we fight. That we have to be better to build something better.

But oh my fucking gods, how tempting it is to take the easy way out.

Knowing what I know being able to do what I do… it doesn’t make it easier. That smarmy, self-important tyrant speaking to you as if you were a child, mocking you for what you are, and you all the while knowing that he only lives because you’re a paragon of restraint, you feeling your fingernails piercing your palms because you’re being so fucking good… trying your hardest to set an example, to live your ideals… and really, deep down, wanting to watch him burn for what he’s done… yeah. I don’t even know what I was saying. Restraint. I hate it sometimes.

I doubt my friends, my family realizes how I struggle. Oh, but they’d look at me with horror, I think. “Silly, comically irritated Diotima, no… she would never,” but yeah I would, I could… I just… don’t.

Not because I don’t want to… but because I want to be better than I am.

#writing #fiction #rage #fiction

It is impossible, they say

Denying the results

Telling us we are mistaken

Ridiculing us to our peers

And then

When they can no longer deny

They steal the work

And call it their own.

#writing #poetry

This world lost its sense of wonder

Its people bound to cold half-truths

Sold the inevitability of its descent

By prophecies peddled by monsters

Who seek to profit from hope's demise

It is time to awaken, sleeping heroes

To cast off the shackles you've donned

Take up your swords, your pens

Scream defiance

And fight. Fight and win.

#poetry #writing

A tiefling, seething

Never believing their scheming

Seeing through their lies to their meaning

Their institutions gleaming, seeming

Perfect but hiding the rot teeming

In the foundations, in the ceilings,

This teethling tiefling-

Fuck. I should be sleeping.

#poetry #writing

Grasp your panic and fear

Trap it in a box in your mind

Cast it into the recesses of your psyche

Emotionless, a caricature of bravery

But later

Resurfacing, the clasps rotted

Festering panic

Infectious fear

Will break free

Will break you

The price, with interest, paid in the end.

#poetry #writing

Today, I give thanks

For those who tolerate my fictions

And for those who understand

That there is more beneath this mask.

#poetry #writing

This girl in the mirror

Holding herself to these

Impossible standards, the

Expectation of perfection

She'd never ask of others

Knowing it unreasonable

And doing it nonetheless

#poetry #writing