aracertariel

[aracertariel]

I gave up using a bed and use a hammock instead.

Hammock-sleeping helped a lot with my hip and back pain, and even a bit of my knee pain. Plus it hugs and rocks and my head is slightly uphill. It is also much cooler in the summer because of airflow through the fabric, but a single extra layer of fabric (a blanket or top sheet) between you and the hammock fixes that for the cold seasons.

Also, a decent hammock is so much cheaper than a decent bed.

Add in a baby-dose of ambien (smallest you can get without splitting pills) and a cpap (so I keep breathing) and I finally sleep through the night.

are people actually....comfortable when they sleep? I just rotate like a rotisserie chicken until I get to the position I can ignore pain in the most

[aracertariel]

I keep writing my main characters dissociating and, like, I realize that author characteristics tend to repeat in their writings.

But that was one I did not expect.

Nor did I expect it to be so confusing for the readers the first time I brought a section with disassociation to my critique group.

Is that not a thing most people do?

Honestly of all the things that are weird and broken about me, I kinda figured that your brain shutting off when reality is too sharp was not a thing that was — not? a common human experience?

[aracertariel]

Naughty words in a godless world

Imagine you’re writing a story that takes place in a world that has no God, or gods, or saints. What do you do with exclamations like “Oh gosh!” (derived from “Oh God”) or “Jeez!” (derived from “Jesus!”)? And - oh god - what do you do with curses and swear words? If your characters can’t say “Oh my god”, “hell no”, or “damn” because there are no gods to damn anyone to hell… what are your options?

Here is a list for inspiration

In general, non-religious curse and swear words refer to local cultural taboos.

Many languages swear by referring to cleanliness: dirty, sweaty, sticky, smelly etc. This includes things you do on the toilet.

Some languages, like Dutch, use diseases as curses and insults. For example, someone nasty/bothersome might be called a “cancer sufferer” in Dutch. These swear words are combinations of (derivates of) typhus, cholera, and cancer.

Societal hierarchy and family trees, mainly the inferior positions like a bastard (seen as inferior in the family tree) or a derogatory word that refers to lower class people (seen as inferior in that society).

On the other hand, you could insult a highly valued member of the other person’s family, like their mother, or of their society, like their Queen/Emperor.

Sexual taboos, often implying someone (or their mother) is more sexually active than society accepts of them.

Calling someone the word for someone’s genitalia refers to the same taboo.

How do you apply this to your language?

You could use explicit/taboo words as … :

… an intensifier: “It was a shit-hot day.”

… a negative adjective: “This is a shitty job.”

… an insulting noun: “This journey is shit.”

Or try to be creative and combine different taboos for a multi-hit offense. My favorite one is the Spanish “I shit in your mother’s milk”, which combines insulting the other person’s mother, the taboo of bodily functions, and the taboo of cleanliness.

During my research I came across this article, which contains a number of concrete examples from all over the world you can draw inspiration from.

And on a less offensive note, you could always make up your own equivalent of “Merlin’s beard!”, “Great Scott!”, or “For Pete’s sake!” (Pete, by the way, is a catholic reference: Pete is Saint Peter.)

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

Tag list below the cut. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

And if you come up with creative curses, feel free to add them in the comments :)

Keep reading

[aracertariel]

So....

If dragons traditionally eat like, livestock and other largish herbivores and omnivores,

And are also very large,

Do you think they can eat them like an owl?

By which I mean, do dragons spit up pellets of undigested fur and bone?

Can you just imagine?

Yes, the local dragon has eaten your entire flock of sheep. But if you track it down you may be able to at least get the wool back.

And maybe now it’s worth more than just normal wool.

Maybe now it has some special properties after the dragon’s attempt at digestion.

Maybe just visually, or maybe it’s absorbed a bit of magic along with the stomach acid and brimstone.

Maybe a clever and resourceful craftsman could make a living selling dragon-horn and dragon-bone charms.

Not a dragon’s horns and bones, no. Ones that have been gathered from the remains of a dragon’s meal and absorbed just enough magic that a clever craftsman realizes that they could make functional low level charms.

Not powerful enough to draw the attention of anybody important. But enough to ensure a little bit of extra luck, safer passage, a bit of a bumper crop and rain more likely when it’s needed, illness and injury just a little less likely to be serious, a dropped plate less likely to break. Little homey, householde things that would nevertheless be widely sought after.

I just really like the idea of dragons being a little more like owls.

The downside of course, is their silent flight.

[aracertariel]

Good tension. I liked it.

How to Bury a Gentile

I wrote a short vaguely historical vaguely spooky ghost story about Jews and burial rites and I have to justify it existing so here it is.

“Are you the leader of the Jews?”

There was no good that ever came from that question. Rabbi Jacob stood in the doorway, one hand on the knob and the other on the frame, ready to yank it closed at a moment’s notice.

“Well, not all of the Jews.”

The man at the door made a frustrated little grunt. He was clad almost completely in dark grey clothing that seemed to fade into the shadows of the darkened street behind him. The collar of his coat was pulled up so high that it was impossible to make out more than a pair of sharp grey eyes beneath the brim of his hat, and the cloak he wore over the top of it concealed most of his body. There could be any number of guns, knives, or angry mobs hidden under there.

“But the ones in this town, yes? You are their priest, you lead prayers and weddings and so on?” the man said impatiently.

“Rabbi. Yes. I’m the rabbi, that’s correct.” Jacob said, stiffening his posture and assuming the most neutral expression he could manage. Being completely ignorant didn’t exclude someone from being completely dangerous–if anything, that heightened the risk. “What can I do for you?”

“Rabbi,” the man repeated, as if to seal it into his memory properly. One gloved hand squeezed the pommel of his walking stick. “And you preside over the funerals of your people, and perform the rites to send them to the next world?”

“Yyyyyes?” Jacob shifted his weight to his back foot, poised to slam the door in his face. This sounded unpleasantly like an opening for a death threat.

“To any of them, regardless of the sins they carried in life?” An eagerness entered the man’s voice.

“Of course. Though sin as a Jewish concept differs from the Christian…mm. Yes, of course.” The scholars of old might have debated the nature of the evil in men’s souls until the crack of dawn but Jacob had no intention of doing so at half-past midnight with a complete stranger.

The shadowed man took a half step forward and Jacob leaned back to maintain the distance between him. “What about a gentile?” the man pressed. “Would you tend to his corpse too?”

“Huh?”

“There is a man needing to be buried tonight who requires absolution. He is not a Jew, but a Jew’s prayers may be close enough for what is needed.”

“Um. It’s not usually a request I get.” Jacob tried to keep his voice calm and soothing. There was some kind of entrapment lingering in the conversation, he just knew it. That or a giant box of crazy that had managed to dress itself stylishly. Gentiles asking Jews intrusive but urgent questions never turned out well for their target–a day-long case of irritation was the best outcome the target could hope for.

The man’s hands pressed together as he completed the full step forward, making Jacob back up into the doorframe. Desperation was in his tone and Jacob was forced back over the threshold just to stay out of his grip “All I need is someone to accompany me to the cemetery to consecrate the body and pray for its soul. Barely an hour of your time. I cannot pay you with anything but my gratitude, but you will have it eternally.”

“And you came to me?”

The man sighed. Even the top hat seemed to slouch slightly as his body slumped. “I have asked every holy man in the city, Catholic and Protestant alike, and they have refused to come to the cemetery,“ he bemoaned. “The last one told me to visit you. Likely a ploy to make me leave faster, but you are all I have left.”

“What did this man do, that so many people refused him? Who was he?”

The man at the door hesitated. The sharp eyes vanished as his eyelids slid down, and then appeared a few moments later.

“Must you ask?” he said quietly. “Is it not enough that it is a corpse which can do no man harm any longer, and you will lose nothing but a half-night of sleep?”

The inside of Jacob’s head was ringing with warning bells like the frantic clanging of gongs announcing a fire. He swallowed and tried to ignore them.

“You say he wasn’t Jewish?”

“He was not…much of anything. He felt God had no interest in him, and returned a lack of interest in kind. Perhaps if he had been more attentive he wouldn’t lie in a pauper’s grave…or perhaps he would have not changed a whit.” The man’s voice was bitter and the sharp eyes briefly looked away from Jacob, to Jacob’s deep relief.

“Who was this man, to you?” he asked.

“Close. I would prefer to say no more. Please, rabbi. It must be done, and it must be tonight.”

Seminary did not prepare me for this, Jacob thought, and then thought again. There is absolutely something in the Talmud about this and I’ve just forgotten it, because I’m an idiot and I’m half asleep and there is a goy on my doorstep asking me to go out to the cemetery with him at midnight to bury a man whose name he won’t tell me.

“Look, I’ll need someone to help dig the grave.”

“Of course.”

“And a coffin. A plain pine box. And I’ll need to get my supplies from the–”

“But you’ll do it?” said the man excitedly, standing up even taller. “And do it tonight, before the cock crows?”

Jacob held up his hands to keep the man from getting even further into his personal space. “Fine. Yes. Give me half an hour and a lazy rooster.”

The cloak almost seem to inflate as the man gasped for joy. He grabbed Jacob’s hands and shook both with enthusiasm, sending Jacob stumbling. “Thank God for you, my good rabbit! Whatever God there is, thank God for you!”

The man ran off into the shadowed streets and was out of sight almost immediately.

Jacob’s hands slowly fell back to his side as he mumbled, “Rabbi,” to the darkness.

My wife is going to kill me if whatever’s at the cemetery doesn’t.

Keep reading

[aracertariel]

I always spend way too much time on character names. Names are very important to me, so I do a lot of research to find the perfect one.

Which, ya know, is fine. Unless it’s NaNoWriMo and a new character pops up out of nowhere with no warning and you suddenly have to stop everything and find them a name.

So this year I’m not doing that. Nobody gets names until December at least. I’m just calling them by their roll, shortened and made pronounceable. For example:

Main Character = MC =Macey

Love Interest = LI = Lee

Baby Princess = BP = Bipi

Head Guard = Hegar

These place-holder names are really helping me move this along. I don’t stress out about finding the perfect one because I know they’re not permanent.

Though Macey is beginning to grow on me just from exposure.

[aracertariel]

Okay, yes.

Unless...

Adrien is a real boy, Chloe’s childhood friend.

She so desperately wants him to attend school with her because his parents suddenly cut off contact without even an explanation.

What Chloe doesn’t know is that Adrien is sick. Very sick. Maybe even fatally.

Emile can’t face it, can’t accept her perfect little boy’s fate.

And so she doesn’t.

Emile uses the magic of the peacock miraculous to recreate her son, complete with his sunny personality and all their happiest memories.

He’s alive. He’s perfect.

And for a while everything else is perfect too.

Until it isn’t.

Magic always comes with a cost, and Emile has to make a choice.

Emile can’t keep powering the illusion forever. She has to let go and face reality.

Unless she doesn’t.

Of course she doesn’t!

What mother wouldn’t give her life for their child?

So Gabriel is left with a comatose/dead wife, and the false son she created.

Adrien is perfect. He can do no wrong in the eyes of anyone he meets.

He’s too good to be true.

He isn’t true. Isn’t real. Is little more than an elaborate doll in Gabriel’s eyes.

What kind of husband wouldn’t sacrifice a doll to have his beloved wife back.

Certainly not the kind that would sacrifice all of Paris for the same goal.

WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE THEORIES OF ADRIEN BEING EMILIE'S SENTIMONSTER!?

ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A CARDIAC ARREST YOU HEATHENS!?!?

[aracertariel]

No I did not know that.

GUYS. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN WRITE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FICS ON AO3

[aracertariel]

Is it though? Is it the wrong lever?

Has this been done?

[aracertariel]

[aracertariel]

No bones about it.

I was researching frogs for a kid’s picture book about them and ran across the fact that the smallest vertebrae is a frog.

Now I remember from my elementary science classes that a vertebrae is an animal that has a spine. (Made of vertebrae to hold you vertical.)

So I was just wondering, is there a more in-depth definition? Nuance and exceptions and gray areas that wouldn’t have been covered by the basics of my early life science classes?

Nope. Not so much.

So then my curiosity asked “Are there animals with spines but no bones? Bones with no spines?”

Again, no not really.

So a vertebrae is just an animal with bones; and invertebrates are boneless.

🦷🤷🏼‍♀️🦴

[aracertariel]

There are going to be words. Probably. At some point. But maybe just pictures. That happens sometimes too.

[aracertariel]

NaNoWriMo 2018

The year as a whole has been sort of a wild ride. I am writing very very slowly this month, but I am writing.

There’s just been a lot of distractions. Like, I’m in the last semester of my illustration and graphic design degrees, and just finished with my senior gallery show. (It went well, and I gave away lots of stickers.) There’s been the whole uncertainty of will my abusive sibling be at Thanksgiving or not. (Currently leaning toward not, which is great since my current job is closed that day.) And then my best friends’ mom died in a car accident this past week, which has just been crazy and awful.

On top of everything, I for some reason decided not to write a fantasy story this year. (I really don’t know why.) So instead I’m doing some sort of young adult paranormal murder mystery and I really don’t know what I’m doing at all.

So yeah, we’re over half through the month and I’m at a little under 5k on my word count. But still writing, so I guess that’s as good as it’s gonna get.

[aracertariel]

My human anatomy teacher was talking about bone healing and when you break a bone it typically will heal stronger

So I look him in the eyes and say “so what you’re saying is I should break every bone in my body until I become superhumanly powerful?”

And he looks back at me and says, with the softest voice he could muster, “please do not no”

[aracertariel]

Good advice here, and timely.

NaNoWriMo is coming.

Stuff I Learned at My Writing Workshop (That I’m Kicking Myself in the Head for Not Realizing Sooner):

-  The difference between a book that grabs you from the beginning vs. one that you’re on the fence about tossing out the window is winning your trust. It’s why it’s “easier” to read books by authors you already know, or fanfic where you’re familiar with the characters. Winning the reader’s trust as quickly as possible should be your first goal as a writer when you’re going back and editing your first draft. This can be accomplished by things like: speaking authoritatively about the subject (even if it’s utter bullshit), graceful prose, or establishing quickly in the story what it’s about. For example,“Character A had a problem. Character B didn’t love them back, so Character A was going to kidnap them so they would.” Maybe it’s not a story you want to read, but you are now firmly couched in what you signed up for in this story and the promise the author is going to deliver on before the end. 

- Characters need goals. They need goals in every moment and in every scene. Every character needs a goal in every moment and in every scene. Maybe they’re not directly pursuing that goal right this very moment but it’s probably always at the back of their mind. Romances and detective stories are the easiest to deliver on this need. Character A wants to win their love. Detective A wants to solve the case. Even when they’re having tea with grandma, their thing is at the back of their mind. Keeping your character and your story focused on this thing they want helps pull your reader along and keeps them engaged on the “So what?” and “Why are we reading this scene?” questions of why they should keep reading.

- Characters shouldn’t just have things they like, they should have obsessions. This is the one I’m kicking myself for. The scientists in Pacific Rim are eccentrically obsessed with studying their thing. Thorin in the Hobbit is obsessed with regaining his home. Katniss Everdeen is obsessed with protecting her sister. Every crazy whackadoodle fandom darling character is obsessed with something. What do they have in common? They’re intensely obsessed with the thing that they care about. We love characters who are obsessed with things beyond reason, whether it’s reclaiming their home stolen by a dragon, or building artisanal bird houses, saving your sister, or studying monsters. Everyone “likes” things, but people and characters who are obsessed with something fascinate us. Examine the characters you’re most attracted to writing in fanfic, and examine your original characters if you’re trying to build those, and figure out what are they obsessed with and how does that inform their character. That’s the thing that’s going to make readers care about them. 

[aracertariel]

Hey, you know what would work really well for this? Wingdings. Or really any font that’s symbols instead of letters.

I usually just zoom out enough that the words are too small to read. Especially if I’m typing in public and get paranoid about people reading over my shoulder, but also so I don’t get distracted by the words I’ve already written.

NaNoWriMo Hack

[aracertariel]

I’ve been writing again.

Not a lot. Not on a single story either. Mostly on fanfic, which I don’t take to my writing group.

But I added a couple sentences to an Avengers/multi-fandom crossover fic, a paragraph or so to an MCU/Harry Potter crossover, nearly half a page to a Gaara-centric Naruto fic.

It’s not much, but its been a while since I’ve written anything. It feels nice to be writing again.