nobody might not relate to this but im posting it just incase XD
dark academia book list
The Secret History by Donna Tart
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
A deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Decay of Living by Oscar Wilde
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Dead Poets Society by Nancy H Kleinbaum
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Little Friend by Donan Tartt
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marissa Pessl
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Gentlemen and Players by Joan Harris
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Maurice by E. M. Forster
A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde
Vita Nostra by Marina and Serhiy Dyachenko
Poems by Oscar Wilde
The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
Ace of Spades by Fradiah Àbíke-Íyímídé
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wilder Girls by Rory Powers
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Bellweather Revivals by Benjamin Wood
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Truants by Kate Weinberg
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
In the Woods by Tana French
The Atlas Six by Olivia Blake
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Love and Friendship by Jane Austen
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Bunny by Mona Awad
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
The Ivies by Alexa Donne
For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing
The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky
Emma by Jane Austen
The Watsons by Jane Austen
The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino
The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter
The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring
Confessions by Kanae Minato
Truth Exercise by Susan Choi
We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
The Basic Eight by Daniel Handle
Confessions by Kanae Minato
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
sometimes i just really want to just take my spine and whip it around like a lasso to crack it
we don’t talk abt how stressful buying new glasses frames is. ur shopping for your whole personality there. life on the line. do or die. all for two pieces of glass and some sticks
local public library fandom
eldest daughter syndrome and gifted kid syndrome are some great examples of phrases used to talk about specific kinds of trauma that the internet has taken and turned into "boo hoo these people arent special anymore so theyre lashing out!!" it was never about that you fucking cunts
some people write poetry solely so that fragments of it can be used on aesthetic posts on the average dark academia tumblr and it shows. good poetry, genuinely good lyricism like that of margaret atwood, imtiaz dharker, agha shahid ali and ocean vuong needs heart, needs actual sincerity. but nowadays we have any random person writing "oranges persimmons girlhood is a disease cannibalism is love I am my mother's shadow soup love witchcraft" and they are promoted like the second coming of christ. love being a hater of such poems. hollow, insincere fake deep imagery does nothing for me.
- Rivals to lovers. Trying to upstage the other person at every possible opportunity...being equally matched in everything no matter how hard they try...continuing the rivalry because without it they have no reason to interact...it hits every single time
- Character A is injured and Character B absolutely pulverizes the enemy because they're overwhelmed with their fear and love for A :)
- Or: Character A being wounded/ill but hiding their true condition until they finally collapse from it
- Finally, I present to you: Character A tending to Character B’s wounds and acting passive-aggressive because they’re so worried about B
- The “I’m yours” love confession. I’m just a huge sucker for this trope. Not only is it really sweet, but it doesn’t have any possessive meaning. I just find it more romantic than “You’re mine”, too. It’s like you’re promising everything, all your faults and strengths and hopes to another person, and you’re receiving the same thing in return...it’s like a totally equal partnership
- THE ITALICIZED “oh”
- Grumpy x sunshine (bonus if there’s a grumpy girl and sunshine guy)
- The boy falls first
- Slowburn romance
- Dynamics where Character B constantly says, “Character A, no” and Character A replies with, “Character A, yes”
- Characters saying they can definitely do something, and then the scene cuts to them not being able to do the thing
- Found family (bonus points if they share exactly three braincells)
- Corruption arcs, especially female corruption arcs
- Strong female villains who don’t have love as their one motive
- A normally calm character going absolutely feral
- Characters who like reading
- TITLE DROPS! I always get so excited when I come across them
- Strong female friendships
-George Eliot, letter to Maria Lewis, Oct. 1, 1841
People sometimes send me Asks wanting writing advice. I suck at it. I don’t really know how I do the writing, or how one should do the writing, or what one should do to get better at the writing. All I can ever think to say is “write a lot of stuff and you will get better at the writing.” Which is true, but hardly a bolt from the sky.
Well, as it turns out, I do have one piece of Legit Writing Advice, and I am going to share it with you, right now. If you were in any of my writing workshop groups at a con, you’ve heard this advice already.
Warning: you’re going to fucking hate it. But if you do it, you will thank me.
If you have a piece of fiction you’re serious about, something you might want to actually shop around, or just something you really are into and want to make it as good as you can…do NOT edit it.
Repeat. DO NOT EDIT.
REWRITE.
As in, print out the whole fucking thing and re-enter it, every word (or use two screens). Retype the whole thing. Recreate it from the ground up using your first draft as a template. Start with a blank page and re-enter every. single. word.
I hear you screaming. OH MY GOD THAT’S INSANE.
Yes. Yes, it is.
It is also the most powerful thing you will ever do for a piece of fiction that you are serious about.
Now, let’s get real. I don’t do this for most things. I don’t do it for my fanfiction. But if it’s something original, something I might like to get to a professional level - I do it. You absolutely COULD do it for fanfiction. It’s just up to you and how much time you want to sink into a piece.
You can edit, sure. But you WILL NOT get down to the level of change that needs to happen in a second draft. You will let things slide. Your eyes will miss things. You will say “eh, good enough.”
The first time I did this, on someone else’s advice, I was dubious. Within two pages, I was saying WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN DOING THIS ALL THE TIME. I was amazed at how much change was happening. By the time I got to the end, I had an entirely different novel than the one I’d started with. When you’re already re-entering every single word, it’s easy to make deep changes. You’ll reformat sentences, you’ll switch phrases around, you’ll massage your word choice. You’ll discover whole paragraphs that don’t need to be there at all because they became redundant. You’ll find dialogue exchanges that need reimagining. Whole plot points will suddenly be different, whole story arcs will reveal their flaws and get re-drawn.
You cannot get down to the fundamental level of change that’s required just by editing an existing document. You have to rebuild it if you really want your story to evolve. You will be AMAZED at the difference it will make.
It will take time. It will seem like a huge, Herculean task. I’m not saying it’s easy. It isn’t. But it is absolutely revolutionary.
Try it. I promise, you will see what I mean.
*PSA: Tipsy!Lori wrote this post. In case you couldn’t tell.
f*ck personality tests, what font do you write in?