u/TUD-13BarryAllen

I've heard so many say that they enjoyed books like the The Deep (Cutter), Last Days or most Adam Nevill​, but the ending really didn't do it for them. Last Days seems to be a notorious example. I have never heard any positive opinions about the ending, but it's odd that something can start out as everyone's favorite ​and then drastically decline in quality​. I still have yet to read it because I've heard so many bad reviews so I don't know where it fell off at, same for a lot of books that are mentioned or reviewed as having bad endings.

What are your general, or specific, opinions about horror endings? Where do you feel like a lot of things fall flat or decline in quality? I have a feeling that, for a lot of very divisive endings, such as I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the author gets too ambitious. Completely changes the tone, changes the rules of the universe or story, shoehorns too much mystery, too much abstract. or the author oth​erwise really drops the ball confusing resolution for problems going away, people ending, etc.

Everyone on the other side complains about how Obama had a basketball court in the White House as a defense for criticism against Trump. That's the proof that Obama corrupt and doesn't care about the country.

I just want to point out that there's nothing wrong with this. I would expect a father to be putting up some basketball hoops for his family inside his family's residence while serving almost a decade, especially when his wife was very fitness oriented. It's not some mutinous, even deranged act. The country was taken care of to the best of his ability, he remained For The People regardless of what he had. There were problems and there were things I don't agree with even as a supporter, but the money that goes into that wouldn't even scratch the surface of those problems.

I don't get how it's perfectly fine for Trump to tear up an entire wing to make a 600M ballroom, while a high population of children are living with their parents absent working all the time, low quality education or absence of education, food desperation, lack of healthcare and women's healthcare. Way too many adults are living like this too, scraping by for food, watching women's healthcare and basic healthcare fall apart, probably about to lose their homes and everything they have at any random point. The disabled people and minorities are pretty much just existing when but being oppressed. We have the worst economy in a long time, same for justice system, same for education, and it's predicted to only get worse, on top of all the other perks that he is actively doing or signing off on.

And the ballroom isn't enough, there's this basement that's for some reason "intertwined". All we really know about it is that it's going to be for military purposes, far far more stable than our schools and average neighborhoods. It's not even limited to a ballroom and basement, he's done so much destruction to the sanctity and history of the property under our money. There are other concerns with this that are related to child safety, with the way that things played out, I don't have to explain.

I just recently learned about the special light you can get to prevent nightmares. There are other things I learn about just by accident despite playing 4 for a few years now. Unrelated but I didn't know about certain traits either like the grilled cheese one, which adds character to the game.

I want to take my next gameplay very seriously. I'm holding weddings, baby showers, birthdays, very committed to the immersion. I'm seeking other ways to improve the gameplay and make the most of it even if it's subtle. I'm on console so no mods, only gallery. thank you in advance.

I see all these things online about reality shifting nowadays and now what I used to do back in high school finally has a name.

When I was in high school I had these extremely vivid experiences when I was tired and laid down a certain way or relaxed for a long time. I learned how to trigger them intentionally, but they weren't really in my control outside of some of my own actions within them. Sometimes they were just quick scenes, where I was for example sitting at a park and watching life go by, and sometimes they were actual realities that were just as vivid as real life or even more realistic than real life, where I would be sitting in a class or watching a game or just chilling out somewhere, very mundane things.

They didn't feel like dreams. I've had lucid dreams multiple times and these were nothing like it. I looked into hypnagogic hallucinations and thought that was it for a long time until I actually started having hypnagogic and hypnapompic hallucinations and it was much different. In these worlds, I could feel seconds and minutes go by, hear people moving or breathing, read clocks, watch music videos in real time. In the real world, I'd be gone for maybe five minutes and would wake up so well rested it was unbelievable.

It's cool to know it has a name. Back then people just thought I was crazy or maybe having really weird dreams. I can't do it as an adult, at least the way I used to over a decade ago but I'm looking into other methods used in the community to see where that takes me.

I don't like to put Disney shows on a pedestal because of the nature of the industry, however Good Luck Charlie had such amazing casting. Charlie ended up looking like Bob and Amy's real child as she grew up and the others were believable as siblings! As a kid I thought Gabe stood out but as I got older I started realizing that he simply took after other relatives or had a recessive gene of some sorts, just like a few people that I know in real life, and it's so interesting.

Miracle at Midnight, which I believe was made for TV, is one of the exceptions where the family looks close enough for me to suspend disbelief. Plot and studios aside, the fact that Sam and Mia had already been in multiple films together made them a really good call due to the chemistry they had, working off of each other, being believably in this situation together as parents and a couple outside of the world affairs.

There are cases where movies or shows about adopted children are either hit or miss, and what makes the casting realistic is when the adopted child has a quirk or demeanor from the adoptive parents, or they show signs of being raised in their environment that do technically make them genetically closer to the adoptive parents than to the biological ones. I can see it happening, and the immersion works. There was an episode of a medical show where a couple brought their daughter in for a severe medical problem, with no family history or compatibility, and it turned out that they had abducted her as a baby and raised her as their own child up to that point. Before the twist, I had no reason to question her being the daughter, the acting and direction and casting was already good in general, but I thought it was going to turn into a drama where the mother cheated or one of the parents was a secret step parent. The twist was so memorable and I was completely immersed because I could also see that happening too because of the acting and good direction.

I don't enjoy TV or movies that often because of the lack of immersion. I know it's just fiction, but if I have to try or if I have to suspend my disbelief that much, I could just read a book and create my own visuals.

The worst case for me personally was the movie adaptation of the book We Need to Talk About Kevin. John C Reilly was amazing and in general is good for a dumb dad role, but he was horribly miscast for WNTTAB. Kevin is supposed to be a projection of the mom for many reasons so he's expected to take after her, but Franklin is so disbelievable as a father or any kind of blood relative to him to the point where it looks like the mom cheated, and it takes away from the story. His dumb dad portrayal also does not fit here because in the book and with the overarching theme of the story in general, he's not exactly supposed to be unaware of what's going on, it's more so a mix of arrogance and ignorance on Franklin's end and manipulation by Kevin. I think the sister is miscast as well, looking like no one in the family or even a believable mix of recessive traits. It feels like she's cute to be cute and the opposite of Kevin (blonde, soft, poster child) just to look pure. But I do know that finding child actors is extremely difficult and it's not a reflection of her performance, she did an amazing job.

Drake and Josh is another example. I do not see Miranda Cosgrove as Drake Bell's sister no matter how hard I try. Even when I was young, she looked nothing like Drake or the mom and Drake didn't really look like the mom either. There are many layers to this because of Nickelodeon and child actors, however there are fan theories out there or rather headcanons that say they were adopted or neighborhood kids and I totally entertain them. On the same scale, Jake from Two and a Half Men looks like neither Alan or Judith and it bothers me every single time. This is not a reflection of the actor, Angus is absolutely iconic and he looks the role so well that I forget he isn't a real kid and I would but replace him with anyone else, but he's not Alan's kid.

This is a critique and discussion regarding casting decisions or cast management rather than performance it or any incidents regarding actors. Would like to know your best and worst.

I don't like to put Disney shows on a pedestal because of the nature of the industry, however Good Luck Charlie had such amazing casting. Charlie ended up looking like Bob and Amy's real child as she grew up and the others were believable as siblings! As a kid I thought Gabe stood out but as I got older I started realizing that he simply took after other relatives or had a recessive gene of some sorts, just like a few people that I know in real life, and it's so interesting.

Miracle at Midnight, which I believe was made for TV, is one of the exceptions where the family looks close enough for me to suspend disbelief. Plot and studios aside, the fact that Sam and Mia had already been in multiple films together made them a really good call due to the chemistry they had, working off of each other, being believably in this situation together as parents and a couple outside of the world affairs.

There are cases where movies or shows about adopted children are either hit or miss, and what makes the casting realistic is when the adopted child has a quirk or demeanor from the adoptive parents, or they show signs of being raised in their environment that do technically make them genetically closer to the adoptive parents than to the biological ones. I can see it happening, and the immersion works. There was an episode of a medical show where a couple brought their daughter in for a severe medical problem, with no family history or compatibility, and it turned out that they had abducted her as a baby and raised her as their own child up to that point. Before the twist, I had no reason to question her being the daughter, the acting and direction and casting was already good in general, but I thought it was going to turn into a drama where the mother cheated or one of the parents was a secret step parent. The twist was so memorable and I was completely immersed because I could also see that happening too because of the acting and good direction.

I don't enjoy TV or movies that often because of the lack of immersion. I know it's just fiction, but if I have to try or if I have to suspend my disbelief that much, I could just read a book and create my own visuals.

The worst case for me personally was the movie adaptation of the book We Need to Talk About Kevin. John C Reilly was amazing and in general is good for a dumb dad role, but he was horribly miscast for WNTTAB. Kevin is supposed to be a projection of the mom for many reasons so he's expected to take after her, but Franklin is so disbelievable as a father or any kind of blood relative to him to the point where it looks like the mom cheated, and it takes away from the story. His dumb dad portrayal also does not fit here because in the book and with the overarching theme of the story in general, he's not exactly supposed to be unaware of what's going on, it's more so a mix of arrogance and ignorance on Franklin's end and manipulation by Kevin. I think the sister is miscast as well, looking like no one in the family or even a believable mix of recessive traits. It feels like she's cute to be cute and the opposite of Kevin (blonde, soft, poster child) just to look pure. But I do know that finding child actors is extremely difficult and it's not a reflection of her performance, she did an amazing job.

Drake and Josh is another example. I do not see Miranda Cosgrove as Drake Bell's sister no matter how hard I try. Even when I was young, she looked nothing like Drake or the mom and Drake didn't really look like the mom either. There are many layers to this because of Nickelodeon and child actors, however there are fan theories out there or rather headcanons that say they were adopted or neighborhood kids and I totally entertain them. On the same scale, Jake from Two and a Half Men looks like neither Alan or Judith and it bothers me every single time. This is not a reflection of the actor, Angus is absolutely iconic and he looks the role so well that I forget he isn't a real kid and I would but replace him with anyone else, but he's not Alan's kid.

This is a critique and discussion regarding casting decisions or cast management rather than performance it or any incidents regarding actors. Would like to know your best and worst.

Cigarettes and alcohol and other substances are extremely addicting, but you are bigger. Cigarettes are a product, alcohol is a liquid, but you are an entire existence. If you weren't an entire person, it wouldn't have been able to consume you so much. The fact you are an entire person means that you have a lot of willpower, so much experience, a lot of needs and interests on your side.

Simply wanting to quit or cut down is the first step and that is the biggest step. Each day that you don't give in or handle your addiction properly is an entire step taken, two steps completed turns into ten steps completed before you know it. Each day sober is more and more important, tomorrow is five times more important than yesterday so you need to buckle down. Things are becoming so much better for you, for your health, for the people and things you love. Keep holding on day by day, hour by hour. You are bigger.

There are people who make submissions on sites such as the archive, and instead of actual works, they are attempts to find lost fanfiction or make requests. These submissions clog the space, making it harder for readers to find content and writers to get their own submissions out there, and also use up the storage and bandwidth of communities such as AO3. Submissions like this are against TOS of AO3. The people running the site are volunteers and having more submissions to process, more violations to tackle makes moderation difficult and takes attention away from scams, bots, serious offenses. These requests will result in removal, and very likely a ban.

I'm seeing an abundance of these types of submissions as the archive grows quickly at a significant rate. So, here is what to do if you need to find a fanfiction.

Explore with the search features on the archive. The search features are very exhaustive and just clicking on the search button will bring up a page of options. https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/s/dev3V1Jluu has advice on using AO3 search if the archive is hard to navigate.

If search fails and the work is not in your account history, Reddit has many communities for finding lost fanfiction, including archives of deleted ones. I am not sure which is the most popular at the moment, which has a very high success rate due to tools that the members have, but a couple include r/lostfanfiction and r/DeletedFanfiction. I myself have had success in both.

However if it turns out a work has been deleted, I highly recommend respecting the author's privacy, or otherwise trusting any violation of the content policy that required it being removed, and just accepting the fact that it is no longer available.

As for requests, they are not hard to come by. There is no need to offer requests in most cases because if someone enjoys your work or sees that you are open to writing certain content, they will most likely just ask. If you would like to offer, create an Author's Note in a real work or respond to comments by stating you are taking requests. As for seeking requests, a comment on a work is the way to go unless the author has provided an email. Authors also keep track of bookmarks quite often, so it is possible to make a public bookmark with a note of what you would like to see in a work, asking for a sequel, etc.

Good luck. Hope all the new members enjoy the archive.

I am pretty sure it was a movie though it could have been an episode of something. I walked in on a family member watching it in the early 2000s but it looked like it was from the 70s or 80s because of the camera quality, fashion and characters' home. The effects were also choppy, more like stop motion or b film like puppeteering which is why I wasn't scared of it.

I was young child so I barely remember plot details but it's stayed with me my entire life.

There was a porcelain doll with long dark hair and a dress. Blood trickled down it's face but could've been from eyes for the sake of accuracy. One of the characters (either a man out a woman with short hair) had to stand up on a kitchen chair to change a light bulb, and the doll made the chair move to make the person fall. I believe before this the person already had an injury on their hand, or at some point in the movie had a bandage wrapped around their hand.

I know I'm not mixing it up with anything else such as the Chucky sequel where he is brought back with the swirls of blood. I have tried movies that come up on Google when searching evil doll but they all took place in a mansion or had a ventriloquist doll while this movie, the doll was a collector's type doll which I assume was secondhand or was being held onto temporarily by the characters. I loved porcelain dolls at the time (throughout my entire childhood) so I have a very distinct memory of the evil doll and of liking the scary porcelain doll movie.

I am pretty sure it was a movie though it could have been an episode of something. I walked in on a family member watching it in the early 2000s but it looked like it was from the 70s or 80s because of the camera quality, fashion and characters' home. The effects were also choppy, more like stop motion or b film like puppeteering which is why I wasn't scared of it.

I was young child so I barely remember plot details but it's stayed with me my entire life.

There was a porcelain doll with long dark hair and a dress. Blood trickled down it's face but could've been from eyes for the sake of accuracy. One of the characters (either a man out a woman with short hair) had to stand up on a kitchen chair to change a light bulb, and the doll made the chair move to make the person fall. I believe before this the person already had an injury on their hand, or at some point in the movie had a bandage wrapped around their hand.

I know I'm not mixing it up with anything else such as the Chucky sequel where he is brought back with the swirls of blood. I have tried movies that come up on Google when searching evil doll but they all took place in a mansion or had a ventriloquist doll while this movie, the doll was a collector's type doll which I assume was secondhand or was being held onto temporarily by the characters. I loved porcelain dolls at the time (throughout my entire childhood) so I have a very distinct memory of the evil doll and of liking the scary porcelain doll movie.

The character is a child. I am hoping to have somewhat realistic names, names that can exist in real life but also do stand out, and this name matches other names in the story. I'm wondering how people would pronounce it (how you would, and where you are from), and how it would be spelled. I am leaning towards Lanaya. Would appreciate if some of you let me know if it's cozy or if it's too much visually or audibly. Also let me know if there is a name that I'm trying to remember that made me think of this.

This post isn't for everyone but I hope it reaches the people who need it or people who are actively trying to help someone with anxiety and have reached a dead end.

What you are going through may be temporary. With a little work or help, you will see the other side of this.

Sometimes anxiety and other feelings tell us really important things. There's a chance that this trapped feeling or depressed state or nervous energy you get from time to time isn't "just your anxiety" or something wrong with you, maybe it's caused by the situation you are in. Unhealthy marriage, dangerous marriage you don't see the signs of. Unhealthy, dangerous family members. Bad lifestyle choices you aren't thinking through or a life situation that you should put effort into changing. A job that is out of your wheelhouse, which affects your entire life. A class beyond your skill which can affect your entire schooling or social life too. A group of friends who don't support you or actively make bad choices, a town that makes you unhappy or didn't offer what you need.

Never let a bad situation make you feel like a bad person. You are not a problem for being sick as long as you are making the best choices you can. Also never let a person make you feel bad for doing things you genuinely need to do for your health, and never let a partner or friend make you feel ashamed for leaving a difficult situation.

And remember it's okay to feel what you feel. Do what you are sure you need to do. Some people simply can't handle things with grace or stride, whether it's an emergency or a dangerous situation or a big party or a huge meeting. When it comes to things that aren't in your control, you're going to feel how you feel and it's okay if you have doubts or regrets, or if you need to go to your parents or do something that comforts you. It's not crazy if you need to spend a little more time thinking or planning (constructively) than the average person would, if you know for sure something could go wrong in a preventable way. If something could otherwise go really well with more effort and thinking than the average person would put in, put your instincts and attention to use. At the same time, don't worry about being good enough, just make the best choices you can with what you are given and with what you can see.

As for things in your control, don't feel pressured. If that massive birthday party isn't for you, it's okay to just drop by for a while to say hello and happy birthday, then back off for the sake of your health if there's proper communication involved If you're invited to the club or some activity and you know it's going to put you down for days or weeks or have you in a bad place mentally, don't feel bad about politely saying no. Don't let someone make you feel bad for not wanting a huge graduation party if you truly don't want it or it truly isn't your thing, because you have to look out for yourself too and you don't have to be normal. If you don't like going out to meet people and you've tried everything you can to enjoy it, and you know you aren't feeling lonely or isolating yourself, then it's okay to just exist and enjoy being solitary/being with those who make you comfortable. Of course try your best and give yourself chances by testing the comfort zone, but know yourself and respect yourself, too.

Nowadays people are so focused with treating everything or pressuring people to get help for everything including things that don't necessarily hurt them. If your anxiety isn't getting in the way of you having a good life or if you have ways of mitigating your anxiety without constantly being forced out of your comfort zone, maybe it's not you, it's just the situation being too much for you.

I can't stand this hypocrisy and how no one is bringing this up.

Women and FAB (females at birth) have such a hard time bringing the issue up with family or husbands, finding the right doctors, even getting the right information about hysterectomies. It's such a hassle getting one even if it's medically the best option or necessary, even if the patient has spent years figuring it out. It's like bodily autonomy isn't a thing, because the person "can't handle the consequences". It's always about "what if she wants to have a baby?" "What if she regrets it?"

But transgender people get laughed at and spit on when lawmakers outright screw them over or put them in danger, and they're expected to just accept "consequences" when they are a victim of hate crime, assault, the list goes on. How is it that a "groomed and brainwashed" or ill person gets consequences however a fully consenting, sound minded adult can't be trusted to handle the results of a surgery?

I know this is ultimately about phobia and control for most people, but there are people who legitimately don't see the hypocrisy and are so quick to spit on people or clutch their pearls when the situation calls for it.

The playground scene was not only written so well but probably the perfect example of a literary jumpscare. I ended up binging half the book after that scene until I couldn't stay awake anymore. So many other things about this book stood out, like the initial introduction of the mother's secrets where we instantly jumped tones and I was left just reading trying to figure out what was going on, and I was under so much suspense waiting for the mother to ask Bela to let her go into her heart.​ The beach scene was so fresh too, and the ending was bleak with a sense of purpose.

Would love suggestions!

I don't want to provide examples of my own writing because I publish publicly online and​ have a few fanfictions and fictional pieces that are somewhat popular, and I want to stay anonymous.

I have had a couple comments in the past few years that say my female characters aren't written very well. I don't get responses when I ask for more information. I've had a beta writer tell me to work on my female characters before but he gave me really vague advice. I notice that I have extremely developed male characters and I struggle with female characters even when basing them on people I know or writing fanfictions with premade characters. I'll struggle with entire arcs and plotlines unless I write something extremely generic or otherwise specific, like a plot about motherhood or a story taking place in a certain time period ​such as women's suffrage.

I don't know what the deal is.​ I am female myself.

This is a take I have not seen anyone else post publicly, so I want to get some (real) opinions.

I just want to say first that this is not a hate post. Please read the entire post before commenting or skip if it is not relevant to you. I have extreme respect for Stephen King and all of his classics. He defined horror, he got so many people into the horror genre and reading in general, and he's written some of the best things we'll ever have. I hold every one of his classics to the same regard as The Exorcist, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House. Some books, notably Pet Sematary, are actually more horrific than any of those and achieve things those books don't do.

But King nowadays has fallen off very hard. His career reached a peak a long time ago and he's done as a big writer. I think he died out in 2000 and his recent works have issues that need to be addressed in the reading community.

His new books are still good, they're just not spectacular and nothing sets them apart from other thrillers or other books. His horror or thriller books in the past 20 years I wouldn't call thrillers, more suspenseful. There's a lot of overload or lack of foundation that gets patched up by pacing temporarily, then results in poorly supported endings and deus ex machina. His modern books are less self indulgent and more polished, which sounds like a good thing, but in execution it limits his freedom as a writer and storyteller. His lack of freedom and creativity, as well as many flaws in his books, keep small ideas from being successfully fleshed out into entire books.

Some of his new books do feel like he's just selling the name or otherwise using his name to sell books that he writes for fun/for the craft. Using his name is not a bad thing at all but for someone his size, I think it's time for him to either do something paramount (for example break a new boundary, or take different approaches with his horror, especially with his skill level) or otherwise become more low-key, go back to using pen names or doing story collections with his ideas instead of entire books in order to give new authors the chance to move their books out to the public. He should've done so around 15 years ago, even earlier. A lot of his recent works were not necessary, and could've been a collection, or had major flaws not limited to storytelling.

This is my hot take as a long-time reader and a reader looking for new authors/horror. The most recent thing I enjoyed is Doctor Sleep, however Doctor Sleep was not the horror I was expecting despite the good character development and approach to the subject matter. Many reviews I've seen agree with me that it really downplays The Shining. I feel it was unnecessary as it didn't achieve anything new or spectacular, and The Shining should exist alone. I'll be fair to say that the movie adaptation of Doctor Sleep not doing well did affect the reputation of the book and his new works in general considering the high expectations horror fans have for his story adaptations.

Outside of that, the only thing I've enjoyed of his since 2000 ish is Under the Dome. However I'm simply a fan of extreme horror and it was nice to see things I enjoy in a very fast-paced, long book. The existence did not depend on King's storytelling skill, and did not hold his idea of horror as he could've taken it much further with his level of creativity or done things far differently. Not only are many aspects polarizing or commonly disappointing but a big flaw is characters making poor decisions for the sake of plot progression. Things are very bleak with no purpose, there's no statement or greater purpose to either the events or the suffering of the characters. In my opinion, the biggest flaw is the treatment of female characters, which doesn't serve as a message or symbol but rather a plot device and sensationalism.

11/22/63 is wonderful at some points but does not rely on his skills, it could have been written by anyone else. The many flaws in the plot and subject matter amongst other things completely outdo what he did right. He had a chance to do something paramount and outstanding with that, as well as create an epic, educational piece of literature, but his failure to properly address certain subject matters (or otherwise provide context for the way he framed the time period and the social matters) changed my opinions of him as a social commentator. In my opinion being good at social commentary and the handling of societal issues is very important for high scale literature and particularly thrillers/horror authors. The Outsider was a good attempt to portray multiple themes, political currents and aspects of the justice system for example, but was loaded to the point where it was hard to stick to the story or characters. It failed to just choose one good theme and a few good elements and develop them extremely well. I feel Holly was the same way, too much crammed into the same space when a select theme done properly would've suited the story well.

I have issues with Dreamcatcher but I will not criticize it due to the state Stephen King was mentally and physically in. As a writer myself, I have mad respect that he was still able to release a book that many people enjoy after his accident.

I still read his works and will give his current and future books a chance, but he really spoiled me back in his good days and now I just feel exhausted seeing his many newer books in my TBR. I'm expecting The Institute to be really good though not scary or exceptional. I'm waiting for something to bring him back. I personally phase him out in the meantime. Let me know if there's something I'm missing or if there's a book I should reread.