heywriters - Tumblr blog

[heywriters]

So we all know that Tumblr is US-centric. But to what degree? (and can we skew the results of this poll by posting it at a time where they should be asleep?)

Reblog to increase sample size!

[heywriters]

talking to people while holding a beverage is awesome because you don't have to know what to do with your hands and when you don't know what to do with your face you can just take a sip

[heywriters]

Different POVs In Writing

POV - Short for Point Of View, meaning that the audience is experiencing a story from the perspective of a specific person or outside entity; they are part of the story in one way or another

• 1st Person POV - Experiencing a story from the perspective of the main character. Pronouns will be I, me, my, mine, etc

• 2nd Person POV - Experiencing a story from your own perspective as if you were a character within the story. Pronouns will be you, your, yours, etc. Stories are rarely written from this perspective outside of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories

• 3rd Person POV - Experiencing a story from an outside perspective. No personal pronouns will be used for you, but other characters will be referred to as he, she, they, it, etc

• 4th Person POV - Experiencing a story through a collective perspective. Pronouns include we, us, someone, anyone, etc. I’ve never seen a story written from this perspective. Fourth person perspective is mostly used in livestreams, in which the chat forms a non-specific collective presence that are all addressed as one

[heywriters]

Different POVs In Writing

POV - Short for Point Of View, meaning that the audience is experiencing a story from the perspective of a specific person or outside entity; they are part of the story in one way or another

• 1st Person POV - Experiencing a story from the perspective of the main character. Pronouns will be I, me, my, mine, etc

• 2nd Person POV - Experiencing a story from your own perspective as if you were a character within the story. Pronouns will be you, your, yours, etc. Stories are rarely written from this perspective outside of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories

• 3rd Person POV - Experiencing a story from an outside perspective. No personal pronouns will be used for you, but other characters will be referred to as he, she, they, it, etc

• 4th Person POV - Experiencing a story through a collective perspective. Pronouns include we, us, someone, anyone, etc. I’ve never seen a story written from this perspective. Fourth person perspective is mostly used in livestreams, in which the chat forms a non-specific collective presence that are all addressed as one

[heywriters]

My only real and valid writing tip is that you google every word you make up for your fantasy stories. That's It

[heywriters]

can't stop thinking about how the "convinced to return for one last job" trope is a kind of resurrection. digging up a restless corpse that maybe should have stayed buried.

[heywriters]

let’s romanticise the “keep reading” feature

i know some of you new users aren’t as familiar with tumblr’s dashboard and that’s okay! i’m here to teach you a lil something that will revitalise the way you long post on this site.

tumblr has two forms: web browser and mobile app

no matter which way you prefer to post either long fic or simply have long posts about your life, current news affairs, whatever, there are now ways on both mobile and web to add a “keep reading” break. back in the early days of the app, we used to have to type out code that added the break [ READ MORE ] iykyk and it only sometimes worked. now we have a much easier button to press on both the web browser and the mobile app.

web:

mobile:

go forth and long post to your heart’s content!

[heywriters]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[heywriters]

As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh, Susan Sontag.

[heywriters]

I've been seeing that you answer asks and I'm sorry if there's an ask-ettiquette I'm not following rn or if you recently closed asks

I know I'm not supposed to tie my work's worth by the numbers it does and I can usually bury that need for validation (and my saltiness when I see a joke fic of mine getting popular). But, there's one fic I haven't gotten over. I worked on it for months and months and it was my baby. But in the end I rushed it and fumbled my summary and presentation. I recently re-edited it, but no ones really seeing it. I know I'm not supposed to be all mirror mirror on the wall about this but I can't help but feel upset, like I failed my fic. And now it's buried and I don't know if anyone will. ever find it again. My words lost to the tide. What do I do? Accept it and move on?

Just to address the top of this ask in case anyone else is worried - I have no ask etiquette you need to worry about. If the ask box is open, drop one in there. Unfortunately, it's closed most of the time because I tend to get overwhelmed when I have too many asks in there, and I want to be able to answer as many as I can instead of getting frozen by a big number.

It sounds like you have some guilt tied to that work - it was your baby and you feel like you've failed it. Getting attention for it now might make that guilt sting a bit less, but what might help a bit more is learning to forgive yourself for what you think you did wrong.

It's completely understandable to get excited for a story and to get so eager to share it that you forget some key tags or don't write a good summary. It's definitely happened to me, and I'm sure it's happened to others. Doing that can indeed lead to fewer people seeing your work which means fewer people read and react to it, and when you've worked hard on something for months and months, fumbling it (as you say) can feel absolutely horrible.

Now that you've got your work in the format that you want it, give yourself permission to talk about it on your social media. Create a banner or even work with a fan artist to make something that will catch people's attention. Post about your work on Spotlight Saturday or Fanfic Friday and let people know it exists. Don't feel like people need to find your fic "naturally" or else it "doesn't count." Lots of people would be glad to be handed something without the need to go on a hunt.

Have any of you been in a situation like anon? What did you do to manage it?

[heywriters]

May Writing Challenge

This May I want to get back into writing. I’m not at all consistent. I’m at a point where I don’t feel like I can work on bigger things, because I can’t guarantee myself to keep working on it in a week from now. So I will take this month as a training month to get back into the habit of writing. I will do this by writing (or trying to write) 200 words every day. Topic is irrelevant. How great my writing is that day is irrelevant. Just 200 words written down. A habit taking 21 days to form was debunked, it does take a lot longer, but 31 days are a start I would say. These are already 140 words, so 200 words every day are hopefully manageable. You're more than welcome to join me if you like 😊

[heywriters]

Hello, can you recommend grammar books? :)

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is a highly recommended one, as is Understanding and Using English Grammar. But if you're looking for a grammar book from a writer's perspective, The Elements of Style is often a go-to (ignore the Amazon link, you can easily find this book online for free).

[heywriters]

So, say you have a story idea. The development is going well, you have your characters, etc… but when you try to actually start your outline, it’s like it all suddenly turns to static. It suddenly just isn’t understandable and you can’t get it out of your brain and onto paper - and you’ve tried all sorts of methods to outline before. You can’t figure out the plot fully if you can’t get it out of your head which is proving to be a frustrating task. That’s the issue I’m having right now, and I’d love some suggestions or ideas on how to combat it.

Struggling to Outline Story

You have a story idea... and you say "the development is going well" but all you mention is characters. You might have a general premise, developed characters, and a fleshed out setting... but do you have a plot? Does your plot revolve around conflict? Do you know the goal your characters will have to reach in order to resolve that conflict, the plan they'll follow in an attempt to reach that resolution, what obstacles they must overcome along the way, and who/what is responsible for putting their obstacles in place? Do you know what plot points are typical in the type of story you want to tell?

If you don't know all of the above, that's probably why you're having a difficult time outlining.

Here are some previous posts that should help:

Plot Driven vs Character Driven Stories Understanding Goals and Conflict How to Move a Story Forward Basic Story Structure Finding a Story in Characters and Setting

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[heywriters]

It it really plausible for people to talk while traveling at a face pace on horseback? In my experience in riding, once you went faster than a trot it was hard to hear anyone without shouting over the hoofbeats, but I read stories all the time where characters will talk to each other normally while running.

Hey, thanks for the ask!

It’s possible but not terribly easy. Past the trot, the wind generated by the speed of your horse becomes LOUD and you can’t hear much over it, never mind the hoof beats and the sounds of creaking tack, grass rustling, etc. And even very fit riders become breathless while riding at the canter and gallop, so that further inhibits your ability to speak clearly.

At the trot, I’ve held full conversations out hacking. It’s easier to talk clearly while posting than sitting, in my experiences at least, but very possible. Talking at the walk is the same if not easier than talking while walking on your own two legs.

I hope this answers your question!

~Mod Charlotte

[heywriters]

IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST

OR ‘PEAKED’

BUT PIQUED

‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’

THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA