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want an easy portrait for your MCs?

look no further!

https://portraitai.com/

Use this with your face claims to have a randomly generated portrait “drawn” for them. There’s an online version but I really like the phone’s generated pics better than the online version’s.

Double extra tip. It work with characters made in the Sims.

Note from the Site:

Currently, the AI portrait generator has been trained mostly on portraits of people of European ethnicity. We're planning to expand our dataset and fix this in the future. At the time of conceptualizing this AI, authors were not certain it would turn out to work at all.

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so, uh, how is it the day before nano already???

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i’m mobile, bitches

I finally got a laptop. So instead of having to hunker away in my office, i can finally sit in the living room or bedroom and be comfortable while i write.

With this new development, I am going to be writing more!!

NANO updates coming soon. Right after I get my things all set up!!

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How to make a Romani character

(a ruska roma is writing this)

*PRELUDE*

In order to do this and not disrespect the Romani community, a few things to keep in mind: ONE, you can’t please everyone. TWO, You MUST do your research about the Romani community through well-recommended research sources. A five minute Google search WILL NOT cut it. I recommend “We are the Romani People” by Ian Hancock as a first starting point. I’ve seen this book anywhere from $5-25, depending on where you buy it from online. It’s a good basic summary of the Romani history, culture, community, celebrities who are Romani, etc.

*STEP ONE*

These bullets are a good starting point but by no means an “endpoint”. These bullet points are merely meant to get the creative juices flowing. Personality first, Romani later.

Are they introverted? Extroverted? A mix of both?

What’s important to them?

What are their religious/spiritual views?

How do they feel about having biological children?

How have they been educated?

What are their views on the afterlife?

Do they have hobbies? What disgusts them?

What was their favorite thing to learn about academic wise? Least favorite thing?

Any siblings? How did they all treat each other?

Relationship with their parents?

Are they adopted? If they are, keep in mind that adoption comes with its own host of mental health problems (those adopted are much more likely to exhibit signs/symptoms of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, suicidal ideation/intention, and addiction problems)

What’s their favorite color?

What’s their favorite food?

What kind of music do they like?

How do they feel about the science of whatever timeframe they are in?

What’s their favorite animal?

What kind of job/career aspirations do they have?

What’s their sexual orientation? Keep in mind how “out” they are will depend dramatically on the time frame in history and where they are in the world.

Are they LGBTQ in anyway? Again, keep in mind this part of an identity (if it’s apart of it) will dramatically be influenced by those they hang around with, the period of history the story is set in, and where they are exactly in the world

If it’s an action based setting - what are they? More of a healer or fighter?

Do they have a strong sense of values/ethics/morals?

How would you put them on a scale of “good vs neutral vs evil”? Think of their motivations on that scale - don’t make someone evil “for the sake of being evil”. What makes their moral compass tick in this regard? Did they take their views a step too far? What motivates them to save people if they’re on the good side of the spectrum?

Any kind of chronic illnesses (physical, invisible, or mental health issues)? If so, make sure to do a VERY in-depth research on these conditions if you don’t live with them yourself.

How influential is money to them?

Do they dress more modestly or do they dress with more skin showing?

Are they a jerk? These kinds of characters can be fun to play with depending on how you write them

Were they the bully growing up? Did they get bullied growing up? What kind of crowd of people did they hang around with growing up?

You could write an entire book on how to develop a 3-D character personality, these bullet points are meant just to be a starting point!

*STEP TWO*

Okay, awesome, you got a good idea of your character’s personality,  likes, dislikes, preferences, etc. Now, let’s move onto the Romani aspect. A few notes:

There’s well over a million Romani on this earth. Because of that, views naturally vary wildly. We are also all over the globe, though most of us are in Europe.

Eastern Europeans tend to see “gypsy” as a huge slur. The UK, not as much. Again, how this word is viewed in the Romani community greatly depends on their geographic location

Many Romani were FORCED to be nomadic because the locals kept chasing them out of their towns

It’s estimated that the Romani lost anywhere from 65-85% of their standing population in WW2 because of the Holocaust (Hitler saw them as “dirty gypsies” that needed to be eradicated off of the Earth, he did or almost completely exterminated the Bohemian Romani tribe)

Many Romani are uncomfortable being depicted as a “witch / magic user” or “fortune teller” because of how often it’s been used to contribute to a negative stereotype of the Romani community

Many Romani have a very strong sense of “family”. If children are given up for adoption, it’s due to extreme circumstances (coercion by government, child out of wedlock, etc.)

A Romani’s religious views depend heavily on wherever they’ve settled. Some are Hindu, some are some denomination of Christanity, some are Atheists, some are Agnostics, some are Jewish, etc.

Romani are much more likely to have their children kidnapped/taken away from them rather than kidnap children

To be frank, I can’t really speak much on this part because views vary so wildly. The Dikhlo is a cloth that Romani use (women) to cover their hair. Some do it to keep in “clean” and “pure” while others will wear it as a point to show their Romani pride.

*STEP THREE*

Research the time period and location you want to place your character in. Understand that it’s been genetically proven that the Romani immigrated outside of India and moved towards Eastern Europe. After that, they migrated across all of the worlds. We can be found on every continent now that has human settlements.

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Need some sci-fi/tech inspiration?

Check out historical Popular Science magazine articles.

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A Masterlist of Instrumental Music for DnD and Fantasy Writing

So! I play dnd (play in 2 weekly campaigns and I’m worldbuilding for my steampunk homebrew). It’s no secret that I’m a GIGANTIC nerd. For a while now, I have had a ton of playlists that I use for various aspects of my (and my cousin’s) homebrew world. I also have a few playlists for writing that I use.

For dnd players, have at it! Add them to your lists if you like them. Play them during your games to add that extra layer of immersion to your RPing experience!

For writers, I find that I write better when I listen to music that has to do with the mood or theme of my topic! And it seems that there are a ton of fantasy writeblrs out there, so I mean, a lot of these playlists are high fantasy-esque!

Anyways, why keep them all to myself; I want to share them with you! Today, I spent a bit of time (a lot, i got carried away) on each playlist to ensure that each have an appropriate title, description, and are roughly an hour long each! Some are harder to make longer, but that’s okay.

So without further ado, below the cut, I have added links to all my Spotify playlists with the Title and information for each!

Keep reading

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literally me rn

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Lipton using emojis before it was cool in this 1940s advertisement for casual misogyny and tea.

Vintage Advertisements

Hey guys, i’m back for my weekly (lol i’m rounding up) post about something totally off the wall that i found while researching and planning my campaign.

Have you ever wanted to find old advertisements to help inspire you creatively?

This site lets you look at ads from different eras. it even breaks it down into types of ads, so instead of constantly finding war propaganda, you could search by vintage beauty ads from the 1800s or sports ads from the 1940s.

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Tips On Planning Out A Series

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– This is a list of tips I’ve gathered throughout the outlining process of my work in progress. If you are an author, feel free to leave your own tips in the replies!

–Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlists || Work In Progress || Studyblr || Studygram

Figure Out What Type Of Series You’re Writing

There are many forms a series can follow, but in the base level world of understanding your series, you should know what type of series you’re going to be writing. Either your series is one of episodic plot, wherein each book is a contained conflict and resolution, but following the same set of characters on a singular timeline, or you’re splitting one big story arc into a series of novels in order to flesh it out in detail and allow enough time for the reader to become invested in the details.

Don’t Stretch It Too Much

If you plan on writing a series, you need to have enough content to justify the amount of time and attention you’re asking of the reader. If your series is going to be seven books long, you need to have seven books worth of content, not two books worth that you spun and twisted and over-elaborated on for the sake of word count. Earn your reader’s loyalty to your story by giving them substance to enjoy, rather than long instances of nothing between short bursts of importance.

Plead Ahead or Edit Diligently

It is imperative that you decide from the beginning whether you’re going to plan your story from start to finish ahead of time, or go with the flow and tear it to shreds later. Whatever you choose is justified and can produce a good product as long as you’re willing to deal with the consequences of that choice. If you choose to plan out six books worth of plot, conflict, world building, and character development ahead of time, be aware that it will be a long while before you actually put pen to paper. If you choose to start somewhere and go and deal with the spill of ideas and possibilities later, then know that you will spend about 10 times as much time editing, rewriting, and re-editing as you spent actually writing. Either way, refinement of detail takes up more time in the writing process than actual writing.

Think About The Reader’s Experience

When you’re thinking about timing, revelations, growth, progression, and foreshadowing, your number one thought should be “how is this going to affect the reader’s experience of my story?”. When you release each book, you are handing it off. You don’t get to explain to each individual reader what you meant by this, or how this is supposed to make them feel, or why you included this cryptic piece of dialogue or this detail at this precise moment. You have to construct your story in a way that unfolds deliberately and effectively. Always put the reader first, and you will gain a loyal, captivated audience.

Twist The Commonalities

If you notice that your story shares a lot of attributes or includes a lot of tropes that you know the reader would recognize, this isn’t a bad thing and won’t be a detriment to your story as long as you make it your own. I don’t know how to state this in a way that isn’t going to start a fight in the comments, but originality is dead so long as you refuse to acknowledge interpretation. Interpret the character archetype or the trope however you feel fits your story and try to make it like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Not only for the sake of avoiding criticism for the use of it, but because new things are more exciting to create than reused things are interesting to copy. 

Understand The Voice(s) Of The Series

Some books are told in first person, third person, whatever. That’s important to an extent, but one thing that goes severely overlooked is the decisions you make that contribute to the voice behind the storytelling. The way you tell the story impacts the way the reader experiences it, and things like details that you repeat, preferred vocabulary and phrases, and even where you put commas and em-dashes forms your voice as a writer, and your character’s voice in the case of first person.

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Vintage Advertisements

Hey guys, i’m back for my weekly (lol i’m rounding up) post about something totally off the wall that i found while researching and planning my campaign.

Have you ever wanted to find old advertisements to help inspire you creatively?

This site lets you look at ads from different eras. it even breaks it down into types of ads, so instead of constantly finding war propaganda, you could search by vintage beauty ads from the 1800s or sports ads from the 1940s.

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Hey. Here’s a fun fact. If you are a tab hoarder, like myself, and you have to restart or close down your internet (or just want to clean up all your tabs).

Press CTRL + Shift + D and it’ll save all your tabs to a single file within your bookmark tabs.

Idk if I’m the last one to learn about this, or what-- but wowsers. That’s a life changer.

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I uh... am considering a huge change for WIP. Might be thinking of changing the POV entirely. Which would frame the book completely differently.. and also mean I have to rewrite it entirely from someone else's perspective.. which would mean I need to rewrite the first 3-5 chapters.. but...Thats fine.

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ey..

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Building a magic system

A little guide to help you with your magic system.

1. Source

- External source: Energy from the outside that the mage can draw upon or convert into magic energy.

Earth

The atmosphere

Drawn from elements

From another dimensions or realms

Gods

Supernatural entities

Star or planet constellations

Weather phenomena

Magic as life energy

Magic as omnipresent energy that flows through everything

- Internal source: Magic coming from within the body of the mage, generated by him

Coming from the mind

Generated by the body

From the soul

2. Magic control through:

Incantations

Hand gestures

Written symbols

Focus/concentration/will of the mage

By connection to the source (object, supernatural creature, another realms etc)

Rituals

Blood

Sacriface

Emotions

3. Magic limits - what can’t be done by magic

Range of effect

Lenght of effect

Limited by the mage’s focus

Limited by the mage’s stamina

4. Magic costs

Exhaustion of stamina

Pain

Gradual loss of senses

Burning off the mage’s soul

Buring off the mage’s life span

5. People who can use magic:

Born with it

Trained

Bestowed upon them

Awakening magic in some way

Ritual

Deal with a supernatural entity

Consumption of blood of a supernatural creature

Acquiring it from a near-death experience

6. Mages regarded by the society:

Hidden from it

Led by it

Feared

Expelled/hated

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Popping in to say that I use scrivener and l absolutely love it.

So... I'm thinking about restarting my draft for Sisterhood of Blood. I'm starting to use Scrivener and what I have right now in Google docs is so messy that I loathe opening it.

There are parts in my Google doc I don't mind copying/pasting because I genuinely like it, but I really just want to start over and have a fresh start

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After working all week on my shop, it’s finally open!

BluebonnetFemme is open for the month of June (and possibly July) filled with handmade pride bracelets and hand embroidery coming soon.

A little about me

I am a 25 year old lesbian who’s celebrating the one year anniversary of the day I realized I was gay. I’m located in Texas and currently working odd jobs to help sustain myself, and I appreciate any and all support for my little shop ❤️

*disclaimer: I’m currently only shipping to the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, but I’m looking into ways to ship to other countries without charging a ton for shipping.

[ Link to shop ]

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Heroic Traits and Their Faults

Accepting – too accepting; willing to excuse extreme behavior

Adaptable – used to traveling from situation to situation; may not be able to fully adapt/live in a permanent situation

Affable – accidentally befriends the wrong sort of people; pushes to befriend everyone

Affectionate –inappropriate affection

Alert – constantly on edge; paranoid

Altruistic – self-destructive behavior for the sake of their Cause

Apologetic – apologizes too much; is a doormat; guilt-ridden

Aspiring – becomes very ambitious; ruthless in their attempts to reach goals

Assertive – misunderstood as aggressive; actually aggressive; others react negatively when they take command all the time

Athletic – joints weakened from exercise; performance-enhancing drug abuse; competitive

Keep reading