Thorn Wilde

step one it’s not that i can’t sleep i just don’t want to go to bed i’d rather sleep all day than close my eyes at night step two i hide away in made up worlds in computer games step three i realise that thing i was looking forward to no longer fills me with excitement instead i feel cold, blank, disappointed step four it gets so dark nothing feels meaningful every action is pointless and dull ste

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe it's possible to make it so the box says Search... in it or something before you type? Like other search boxes on the site? Might make it less confusing for future users who haven't read this blog post.

Happy Saturday, DiC! I'm back in the land of the living after a serious case of onemoreturnitis playing Civilization VI. It's such a time sink, but my obsession tends to wane after a few days... Hope you're all having a good weekend!

I tried to set a discussion topic for my story Storms, but it's not showing up after the chapters for me. MacBook Pro (2015) running macOS Mojave. Browser: Safari. And the topic I'm trying to link to:

I love this. It's very sweet, but I feel like there's a melancholy aspect to it too...

Nope. You'll have to wait, just like everybody else. All I will say is that it's totally different from anything else I've written.

Ooh, that cinematic is amazing! Looks like it'll be a great game. I haven't played Baldur's Gate since the first one... Should definitely give this one a go.

As it happens, I've written 50k words on a new novel in the past months and a half, so there.

As if that's ever stopped me. I've been playing Civ VI all day, though, haven't even been on GA since yesterday. And no. I won't be editing two chapters a day. I have my own writing to focus on.

As you know, I'm bipolar too. So, yeah, I know how it can be and I've reacted similarly to things in the past. For what it's worth, I'm sorry you went through all that with those other people, and I'm sorry the discussion turned out the way it did. Those of us on the other 'side', as it were, could probably have handled it better too. I hope things are cool between us. I want them to be.

That's what our DM always says; that we create the adventure together. He basically gave us these super detailed background 'surveys', almost, where we answered questions and came up with NPCs and stuff from our characters' past, so he could incorporate them into his adventure and come up with personal quests for us.

I mean, we'll get to the Fire Plane eventually. We have to, we need that item to defeat the big bad, so this is just a detour. Chances were we were gonna end up back in Altendon at some point, so the DM's been keeping what's happening there in the back of his head, especially as Miriwen went there to help the rebels. He just wasn't expecting it to be now. lol I'm curious as to what's happened to the Bard's College... I'll probably find out at some point during the week, as the DM and I are gonna have to talk about what's been going on there since Miriwen went back, if I'm gonna be her a little bit. I'm not relishing the task of having to talk to myself... lol

It was good. We had planned to go to the Elemental Plane of Fire, to look for a magical item we need, but then we decided to make a stop on the way that the DM had in no way prepared for and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a conflict between the evil empire and rebel freedom fighters. lol So now we feel like we have to help out the rebels first. And I'll probably have to play two characters next week, as this is where my old character lives (she left the party to go help the rebels). We're lucky to have a DM who, instead of getting annoyed when we go off somewhere different than planned, thinks it's awesome and exciting and a fun challenge.

Morning, molly. Tuesday going all right here, so far. Hope you're well!

Good morning, DiC. How are you all today? I'll be playing Dungeons and Dragons tonight. We haven't played in a few weeks because our Druid had his kidneys taken out. He's waiting for a donor now and doing dialysis every other day, but he's back at home and feels well enough for gaming, so back to it we go!

With respect, that's exactly what we were doing. We weren't pushing for anything. All of us were talking about how it related to our own work, or we were talking in generalities. Nobody was saying that this is something writers should do, only that it's something they can do and some of us want to do. The problems didn't start until some people decided to take it personally and assume we were trying to push for it, when none of us were. For my own part, I even wrote specifically that it's not always feasible, that it's not a measure of quality, that many of my own stories and several of my favourite books don't 'pass', and that people should write whatever they want to write. I think a lot of us feel like we're being held responsible for other people's feelings, and that just doesn't seem fair.

Good morning and Happy Sunday, DiC! It snowed all night here. Very deep snow out there now, though temperatures have risen and it's supposed to rain this afternoon/evening.

I more and more get the feeling that GA staff's definition of political is 'things people disagree on/have feelings about' rather than having anything to do with actual politics. I tried in the past to get a concrete answer as to whether precisely this kind of topic might be considered political by staff and was unable to get a clear answer. This topic does not pertain to current legislation, it is not party political, it doesn't seem to go against any of the rules we've actually been told about as far as politics are concerned. I get shutting down the topic because it was becoming heated (I don't agree with it, but I get it and I accept it). I don't get moving it to the pit where many of the people who were taking part in the discussions aren't members. Especially since the topic itself isn't political. As for what you said about political stories, well, those aren't political stories then, are they? That could go for anything, not just politics. I could make a caricature of a GA member and put it in my story, or rehash conversations that have been had on site of any kind without the permission of the people involved, and that would not be okay, politically motivated or not (and I would never do it, just so we're clear). Tying it to politics just demonises a completely valid theme in storytelling and, again, nowhere in the rules does it say that political themes are not allowed. And what would happen if I wrote a bad guy who just so happened to have opinions similar to some members of this site, without being in any way inspired by them, because my characters disagree with those opinions? Would I be punished for that? If you begin to censor stories beyond what's clearly stated in the site rules as unacceptable content, I doubt that would go over well.

What tim said.

The two of you share something beautiful. Makes me so happy for you both.

Wrong time of year, but I can't see that gif without thinking of this song.

True.

The thread appears to have been moved to the Pit and reopened. I'm not sure if I think this is a good thing or a bad thing... On the one hand, cool that it still exists. On the other, it tells us the mods think this topic is inherently political, and that's sad.

I for one am glad you started the topic, Talo. It got people thinking. And yeah, like I said, it really shouldn't be an issue to discuss writing, neither style nor content, on a site dedicated to stories. You certainly didn't do anything wrong. I'm guessing the thread was taken down because of the arguments that ensued and not because of the content that was being discussed. At least I hope so.

Thanks! I did. I'm back home now, though. It didn't run very late, as it started at 3.