Recent content by Altani

Maybe not how to be an executioner, specifically, but how to fight for that which is moral and just. They could get involved in a war and he has to teach the baby how to explode heads (or whatever a baby does to kill people, I dunno) of people who are actually bad. There's a lot more to being...

I think I’m really pretty bad at generative imagery, like I can picture a blue cat but not one with just a blue head. But if I’ve seen a photograph or like still image even once that’s way easier to remember for some reason. I can see as many moving pictures of someone as possible and it’s still...

I would love to hear this, do you have a recording?

I think Poe is, to put it a bit coarsely, a bit full of shit. There are plenty of poems that serve functions beyond beauty-- as a emotional release of anger, for instance, or as comedic relief. Anytime someone tries to define the regions of what is or isn't art, or what art "should" be, they...

Oh come, this child, and hear the tale, Of a lady who ne'er drank ginger ale, Who once was wrote a poem for naught, Who once a writer wrote a jot, Saying "she breasted boobily down the stairs," Her breasts, they did invite their stares, Her breasts, they were of writers' not, Worth a whittance...

I love how different all our answers are lol, it'll be interesting to see what you settle on.

I mean that I literally picture the word "cat." As for the aphantasia thing, I'm really not sure? It is hard for me to actually picture things, but I can sort of, kind of do it, especially when the subject has been photographed and I've looked at the photo enough times. I can't picture my dad's...

Yeah, I mean, I’ve been contemplating how I want to end my series I’ve been writing a long time, and I think the ending is going to end up being bittersweet. Like, you kind of win, but you kind of lose, too, because that’s how life is.

I think there’s actually an important distinction. I think the act of being bored gets you to seek out new things to be interested in, while being still and getting lost in your thoughts or daydreaming is something different.

I was reading this article yesterday, and in it, the author makes the argument that being bored is actually super important for your brain. Apparently chasing little hits of dopamine all day through scrolling on our phones is really bad for us, kind of akin to drugs, where you get addicted to...

That’s super cool. It made me realize, I don’t think I’ve written something without romance in it in like, an incredibly long time. Sometimes things will start out without romances, but they always seem to circle back to it.

I think I’d call it something more abstract and memorable, like “the realm waking” or “the realm awakening” or just “waking” for short. Really cool idea, by the way!

Isn’t it interesting how drafts change over time? I started one short story where the aim was to put earth on trial, and that ended up being the most boring part of the story. The thing I got hyperfixated on, the fact that aliens are almost always humanoid in fiction, and I wanted to do...

That’s actually a really cool way to think about it. Memory is inherently reliable anyway. I’ve never thought of describing something based only on things other than memory and pictures, though I guess I’ve made up stuff for sci-fi settings and just never thought about it!

See, and that kind of thing sounds super interesting to me! I would love to hear more. That kind of difference is really cool in writing. I have something where if someone asks me what do you think of when you think of words, well, I literally think of the word. Like I think of the word cat...