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[bits-and-ink]

Coffee

Ow

What time?

Good, not late

Five more?

Sure

It’s passed

How’d you sleep?

Cool cool

Now?

Okay

I’ll get up

Which ones?

Here

Ready?

Let’s go, then

Blinds up

Fuck

Coming?

I’ll make some

Which bag?

‘Kay

It’s on

Won’t take long

My turn

Cup

Grinder

That’s enough

Filter

On

Now milk

It’s still good

Nice foam

Pour

Rinse out

Time to sit

Por fin

Ah

Good morning.

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It’s almost October, which means it’s almost Halloween! How about some ghastly prompts to get your creative juices pumping? These Hauntober prompts are perfect to get you in the spookiest state of mind. Whether you’re drawing, writing imagines or snippets, or dressing up with some closet costuming like the aesthetic goblin you are, these Hauntober challenges just may stimulate your ghoulish creativity. 

You have two weeks to plan and prepare, but if you prefer to 🦇 ~wing it~ 🦇, no worries. We’ll be dropping the weekly themes each Monday here on @fandom starting on September 28th. And the best part, you freaks? We’re going to share some of the best frightfully amazing work from you clowns throughout the entire month. Don’t forget to use the #Hauntober tag on your creepy creations. Happy haunting, Tumblr!

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You know that feeling

When you’re eating an orange,

And you think you’ve eaten the whole thing,

But you look down,

And you see that other wedge

That you peeled off and forgot about?

Yeah, that’s the shit.

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writers:

break up your paragraphs. big paragraphs are scary, your readers will get scared

fuuuuck epithets. “the other man got up” “the taller woman sat down” “the blonde walked away” nahhh. call them by their names or rework the sentence. you can do so much better than this (exception: if the reader doesn’t know the character(s) you’re referring to yet, it’s a-okay to refer to them by an identifying trait)

blunette is not a thing

new speaker, new paragraph. please.

“said” is such a great word. use it. make sweet love to it. but don’t kill it

use “said” more than you use synonyms for it. that way the use of synonyms gets more exciting. getting a sudden description of how a character is saying something (screaming, mumbling, sighing) is more interesting that way.

if your summary says “I suck at summaries” or “story better than summary” you’re turning off the reader, my dude. your summary is supposed to be your hook. you gotta own it, just like you’re gonna own the story they’re about to read

follow long sentences w short ones and short ones w long ones. same goes for paragraphs

your writing is always better than you think it is. you just think it’s bad because the story’s always gonna be predicable to the one who’s writing it

i love u guys keep on trucking

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I am

Identity is a queer thing.

When I define who I will be,

Someone defines myself at me—

Identity with hollow ring.

I am who I am meant to be,

And yet I’m not who many think.

Brown and white, or purple and pink,

I am the shades they will not see.

If I will float, or if I sink,

Depends on how I will present

In each daily environment.

If I last is not writ in ink.

I do not write this just to vent.

What I want is just to find peace

And, from the bonds on me, release.

Before my life and time are spent.

And when the force on me does cease,

I will breathe deep from the free air,

And I will finally declare

“I am! I am! I am! I am!”

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Up There

Is there someone

Like me

Up There?

Never had it promised me

Never had that guarantee

But the place I'd rather be

Is Up There

Hustle, hustle, climb quickly

Shake every branch on that tree

‘Cause the place I want to be

Is Up There

Stumble, fall, get up again

Hitting doors that won’t open

Someone please help me

Get Up There

It’s getting rough,

I can’t survive

I need Up There

to stay alive

but I'm not

Up There

i'm

down

here

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So cool!

IF YOU EVER NEED SOMETHING TO READ READ THIS

OK ARE YOU EVER IN NEED OF BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT TO READ NEXT?

I present to you, straight from the internet, whichbook:

Here’s how it works: You click the link, and choose four categories and the extent to which these categories matter:

Then click “go” and it’ll come up with a number of books you might like.

DON’T LIKE THE CATEGORIES? NO PROBLEM - see this little thing:

THIS LITTLE THING WILL TAKE YOU TO THIS SLIGHTLY LARGER THING WHERE YOU CAN CHOOSE A BOOK BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:

YOU NOW HAVE NO EXCUSE TO NOT BE READING SOMETHING BECAUSE WHATEVER YOU WANT THIS SITE WILL COME UP WITH IT.

… Apart from bisexual retired alien dudes. No books on that. Yet.

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There’s been too much misrepresentation and bad representation in media, writing included. This kind of research is an important way to have good representation.

I have … a tip.

If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.

But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.

I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.

But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.

I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.

I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.

When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.

The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.

But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.

This applies to any and all writing. And any and all subjects. Disabilities. Sexualities. Ethnicities. Cultures. Professions. Hobbies. Traumas. If you haven’t experienced something first hand, talk to people that have. Listen to people that have. Don’t stop at the scholarly sources. They don’t always have all that you need.

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I’m sold on the “two cakes” theory—though, tbh, I’d rather have two pies. 🥧

“…every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

note to self: just because someone did the thing you were thinking about doing, and did it way better than you could ever hope to do, doesn’t mean it would be stupid or pointless to go ahead and try to still do the thing anyway. 

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Character Creation

(Not another form.)

I’ve been running my characters through these questions lately so I thought I might as well share them? They are meant to be a fun but challenging look at how your characters are going to interact with each other and the plot. 

The examples and explanations are simplistic versions and some stories (especially complex ones) will create variation on the standard.

MOTIVATION

1. What does your character want? 

This is something they think will make their life better. They either start out the story wanting it or decide they want it at the inciting incident. It’s driven by internal desires that are strong enough to force the character to make external choices within alter the plot. Often this want demonstrates a flaw the character will have to overcome by the end of the story. (Ex. Ash wants vengeance for her sister at any cost to herself and others.)

2. What does your character need? 

This is what will in actuality make their life better. It should build off or contrast their want in some way. (Ex. Ash needs to let go of her quest for vengeance in order to protect the people she loves and let them protect her in turn.)

3. At what point does your character realize that what they need isn’t what they want, and what drives this understanding? 

This should happen near the end of the story, usually at the beginning of the climax.

Bonus: If your character doesn’t chose to go after what they need instead of what they want during the above realization, at what point do they make this choice, and what drives it?

RELATIONSHIPS

(Note this can apply to both romantic and platonic relationships!)

1. What external influences are keeping these characters apart? 

These are things within the world, likely out of their control, such as war or social expectations or conflicting goals or a looming knowledge they’ll be separated.

2. What internal beliefs are keeping these characters apart? 

This is generally old baggage that comes from a feeling, such as fear of being betrayed or not feeling good enough, but it can also be something that arises as time goes on, such as the fear that being honest about their changing beliefs will cause a rift.

3. What does the character have to lose if the relationship falls apart or doesn’t mature?

This can be anything from not having someone there to share their dreams with to not having the skills the other personal provides their sleuthing partnership.

4. What does the character gain if everything works out and these two people are happy together?

Pretty much the same as question three except, you know, opposite.

PERSONALITY

1. If your character is placed in a bare room with a single closed door and told to pick one of these items, which do they chose: a knife, a shield, or a bandage.

Bonus: Why did they pick that item?

2. If you had to portray this character through one action (not a personality trait or a descriptor but an action) what would they be doing?

This could be a hobby, or nervous habit, a presentation of emotion, etc, but it has to show who the character is.

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Top 10 Tips for Actually Writing

for the writer who can’t seem to write.

Buy a pencil and paper. Get a writing program and a keyboard.

Spill all your ideas into a notebook that will never see the light of day. Write down literally every idea you have that even sort of relates to the scene/chapter/book that you want to write until your thoughts converge on a pointed attack.

Quality vs. Quantity? No competition. Quantity all the way. The more you write, the better you will know your story. Worry about Quality LATER.

Think about where the idea came from. Go there. Set up a cardboard box and live there. This is your home now.

What is the coolest, most self-indulgent thing you can think of? That’s what you want to write at this point, until you get some steam.

Short-term goals, my friends. And by short-term, I mean a minute from now, ten seconds from now. What are you going to do to write RIGHT NOW? Stop thinking about an hour from now, stop thinking about a day from now.

This is not a book. This is not a book. You are not writing a book. You are writing a story. A story is much easier to take bites out of than a book. A book is a big, scary, colossal thing. Stories are fun and carefree.

Get yourself a writing friend. A cactus, an old bottle of nail polish, a fish in an appropriately sized tank, etc. Make them hold you accountable.

Set crazy low goals. Promise yourself you will write ten words today. Ten words and you will be the Best Writer in the Entire World to Ever Exist. Accomplishing things is a morale booster and will urge you to write more.

Just keep writing. I believe in you.

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Reboot to save a writer

the suffering never ends

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Hours elapsed: 3

writing playlist: on

google docs: open

mind: ready

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This is a great writing reference, too!

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

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I’ll never think about characters speaking in the same way again. I tend to write fiction, so there’s more room to show what’s going on in (some) character’s heads, but I think there’s still room to build this subtext. Thank you for sharing this!

Y’all I read a lot of scripts. And the one note I give over and over and over and over to the point that I can pretty much copy and paste it from one review to another…. let your characters lie. Let them omit, stumble, and circumvent. Allow them to be completely unable to express what they’re feeling. Make them unable to admit a truth. Let them sit in silence because they can’t think of anything clever to say! Let them say the exact wrong thing!

Dee Rees talks about it in her BAFTA lecture (which you should ABSOLUTELY WATCH): that what your character actually says should be three degrees of separation away from what they mean to say.

I read script after script after script where characters articulate their needs, desires, and objectives with perfect accuracy off the cuff 24/7 and there is not one single human person on this planet who is actually able to do that. This is the #1 thing that’s going to make your script sound stilted and the #1 thing that’s going to make shit difficult on your actors. Let them shut up, and let them lie.