Miss Raquel: Saving the "Natives" One Latte at a Time

[Flossie]

Hopefully she'll be just as bad a grifter as she is at being a writer, poet, girlfriend, mentor to youths in whatever country she used to visit, horse owner, etc.  Girl should have been examined by professionals and given intensive treatment when she was a teen.  Now that she's legally an adult, that'll never happen.

[Hane]

I remember her “God’s Daughter” blog. It had a logo reading “Deus Filia.” I messaged her to say that, if she’d actually studied Latin, she’d know that it should have been “Filia Dei,” and that Deus Filia=God Daughter, which makes no sense in Latin. She responded that she wouldn’t be changing it because it was her “brand.”

And who can forget that poor horse someone gave her, and that she neglected so horribly?

[AmazonGrace]

Raquel has thoughts about transitioning:

From Pinterest: 

Spoiler

 

[AmazonGrace]

Raquel added some stuff but the words that happen in the exact same sequence in both:

Sit with it.

Sit with.

Sit with.

Sit with.

Even though you want to run.

Heavy and difficult.

You aren't/you're not quite sure 

Way

Healing happens/ is happening

Feeling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

This has been a bad year and people have died but Raquel comforts us saying that there will be happiness after we're gone.

Spoiler

itsjustraquel

#WinterSolstice ?❄️
#ageofAquarius #rebirth #2020isalmostover
——
And so begins the shortest day of the longest year...
Here we find ourselves
Breathless, broken
The national anthem
Some of us grasping for a reason to be happy
It’s hard to be a party when we feel like open wounds
A lot was taken from us, in the mirror year
We experienced setbacks, losses, and confusion
Some of us even felt death
So let’s put our pain into words,
Writings letters addressed to the fire
The flames and smoke will help us let it all go
Purging for the rebirth, the renewal.
And let me promise you one thing:
There will be happiness after you
So return to your roots
Embrace your humanity
Look to the heavens from where your guidance comes
There is hope to have, overnight
And so ends the shortest day of the longest year.
——
word prompts by @taylorswift @zelliottwrites & @_soulpoems

Not sure i'd call this a "word prompt".

 

And it's hard to be at a party
When I feel like an open wound

There'll be happiness after you

are straight up copied lines from Taylor Swift but at least Raquel  tagged her this time.

 

[AmazonGrace]

More poetry. Raquel knows you haven't been blooming this year. (In your defense, everybody is doing some stress eating.)

Spoiler

itsjustraquel

when the Great Spirit calls you TO something,He doesn’t expect you to quit it halfway.
the outcome is determined by how faithful you are to the process and the hope of growth.

so this is for the ones who have remained faithful & hopeful:
2020 wasn’t the year for you to bloom.
it was the year for you to be planted.
in the darkness. in the confusion. in the chaos.
now it’s time for you to ground your roots.

2021 is gonna look a lot like growing.

Imma share some inspirational pictures that go along these thoughts:

Spoiler

Spoiler

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[Petronella]

21 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

More poetry. Raquel knows you haven't been blooming this year. (In your defense, everybody is doing some stress eating.)

  Reveal hidden contents

itsjustraquel

when the Great Spirit calls you TO something,He doesn’t expect you to quit it halfway.
the outcome is determined by how faithful you are to the process and the hope of growth.

so this is for the ones who have remained faithful & hopeful:
2020 wasn’t the year for you to bloom.
it was the year for you to be planted.
in the darkness. in the confusion. in the chaos.
now it’s time for you to ground your roots.

2021 is gonna look a lot like growing.

Imma share some inspirational pictures that go along these thoughts:

  Reveal hidden contents

  Reveal hidden contents

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I think there are two facets to Raquel’s writing being so copycat and generic:

1) She doesn’t understand or care about plagiarism. She thinks that if she believes it’s true, and says it, then she can be quoted/credited as saying it, regardless of having read it somewhere else first. Because she said it TOO.

2) She’s trying to write grand sentiments that apply to EVERYONE. The best writing is about specifics, maybe oneself or maybe specific characters. Then from those specifics can rise a profound statement that others—maybe many others!—relate to.    Avoidance of specifics makes writing bland and generic, slogany. Even when she’s writing about something specific in her life, like a breakup or a romantic moment, she avoids actual details and rushes to genericize it, thinking that will make it more profound. I understand the urge, but the best writing goes the opposite way.

I also think that while writing about oneself has value, Raquel would benefit greatly from exploring fiction more broadly, both reading it and writing it. She seems to be stuck in a small circle of sentiments that she’s already said over and over (and which she’d already read elsewhere first).

Trying on other characters’ points of view would be a great step. (*Genuinely* trying them on, not just making straw-man villains out of people different from herself.)

[AmazonGrace]

Yeah and when she phrases her thoughts in you-form (you tried, you thought, instead of I tried, I thought) it can be hard to connect if it's not in fact something you tried and thought very much at all.

[Petronella]

17 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Yeah and when she phrases her thoughts in you-form (you tried, you thought, instead of I tried, I thought) it can be hard to connect if it's not in fact something you tried and thought very much at all.

Yeah. Second-person at its best is immersive and attention-getting, but it really needs to hit a sweet spot to work well.

It can also be an avoidance technique. Raquel’s work seems to ping between “I am unique, completely different from all others” and “I am everywoman, the voice of a generation.” Both extremes are avoidance techniques, in my opinion.

To be fair: good, bold, honest writing is HARD. And getting there is a process. As many have said before me, I’m SO GLAD the internet wasn’t an option when I was young. My baby steps were not made public.

Raquel is only discussed on this board because of her old God’s Daughter blog. I hope this is a stage of her eventually growing away from that.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Petronella

[AmazonGrace]

I wasn't aware of her during God's Daughter.... I probably wouldn't care about the copycatting so much if she wasn't selling her books.

[Petronella]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

I wasn't aware of her during God's Daughter.... I probably wouldn't care about the copycatting so much if she wasn't selling her books.

It’s worth reading back! The horse situation was so sad. God gave her a horse, but she got bored with it. Instead of questioning the “meant to be” assumptions behind that debacle, she seems to have doubled down, not on God as much anymore, but on a more generic “everything happens for a reason”-esque worldview. Not a lot of personal responsibility yet.

[3splenty]

30 minutes ago, Petronella said:

It’s worth reading back! The horse situation was so sad. God gave her a horse, but she got bored with it. Instead of questioning the “meant to be” assumptions behind that debacle, she seems to have doubled down, not on God as much anymore, but on a more generic “everything happens for a reason”-esque worldview. Not a lot of personal responsibility yet.

But part of personal responsibility means admitting when you're wrong, learning, and moving in a new direction.  I don't know if she will ever be capable of that. 

[formergothardite]

3 hours ago, Petronella said:

 

Raquel is only discussed on this board because of her old God’s Daughter blog. I hope this is a stage of her eventually growing away from that.

The thing about her original blog is that it shows how little she has actually changed. Raquel always copied others, she was always vindictive and self absorbed, she always thought she was more special in some way than everyone else in the universe, and from her Instagram stories during the election it appears Raquel hasn’t actually changed her vile beliefs that much. 

Raquel has sadly not grown or really developed in all these years we have watched her. Part of changing and growing is the ability to look at our past selves and admit when we got things wrong. Raquel, much like the president she adores, doesn’t seem capable of doing that. At least not in any real way. I’m sure she is probably embarrassed by some of her past writings,  but not enough to admit that she needs to stop copying others and do something like take writing classes. 

In many ways Raquel is just as stunted at the Maxwells. 

[AmazonGrace]

2 hours ago, Petronella said:

It’s worth reading back! The horse situation was so sad. God gave her a horse, but she got bored with it. Instead of questioning the “meant to be” assumptions behind that debacle, she seems to have doubled down, not on God as much anymore, but on a more generic “everything happens for a reason”-esque worldview. Not a lot of personal responsibility yet.

Yeah I read through all the old threads when I was looking for the examples of plagiarism a while back but many of the posts are gone now.

[formergothardite]

I find it interesting that Raquel had this pretty big internet presence from the time she was a young teen but her siblings have not. I wonder if her parents learned from what this attention did to Raquel or if her siblings saw what it did to her and decided they wanted more privacy. Or maybe a combination of both of those things. 
 

Raquel also didn’t straight up plagiarize in the early days. It was more that if she read Hunger games her stories had very similar plots. Once she got into poetry she just started copying word for word. Raquel would have benefited greatly from going to high school and learning that she can’t get away with plagiarism. 

[AmazonGrace]

Spoiler

 

 

This is a version of a poem that Raquel posted in 2018, now with spelling errors.

https://www.freejinger.org/topic/30793-raquel-goes-new-agey/?do=findComment&comment=1572094

(The last time I looked up the braille imagery I ended up finding a plagiarized book that seems to have been removed now.)

Edited January 9, 2021 by AmazonGrace

[AmazonGrace]

2021 is going to be great! (What's a coup and a pandemic between friends...) Up until now this planet has been a good home but Raquel expects something better.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by AmazonGrace

[AmazonGrace]

Raquel has started a design and management business.  Good luck and avoid Pinterest.

[Petronella]

9 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Raquel has started a design and management business.  Good luck and avoid Pinterest.

Huh. I’m intrigued by this line in her announcement:

”I have been working in the design and marketing field for over 5 years, and knew the struggle small businesses had in finding affordable, quality designs for their brand.”

Hasn’t she been working at a coffee shop and self-publishing poetry? When did “design and marketing” happen? I suspect she means designing and marketing her books, which were personal projects, not working in the field.

That said, I’m glad she’s abandoned the MLM essential oils racket. If only she would 1) actually study design and marketing or 2) get a job in a design and marketing company and work her way up.

[church_of_dog]

3 hours ago, Petronella said:

Huh. I’m intrigued by this line in her announcement:

”I have been working in the design and marketing field for over 5 years, and knew the struggle small businesses had in finding affordable, quality designs for their brand.”

Hasn’t she been working at a coffee shop and self-publishing poetry? When did “design and marketing” happen? I suspect she means designing and marketing her books, which were personal projects, not working in the field.

That said, I’m glad she’s abandoned the MLM essential oils racket. If only she would 1) actually study design and marketing or 2) get a job in a design and marketing company and work her way up.

Design:

 

and Marketing:

 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by church_of_dog

[AmazonGrace]

Haiku:

My faith  is action,

Your faith is only talking. 

I don't believe you 

Spoiler

 

  

[formergothardite]

Raquel believes that she is the only one with real faith is what I took from that poem. Also she may act all enlightened but she remains the judgmental person she has always been. 

[Botkinetti]

Raquel remains both befuddled and furious that the world refuses to acknowledge how unique and special she is even though she constantly tells us.

[Hane]

4 hours ago, Botkinetti said:

Raquel remains both befuddled and furious that the world refuses to acknowledge how unique and special she is even though she constantly tells us.

I blame her parents for enduing in her the unshakable belief that she’s a super-special pretty, pretty princess. How’s that expectation of marriage at 18 and motherhood (with a blue-eyed baby) at 19 working out?

Edited February 1, 2021 by Hane

[AmazonGrace]

As per the caption, this poem was written by two people together but Raquel only credits it to herself in the pic. The other person credits both. 

Spoiler