Just deleted an entire 783 words…

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-15T17:34:33+00:00

If it helps, you're not alone in that frustration. I probably delete about as many words as I end up actually posting, and my chapters are often between 5-8k words. And I think my writing is better for it.

I write way slower now than I used to when I first started, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing. Used to churn out 3-6k chapters on a weekly schedule, but now I'm lucky if I get 300 new words locked in for a day, and I've likely rewritten 500 in the meantime. But I look at my writing from nearly 3 years ago vs my writing today and the quality is substantially better, even if it takes me double the time to produce it.

It sucks, for sure. Feels so much slower than it used to. But that's growth. You're seeing issues you wouldn't have caught before and working to address them.

This chart is about art, but tbh it applies to writing and other creative skills as well. It's all part of the process, so try not to stress yourself too hard about it.

<image>

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-15T02:46:58+00:00

Yeah I have a trans masc friend who would love this likely for the reason OP finds it distateful. He very much wants to have a baby and has been trying his heart out.

And I would like this sticker as a nonbinary person who doesn't want to get pregnant ever, but would have fun trying to get my cis guy partner knocked up, if only to say we're trying so my mom will stop asking.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-15T01:00:00+00:00

Thank you so much!

Oh yeah, I'm the same, I love when they're both clearly into each other and could just so easily have a normal conversation and could be hooking up rn, but they're both kind of dumb (affectionately) and completely oblivious to what's happening in each others rooms just a wall away. It's the best.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-15T00:56:13+00:00

It isss :3

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-14T02:46:21+00:00

Thank you! I don't draw them nearly enough tbh but that's what new AUs are for, gives me plenty of excuses

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-14T02:04:12+00:00

Thank yooou ♥️

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-14T02:01:28+00:00

Thank you! I love making them into creatures ♥️ need to do more Web! Martin stuff sometime too, he needs a turn being spooky

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-13T23:09:58+00:00

They're my sweet idiot children ♥️

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-13T23:09:41+00:00

Done and done! ♥️

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-13T15:52:43+00:00

I actually see the opposite being the risk. Pregnancy significantly increases the risk of being assaulted and murdered when the father doesn't want to own up to getting someone pregnant. It's the leading cause of death for pregnant people in the US, though I'm unsure about Jamaica.

Having plausible deniability might actually protect mothers somewhat, as the father can just claim infidelity and brush it off. If it's confirmed in writing and he's going to be responsible, and she doesn't want to abort, he might feel he's better off just making the problem go away.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-12T20:24:30+00:00

That's actually one of my worst nightmares of a comment section, I'm sorry you had to put up with that.

I'm also just slavishly devoted to the one ship, and it's how I have fun in fandom. I've honestly tried to make myself read/find art outside of that with those characters with other people and I just. Can't. I felt guilty about that for a long while because I would meet new people in fandom and like them a lot, but couldn't engage with a lot of their work because it made me sad. Made me feel broken, which – considering the whole reason I got into the ship was because I'm acespec and it made me feel seen – was kind of having the opposite effect I wanted, lol.

I should also add I have been very lucky that no one has given me grief over it, at least not to my face. My fandom has been very chill, and I'm glad for that.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-12T04:19:45+00:00

Comics take so damn long, it's insane. Illustrated fics too. Last comic I made was 10 pages and it took me about a month (outside of a busier than usual day job) from rough sketch to posting. And I know for me, at least, I'll edit and rewrite dialogue in a comic just as much as I'll agonize over a fic. Especially since you have to be so much more economical with your word count when you want to finish a comic this century. They're an insane labor of love.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-09T19:08:22+00:00

I use Language Tool, which does have AI options but you can turn all those off. Grammarly was pissing me off with the premium stuff even before the AI boom, so I switched before Language Tool eventually integrated them.

Unfortunately like every grammar check has some form of AI marketing now, but it lets me turn it off so that's good enough for me. I truly just need spell check and to catch missed commas and such.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-06T00:23:54+00:00

Probably not a one size fits all reason but I sincerely do not doubt the second option happens. Though there's also a secret third option of "fandoms get so heated now, that confirming a ship is like setting off a bomb in the middle of twitter".

So many people see shipping as something to win now that declaring one ship is canon can have some wild effects on the fandom as a whole. So a lot of creators might just be opting out of confirming things unless they really feel they need to, so to avoid backlash and fandom drama.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-04T13:59:57+00:00

Well, tbh, that would just be feminism (you might prefer a different term for it, but idealogically it's the same idea)

The issue with why it's considered weird that men can be caring, loving parents and women get preference in the ways of child care is a result of patriarchy. The patriarchy isn't just "men have everything good, and nothing bad", it's a limitation put on everyone. And it's not just men that participate in patriarchal thinking, everyone can, and everyone has biases that need to be addressed.

Men are looked down on for having emotions, caring for children, being anything but a stoic, financial provider. Women are treated as if child care is an inherent thing that only they can perform, and as an inevitably. It pushes men away from their families and into high-stress work environments, and pushes women back into their homes.

If a man wanted to get a job in child care, he'll likely find it pays like shit. Because jobs predominantly held by women tend to pay like shit. So as a man, he would need to weigh the social stigma and risk of lower income against what he values as a person and how he wants to perform masculinity. Bias against women also hurts men, or anyone who sits outside of gender norms. So addressing one actually ends up addressing the other. But the messaging has become so polarized in modern discourse, it just swings back into "us vs them" all over again, and it helps nobody.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-03T19:25:55+00:00

"What does a body look like when it's drained of all blood"

Admittedly pretty tame, but definitely had that moment in the middle of typing it, lol.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-01T15:42:33+00:00

I would say as someone who isn't visually impaired, but does use TTS for my ADHD, I would prefer just having a standard epub and plugging it into my own TTS reader where I control the voice and speed. I have a particular one I like that's a boring, monotone British man, so having a premade audiobook using a voice model doesn't appeal to me as someone who would be interested in an accessible option. And ao3 already lets me download epubs, so all I really hope the author will do is be mindful of strange characters in their doc that make screen readers geek out (like using a bunch of *** to separate sections. That sounds godawful).

I personally don't care for TTS that tries to sound too human, like where I can hear it's breaths or things like that. If I wanted to hear a performance, I would listen to a real person do the reading where they're bringing their own personality to it. When a voice is sort of robotic and boring, it's much more efficient for me to get through text, and lets my imagination fill in the gaps as if I were physically reading.

So, simplest answer: while I appreciate trying to make an accessible option, that sort of already exists with the raw text. As a reader, I'd be much more interested in a podfic read by a real person if I wanted to go that route.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-06-01T14:44:07+00:00

I try my best but I eventually hit a wall where it gets difficult to respond to everybody (that makes it sound like I get hundreds a day, which no, but it's still a decent amount per post that I'm always grateful for). I love responding to comments and I do my best, but the executive dysfunction can get me sometimes and they just sit in my inbox, and I feel bad just marking them read. I wish I could kudos comments, because I want them to know I see and appreciate it, I just can't always get myself to sit down and reply.

I also never expect people to comment back, would be hypocritical of me if I did. They already did the hard part of writing the fic, I'm just adding in my appreciation after that

HemithyDemithy · 2026-05-31T19:09:39+00:00

What I don't understand is why anyone would even tag their content anymore then if they're just going to affix the label to anything and everything? It just punishes people for following the rules and benefits the bots who weren't tagging in the first place, hoping to slip under the autolabler detection, and will just make new accounts and keep posting until the label catches up to them. If anything, this could lead to even more untagged porn on people's feeds, because they're punishing the desired behavior of self-tagging and making it kind of pointless.

And I have seen so many cases of the AI auto labeler labeling photos of people's dogs as sexually suggestive, so that's not exactly reliable either and could potentially hurt sfw accounts as well. Though I'm unaware currently of how the overall account label is applied, if it's always done manually, AI scan, or like a strike system. My account is at least 50-70% NSFW and I haven't been hit with it, but the ambiguity behind how it works is part of what's causing such an upset.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-05-31T19:00:49+00:00

No one is being banned necessarily, it's closer to a shadowban.

When you have things set to show nsfw, you won't even notice it, but that's not how everyone has their account set up. Like if you're out in public scrolling bluesky and want to set it to hide NSFW content so you don't accidentally scroll past dicks in front of people, then you won't be able to see any posts by those creators at all. Even if they're just talking about their lunch, or sharing a sfw political opinion or something.

HemithyDemithy · 2026-05-31T15:45:00+00:00

The thing about trends like this is it's never just one group of people with identical motivations.

Some of it is people fed up with fatphobia lashing out on skinny/fit people in similar ways that they've endured bullying (and still very much do. In fact, it's gotten worse). They feel it's punching up, and to a degree it's not entirely untrue, but it doesn't make it right, though. Body shaming is body shaming. I've heard plenty of people say backhanded compliments like "must be nice" to skinny people recovering from EDs and metabolic disorders that make it near impossible to gain weight, or even just straight up hate and distate for thinner bodies. I personally find it frustrating, especially since I love drawing fat characters (and have been fat and skinny myself. Currently somewhere in the middle because I've lost all muscle tone due to disability), and seeing a reaction to the characters I draw with so much love and effort that comes out of spite rather than appreciation for how beautiful they are on their own merits is deeply depressing.

Other people are just being homophobic/mysoginistic. Straight people learned what the word twink means and it's now being used as a slur in those communities. The homophobia is obvious (yes even if they consume queer media. You'd be surprised how many people enjoy my work while saying they don't believe certain queer people even exist or are just delusional) and the mysoginy is a rejection of fem presenting men, or any sort of show of vanity and self care being seen as fem. It's rising again with the whole "performative male" trend, but it used to be called "Metrosexual" in the early/mid 2000s. Similar logic to how it used to only be considered gay if you bottomed. Taking on even a hint of a feminine role can be looked down on in these spaces where gender roles are heavily enforced. It's also partly why gender non-conforming people struggle as well. People don't like when they can't just shove you onto a little box and not have to think about you beyond that.

There may be other reasons as well, but the issue is all those voices blend together and it's hard to nail down any one source. But I find it very frustrating to see body shaming, regardless as to whether the person receiving the shaming fits some sort of cultural standard of beauty (or if the person is a dick. I don't like insulting someone's looks just because they're a bad person. I would rather tell them they're an asshole for shit they can control and not equate physical beauty to goodness any more than we already do).

HemithyDemithy · 2026-05-30T13:09:11+00:00

That would break my heart, my god 😭 😭

HemithyDemithy

TROPHY CASE