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No, you’re thinking of necrosis. Necrophilia is nonmetal element on the periodic table that makes up most of Earth’s atmosphere.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE VIDEOS EVER

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Babe wake up, new Reformation just dropped

"Somebody hand me my nails. I'm about to give a church a visit."

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I'm trying to prove a point to my brain: Reblog if you think fanfiction does not need sex to be good.

There is a trend I’ve noticed that smut fics tend to be much more popular than anything else and honestly I just want to have something to look at to remind myself and that writing doesn’t have to have sex to be worth putting out into the community.

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Funny rnhng thought

Ok imagine if they start going on dates on Laofu and the Preceptors are just like "Oh god not again!!!" So I propose.

Renheng going on dates and falling in love and the Preceptors just trying to break it off before they get another disaster

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https://gofund.me/8c89770a

I know I haven't posted in nearly a month, I've been meaning to update you for a while on everything going on but it's a lot.

This post isn't about me, though. A very close family friend just lost his 2yr old son to an unidentified stomach illness, and I've set up a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.

Anything you can spare will help, and if you can't donate, please reblog so maybe this post can get put in front of someone who can.

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I finished every scene for chapter 2 that uses sprites (i.e. not CGs, animations, or the like). Here are some unrelated sprites.

This one looks cool from the waist down, so I'll post all of it.

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You should include intersex people in your activism not bc we prove bio essentialists are wrong but bc we are people who deserve rights 👍

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You should be furious that people trying to escape genocide in Gaza, Sudan, Congo all need raise an absurd amount of money just to survive

You should be furious at how these people went through atrocity after atrocity and still need raise tens of thousands of dollars to get away

You should be furious at this insidious thing that completely encapsulates how capitalism feeds off of blood

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May 2024 Newsletter, Volume 189

OTW's Legal Advocacy team has been hard at work on a number of fronts, and various other committees have been at work on new policies. Read more by visiting https://otw-news.org/6f6ma5bz

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i propose that instead of pride month, we have queer year (queer people are treated like actual people all year long)

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Do Your Research

This phrase is regularly thrown around writeblr and for good reason. It's important to research what you are writing about to know what to include, what can be fudged, and how to depict whatever you're writing. I see "do your research" most thrown around by well-meaning and highly traditionally educated writers. It's solid advice, after all!

But how do you research?

For those writers who don't already have the research skills necessary to write something comfortably already downloaded into your brain, I put this guide together for you.

Where do I even start?

It's a daunting task, research. But the best place to start is with the most basic, stupidest question you can think of. I'm going to talk about something that I already know a lot about: fighting.

When researching fight scenes, a great way to start is to look up what different weapons are. There are tons out there! So ask the stupid questions. What is a sword? What is a gun? How heavy are they?

Google and Wikipedia can help you a lot with these basic-level questions. They aren't great sources for academic articles, but remember, this is fiction. It doesn't need to be perfect, and it doesn't need to be 100% accurate if you don't want it to be. But knowing what is true to life will help you write well. Just like knowing the rules of writing will help you break them.

You may find in your basic research sweep that you have a lot more specific questions. Write them all down. It doesn't matter if they seem obvious. Write them down because they will be useful later.

How To Use Wikipedia Correctly

Wikipedia is a testament to cooperative human knowledge. It's also easy to edit by anonymous users, which means there is a lot of room for inaccuracies and misleading information. Wikipedia is usually pretty good about flagging when a source is needed or when misleading language is obvious, but Wikipedia itself isn't always the most accurate or in-depth source.

Wikipedia is, however, an excellent collection of sources. When I'm researching a subject that I know nothing about, say Norse mythology, a good starting point is the Wikipedia page for Odin. You'll get a little background on Odin's name and Germanic roots, a little backstory on some of the stories, where they appear, and how they are told.

When you read one of the sentences, and it sparks a new question, write the question down, and then click on the superscript number. This will take you directly to the linked source for the stated fact. Click through to that source. Now you have the source where the claim was made. This source may not be a primary source, but a secondary source can still lead you to new discoveries and details that will help you.

By "source-hopping," you can find your way across the internet to different pieces of information more reliably. This information may repeat itself, but you will also find new sources and new avenues of information that can be just as useful.

You mean I don't need a library?

Use your library. Libraries in many parts of the US are free to join, and they have a wealth of information that can be easily downloaded online or accessed via hardcopy books.

You don't, however, need to read every source in the library for any given topic, and you certainly don't need to read the whole book. Academic books are different from fiction. Often their chapters are divided by topic and concept and not by chronological events like a history textbook.

For example, one of my favorite academic books about legislative policy and how policy is passed in the US, by John Kingdon, discusses multiple concepts. These concepts build off one another, but ultimately if you want to know about one specific concept, you can skip to that chapter. This is common in sociological academic books as well.

Going off of my Norse Mythology example in the last section, a book detailing the Norse deities and the stories connected to them will include chapters on each member of the major pantheon. But if I only care about Odin, I can focus on just the chapters about Odin.

Academic Articles and How To Read Them

I know you all know how to read. But learning how to read academic articles and books is a skill unto itself. It's one I didn't quite fully grasp until grad school. Learn to skim. When looking at articles published in journals that include original research, they tend to follow a set structure, and the order in which you read them is not obvious. At all.

Start with the abstract. This is a summary of the paper that will include, in about half a page to a page, the research question, hypothesis, methods/analysis, and conclusions. This abstract will help you determine if the answer to your question is even in this article. Are they asking the right question?

Next, read the research question and hypothesis. The hypothesis will include details about the theory and why the researcher thinks what they think. The literature review will go into much more depth about theories, what other people have done and said, and how that ties into the research of the present article. You don't need to read that just yet.

Skim the methods and analysis section. Look at every data table and graph included and try to find patterns yourself. You don't need to read every word of this section, especially if you don't understand a lot of the words and jargon used. Some key points to consider are: qualitative vs. quantitative data, sample size, confounding factors, and results.

(Some definitions for those of you who are unfamiliar with these terms. Qualitative data is data that cannot be quantified into a number. These are usually stories and anecdotes. Quantitative data is data that can be transferred into a numerical representation. You can't graph qualitative data (directly), but you can graph quantitative data. Sample size is the number of people or things counted (n when used in academic articles). Your sample size can indicate how generalizable your conclusions are. So pay attention. Did the author interview 300 subjects? Or 30? There will be a difference. A confounding factor is a factor that may affect the working theory. An example of a theory would be "increasing LGBTQ resources in a neighborhood would decrease LGBTQ hate crimes in that area." A confounding factor would be "increased reporting of hate crimes in the area." The theory, including the confounding factor, would look like "increasing LGBTQ resources in a neighborhood would increase the reporting of hate crimes in the area, which increases the number of hate crimes measured in that area." The confounding factor changes the outcome because it is a factor not considered in the original theory. When looking at research, see if you can think of anything that may change the theory based on how that factor interacts with the broader concept. Finally, the results are different from the conclusions. The results tell you what the methods spit out. Analysis tells you what the results say, and conclusions tell you what generalizations can be made based on the analysis.)

Next, read the conclusion section. This section will tell you what general conclusions can be made from the information found in the paper. This will tell you what the author found in their research.

Finally, once you've done all that, go back to the literature review section. You don't have to read it necessarily, but reading it will give you an idea of what is in each sourced paper. Take note of the authors and papers sourced in the literature review and repeat the process on those papers. You will get a wide variety of expert opinions on whatever concept or niche you're researching.

Starting to notice a pattern?

My research methods may not necessarily work for everybody, but they are pretty standard practice. You may notice that throughout this guide, I've told you to "source-hop" or follow the sources cited in whatever source you find first. This is incredibly important. You need to know who people are citing when they make claims.

This guide focused on secondary sources for most of the guide. Primary sources are slightly different. Primary sources require understanding the person who created the source, who they were, and their motivations. You also may need to do a little digging into what certain words or phrases meant at the time it was written based on what you are researching. The Prose Edda, for example, is a telling of the Norse mythology stories written by an Icelandic historian in the 13th century. If you do not speak the language spoken in Iceland in 1232, you probably won't be able to read anything close to the original document. In fact, the document was lost for about 300 years. Now there are translations, and those translations are as close to the primary source you can get on Norse Mythology. But even then, you are reading through several veils of translation. Take these things into account when analyzing primary documents.

Research Takes Practice

You won't get everything you need to know immediately. And researching subjects you have no background knowledge of can be daunting, confusing, and frustrating. It takes practice. I learned how to research through higher formal education. But you don't need a degree to write, so why should you need a degree to collect information? I genuinely hope this guide helps others peel away some of the confusion and frustration so they can collect knowledge as voraciously as I do.

– Indy

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NEED HELP WRITING? (a masterlist)

I have likely not added many that I've reblogged to this list. Please feel free to roam my blog and/or ask/message me to add something you'd like to see on this list!

Synonym Lists

Look by @writers-potion

Descriptors

Voices by @saraswritingtipps

Show, Don't Tell by @lyralit

Tips & Tricks

5 Tips for Creating Intimidating Antagonists by @writingwithfolklore

How To (Realistically) Make a Habit of Writing by @byoldervine

Let's Talk About Misdirection by @deception-united

Tips to Improve Character Voice by @tanaor

Stephen King's Top 20 Rules for Writers posted by @toocoolformedschool

Fun Things to Add to a Fight Scene (Hand to Hand Edition) by @illarian-rambling

Questions I Ask My Beta Readers by @burntoutdaydreamer

Skip Google for Research by @s-n-arly

Breaking Writing Rules Right: Don't Write Direct Dialogue by @septemberercfawkes

Databases/Resources

International Clothing

Advice/Uplifting

Too Ashamed of Writing To Write by @writingquestionsanswered

"Said" is Beautiful by @blue-eyed-author

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so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

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You do realize that not tipping has NO effect on the actual company that doesn’t pay the worker enough, right? They do not and will never care, because it’s in their interest that their employees don’t make enough to survive. It’s good business practice.

Leave it to unions to negotiate better pay. I guarantee that people making 10 dollars an hour will appreciate a $20 tip more than you “making a statement.”

Keep tipping servers, because executives don’t care if we starve.

i think it’s really funny when europeans come to america and don’t tip and people get upset and they go “NOOOOO I DONT HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN YOUR TIPPING CULTURE IM NOT A DUMB AMERICAN” and then those people get american tourists in their countries and they go “NOOOOO WHY ARENT YOU FOLLOWING MY CUSTOMS HOW DARE YOU TALK ON THE TRAIN RESPECT MY CULTURE. HORRIBLE TERRIBLE AMERICANS :(“

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Reblog if you think fanfiction is a legitimate form of creative writing.

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Also, off topic, but how did the U.S. education system decide to teach us all about the Enlightenment/French Revolution and then expect us to not be critical of the government and billionaires? Wasn’t that the point??

They taught us how to start a revolution and were terrified when we did.

Honestly, those Enlightenment philosophers would’ve loved tumblr.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?” Yesss, pop off queen, we love freedom of speech.

“Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind?” Tumblr hivemind. We are one.

“Experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it?” Don’t worry Montesquieu, we hate the government too.

“I think, therefore I am?” Yeah, okay René. No one wants to listen to your ‘the world is a simulation’ theories. Go back to Twitter.

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Honestly, those Enlightenment philosophers would’ve loved tumblr.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?” Yesss, pop off queen, we love freedom of speech.

“Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind?” Tumblr hivemind. We are one.

“Experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it?” Don’t worry Montesquieu, we hate the government too.

“I think, therefore I am?” Yeah, okay René. No one wants to listen to your ‘the world is a simulation’ theories. Go back to Twitter.