Ailish Maura

i have totally normal feelings upon seeing this picture...

the goal of writing is to write something really funny that relies on so much gradually revealed context that the reader's only option is to force friends to read the book too so they can laugh together

Konohana Kitan was cute through the end. gonna read the manga next. honestly surprised it doesnt get more attention for how gay and sweet it is. the melancholy reminded me of Moomin (thats very high praise from me)

this is very similar to me and my wife when we eat cereal (i am like the one with cat ears my wife is like Pochacco)

some folks are surprised Barrack "record number of deportations and signed away americans right to a fair trial and bombed a wedding" Obama didnt come down harder on state violence

DD Ward is Writing Smut and Trauma Peddler

I know social media marketing is lame, but I'm not asking you to buy anything.

I write Fantasy, Romantasy, Science Fantasy, and Dark Fantasy. And it's all free with no sign up required on my Patreon.

ddwardiswriting.com

anyways a commenter got really mad about the shoplifting in my anti-hero story about an ex-paladin enthralled to a death deity so i decided to amp up the morally questionable content and there will be canibalism. thanks for reading!

and the same piece of media will go in and out of fashion. i recall hearing that a scene in the movie Fight Club got a very different reaction from test audiences before and after Columbine and thats fine. but i think its ultimately a mistake to locate the morality entirely within the text.

but again the line is different which is why you had some people adamant that Catra from She-Ra was a war criminal who shouldnt be empathized with. but the fact is that violence and politics in media are often exagerated in ways that to some create an interesting space snd for others cross lines

this is Mimetic Distance and its why an anvil on Wiley Coyote's head is funny but would be gross and unsettling if depicted with photrealistic gore. not that the second would be morally wrong but we might have stronger feelings about how its handled

what tends to happen is that when people feel a piece of media is more viscerally close to real life (and the line is different for different people) they start to feel the moral weight of the text is more intense

a story isnt complete until it is being read and experienced and as an author your control over that experience is always at least somewhay limited. while the shape of a text does matter it has limited (if any) agency. an agent (reader) negotiates with a text in order to decode different meanings.

i find myself in a strange place as a writer because on one level i believe writing is extremely important but on the other i think mass media has warped what being a writer (or artist, etc) means to where we consider the story as product.

im not saying its impossible to judge a piece of media's contents on an ethical level but that it goes beyond an 'ick' factor and is extremely difficult to nail down. if you fear the world (and you should right now) then pushing broad moral stances about media consumption provides a sense of control

its crucial that any attempt to address the ethical content of a text is contextual. ethics are not hidden esoterically within the text but at lived in the experience of the audience. when we criticize the contents of media for being 'unethical' we often assume a passive, purely receptive audience

A messy doodle of the character Pochacco (from Sanrio franchise). He's a black and white puppy with a large forehead and a tshirt. He's sitting at a table eating with a spoon from a bowl.

big ass forehead #sanrio

Gotcha—let’s dig into that step by step.

1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵, because I turned you into an amorphous lump of flesh. You’re not just immobile—you’re immortal, and you feel only anguish.

2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺. That makes total sense—it’s a natural human impulse, and you’ve been through a lot.

wedding stew 🍲

my fellow webnovelists, when you put out a chapter, how far ahead are you usually in the draft behind the scenes?

solidarity forever

i shouldnt be held responsible for the choices i make when my face is still puffy from electrolysis

as a fan of LitRPG i see the reverse thrown around. people think its all male power fantasies even though it's like a whole damn genre with plenty of variation

i have three stuffy nets so even if i really want a plush i promised my wife i would be more discerning...

retiring from all responsibilities to become a possessed doll

Yet another character design that will not be finished

i love art that tries something risky even if it doesnt totally pull that thing off

i want to see more litRPG that go beyong simple power fantasy

its like the opposite of the uncanny valley. the uncanny peak, perhaps

"So that settles it. The earth really is round."

at the theater for the Zombieland Saga movie!