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Search History Nov. 3

“buck naked or butt naked” “different types of killing knives” “average length of a tanto knife” “can you really snap someone’s neck”

I kind of love researching for writing purposes. And I kind of love all the stupid little things I learn when I do the research!

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~Pianochick66

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Don’t ever use the word ‘soul,’ if possible. Never quote dialogue you can summarize. Avoid describing crowd scenes but especially party scenes. […] If you’re doing your job, the reader feels what you felt. You don’t have to tell the reader how to feel. No one likes to be told how to feel about something. And if you doubt that, just go ahead. Try and tell someone how to feel. […] You want vivid writing. How do we get vivid writing? Verbs, first. Precise verbs. All of the action on the page, everything that happens, happens in the verbs. The passive voice needs gerunds to make anything happen. But too many gerunds together on the page makes for tinnitus: Running, sitting, speaking, laughing, inginginginging. No. Don’t do it. The verbs tell a reader whether something happened once or continually, what is in motion, what is at rest. Gerunds are lazy, you don’t have to make a decision and soon, everything is happening at the same time, pell-mell, chaos. Don’t do that. Also, bad verb choices mean adverbs. More often than not, you don’t need them. Did he run quickly or did he sprint? Did he walk slowly or did he stroll or saunter?

Alexander Chee reminisces about studying with Annie Dillard and shares her best writing advice. For the horse’s mouth, see Dillard herself on writing – a fine addition to our ongoing archive of notable wisdom on the craft. (via explore-blog)

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10 Questions to Ask When You Create a Fictional Culture

The way I build worlds is by collecting cool stuff from the history, myth and people around me. I blend these details with my own imagination, and create my own cultures.

Normally there are a few particular cultures that interest me at a given time. I read whatever I can find about them, their environment, their traditions and their myths. The interesting details filter into the new world I’m creating (example: at one time, Venetian widows could only remarry on the stroke of midnight).

In the long term, there is nothing more inspiring and challenging than visiting foreign cultures yourself (especially if you can get far beyond your comfort zone to do it). This is the truest way to experience culture, and I really believe it shows in your writing.

But reading (non-fiction, myth/legend/fairytales, as well as the classics like Dune and Lord of the Rings) and watching documentaries/films can get you a long way toward filling up on your inspiration tank.

It’s important to remember: Culture in fiction isn’t a rod to get a point across. At its best, it is something beautiful, otherworldly, amusing, and sobering. The more layers and contradicts your culture has, the more real it will be.

Some questions you might ask yourself are:

What is the most important ideal to this culture as a whole? What would other countries say is the stereotype? (Brutally simplistic examples: America = freedom, French = romance) BONUS: How is this ideal positive, and how is it negative?

What is the setting of the culture? (History, myth and geographical location are huge huge huge players in the formation of culture.)

How did this culture come into being? How has it changed between then and the start of the novel?

How does the culture influence my protagonist? In what ways is the culture antagonistic? In what ways is it beautiful?

What are three detailed, specific things about this culture that I love? What are three that I hate?

What are exterior influences on the culture? Who’s living next door? What are relationships like between nations?

What does your culture look like to a native, and what does it look like to an outsider? (Place a native from your novel in an intensely cultural part of your world (for instance, a market place). Describe the scene. Then place a foreign character in the same setting, and describe it again.)

What is one yearly ceremony or celebration that is important to the culture (and your main character)?

What is one specific action/ritual/habit this culture has (and why)? How would they react to someone who breaks it? (Example: The Pashtun don’t throw away bread crumbs, they put them outside so the birds can eat them. If you brush off your shirt over a trashcan, they will take the trashcan and try to sweep the crumbs onto the ground outside.)

What things are you passionate about? (Example: books, dancing, music) What things do you not understand, or wish you understood? (Example: child marriages, rednecks, monasteries, the “brotherhood of soldiers” trope) Writing about these things will help fuel your diligence, but will also force you into a sort of seeking—and when you’re seeking, your culture will become more vivid.

(5 BONUS QUESTIONS HERE)

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I'm reblogging this because I think that this is a good idea, but I'm also reblogging this because rebagels.

Alright guys. I know i have a lot of a pent up anger towards my parents. So, I had this idea. I’m going to make a book. Full of letters that trans guys want to write to their parents. And I want to call it Sincerely, Your Son. If you have something you want to say to your parents, please submit it to me fite-me-helen starting with Dear (Parents, Mom, Dad, Parental figures, whatever you want) and end with Sincerely, Your Son. Also if you want you can include your name (chosen or birth) and age, your url, or it can be anonymous. If you see this and aren’t a trans guy (or any other gender that is comfortable being called “Your Son”) or don’t want to submit anything, please reblog this to spread the word. I’d really appreciate it.

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PSA

If you catch me staring at you, it's for one of two reasons: 1. I'm daydreaming and don't even know that it appears I'm looking at you when I'm just lost in thought. 2. There's is something really intriguing about you that I'm attempting to describe mentally to file away and use again later when I need to write about a new character's description.

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Tumblr: I have a million asks about whether or not I’ll be going on tour for the Raven King next spring, and if I’ll be going to x city or y state. 

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: how extensively Scholastic tours me for the series has to do with how profitable a tour/ the series will be. I don’t pay for tours. Scholastic does. Most authors don’t get to tour; the privilege of having your butt sent on the road is hard-won. Tour costs add up fast, even for someone who travels lean as I do — avocados eaten in the front seat of my own car sitting outside of an airbnb shack I’ve rented in lieu of a hotel.  As an author, seeing my readers — whether or not they’ve bought the latest book — is nice: it feels like a way to reward literary devotion. For a publisher? A tour is not a reward. They cannot afford rewards. They can afford business decisions. 

The TRC fandom here has grown hugely in the last year: my sales numbers haven’t. The tags are full of pirate copies. I’m tagged in posts with pirate copies. Guess what publishers look at when they make decisions? Not favs on Tumblr.

I make a buck or so off each copy sold. Scholastic uses the rest to run a company. And send me on tour. There’s a difference between selling enough books for me to pay my mortgage and selling enough books to make it profitable to send me on tour. I should bold that. I am going to bold that. Because I’m not trying to tell you that the future of the series is in your hands, buy! buy! buy! I’m only telling the readers who ask to see my face in Arizona, Boston, California, Minnesota, Maine, Florida, etc etc etc, that if you want this series to be huge enough for me to tour, you’ve gotta pay for your books. Because I run on whatever money comes to me and the joy of readers’ delight. Publishers run on numbers.  

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Reblog if you would read a scifi fantasy book about a mentally ill, bisexual black girl

My editor keeps telling me no one will

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me: *reads a few bad books in a row* me: *panics* WHAT IF I DON’T LIKE READING ANYMORE WHAT IF THAT’S IT

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My boss asked me to make some samples for some new plaques to go in our showroom and I couldn't resist!

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Me: -stuttering, mispronouncing words, accidentally using poor grammar-

Friend: And you want to be a writer?

Me: -death glare- I can edit what I write.

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new video babes!  IS RACISM OVER YET?  

many people tell me that racism is a thing of the past.  i’m not sure that they know what racism actually looks like.

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I think I'm going to submit something...

OPEN CALL FOR WRITERS: Unconventional Love

This is an open call for “Unconventional Love”; an anthology of short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention. The convention does not need to be limited to fan-based franchises, it can be anything from a work convention, to an alien abductee support convention.

Any story containing copyrighted characters and real life persons are not permitted. Blatant spoofs on preexisting franchises or real like people are permitted.

All gender pairings, sub-genre, and content rating are accepted for this book, but the main theme has to be romance and a convention setting. The word limit is a 15,000 word maximum with no minimum word count.

Authors will retain the copyright to their work, receive $30.00USD for accepted works, and receive a free paperback copy of the book upon publication. Authors from all over the world and from any age group (under the age of 18 is accepted) are invited to submit their stories. The submission deadline is August 31, 2015.

Please email all submissions in Word format to submissions@goodmourningpublishing.com . Feel free to email any questions to the same address.

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Another thing I hate is when writers are like:

“as they charged into battle, (male character) couldn’t help but notice how beautiful (female character) was….like….that’s bullshit. Idgaf about how nice Female Character looks with her hair flapping around or whatever. She’s probably about to die or get captured so Male Character can get the character growth he sorely needs, and that’s some more sloppy writing, but really, the last thing you’re gonna say about this girl is that she’s pretty?!

Tell me that she looks wild and alive, completely confident that the battle will go her way. Tell me her teeth are bared in what almost looks like a grin. Tell me she’s running forward like the battlefield holds all her wildest dreams.

Or tell me she looks determined, mouth set grimly, weapon raised. Tell me that you can almost see in her eyes the knowledge that she won’t come out alive, but the feeling is being kept back by the thought that all this has been worth it, that the future will be wonderful and bright for her family, for other people. Not for her.

Tell me she’s terrified. Tell me her eyes are darting around, wide and large and watering with all the smoke in the air. Tell me she’s scared to death of the thought of life leaving her, but she’s outpacing all the soldiers around her, running like she’s trying to leave behind the memories of what happened yesterday.

Tell me she’s fighting for her life, that an enemy grabs hold of her bound-up hair so she cuts it off, that a huge, hulking beast of a man lifts her up in the air and she jabs her thumbs into his eye sockets, that she’s covered in blood and exhausted, barely able to lift a weapon, or that she’s laughing, a frenzied figure in a circle of enemies, and they’re falling one by one around her.

Don’t fucking tell me that she’s beautiful. She deserves better than that

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I was reading a book at work, where I can get in big trouble for doing that. I have one page left...my boss has decided now is a good time to hang around my office. I feel like I'm going to explode.

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I use aglet. Thanks Phineas and Ferb!

(Source: The Write At Home Blog)

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I think people are making mountains out of mole hills here. I am seeing way too many people falling for the slippery slope fallacy of "it starts with censorship and ends with burning books". I did a little research on this app and I don't think there's any issue with it. I get why authors are feeling attacked, but it's ungrounded. The fact is that nothing about the books are being changed. The app takes a word lik "damn" and simply replaces it with "darn". And it's completely optional.

Now, if the app were to become a mandatory thing, that's a completely different story. For now, this app is allowing people who don't like to see swear words read books that they otherwise would not be able to enjoy. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Chocolat author among critics of app designed to offer alternatives to explicit words in any book printed in electronic format - with or without permission from authors.

Censorship. Now there’s an app for that.