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plus, the sources on wikipedia are legitimate sources. 

In a general academic sense, Wikipedia has been more successful at educating students than scholarly journals

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I do a lot of beta reading and I swear to fuck I had to find a way to tell a guy he wrote like a misogynistic prick without saying it right out. what part of his writing stood out the most? the fact that not one but both the mc's love interests had pert, but perfect breasts and I almost died.

The only acceptable reason for this is if this character is actually a demon who seduces men and then eats them. [source]

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disney: mulan live action movie

me:

disney:

me:

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They’d never talked. not really. Thomas plays football, though Amber doesn’t remember what position. Once, Amber and her best friend, Casey, were talking by their lockers when the subject of football and everyone’s obsession with it came into play. 

“It’s just fetch!” Amber said, probably a little too loudly. “It’s fucking fetch. The ball goes over there, and they run after it. No one else is allowed to have the ball. So they tackle each other. Then they call time to make sure that they’re supposed to tackle like that, which takes ten-fucking-minutes, and then the ball goes somewhere else!”

Somewhere in Casey’s giggling, Amber heard a quiet snort. She’d turned around, and Thomas stopped his laughing and walked away. So, yeah, technically, they know of each other’s existence, in a you-made-fun-of-my-shot-at-a-free-ride-through-college way. 

The problem was that Amber had, and still has, a bit of a crush on Thomas. 

“Maybe change your style?” Casey suggests as she and Amber lay on the floor of Amber’s bedroom. “Jocks tend to like their girlfriends preppy, if they can’t get them directly from the cheerleading or dance teams. 

“I dunno. I’ve never been very good at makeup,” Amber answered. She rolls onto her stomach and eyes her lonely plastic makeup box. It sits high on the shelf, with the rest of the forgotten relics of her middle school years, when she wanted to be a princess. 

Nowadays it collects dust with a few porcelain dolls, some frilly thing she’d made for christmas one year, whose hook had broken years ago, and that one picture of her and her dad from the father-daughter dance from her two year stint in choir. 

“You can always learn,” Casey offers. She rolls her Revlon 610 in her fingers and holds the tube out to Amber. “Red is a good look on you.”

“I dunno. It always seems like a lot of work,” Amber answers, eyeing Casey’s perfectly done makeup. Never, in their whole three years of knowing each other, has Amber seen so much as a makeup line along Casey’s job. It always looks so complicated, and while Casey’s tried to show Amber once or twice, they were long past the days of tutorials.

“Nah. practice makes efficiency, you know? This,” she says with a gesture towards her face, “is ten minutes. Eyeliner is another two. Highlighting and contour for special occasions.”

...

The next day, Thomas is lurking around the library instead of with the rest of his friends. He looks nervous about something, and it’s obvious that he’s only pretending to look for a book. Amber’s eyes arch a bit. It’s not that obvious, not unless you spent a lot of time either doing or seeing people do makeup, but there is a line at Thomas’ jaw, almost as if he didn’t blend properly in that area. The rest of the makeup is... almost unnoticeable, actually. Amber would bet money on Thomas’ younger sister being involved in this. 

“Hey,” Amber says. She keeps her voice low, meant only for Thomas. The other kid jumps a bit, but he tries to hide it. Amber musters through her butterflies and offers up a smile.

“You have a makeup line on your jaw. Do you want me to fix it?” Clear hesitation flashes across Thomas’ face before he’s nodding. Carefully, Amber steps around and rubs until the line is gone.

“Thanks,” Thomas says. His smile is wobbly, like he expects Amber, in her giant sweatshirt, to make fun of him.  Some of her nerves go away, and Amber gives off another, much more confident, smile. 

Maybe... maybe they could learn together.

the WORST kind of movies r the ones where the nerdy girl is in love with popular dude and he ignores her but after starting to wear make up and pretty clothes he suddenly falls in love with her hetero culture is disgusting

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Everybody go tf home I have officially found a worse name for eyes than ‘orbs’

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I needed this thread. I'm writing a fanfic now. It's one of my best, IMO, and it's fairly popular, at ~605 hits and 5.5 comments on per chapter, which puts me at about .91% view-comment ratio. It's hard to look at that and be like "this is something that people really do like", because I've had fewer hits with more comments. But when you consider the fact that the pattern repeats the internet over, it makes me feel better.

I’ve seen five different authors take down, or prepare to take down, their posted works on Ao3 this week.  At the same time, I’ve seen several people wishing there was more new content to read.  I’ve also seen countless posts by authors begging for people to leave comments and kudos. 

People tell me I am a big name fan in my chosen fandom.  I don’t quite get that but for the purposes of this post, let’s roll with it.  On my latest one shot, less than 18% of the people who read it bothered to hit the kudos button.  Sure, okay, maybe that one sort of sucked.  Let’s look at the one shot posted before that - less than 16% left kudos.  Before that - 10%, and then 16%.  I’m not even going to get into the comments.  Let’s just say the numbers drop a lot.  I’m just looking at one shots here so we don’t have to worry about multiple hits from multiple chapters, people reading previous chapters over, etc.  And if I am a BNF, that means other people are getting significantly less kudos and comments.

Fandom is withering away because it feels like people don’t care about the works that are posted.  Why should I go to the trouble of posting my stories if no one reads them, and of the people who do read them, less than a fifth like them?  Even if you are not a huge fan of the story, if it kept your attention long enough for you to get to the bottom, go ahead and mash that kudos button.  It’s a drop of encouragement in a big desert. 

TL;DR: Passively devouring content is killing fandom.

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Fantasy Guide: Common battle wounds and how to fix them

Arrow wounds: Now if the lung, heart, kidney, other major organ is hit, there may be little to do. The kidney has a back up, so maybe a skilled surgeon could save him, not exactly sure however. If hit by an arrow and not hit dangerously in an organ or artery, we can help. Firstly, DO NOT REMOVE arrow by yanking. Arrow must be worked from the skin by skilled hands. Once arrow is out, wash would with clean water/alchohol/herbal remedies. To heal slow, sew up wound and wrap in bandages. To speed it up, cauterise the wound with fire. It will hurt and patient pay pass out but now the arrow wound can heal faster. This works for crossbow bolts as well. On the gross side, arrows may be smeared with dirt or shit, so sepsis is a danger. This is how the great Richard the Lionheart died. Sometimes the mighty lion is killed by a shit arrow. But hey, shit happens. Arrow wounds take a couple of weeks to heal.

Sword slashes: if shallow, wash and bind up. May require stitches. If deeper, repeat process with more stitches and more bandages. Even if shallow, the cut must be washed using alcohol or clean water. May take a few days to weeks to heal depending on wound depth and severity.

Stab wound: Again don’t remove knife or object. If already removed, wash would and sew it up. You may need to cauterise. If guts, organs, brain, is falling out, there is nothing to do. This may take a couple of weeks to months to heal depending on wound.

Broken Bones: A break must be splinted with a board of wood and bandages. Slings can support arms and wrists. If your character breaks a leg, it may be worse. Breaks don’t heal great without modern medicine. Your character may have a limp or leg pain. In you’re are living in a hot climate, you’re pretty much fucked because infection sets in fast. These may take months to heal.

For @maslovianwench

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Like, being published is great. for a lot of writers the end goal is around this area but at the end of the day we all write that really shitty piece of work with terrible grammar, character development, plot, etc. that we’re so proud of because, hey, we wrote something. 

It’s not about the end result. It’s about the process. 

all it takes to be a ‘real writer’ is having written a single word outside of having to write for something like work or school. You do not need a degree, you do not need to have x many words written. you do not need to be published. all you gotta do, is love writing. remember that.

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Six Ways to Support Fan Fiction Authors – The Lallybroch Library

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“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

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Another thing: if you find yourself having to come up with an answer to the above question, remember that a lot of the time, you don't have to come up with new elements for your story. It's definitely possible to just make the current ones more complicated.

File this under “super obvious yet I always seem to forget it.”

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Yo. I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m reblogging a symbol tied with senseless murder and discrimination. And this post is still here. 

Wow tumblr, you’re really protecting the children by banning adult content and not the nazis. Great job.

@staff @staff @staff @staff @staff

If you’re going to ban things harmful to children, ban all things harmful to children, not just the ones that got you taken off the App Store.

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I have an add on.  

Misrepresentation is a big one for me. 

The summary and the tags said “cute romance paired with learning to accept the parts of yourself that others find distasteful or shame you for”. The fic read “Stockholm syndrome and a severe lack of knowledge on the ins and outs of consent”. 

Now I’m not saying you can’t write a rapey stockholm syndrome story, but if you’re going to write that, please write an accurate summary and tag it accordingly. 

The Three Deadly Fanfiction Sins and How to Avoid Them

I love fanfiction with all of my heart.

I think it’s an amazing tool to use to hone in on your writing skills and learn about time management, how readers view your work, and in some cases− if someone leaves a helpful review− how to improve your writing overall. Not to mention that if you have a severe case of writer’s block on your WIP, writing fanfiction is a great way to keep yourself writing even if it’s not on your main work.

As a reader of fanfiction, however, I often come across works that, when I read the description, I get super excited about. It’s the perfect fic! It’s about my favorite pairing, the plot sounds amazing, it has ten chapters with a sufficient word count, AND it’s complete! And then I open it up and immediately click out of it before I finish reading the first paragraph, disheartened but determined to find something else that sounds just as good.

We all know that feeling when we’re excited about a great-sounding fic and then we open it up only to find that it’s committing one of the Three Deadly Fanfiction Sins.

What are these sins, you ask? And how can you avoid them when writing your own fanfiction?

Well, buckle up tight because I’m here to tell you what will make readers immediately click out of your story and move on to another one.

JUST A NOTE:  ONE OF THESE POINTS ARE JUST MY OPINION, AND I DON’T INTEND TO OFFEND ANYONE WHO MAY ENJOY WRITING/READING FICS LIKE THIS

Keep reading

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Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters

Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.

As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.

Deaf Characters:

Deaf characters masterpost

Deaf dialogue thread

Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)

A deaf author’s advice on deaf characters

Dialogue between deaf characters

Mute Characters

Life as a Mute

My Silent Summer:  Life as a Mute

What It’s Like Being Mute

21 People Reveal What It’s Really Like To Be Mute

I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!

Blind Characters:

The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.

@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.

The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.

An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.

And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.

Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye

4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye

Learning to Live With One Eye

Adapting to the Loss of an Eye

Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision

Monocular Depth Perception

Deaf-Blind Characters

What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?

Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights

Deaf and Blind by 30

Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)

Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)

A Day of a Deaf Blind Person

Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind

How the Deaf-Blind Communicate

Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind

Raising a DeafBlind Baby

If you have any more resources to add, let me know!  I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.

I hope this helps, and happy writing!  <3

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This.

A better, more positive Tumblr

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

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do you ever see someone in some quiet intimate moment and suddenly love them so desperately you feel like you’re dying

#like when they pass a mirror and make a face and mess with their hair a little #or when you hear someone singing in their car with the windows rolled up as they drive past you #i don’t know how to express this i just. people are people and it makes me so sad and filled up sometimes