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RIP - Comicality
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About this blog

Writing and life, mostly. I'm very opinionated and I do get political. Be warned. Also, I swear a lot.

Entries in this blog

Danger: Inclusive Messaging Ahead

Consider the title your warning. This is my blog. I write what I want. Deal with it.    I think it's a shame that we can't have philosophical discussions on ways to potentially expand and improve our writing horizons without someone taking it personally and ruining the party. This is supposed to be a website for authors and their stories. You'd think that discussing writing techniques and tools would be integral to that. When it comes to writing tools, techniques, and advice, you'
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

42

Gender Politics In Art Therapy Group

Today a dude in my group presented a painting with a bunch of hearts, meant to represent how sharing in art therapy group had helped him and put him in touch with his emotions and stuff, which, good for him. He prefaces this by saying, 'So, a bunch of hearts... Boys don't really draw hearts, I guess that's a little feminine...' This is the guy who's previously complained about his boss being a woman, said he doesn't think a female therapist can understand a male patient, and made a whole bu
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

8

Fox in the Snow

I heard its calls first. They were faint and I wasn't sure what I was hearing. Those calls sound a bit like a person in pain, someone screaming, and chills went down my spine. But I was curious, so I went to the window and opened it a bit to hear better. I recognised the sound then. Never heard it in the wild before, I think, but I have heard recordings, and it was fairly clear. Looking outside, I realised there were paw prints in the snow outside in the street. I stayed there, listening, f
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

3

Sexual and Gender Identities: A glossary

Our community is so much bigger and more diverse than many of us believe. With a lot of new-ish terms and labels out there detailing identities some may not be aware of, I figured a brief list of definitions might be helpful for someone somewhere. I shall begin with the four letters everyone knows. If you're here, you already know what these mean, but I'm including them anyway.   L: lesbian - a woman who is exclusively attracted to other women G: gay - a person who is exclusi
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

15

Dear Lacey

It's tempting when writing a letter, to begin it with, 'I hope you're well.' Can't say that in this one, so I'll just go with, I miss you. There are people here who knew you much longer than I did, who probably knew you better, too. But we were talking a lot, around Christmas and into January. You told me about your life, about your family, about your illness. I told you about my life. And we talked about movies and music. We talked about hospitals. And we talked about death.  You were
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

11

Unsolicited Grammar Lesson of the Day: lie vs. lay - transitive and intransitive verbs

The confusion when it comes to these two words is understandable. A lot of people write 'lay' when they should write 'lie' (as in lying down) and, however more rarely, vice versa. So here's a quick guide to how they are different and how they work. 'To lie' is an intransitive verb. That means that it's something you do, but not to something; it's an action without a direct object. You lie down. 'To lie' is conjugated: lie, lies, lying, lay, has/have lain. As you see, the past tense of 'l
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

0

Quick Guide to Archaic 2nd Person Singular

I posted this to Twitter earlier, so I thought I might as well share it here too. I've seen some folks trying to use this older form of the second person singular pronoun in stories, poetry, song lyrics and so on, but getting it all kinds of wrong, so I made a handy little guide. thou - subject (see: 1st person 'I') thee - object (see: 1st person 'me') thy - dependent possessive (see: 1st person 'my') thine - independent possessive (see: 1st person 'mine') Examples from Shakespea
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

6

On Being a Writer and Encountering Angry Readers

Neil Gaiman once wrote, in response to angry A Song of Ice and Fire fans demanding the next book in the series, 'George R. R. Martin is not your bitch.' Much like getting attacked on Twitter, I think alienating readers is proof that you're doing something right, if that makes any sense. You've pushed someone's buttons, made them think or feel in some way, even if it was negative. I have alienated multiple readers because of artistic choices I have made, and the same artistic choices have ke
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

10

Self-Publishing, Self-Marketing, and the Self

There is this overwhelmingly popular opinion that self-publishing, to some degree, isn't valid. It's what we do here on GA, of course, and putting out your work for free on the Internet for people to see seems to be acceptable and sometimes commended, but as soon as an author tries to make money from self-publishing their work—either by setting up a Patreon and asking for donations, or by publishing their work using services like Lulu and Amazon KDP and thus circumventing the traditional publish
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

29

No-Win Scenario

I'm in a situation where I feel like if I engage, I lose. No matter how I engage, the outcome will be the same. I feel like I'm being wilfully misunderstood. Like assumptions have been made about who and what I am, what I'm like, and no matter what I say or do, the people in question won't change their minds about me. And it makes me question everything. What if they're right? What if I'm the asshole here? I've tried dialogue, but feel like I'm met by a brick wall, utterly unyielding. I've
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

7

Trans Day of Visibility

I wanted to write something for trans day of visibility. Couldn’t quite figure out what to write. Maybe cause I can’t quite figure out what I am. I keep going back and forth between this joy at being able to be myself and this fear that this isn’t me at all. That I’m making it up. Hardcore impostor syndrome. I don’t have that story. I wasn’t a tomboy growing up. I was a girly girl who liked playing with dolls and dressing up like a princess. I don’t have body dysmorphia. I didn’t always feel lik
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

14

Your Existence Is Political

I've been censoring myself. We all do, here on GA, those are the rules. No political discussion outside The Pit. But what's political? When someone complains about a public figure bringing politics into what they're doing (like Wil Weaton's fans losing their shit when he posted a picture on Instagram of his hand giving Trump Tower the finger), what they're really complaining about is them bringing the wrong kind of politics into it. There's no such thing as apolitical. Everything's political. Wh
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

26

What's wrong with my body?

WARNING: Getting mildly graphic about my symptoms here, so don't read if that bothers you...   I've not been around as much lately because I've been ill and I'm starting to worry. I've been almost constantly sick since before Christmas. I really thought I was finally better and then this throat infection took hold, the day after my birthday, no less. (Happy Birthday, Thorn! Here, have some more pain!) I'm tired. I don't sleep well. I wake up way before my alarm, feeling sick and misera
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

17

Conversation With My Mother

'I don't understand why you want to hide your curves like that,' she said, while I adjusted my binder. 'You look wonderful just as you are.' And I thought, That's kind of hilarious, really, because you're always bugging me about losing weight. I told her, 'It's not about how I look. It's about how I feel.' 'No, I know. I understand.' No you don't. 'But wouldn't it be better if people were just happy with the bodies they have?' I sighed. 'Would be nice, yeah. But we don't live in t
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

3

Erasure

This came from an article about the 2005 book Born Gay, and was shared in a thread in the Tech and Science Geeks club a few days ago. In attempting to prove that being gay is genetic, the authors found it necessary to suggest that bisexuality does not exist. I can understand that. If people are genetically either gay or straight, phenomenons like bisexuality become hard to explain. Easier to just pretend they don’t exist and omit them from the equation so you can more easily prove what you’re tr
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

20

In my brain right now

My brain's doing that thing, where it's just running away and I can't keep up and I feel anxious and sad and also kind of elated and excited about stuff. So I thought I'd try to just try and write a stream-of-consciousness thing. So, this is my brain on whatever the hell is wrong with me. Sorry about the wall of text.   I'm super excited cause I've been reading comic books and I love the Young Avengers and why aren't Wiccan and Hulkling in the MCU? Almost out of comics, gonna have to f
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

5

What's Easter Anyway?

Easter is a holiday throughout the Christian world to celebrate that Jesus died for the sins of human kind and rose again on the third day. That's basically the answer that most people will give, and it's perfectly correct. In most languages, the name for Easter tends to be some derivation of the verb 'to pass', taken from the Hebrew Pesach, a Jewish holiday that in English is known as Passover, and which was being celebrated in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. That name has simply been
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

2

Conversation With My Mother 2

'They're doing a premium short story collection at GA,' I said, 'for Pride. Coming out stories. Thought I might submit something, got a couple of ideas. I'd get paid, even.' 'That's nice,' she said vaguely. 'I think you should try to write some more . . . accessible stories, though. You know, stories you could sell.' Did you not hear that I may in fact get paid? I sighed. 'I can only write the stories that come to me.' She pursed her lips. 'Of course. But you could write something
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

4

My Mental Illness Is Not Your Punchline

Mental illness and disability carry a lot of stigma, and a lot of people don’t understand it. Assumptions are made about various mental illnesses and the people who have them. And the way that we use terms related to mental illness in everyday language to describe completely different things can do a lot more harm than you think it might.   This isn’t about getting offended, by the way. This is about enforcing harmful stereotypes that actually hurt people who suffer from mental illness
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

6

Patreon: What It Is, and What It Isn't

Patreon is a service that I think a lot of people don't quite understand. Some people find it disingenuous, for instance, to ask people for money for a product that they will later be giving away for free, as many do. Others see it as akin to begging. That second one I find particularly odd... If anything, it's like busking.    Some history first: Back in the olden days, it was common for talented artists to acquire patrons. A patron might provide the artist with food, a place to live,
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

3

Biphobia, monosexism and pansexuality

I was browsing Tumblr the other day when I came across this quote:   It's a quote by a woman named Amy André, from a speech on bisexual health.   I was reminded of it when this thread emerged in The Lounge, regarding olympic diver Tom Daley. Now, Tom Daley has said that he's in a relationship with another guy. Good for him. I think this is awesome. He also says he still fancies girls. As far as I'm concerned, this places him pretty firmly in the bisexual category as far as
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

18

Why I Suck at NaNoWriMo

When I write a short story, I usually sit down and write until I'm done. Then I go back, revise, edit, remove stuff, add stuff, read it out loud to myself, fix every minor thing in the dialogue, and then, when I'm happy with it, I'll send it to a beta or an editor, or both. That is my process.   When I write a novel, I can't just write until I'm done. I'll write a chapter, go back and read it, polish it, add stuff and take stuff out. Then I'll move on and write the next bit, and maybe
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

6

What's Going On With Me

So, some of you may have noticed that I haven't been very active lately. I checked the forums yesterday and had a huge shock when I noticed that the member status thingies had changed... I haven't been busy. I'm still unemployed. I've barely been writing, and I haven't touched an instrument in like two weeks.   I've just been depressed.   It's been coming in sort of waves. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make an appointment with my GP to see if I could get a referra
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

11

How to Swear Without Swearing

Attention! This post does contain some actual swearing. Posted this to Tumblr earlier, where it was well-received. Thought I'd share with the community as well.   There are a lot of comparatively mild curse words that we just accept as being family friendly without much thought as to where they come from. Some are just milder versions of a word we consider unacceptable, such as saying 'crap' instead of 'shit' or 'darn' instead of 'damn'. Others have so completely lost their original me
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

4

Deconstructing Gender Culture

To preface: This is my blog, I have posted about politics and philosophy on it before, and I will continue to do so. I welcome discussion in the comments, but I ask that you keep it civil. Misogyny and transphobia will be reported, even if it means that this blog post is taken down. If you put words in my mouth, you will be summarily ignored. This is a personal and important subject to me. Please respect that.    Today is International Women's Day. I've always considered myself a
Thorn Wilde

Thorn Wilde

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