Likes: Nerdy stuff, books, languages, writing, history, philosophy, mythology, culture and worldview, listening to music with good lyrics, daydreaming, doing nothing

Dislikes: Romance (in media and IRL), emotionally-charged “debates”, extreme emotional outbursts of any sort really, small talk, pets

Sense of humor:…[Read more]

My favorite quote is this from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, lines 211-16:

HAMLET

Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a

special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to

come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it

will come—the readiness is all. Since no

man of aught…[Read more]

That is precisely why I loved Hamlet’s speech. It also reminded me of the lyrics/message of one of my favorite bands. I love the way his speech is used in Brave New World, which I had actually read before Hamlet.

Hi there! I’m Bethany, and I am also a mythology and language fan, though I’m really only familiar with Greek/Roman mythology (since they’re pretty much the same thing). I’m actually rereading the Aeneid right now. Have you read any of the classic epic poems?

I think biology is okay. I preferred chemistry, though I’ve had to…[Read more]

I think I loved Hamlet for the same reasons. It is excellently written–I need to memorize Hamlet’s “to be” speech sometime. I certainly don’t understand the whole thing, but I love that I’ll be able to reread it throughout my life and get something new out of it each time.

I do think Hamlet is a good character. Some people seem…[Read more]

I just finished Hamlet! It’s my favorite Shakespeare play so far. The others ones I’ve read are A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar. I liked both of them. I’ll be reading Macbeth and The Tempest soon.

I haven’t seen any adaptations of the plays yet, but I noticed the Lawrence Olivier Hamlet is on YouTube, so I’ll be…[Read more]

Great insights! I really enjoyed reading that.

I have no clue why that emoji got blown up to such an ungodly size.

I was referring to the “Oh Sleeper” by The Arcadian Wild. It’s funny how they both have songs with that title.

I just followed you on Spotify!

Man, it’s hard to pick favorites! I relate to “Oh, Sleeper” a lot (they actually wrote it as the Enneagram 9 song; although I’m a 5, I relate to some 9 things). “Blue Eyed Girl” is so sweet, as well as “The Ballad of Donnie Gene”, and “Hey Runner!” and “Fall: War” are really fun and catchy!

Do you use Spotify at…[Read more]

YAY FOR A FELLOW SARAH SPARKS, OH HELLOS, AND PAPER KITES FAN!!!

(If you like them, you should totally give The Arcadian Wild a listen.)

And I recently wrote a short story based on Carry You.

@gbfruitbat

I tend to focus more on story playlists rather than character playlists, but here are some songs that could go with my…[Read more]

I’d love to see the fan wiki pages and all the theories and timelines as to how all my stories connect. And fanart and fan-created merch like jewelry and t-shirts and cosplaying–man that would be cool. And I think it would be awesome to do a tabletop RPG based off my storyworld.

There are three ways to say it: “Car-mel”, “Car-ah-mel”, or “Care-ah-mel”. I say it the third way.

Why you all forgetting the second ‘a’ just like that?!

Well the public transport in America is pretty crummy (really only people in the cities use it, and it’s, as I said, pretty crummy)–plus we’re so spread out (I almost typed ‘spaced out’–either works XD) that if you want to get anywhere around here you need a car.

You live in Netherlands, correct? With all the windmills,…[Read more]

“Boo Radley”–that was really good! I loved the imagery! I agree with Anne on a favorite line–that whole stanza was my favorite actually.

@emily-waldorf

I loved the idea of “watching the rain”. It seems to evoke an idea of patience and perseverance through a trial rather than “oh please help i don’t like this it hurts please save me…[Read more]

that was too hilarious. It reminds me of this map I’ve seen drawn by someone (an Australian I believe) who didn’t live in the U.S.

@erynne

Hi there hello, welcome back, I think I remember talking to you? Anyways, glad you’re back, hope you’re able to get all the writing things done. I’ve just been…[Read more]

Ooh that was a good poem. It reminds me of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”.

I think I agree with you on free verse. I’ll look into those poets. I just get frustrated with what I call “Instagram poetry”–you probably know the kind. All lowercase and it just seems like a paragraph cut up into random line breaks. And the messages…[Read more]

I will look into those poets. I want to read more poetry but it’s been hard knowing where to start. The Bible definitely has some amazing poetry! I think studying writing and poetry has made me appreciate the Bible’s literary qualities so much more. Ecclesiastes is probably my favorite–although I suppose it’s more poetic prose.

Well,…[Read more]

I’m glad you brought this up. I’m a very amateur poet so I’m always trying to get ideas on how to improve. I have noticed that my best poems are the ones where I do get specific and personal. With poetry you want to pack as much as possible into few words so if you want your poem to be effective, I think you have to get concrete. One…[Read more]

I’ve only read the first False Prince book. I might read the other ones eventually, but from what I’ve gathered, I might not end up liking them very much. How do they compare to the first book? Have you read The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner? It’s…[Read more]

I still don’t think any of those things are inherently wrong to use. The real world has false gods and false religions. It’s far more one-note and lazy, in my opinion, to create a world in which there is only one religion which is obviously the true religion based on Christianity than to create a world with dynamic, conflicting beliefs in whi…

[Read more]

I’ll write out a fuller reply eventually (I’m pretty busy) but I think so far I’m agreeing with R.M. and Taylor.

Gary D. Schmidt’s most well-known book is probably The Wednesday Wars. I’ve read almost all of his books and I highly, highly recommend them!

I have a few WIPs I procrastinate working on, but the last one I worked on is a fantasy that plays with the chosen one trope. I suppose it would be considered YA, but I don’t care much…[Read more]

I volunteer! I needed a certain number of community service hours to graduate, so that’s one way I got them. I enjoy being at the library though so I plan to keep helping out for as long as I can.

Do you write YA, or just MG? And have you read any of Gary D. Schmidt’s books? He’s one of my favorite authors and writes MG and…[Read more]

I honestly hadn’t thought too hard about this question before and I still don’t have a good answer other than “I’m a young adult myself and so I just find it easiest to write for my own age group”. I guess not everything I’ve written would be considered YA–but I don’t know if it would be considered adult either. Most of my…[Read more]

I get what you’re saying and I agree that magic and fantasy aren’t the same thing. I’d phrase it as “All stories with magic are fantasy, but not all fantasy stories have magic.” Fantasy to me means the story takes place in a world that has things in it that could never exist or happen in reality (vs. sci-fi where the invented things…[Read more]

I’m a big fan of the Oxford comma. It generally makes things a lot more clear.

I really like Pixar movies–Up, Soul, and Onward probably being my favorites. And I like some other stuff like Rogue One, LOTR, and The Princess Bride but I’m not a big movie watcher in general.

Limericks are fun! They’re great because you can…[Read more]

I’m Bethany and I will also get on you for not using proper punctuation and grammar! And I love parentheses too. What are your thoughts on the Oxford comma?

I have only seen two Marvel movies, but frankly, I’m not that impressed so far. What did you think of that Spiderman movie? I’ve heard it was good.

What kind of…[Read more]

I think I’ll have to step away from this for the time being. I’m busy with senior year (I cannot wait to be DONE) and I want to devote more time to other writing projects. Thanks for inviting Torsten into the castle, but you all can feel free to move onto the next part of the story without him. 🙂

Unfortunately haven’t done as much reading recently as I’d like, and the reading I have done has been mediocre, but here goes.

Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner (1.5/5)

Insta-love is the dumbest…[Read more]

However, I enjoy reading and it honestly inspires me. When I read a well-written book, it makes me want to write. Yeah, I’m an immature writer; maybe that inspiration ceases to affect you when you’re a pro. I don’t…[Read more]

Yes, I’m not terribly fond of the initial ones either. Every YA fantasy book these days is named “The BLANK of BLANK and BLANK” with the same words being used over and over again. They all sound the same and confuse me. And they also don’t tend to make a lot of sense.

I like your second option. What about Shadowed Shards for…[Read more]

Sorry if they’re blurry–I had to use my computer’s webcam

Have you seen pictutes of the the giant hummingbird? They’re so big they almost look like a swallow! They’re very dull and brown, though. I find it funny how aggressive they are because they’re so tiny! It seems like it’s usually the little birds that are aggressive, but I suppose that isn’t the case with geese lol

I have! Yeah, tho…[Read more]

I’ve heard great horned owls and heard and seen barn owls here. I think those are my favorite owl species, but burrowing owls and snowy owls are super adorable too! If you’ve never heard a barn owl, look up its call. It’s very creepy. They’re called ghost owls for good reason.

I think I like the Costa’s hummingbird best, but the ones…[Read more]

I also like birdwatching, art, reading, LoTR, and worldbuilding when I should be writing lol. What is your favorite kind of bird? Mine are hummingbirds and owls.

I’d love any nonfic book recommendations! I started reading the Silmarillion, but never finished it. However, I did enjoy what I read; I just need to keep better track of…[Read more]

by B. Gauterius

I cannot say what I think

And I cannot think of what to say.

When my better judgment restricts

What my heart begs to convey–

I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you.

But I wish that I could tell you

And hear what you would…

[Read more]

Thanks! I might have to check out Trello when it comes time to making scene cards.

@noahcochran

Yes, I really love how easy to use Google Drive is–it’s a lot cleaner to me than Office. And it works better on saving my stuff than OneDrive ever does. I love using bulleted lists when brainstorming–it makes everything a lot…[Read more]

I got Scrivener for my birthday and I really love it! It helps keep everything organized without having to open dozens of folders for it.

@joy-caroline

Also, Scrivener is awesome for organizing notes and other things. I use it once in a while and would recommend!

At first I didn’t think Scrivener would be useful for me, but the…[Read more]

Thanks for the tag. July was unusually (but in a good way) busy for me, but I hope I’ll be able to get to some of these stories later this month.

@rose-colored-fancy & @devastate-lasting

I’ll try to get to your stories sometime in the next couple weeks!

(yes I started this topic because my writings are a mess and scattered all over and I need to clean and re-organize my Google Drive and OneNote)

tagging some…[Read more]