Pauline’s Book Recs : A MASTERPOST (II)

The missing perspective

I saw your meta on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan's relationship - it was fantastic, by the way - and was wondering if you'd read the Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan extras and what you thought about them.

Hi!

I actually didn’t know there were extras on them until you mentioned them…I wish I had known about them before writing my initial response on their relationship. Thank you for your compliment about my meta btw!

Overall, after reading those extras, there’s only a few major tweaks I would make to my thoughts on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan’s relationship. Delving more deeply into Shen Jiu’s perspective was essential to gain a keener sense of just how cynical and self-loathing he is…and just how attached he actually was to Yue Qingyuan until the very end. 

For starters, when it comes to Shen Jiu himself, what’s emphasized throughout his origin story, is that he arguably hates himself most of all. Be it as “Shen Jiu” or as “Shen Qingqiu”, his hatred of both his names is symbolic of his deep-seated self-loathing. He hates his past as Shen Jiu because he was a poor, abused slave. And he hates his present as Shen Qingqiu because he wound up inheriting both a name that’s the same as the family who caused him so much pain AND a disposition that’s similar to Qiu Jianluo’s, the man he hated most. 

Shen Jiu’s experiences made him see everything through jade-coloured glasses. The few occasions he tried to do something positive, he always wound up suffering. He tried to help Yue Qingyuan save Shi Wu, but only got betrayed and captured. He put all his hopes into being rescued by Qi-Ge to the point of enduring abuse for years, but that came too late and with no explanation. And here’s where we get to the part from the extra that changes a bit what was presented in the main story. Initially, from what was shown to Shen Yuan, Shen Jiu’s attachment to Yue Qingyuan seemed severed after he burned down the Qiu household and left with Wu Yanzi. But we see that’s not true here. Shen Jiu obviously still cared for Yue Qingyuan and tried to think of excuses for him not being able to save him until the latter’s inability to communicate honestly when they met again made him think that he was simply abandoned. 

Keep reading

alright, I think I’ve found the saddest timeline

Wei Wuxian opened his eyes, which was a surprise, because he was fairly sure he’d died. 

The first thing he saw was an explanation: a crude but carefully sketched array drawn in blood on the floor around him, a version of something he’d once worked on to offer one’s body to a vengeful ghost. The host soul to be destroyed. 

The second thing he saw was a message scrawled on the wall in the same red ink, much more sloppily: That son of a whore killed Jin Ling. Ignore Huaisang, just kill them all. 

The third thing, looking down, was hands as familiar as the ones he’d been born with, recognizable even without the bloodied purple sleeves and silver ring on one finger, inset amethyst sparking with lightning.

i went to the dentist today and my dentist honest to god said “can i ask you a question…….what the hell is in your mouth”

If you can, please donate to the Internet archive, links in the description. The loss of the archive would be devastating for dozens of reasons.

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

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yue qingyuan, holding up a portrait of shen jiu: have you seen my shidi?

random cang qiong disciple: is peak lord shen missing? do we need to search for him??

yue qingyuan, looking at the portrait and sighing wistfully: no, I just wanted to show you how handsome and elegant he is.