[[You read.]]
[[You write.]]
(set: $classics to 0)You read a lot.(click-replace: "You read a lot.")[[[You’ve always read a lot.|reading as a kid]]]
You write nonfiction.(click-replace: "write non")[don't write ]
(click-replace: "don't write")[[[don't know how to write|performance poetry]]]
You sometimes miss when you were a kid and reading was considered virtuous so you could read at the table(click-replace: "read at the table")[read at family gatherings](click-replace: "read at family gatherings")[read during parties](click-replace: "read during parties")[[[ignore people and be praised for it|currently reading]]].In a performance poetry workshop, one of the other participants describes enjoying performance as a space where they can speak without being interrupted. This is what you hate about performance.(click-replace: "This is what you hate about performance.")[This is what scares you about performance.](click-replace: "This is what scares you about performance.")[This is what scares you about performing alone.](click-replace: "This is what scares you about performing alone.")[[[This is what scares you about fiction.|scares you about fiction]]]Fiction feels like a performance where you're playing every character.
(click: "every character")[It's hard enough to portray a convincing version of yourself. (click-replace: "a convincing")[an accurate] (click-replace: "an accurate")[a bearable](click-replace: "a bearable")[a defensible](click-replace: "a defensible")[a clear](click-replace: "a clear")[a vulnerable](click-replace: "a vulnerable")[a non shameful](click-replace: "a non shameful")[a non shame filled](click-replace: " non shame filled")[]
](click-replace: "portray a version of yourself")[[[portray yourself|portray]]]Right now you're reading(click-replace: "reading")[wishing you could ignore people with]:
[[some classic.]]
[[some kids book.]]
[[some dumb game.]]
[[nothing.]](set: $classic to 1)
In primary school teachers praised you for your advanced taste. (click-replace: "praised you for your advanced taste.")[[praised you for your advanced taste because you carried around <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> for a while]<lol|(click: ?lol)[ (you didn’t actually read it)].] (click-replace: "(you didn’t actually read it).")[(you didn't actually read it). It was part of a stage where you wanted to read [[everything Matilda from Roald Dahl’s <i>Matilda</i> had read.| Matilda book]]]As a kid, you like Harry Potter(click-replace: "Harry Potter")[A Series of Unfortunate Events](click-replace: "A Series of Unfortunate Events")[[[Roald Dahl|Fantastic Fox]]].I mean I guess if you want to be meta about it but I think breaking the fourth wall is usually cheesy(click-replace: "cheesy")[fake deep](click-replace: "fake deep")[boring]. Maybe <i>you</i> should [[write something|You write.]].You’re in one of those stretches between books where you feel too overwhelmed to read(click-replace: "to read")[to choose what to read]. You didn’t used to have this problem. You have it now when you’re trying to [[write something|You write.]]. It feels like you just need to read the right book and the words will suddenly appear.[[Matilda read:|canon]]
[<i>The Secret Garden</i> by Frances Hodgson Burnett]<secret| (click-replace: ?secret)[You read this out of a green hardcover bind up with The Little Princess. You never ended up reading The Little Princess, but you remember renting out the VHS over and over while your mum was in Pakistan and you were with family.]
[<i>Great Expectations</i> by Charles Dickens]<great| (click-replace: ?great)[You definitely lugged this around for ages but you're not sure if you actually read it.]
[<i>Nicholas Nickleby</i> by Charles Dickens]<nicholas| (click-replace: ?nicholas) [You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>Oliver Twist</i> by Charles Dickens]<oliver| (click-replace: ?oliver)[Mum (click-replace: "Mum")[Nan] reads this aloud after you see an amateur production of the musical, but you only really remember the soup bit (click-replace: "the soup bit")[finding all the theft really frightening.]]
[<i>Jane Eyre</i> by Charlotte Brontë]<jane| (click-replace: ?jane)[You read this in a hardback anthology of all the Brontë sisters work. The cover was bound upside down, and you thought the idea of you reading from this huge upside-down book was a joke on the part of your uncle. He seemed embarassed when you pointed it out.]
(if: $classic is 1)[[<i>Pride and Prejudice</i> by Jane Austen]<pride| (click-replace: ?pride)[We've covered this.]]\
(else:)[[[<i>Pride and Prejudice</i> by Jane Austen|some classic.]]]
[<i>Tess of the d'Urbervilles</i> by Thomas Hardy]<tess| (click-replace: ?tess)[You tried to read this instead of <i>Lord of the Flies</i> for a second time when you moved schools, but you lost your copy before you finished it and your teacher was too vague to realise they'd never assessed you on it.]
[<i>Gone to Earth</i> by Mary Webb]<gone| (click-replace:?gone)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>Kim</i> by Rudyard Kipling]<kim| (click-replace: ?kim)[You haven’t read this one, but you’ve seen the canon in Pakistan.]
[<i>The Invisible Man</i> by H. G. Wells]<invisible| (click-replace: ?invisible)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>The Old Man and the Sea</i> by Ernest Hemingway]<old| (click-replace: ?old)[The Old Man literally punches a shark.]
[<i>The Sound and the Fury</i> by William Faulkner]<sound| (click-replace: ?sound)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>The Grapes of Wrath</i> by John Steinbeck]<grapes| (click-replace: ?grapes)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>The Good Companions</i> by J. B. Priestley]<good|(click-replace: ?good)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>Brighton Rock</i> by Graham Greene]<brighton| (click-replace: ?brighton) [You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>Animal Farm</i> by George Orwell]<animal| (click-replace: ?animal)[It’s fine.]
[<i>Moby Dick</i> by Herman Melville]<moby| (click-replace: ?moby) [Look everybody says it but this one's pretty good hey.]
[<i>Ivanhoe</i> by Walter Scott]<ivan| (click-replace: ?ivan) [You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>The Red Pony</i> by John Steinbeck]<red| (click-replace: ?red)[You haven’t read this one.]
[<i>Peter and Wendy</i> by J.M. Barrie]<peter| (click-replace: ?peter)[You just remember how funny you thought the dog was.]
You read Fantastic Mr. Fox to you cousin in a single sitting because the story is scarier than you remembered and you don’t want her to have nightmares. You edit the book as you go(click-replace: "edit the book as you go")[[[downplay the violence|FF1]]].
The next year you give your cousin a Moomin book instead. You hadn’t read the Moomins until you started uni. When your friend finds out she says "this is why you were so fucked up!(click-replace: "this is why you were so fucked up!")[Roald Dahl is horrible!!](click-replace: "Roald Dahl is horrible!!")[The Moomins are beautiful!]"
You went through a stage where [you wanted to read everything Matilda from Roald Dahl’s <i>Matilda</i> had read.]<m1|(click-replace: ?m1) [you wanted to be Matilda.] (click-replace: "you wanted to be Matilda.")[[[you wanted to be conspicuously smart, like Matilda.| Matilda book]]]
Matilda read:
[[the canon|PKMN]]When people talk about "the canon" you always think about fanfiction. It’s not usually what they mean but it’s where you first heard "canon" used wrt (click-replace: "wrt")[with regard to](click-replace: "with regard to")[about] literature.
(click: "fanfiction.")[You started reading (click-replace: "reading")[writing] fanfiction by accident. You and your friends were growing out of Neopets (click-replace: "Neopets")[Millsberry](click-replace: "Millsberry")[DressUpGames.com] and had started to explore other parts of the web.
(click: "playing")[
You and your friends played increasingly intricate games from recess to lunch, with ongoing narrative and characters, but it was beginning to seem a little childish. The girls you did gymnastics with already had boyfriends.
] (click-replace: "boyfriends")["boyfriends"]
You and your friends experiment with ways of telling stories (click-replace: "telling stories")[playing] from home – email and g-chat at first, then PKMN.net at the suggestion of [[your friend Al.|PKMN2]]]"I'll pick him up with my bucket!" shouted Bunce. ["I'll chop him to pieces!"]<ff2| (click-replace: ?ff2)[]
"They'll kill my children!" cried Mrs. Fox. (click-replace: 'kill ')[hurt ]
"I'll be glad when the rotten brute is killed and strung up (click-replace: 'killed and strung up')[caught and kept] on the front porch," she called out.[ "And by the way, Mrs. Bean, your husband promised I could have the tail as a souvenir."
"The tail's been all shot to pieces," said the voice from upstairs. "Didn't you know that?"
"You mean its ruined?"
"Of course it's ruined. They shot the tail but missed the fox."
"Oh heck!" said the big woman.
"I did so want that tail!"
"You can have the head instead, Mabel. You can get it stuffed and hang it on your bedroom wall. ]<ff3|Hurry up now with that cider!"
(click-replace: ?ff3 )["We all will Mabel," said the voice from upstairs. "]
Al’s mum was not the most internet safe parent (click-replace: "not the most internet safe parent")[being catfished by someone pretending to be a gay Italian couple] (click-replace: "a gay Italian couple")[a widower, his partner having tragically died midway through her correspondence with them], so you were somewhat wary of Al's recommendations.
You exclusively visit the pages your friends have already told you are good, and even then only the RP (click-replace: "RP")[Roleplay] forums, a niche separate enough from the rest of the website that it takes you weeks to realise that PKMN.net is mainly about Pokémon(click-replace: "Pokémon")[PoKéMoN]. (click: "PoKéMoN")[Your friends’ usernames are Lapis''_''the''_''Charizard and Kyla''_''the''_''Raichu.]
You are an enthusiastic, if unskilled, participant. You always play (click-replace: " play ")[ write ]characters that are idealised versions of yourself (click-replace: "idealised versions of yourself")[Mary-Sues] – a little older(click-replace: "older")[funnier](click-replace: "funnier")[better at hand to hand combat]. You don't realise for a long time that most of the RPs you're writing are based on other work(click-replace: "other work")[CHERUB (teen spies)](click-replace: "CHERUB (teen spies)")[Warriors (magic cats)](click-replace: "based on Warriors (magic cats)")[[[fanfiction|fanfic]]].
(click: "unskilled")[Feedback from personal messages:
*Mightyena''_''Bite:* It's nothing personal, it's just that, in my opinion... Your RPing skills are way not good. Pitiful, if we shall.
*Mightyena''_''Bite:* I'd rather be mean and honest than some two-faced liar.
*Mightyena''_''Bite:* Theoretically, I didn't exclude you or the others I had on there. I was including you... Just for a negative thing. But I see your point.
*Mightyena''_''Bite:* I'm not for hurting people's feelings. And if I offended, I respect that, and I apologize. But I believe in my right of freedom of expression. And everyone else should expect that.]After this accidental foray into writing fanfiction you make more deliberate attempts to read it – mostly Harry Potter from other character's perspectives.
(click: "character's")[The familiarity with characters is what draws you to the medium. Even if the writing isn't that good, you've read the books so many times that you understand what's happening.](click-replace: "understand what's happening")[fill the gaps](click-replace: "fill the gaps")[[[feel comfortable|comfort]]]How do you write a character that grows as the text ages?(click-replace: "a character")[a space](click-replace: "a space")[a self]
What does it mean to be [[static|Sokrates]]?Socrates via Plato: 'Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange power, quite like painting in fact; for the creatures in paintings stand there like living beings, yet if you ask them anything they maintain a solemn silence.' (click-replace: "Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange power, quite like painting in fact; for the creatures in paintings stand there like living beings, yet if you ask them anything they maintain a solemn silence.")[It is the same with written words. You might imagine they speak as if they were actually thinking something but if you want to find out about what they are saying and question them, they keep on giving the one [[same message eternally.|context]]]You don't like authors who try to claim some authority over their texts, wishing their fictional worlds would [[change|context]] at their say so.(click-replace: "don't like")[understand]
JK Rowling is the worst offender, retconning her characters into wokeness.Texts are mostly static, but their readers are not.(click-replace: "readers")[authors](click-replace: "authors")[contexts](click-replace: "their contexts are")[the way we read them is]
How does anyone write anything when they don't know the future in which it might be [[read|You read.]]?Double-click this passage to edit it.