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I wouldn't say I have much writing experience to be honest! Academically I've done a lot but creatively it's like... some fanfictions and angst poetry I wrote at the tender age of 10. I'd say I've written four important fanfictions in my life. The first was an awful Kingdom Hearts fanfiction for which I'm pretty certain I stole 90% of the plot and scenes from other KH fanfictions I was reading at the time. I count it as important though because it was my first real foray into independently writing something (somewhat) creative. Years later I wrote two short Star Wars fanfictions -- I usually lump them together even though I do feel there was notable growth between them, but one was simply a rewrite of a scene from a game and more of an exercise in "do I want to try writing again." The second was something original, though not by any means weighty in plot, but sort of an outgrowth of the first Star Wars fanfiction.

The last one is my current project... which I've been working on for three years and it has, in that time, undergone a lot of changes in direction and such (to the point where I'd really like to rewrite the first few chapters to fit in more with my current ideas, but I'm determined to finish it first). I've also recently started something completely original. It's not much yet, I just had all these ideas about writing about love and family and wanted to get some of them down. I'm not sure where it will go but I suppose it's worth mentioning. My point being, I don't want to come off as insanely qualified to speak on the subject or anything -- especially because I mostly write angst romance fanfiction!

Your struggle, though, is one I've been gripped by before (though my biggest is probably just writing the damn stuff down at all -- I can't tell you how many great ideas I've lost by thinking to myself "nah I'll remember it"). I think it's just about finding how you best express abstract ideas into something that will be useful or readable at a later date. Some people do it through words, others through art or doodling -- you just have to find your medium!

For me -- and this is probably why it takes me so long to write and I'm not saying it's a good way to go about writing -- I work a lot off of inspiration, primarily from dreams, personal experiences, quotes, and art. What I've been doing in OneNote is collecting those quotes and art together as a sort of "inspiration board." A lot of what I fuel into my work though is based off of personal experience and, therefore, emotion, so that can obviously be hard to record.

This was sort of my frame of mind for a while but then "collection of notes" turned into "desk drawer filled with dozens of out of order post it notes" and I realized I had a problem haha.

It's true that planning it's necessary for all writers. Everyone works and writes differently, of course! However, when writing papers & such for school, all through high school I never really thought I needed to do much pre-planning or drafting anything. I started in college and feel my papers are much more succinct now. Without pre-planning I feel I sort of meander in nothingness until I hit something I like. I think I need that direction. But if you don't need to do a lot of planning then that's totally okay too!

I don't think anyone said your opinion wasn't valid or that it was stupid, just that your wording was exclusionary. The sentence reads as "only gay people have sex with the same sex," which Makaze and Tale pointed out as not true -- bisexual people, pansexual people, demisexual people, all kinds of people have sex with the same sex. I think your point was to say "there's nothing a gay person absolutely does differently than a straight person, besides being attracted to and/or having sex with their own sex, generally." You might just want to edit the wording to not exclude other sexualities.

As for the topic at hand, when I first heard there was such thing as National Coming Out Month and National Coming Out Day I was a bit disturbed -- it sounded like some call to say "hey all not-straight people, please identify yourselves" which obviously is not cool. As I understand it now, it's more about supporting queer people and sharing your own coming out story for various reasons, the latter of which takes a lot of bravery, so a big thank you to those who do.

I'd rather this term not be promoted under my name. It's true I did post it a few years ago in a sexuality thread but I don't stand by it any longer -- I've considered editing or deleting some of my posts on the subject before but I'm opposed to that for a variety of reasons that aren't really relevant here. What you and Sebax are saying is true, of course -- it's perfectly okay to have a bit of a crush on someone of a gender that you ordinarily wouldn't consider yourself attracted to romantically or sexually. The term femcrush just doesn't really sit right with me anymore, though -- to me it seems like a way to distance oneself from the idea that you're not straight. Almost like saying "I'm definitely attracted to this person, romantically and/or sexually, but I can't call it just a regular crush because I am Straight As Hell." Or even if you're not attracted to them romantically or sexually, you're just a fan of theirs, the term "femcrush" to me just suggests this unwillingness to have anyone possibly think you could possibly be interested in this person and therefore not straight.

It's off-topic really and my thoughts on the subject are hardly expansive (I'm sure I've read something about it but I can't seem to find it), but I just didn't want to seem as though I was personally endorsing that viewpoint any more. I'm pretty sure I posted it three years ago, at any rate.

I'm curious as to how you would react to these suggestions by other people? If you're comfortable talking about it, that is. I grew up with a (male) friend who was interested in a lot of things one might consider indicative of his being gay or something (dolls, fashion, etc.) -- as kids we all kinda assumed he was gay (which I now obviously know was totally not cool but it happened). Whenever we brought it up to him he, rightfully, got very bothered by it. I feel quite awful about it now.

Did it bother you too? Or was it easy for you to just brush it off?

The thing is that we live in a heteronormative society -- queer people "come out" because, if they don't, they're more or less assumed to be straight. Obviously I agree it'd be great if that didn't have to happen at all but it is a privilege of straight people to not have to identify themselves as such. When they do identify their sexuality, it's usually to dispel suggestion that they're not straight. As I understand it, coming out is also a pivotal moment for a person as it is, for many people, part of accepting who they are and no longer hiding that piece of themselves inside.

I write primarily fanfiction so things like visualizing characters isn't too much of a challenge to me -- I'm not in the habit of introducing original characters or anything like that. Before I started my current fanfiction, though, I did virtually no plot planning (besides "hey it would be nice to write about ___") so most of my stories were short. This is the first time I'm writing a multi-chaptered fic so plot planning has become more essential.

I wouldn't consider my writing very plot-driven and, when I first began, I think I was still in the bad habit of zero planning. As such, the first few chapters floundered without too much direction. I realized this and began to make up rough plans so that I had at least some idea of where I was headed -- or, well, I always knew how I'd be ending, but not how I'd get there, merely hoping things fell into place as I went along. My planned plot points are still rather vague but I think I've hit a good balance right now of knowing where I'm going while still having the freedom to let creativity strike and vary things from my plans if I'd like.

Still, I don't think I'm great with plot. I don't care much for plot-driven things, more character-driven. A lot of my notes are in this vein, planning how the characters connect and grow and react. I've also began using OneNote to better organize my thoughts, including my major ideas in large text, any images or quotes I find inspiring or pertinent, brief scenes or lines I've planned, and why I chose to use a certain word or presented a certain point in a chapter, alongside the previously described framework for the plot. I've only just started doing so but I think it's really helped me, not just in terms of organization & keeping my ideas together but in giving me more direction. I'd take a screencap but I don't want to spoil where I'm going (and also give myself freedom to change it ;)).

I realized that my actual smile was probably giving people nightmares, so I opted to tone it down to the wry smirk that suggests an inflated sense of superiority... which, when you think about it, probably suits me better than any unfiltered expression of emotion would ever.

In addition to their adorable music they're basically the cutest people alive and make music specifically for babies like me.

Heart Skipped a Beat by The xx

Say My Name (feat. Zyra) by ODESZA

Massive.

real talk, i love lullatone! Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous is an amazing album.

Pivotal selfies from the last few months.

Spoiler

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All We Need (feat. Shy Girls) by ODESZA

uhm bach is the best no contest

The best suggestion I can think of is, if you have a memory card installed, to remove it and attempt rebooting the phone then. Otherwise, based on my googles, this isn't an uncommon issue with the phone and it seems the best course of action is to take it to your nearest Sprint store and have them replace it for you.

Thank yooooou Plums for posting this, particularly the bits about "people of color" as a term because I know you don't like it and never really knew why -- like you said it's kind of the term at the moment so I don't think it can be avoided entirely but still.

Since it's not coming from a black person in a way I don't feel entirely comfortable with it. I'm white though so I'm not sure it's my place to say, since whether or not black people should be okay with these things should probably come from an actual black person. That said, the scenario actually reminds me a little bit of this, which is a great read (John Cho on Harold & Kumar):

http://withthepilot.tumblr.com/post/51320248001/what-i-recall-from-the-harold-and-kumar-movies-is

Again, I'm not black so I don't think it's my place to say. However, if your black friends say that it will not bother them for you to use that word then I'd be inclined to say it's alright when and only when you're amongst them and referring to them.

In an academic context I do think it's more acceptable since you're discussing the word and not using it. However, if everyone knows what you're talking about then, as a white person, it's probably better for me to just refer to it as 'the n-word.'

Like the academic context, you're not using the word yourself.

I meant that, if you are in favor of the word being reappropriated, then you feel only black people can use it. If you are not in favor of the word being reappropriated, then you don't feel anyone can or should use it.

http://whiteseducatingwhites.tumblr...e-101-colorblindness-and-the-privilege-of-not

Language doesn't exist in a vacuum -- nothing does. The words we say, and what we say, are informed by who we are, whether it be personally, racially, sexually, etc. We likewise cannot remove words from their context or connotation. Your example of the word 'gay' is an example of how a word can be reclaimed and reappropriated, and thus enter public usage again.

By your objection, you would seem to support yourself using the n-word. Do you?

I obviously didn't write the tumblr post but I think the idea behind it is simply that it's not for white people to say whether they approve of black people reclaiming the n-word or not because it's not their word and it's not their business. That said, I think the issue of reappropriation is open to discussion for everyone because there are words that can be used to oppress anyone. But I am also white and I could very well be wrong here.

I was referring to 'bitch'.

I do plan to catch up at some point! Downton Abbey is back on now though so my emotions are compromised by it.

For real. This is why we need guests, and why I need to get my **** together on asking guests.

I'm not clever enough to make a joke of that caliber I don't think! It's supposed to be pronounced "Type Zero HD," I'm just a lil poop who refers to zeroes as "ohs."

It's rough because I don't want to get upset about it without actually using it -- because gameplay is something that's very hard to describe and that you really just have to do for yourself -- but all of this really does not bode well.

WHOOOPS.

I would like to "see aliens" to, as in "form an everlasting lifebond with aliens."

It's true! I have a potty mouth on these podcasts. This one especially.

I am excited! And of course we'll have ya along again at some point~
I'm pretty sure we've had someone answer their own questions on here too lol

There are words that are okay for some people to use and not others, though there is debate on the subject. I think this tumblr post is pretty succinct about the discussion:

http://pocproblems.tumblr.com/post/46300394678/reclaiming-slurs
(leaving the opening to discussion in there because it's a very broad subject and isn't limited to these two viewpoints)

Because white people are not oppressed by the n-word, they have absolutely no right to use, reclaim, reappropriate it. The only other usage for them would be to oppress black people, which is obviously unacceptable. Therefore, it really is not acceptable for a white person to the use the n-word (or anyone, depending on which camp you sit in).

Another example of this would be the b-word. Your example about gay jokes of course applies to gay jokes rather than words but is the same idea.

Changing this to 'No Thanks' rather than 'Working On It' as you requested, Amaury, because the restructure I've drafted isn't really in-line with the suggestions made, which are mostly mechanical.

I'm not sure how much usage the subforum would see. Typically when we've created a new subforum out of a sub-interest of another section, it's because we had an influx of threads about the subject (for example -- we used to just one big 'Creativity Corner' section where people would post things that they've made. Once we got a lot of fanfiction being posted in there we created a separate writing forum). To my knowledge we don't have a ton of threads about languages or knowing several languages etc., and if you want to create ones on the subject I think they would fit just fine in Discussion.

The thing that a lot of people seem to misunderstand about "freedom of speech" is that, while you are allowed to talk about whatever you want, you are not free from the consequences of what you say. People may react poorly to what you say, call you out on it, and in cases of websites, refuse to facilitate what you're saying. We do that here, and pretty much all websites do (aside from something like 4chan which is advertised for its lack of content moderation) -- if something is deemed hateful or objectionable we will delete it. In that case we're not depriving you of your right to say things, we're depriving you of your right to say them on this particular website, which we have every right to do.

The thing about the c-word or other slurs is that -- if you are not part of the group of people who can use the word, there probably isn't a reason for you to be using them and it's fairly easy to work them out of your speech. In America at least (dunno about the rest of the English-speaking world), 'retarded' became synonymous with something or someone we found silly or awful or distasteful or what have you. I fully admit that I used it as such -- it was part of popular slang, all my friends said it, and so on. I was never called out on it personally like it seems your friend was with the c-word, but when I heard people's (rightful) objections to it, I knew it was my responsibility to work it out of my speech. It is a process that requires conscious effort and I'm sure I slip up sometimes but there are plenty of other, non-offensive and non-oppressive words to use in its place to the same effect. It's okay for your friend to feel a bit attacked but the best way to handle the situation would simply be to apologize for his usage of the word and work it out of his speech.

I'm not familiar with Australian slang but the argument being levied against him, which I am inclined to agree with, is that just because a word is acceptable in Australia doesn't mean he can use it on the Internet, where he almost surely isn't being heard by just Australians.

i am a chicken baby who likes to avoid difficult conflict so I always set out to over-prepare then, midway through, say **** it and fight the boss