Cordy Aly Byrd 🐦‍⬛

#SFFChat A1: I think character perspective and voice are strongly tied together when it comes to both writing and reading. The same event can seem totally different depending on from whose perspective it's told.

Only you can write your book because only you have your unique perspective.

#SFFChat 2

I find that embodying antagonistic characters is pretty easy for me. It's about finding the things you don't like about yourself and really exploring what that means beyond your own comfort zone. If you aren't changed after writing this character, no-one reading will change either

#SFFChat Q4

Jokes on you, I have a snippet about bears from Sweet & Wild! 😅
In this part, Micah is explaining to a neighbor why he's not scared of Terran, even if he's wild.

Read and listen

Forums and whatnot can be hotbeds of horridness but you can find earnest discussions on beliefs

Watching essays by people with a different POV is a big help

Exposure in general, but cutting out the bad faith actors

Just be curious, I suppose

#SFFChat

#SFFChat
With imaginative empathy. Think of the way Tom Hiddleston talks about Loki, if you're familiar. It's one of the fun parts of writing.

#SFFChat Q2: Honesty and empathy. If I write from the POV of a villain, I want the reader to see their perspective, because we are all heroes in our own minds (even if misguided). For different backgrounds, I try to be careful, respectful, and be sure that I am not perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

#SFFChat Q2. Depending on the background/topic, research is always good. Talking to people who come from that background can really help as well if given the chance.

Besides that, being respectful and/or not judging. This is especially good to keep in mind as I write morally grey characters (1/2)

Thank you 🙏

This is exactly why I hate his name.

Im bad at finding snippets but this was easier than trying to find a bear somewhere in my files. I think the only bear I have is from an unfinished Revenant fanfiction. And nobody should have to see that.

#SSFChat

"What, Helen? What is so important in your little world, right now, that you need to be so far up my ass that you're practically peaking out through my eyes?" Helen opens her mouth again to answer, but Ronnie cuts her off. It felt good to go off on this kid, for once. "What!?"

This character was also important to me learning that "the protagonist" does not mean "the hero". It means "this guy whose head you get to voyeuristically look into, and are unfortunate enough to now understand on a subatomic level, whether theyre cool or not. unless theyre full of shit, then oops".

#SSFChat

All My Colors's main character, Todd Milstead. Fuck that guy, but also, I get it. You're a white, mediocre man who thinks greatness is owed to you, and you don't do the work required to achieve it.

I am also a lazy fuck, but at least I'm not named Todd.

Hope that makes sense I literally just woke up

Because child me got freaked the fuck out the moment I realized people didn't disappear when you stopped looking at them. People exist separate from you, believe their own truths, think they're the protagonist. That's how I write characters. Everyone is their own protagonist, just not in this story.

I also will engage with people and media from those specific backgrounds to study and understand them, so that I'm not writing a characature.

I don't do it purely to be able to write, either, I just like knowing things and understanding perspectives that are not my own.

#SFFChat

I make a character profile of how each character views another, themselves, and the world, even if some of it doesn't make it into the story. I like having their opinions and backgrounds fleshed out before I make them do anything.

Does it take longer and make me angry— YEAH. A BIT.

*points at euphoria* that is a man's fantasy of what he thought high school was like. he doesn't remember shit.

In my own writing, I feel like third person is harder to write unless the narrator is also somehow a character. I need an outlet to bully my ocs, or I'll die. Idk how to explain it.

#SFFChat

In reading, I think first person will either endear me to a character really quickly, or make me want to stop reading. And I don't mean it's because of morally repugnant protagonists. I mean, I can tell when the author doesn't know what demographic their character is supposed to be.

#SFFChat

Hello, I am Cordyyyy, and I write not enough. Also, I think I may already be a Polar Bear because I, too, would travel great lengths across the arctic to beat the shit out of someone I held a grudge against.

And my liver is poisonous.

hand holding a critter keeper shaped shaker keyring with isopods, mealworm, hornworm, cricket and centipede charms inside with the words "pocket pals custom shaker keyring" over it

hand holding a wooden tank shaped shaker keyring with ball python, plant and hide charms inside

hand holding a black glass tank shaped shaker keyring with crested gecko, branch and leaf charms inside

hand holding a critter keeper shaped shaker keyring with isopods, mealworm, hornworm, cricket and centipede charms inside

New keyrings!

We've been wanting to make these for a while, and I'm so happy with how they turned out.

You can choose up to 6 different charms, and we'll be adding more critters in the future if these do well.

Full charm menu in replies ✨️

#wildlifeart
#isopods
#frogs
#snakes
#geckos
#SciArt

You know the best way to kill AI? Don't use it. Don't buy it. Don't share it. Don't give the people who use it your labour or your money.

Poison ivy from absolute batman she's so mutated and has elements of animal shapes and plant forms and insect forms she's beautiful and horrible she has a little owl. She looks enormously pleased with herself. I am horribly in love

Absolute Poison Ivy STOP I can only get so bisexual 😭💕😭💕😭💕

I feel like the last couple decades of "is representation good or not?" discourse missed more important questions of "how fragile is representation?", "what do we do when multiple industries eliminate it as an intentional move against us?" and "how can we sustain queer artists when shit goes south?"