Activity

@merieshenanigans

Wow, that’s so cool! I’ve always admired people who are good at languages because I’m not xD

LOL, it’s less impressive than it sounds XD I only really learned Latin, and I’m not great at it. The others were just picking it up like a mother tongue. I never really learned it, I just… know it XD

That’s literally what I do, but with Chinese idioms xD

LOL, good to know I’m not the only one! What’s the best/funniest one you’ve come up with that way?

If we’re talking the language I grew up with most, that’s Chinese (Mandarin)–I’m not 100% fluent, but I can speak it fairly well, though I’ll struggle with wording and phrasing. Reading and writing is a whole different beast. They don’t call Chinese the language of heaven for nothing (“because it takes an eternity to learn it” *sobs*).

Ooof I can imagine how hard that is! That’s really cool!! I have friends who learned Chinese and they had a similar “I can speak it but writing???” issue XD

As for my actual mother’s tongue, that’d be Korean… lol. I can only understand very basic conversation, am at the stage when I know words but not how to use them in actual conversation, but I can read it (you have no idea how much I love alphabets after dealing with Chinese characters, especially since the Korean one is so simple) and write it (am just horrible at spelling, for obvious reasons, and since I can’t really write sentences there’s not much use lol). I’ve always been less concerned about learning Korean because Chinese has been the Main Antagonist of My Life for as long as I can remember, but I intend to apply myself to it eventually.

I relate so much to your ‘actual mother tongue’ being your weakest language XD That’s awesome! And I have the same issue in German with “I know the words but I can’t put them together” XD Languages are h a r d 😭

Yeah, me too… Insta-love is just one of those tropes that don’t make any sense to me. In my opinion, other tropes, even the dreaded love triangle monster, has a chance of being written well, but it’s just impossible to buy insta-love.

Exactly! I’ve seen love triangles done well, but I’ve never seen insta-love done well, ever XD

That’s great! It will probably make them even more shippable!

LOL, I hope so! Writing romance has been hard. It’s complete trial and error because apparently everyone else knows how to show it and how it’s supposed to feel and how to make something read as romantic?? I don’t XD I’ve often written things as romantic accidentally or vice-versa XD

However, I like the way it’s mostly just a really close friendship, at least to a certain degree. I can write that and that part is fun!

That’s the MC of one of my other big WIPs *weeps* He’s the most stubborn, cautious, no-nonsense human on the planet, and the number of times I’ve tentatively returned to working on his story before giving up because he’s too darn uninterested is absolutely embarrassing… That’s why I’m taking a good long break from him to focus on Pax, who at least is cooperative enough.

Oh NO! It’s awful when they do that 😭 Yeah, sometimes you have to throw characters in time-out until they behave XD That’s why I love writing dual POV, when one is balking I can write the other first if it’s really split stories XD

Relatable… You should see me with the whole translating-Christianity-into-a-fantasy-world thing… What can this religion possibly be called? How can there even be this religion without Christ? But where exactly is Christ incarnate in this storyworld? Do I have to make an allegorical thing or something?????

And so I just don’t think about it 🙂

That’s the exact issue I have! Like half the commandments imply there was an Exodus? Some of the laws were given but apparently not others? It’s boiled down to “This is Close Enough” and then ignore it XD Honestly, sometimes good enough really is good enough XD

Agreed! Not to mention, the story only takes place during a season of their lifetime–they could just as well find someone after all the craziness!

Exactly! I’ve often seen MG and YA books where the main characters fall in love but they’re like… fourteen or fifteen??? Like what are these literal children doing? XD Basically, forcing in romance is highly overrated.

Oh, I finished “The Means That Make Us Strangers” today! You were right about the ending 😭 I didn’t cry, but I definitely got choked up. But it’s the only logical ending! Anything else would have felt fake and too sweet. I really liked it, it was really raw and close.

However, the entire way to Ethiopia I had a horrible idea for how the book was going to end. I expected she was going to come home and nobody would welcome her. It would be kind of half-hearted. Maicaah would be married. Everyone moved on without her. She was never more than a visitor anyway.

It’s an awful ending and I would have hated it, but that’s honestly what I thought would happen. Man, this book is dredging up memories I didn’t even know I had. XD