#there's a collaborative Google doc for questions. should I ask what we are doing to offset the carbon imprint of our AI use lol

[rimouskis]

can the AI bubble burst already and require users to pay ten bazillion dollars to use them thus rendering it defunct in my workplace so I don't have to sit through seminars about How We Should Use AI

[pilesofnonsense]

RQBB 2025 Writer Sign-Ups Open!

Writer Sign-Ups are now open for the Rusty Quill Big Bang 2025!

Please read through the information carefully to understand what will be expected of you as a participant.

The sign-up link is at the end of the post under the spoiler cut!

You do not need to have decided what you will be writing at this stage, but please consider whether the fic requirements are compatible with what you have in mind, and be sure that you can commit to contacting us on the below deadlines to share your progress (or withdraw your participation if necessary).

Schedule for 2025 (all deadlines at 23:00 BST / 5pm CDT):

Writer Sign-ups: May 12th - 18th

Full First Draft & Summary Due: August 10th

Artist Sign-ups: August 18th - August 24th

Art Draft Deadline: September 28th

Final Fic & Art Due: October 19th

Posting: October 26th

Info for Writers:

Minimum Final Word Count: 15,000

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Confirmation e-mails for sign-ups will be sent out after sign-ups close; if you have not received a confirmation by May 30, please contact us at pilesofnonsense@gmail.com. We ask that you check your email (including the spam folder!) and reply so we can confirm that your registered email address is correct and you still intend to participate.

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You must choose whether to join the Big Bang as an artist or writer. You may not do both.

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Ideally, you will refine and polish your draft in the remaining time, but it can also be your final draft if you prefer.

Drafts will be handed in via a form that will be sent out to you before the deadline. Drafts should be available in Google docs, or if need be in PDF format.

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Eligible Fics:

Fics of any rating and with any warnings are permitted, as long as they meet the minimum word count (15,000), are centered around at least one Rusty Quill original podcast (The Magnus Archives, The Magnus Protocol, Rusty Quill Gaming, Stellar Firma, Inexplicables, Chapter & Multiverse, Trice Forgotten, Cry Havoc!, Neon Inkwell), and are tagged appropriately.

We encourage authors to take this opportunity to challenge themselves to take on a project that they might not otherwise—though please consider what is realistic in terms of the deadlines as well!

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In this event, you will have an opportunity to Do Not Want (DNW) the types of content that you do not wish to work on. Similarly, if you’ve had conflicts with certain people in the past and do not want to risk matching to them, you can include this in your sign-up or draft submission, and we will avoid matching you with them (details of these will not be shared beyond the mod team).

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The writer sign-up form can be found here.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to working with you!  

[bumblingbriars]

Questions for a fanfic writer!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

17!

2. What's your total A03 word count?

70,247

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently I'm focusing my attention on LOTR, but I've written for A Hat in Time, Encanto, Demon Slayer, Monkie Kid, Spider-man, Naruto, Asagao Academy, etc. Plus the uncountable fandoms that stay in the recesses of google docs lol.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Whispers in the Walls, Familial Obligations, Only Wishes, The Letter, and Sunlight

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I really want to, and I plan to try with my newest fic. I just get overwhelmed sometimes and don't know how to reply lol.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Letter, probably. God that fic is so old though lol

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I tend to write happy endings, so it's hard to say!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Used to. It was detrimental to my mental health LMAO. I haven't seen any recently, though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Don't ask questions you're not ready to hear the answers to, thank you!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Nope! Not really a crossover kinda guy. I've read a few if the idea interests me, but otherwise not really.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge (an idea was stolen if that counts, and I know that seems silly but trust it was a "revenge plot" by a toxic ex friend. Long story there lmao)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I'd love to!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, but the fic has long since been deleted at their request. We've lost touch over the years, but I hope they're well. Otherwise I collaborate to figure out ideas with a friend, but we haven't really written together. (We should, though. They know who they are)

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

That's a very complicated question. I love many ships and have plenty of oc x canon on the side. Not good at choosing favorites, it's like picking a favorite child lol

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Familial Obligations has admittedly been hard to get back to simply because of people treating me awfully in the comments. AHIT was one of my favorite fandoms and I miss writing for FO dearly, I want to give it a proper ending. Someday, it will be finished. It's so close to being done. Otherwise, I have many fics in my google docs that I want to see the light of day but it's very hard to put myself out there sometimes.

16. What are your writing strengths?

ROMANCE. I love romance so much. I also think my dialogue has gotten better over the years--I also love being descriptive. I think I have a decent sense of humor as well.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Fighting scenes. I understand why Tolkien brushed through them for the most part lmao. I also think I can be a little more tell than show, which I'm trying to work through.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If done correctly, I think it's good to have. If you're working with a bilingual it's good to sprinkle in their mother tongue when appropriate. I've done it for Encanto and Spider-Man. For full sentences though, I tend to prefer just doing italics, or not specifying what's said but instead working with body language and facial expressions if it's supposed to be a mystery.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The first fic I ever wrote was for either Powerpuff Girls Z or Danny Phantom, but my first published work was for Shugo Chara. Good lord, what a lifetime ago.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

That is like asking me what child do I like the best. Back away from me with that question.

Tagging anyone who wants to do this!

[bonefall]

Clanmew 101

A Warrior Cats Conlang

[ID: Two Warrior Cats OCs speak to each other. On the left is a calico with green eyes named Troutfur. On the right is a leucistic tabby with pink eyes named Bonefall.]

Urrmeer, Clanmates! And welcome to Clanmew 101!

By the end of this lesson you should have a basic understanding of the most important aspects of Clanmew, the language of the five Clans of cats living around Sanctuary Lake.

You will learn to introduce yourself, choose the appropriate pronoun for a situation, construct simple sentences, describe attributes and understand opening particles, express possession, ask simple questions, and use the Clans’ counting system. This should cover all the basics needed in order to have a simple Clanmew conversation.

Lastly, we'll close out with a vocabulary list, and some translation excercises you can do on your own!

This guide is a massive collaboration, written largely by @troutfur with all vocabulary made by @bonefall. This guide is also available in Google Doc format, and there is a lexicon of over 300 words in this Google Sheet.

We've been working on this for several weeks, and we're beyond excited to bring it to you today!

About Clanmew

Clanmew is a language that emphasizes ranks and relationships first and foremost. The rigid nature of Clan culture is baked into the very structure of their sentences, immediately making it clear what your relationship to a thing is, and where you’ve received information about a subject. 

Unlike English, in Clanmew, every line is packed with information about a warrior’s relationships and feelings towards the cats around them, turning even quick exchanges into reaffirmations of where a warrior stands in Clan society.

- Introduce yourself; the lack of a personal pronoun

Two cleric apprentices are meeting each other at a half-moon meeting for the first time. Here’s how they would introduce themselves to each other:

Babenpwyr: Pyrrsmeer! Babenpwyr. Washa-ulnyams shompiagorrl. Pryyp pyrrs? [Noncombatant-you-hello! Bonepaw. Shadow-clan moon-learning-rank. Question noncombatant-you?]

Powshpwyr: Powshpwyr. Ssbass-ulnyams shompiagorrl. [Troutpaw. River-clan moon-learning-rank]

Translated to English we have:

Bonepaw: Hello! My name is Bonepaw! I’m a ShadowClan cleric apprentice. And you?

Troutpaw: My name’s Troutpaw. I’m a RiverClan cleric apprentice.

This is a very typical introduction in the Clans. Right away these two cats establish their relationship to each other, which Clan they’re from, and their rank within it.

If you examine the way Bonepaw and Troutpaw tell each other their names, it is immediately notable how they only say them. In Clanmew there is no "first person" pronoun, no word that means "I" or "me", and similarly there is no word for the verb "to be". It is understood that if you say a word by itself, those two parts are implied. Thus Babenpwyr is both Bonepaw’s name and a full sentence that means “I  am Bonepaw”.

Similarly when Bonepaw says "Pryyp pyrrs?" There is no word for "are" or "is". "Pryyp" establishes the sentence as a question, and "pyrrs" simply means "you".

There are other nuances to the grammar to explore but first, let's skip forward a few seasons, after Troutpaw and Bonepaw change paths and meet once again under the light of the full moon.

Powshfaf: Babenpwyr, pyrrsmeer! [Bonepaw, noncombatant-you-hello!]

Babenfew: Nyar, rarrwang gryyr! Babenfew! [No, outsiderness I-contain! Bonefall!]

Powshfaf: Pryyp kachgorrl rarrs? Ssoen wowa rarrs shai ssarshemi! [Question, claw-rank outsider-you? On/over outsider-you stars they-shine!]

Translated we have:

Troutfur: Hi, Bonepaw!

Bonefall: No, use the rarrs pronoun with me. It's Bonefall.

Troutfur: Oh, you're a warrior? Congrats!

This too is a common interaction among Clan cats. No warrior ever misses a chance to boast about a newly granted name, especially to a friend who already has their own. Here we see another important feature of Clanmew grammar, the choice of pronoun. Clanmew pronouns have nothing to do with gender, but rather, how dangerous the subject is to you.

This is called…

- Threat Level How To Choose the Appropriate Pronoun

Using the pyrrs pronoun may be appropriate with a cleric, or an apprentice, or a close friend in your same Clan. But for an enemy warrior it’s inappropriate, or even rude, regardless of if they’re a friend or not. It may indicate you are underestimating them, or worse, that you two are traitorously close to each other.

Each pronoun in Clanmew has a third person ("he", "she", "they") form and a second person (“you”) form. The full list of pronouns and when to use them is given below, from least to most threatening.

(Them/You)

Wi/Wees The softest, weakest possible way to refer to a person. It is used exclusively for babies, aesthetically pleasing but useless objects, and food. “Mousebrain” is either Wiwoo (them-mouse) or Weeswoo (you-mouse).

Nya/Nyams This one indicates familiarity and closeness, moreso than with a Clanmate or a trusted ally. It is used for mates, platonic life partners, siblings, and so on. It’s sometimes used on objects that significantly change a cat’s life, such as Briarlight’s mobility device.

Pyrr/Pyrrs Used for apprentices, medicine cats, elders, exhausted warriors, and other non-combatants, but also for friends. It’s a neutral-weak pronoun. Used incorrectly, it can be patronizing, or over-familiar. This is also used on useful objects, like nests, herbs, Jayfeather’s stick, etc.

Urr/Urrs Indicates a capable clanmate, carries an implication that they are able to hunt or fight at the described moment. The term carries endearment– the old RiverClan river was referred to with Urrs, for respect. Strong, worthy prey is in this category; RiverClan refers to medium-sized fish with urrs, WindClan uses it for hares, etc.

Rarr/Rarrs Now we’re in the 'outsider’ category. These are not used on clanmates without insult. Used for things that require extra caution. A lot of twoleg things like fences and bridges are 'rarr’. The cats who live in the barn and other loners are 'rarr’. Warriors in other clans are 'rarr.’

Mwrr/Mwrrs Something dishonorable, that lives without code. Rogues are tossed into this category before proven otherwise, as are snakes, foxes, badgers, and dogs. This is a serious insult when used for a Clan cat.

Ssar/Ssas Something powerful and dangerous. Storms, floods, cars. Overwhelming and unpredictable, in a way where its power cannot be contained– can be a high compliment to the respected warriors of other clans, implies the same sort of respect you would give to a natural disaster. Commonly used on leaders of other Clans.

- Objects, Subjects, and Verbs Constructing a Simple Sentence

In English most sentences have three parts, someone who does an action (a subject), an action that is done (a verb), and something the action is done to (an object). By default English sentences order these three elements in the order, Subject-Verb-Object. But Clanmew orders them differently; Object-Subject-Verb.

Compare these sentences;

“The warriors hunt mice.” [Simple English statement]

“Mice the warriors hunt.” [Grammatical equivalent in Clanmew]

Translating this into Clanmew looks like this,

Pi woo kachgorrl urrakach. [Saw/heard mouse claw-rank clanmate-they-hunt.] Saw mouse warrior they-hunt. [Direct translation]

Let’s ignore that first word for now and just focus on the subject, object, and verb.

“Woo” in this context means “mouse” or “mice”. Clanmew makes no grammatical distinction between singular and plural, whether there is only one of the noun or more than one. Likewise, “kachgorrl” means “warrior” without specifying how many or which warrior(s) specifically. Finally “urrakach” is composed of a prefix “urr-”, the pronoun for a clanmate, and “akach” the present form of the verb that means “to hunt”. 

A specific named subject can be omitted but a pronoun prefix can never be omitted in a Clanmew sentence. Even the absence of a prefix is considered a prefix itself, meaning “I” or “me”. Thus the speaker’s relationship towards the subject is always specified.

- Describing Attributes

When Bonefall corrected Troutfur's pronoun usage earlier he was using this Object/Subject/Verb (OSV) sentence structure; "Rarrwang gryyr" means "Use the rarrs pronoun with me," but is constructed as "Outsiderness (I)-contain". “Rarrwang” itself is constructed of the pronoun “rarr” and the suffix “wang” which indicates a noun embodying a certain quality.

This sentence construction with the verb “gryyr” and a noun with the “wang” suffix can also be used to describe someone or something with any other attribute. Let’s see the following examples:

Yaowang gryyr. [Female-quality I-contain.] "I’m a molly."

The word “yaow” is part of a set with “ssuf” (“male”), and “meewa” (“genderless”).

Pi morrwowang urrgryyr. [Seen/heard fast-quality they-clanmate-contain.] "She’s big."

"Morrwo" is part of a set with "Eeb" (small) and "Nyarra" (average).

Urr’rr boe gabpwang mwrrgryyr. [Whisker-felt strength-quality they-rogue-contain.] "She’s very strong."

Now, let’s see how you can describe someone with more than one attribute!

Bab boe gabpwang om boe morrwowang rarrgryrr. [Heard-say very strong-quality and very big-quality outsider-they-contain.] "She is very strong and very big."

Bab boe gabp-om-morrwowang rarrgryrr. [Heard-say very strong-and-big-quality outsider-they-contain.] "She is very strong and very big."

These two sentences may look completely equivalent, but the constructions used here actually convey two different shades of meaning.

In the first sentence, the qualities of strength and bigness are understood to not be related to each other. The size is unrelated to her strength. Perhaps she’s big as in fluffy rather than physically imposing! The second construction indicates very much the opposite, that the bigness and strength are related attributes.

Now you may notice by this point that there’s a little word at the beginning of most sentences. It is called an…

- Opening Particle

Opening particles are used to indicate many things such as where the information conveyed is coming from, that the sentence is a question or command, or even that the sentence is a hypothetical being posited.

In statements that denote facts, there are 5 such particles, indicating the way by which this knowledge was acquired. They are:

Bab Used for information the speaker does not have first-hand knowledge of. Anything that someone has heard from someone else such as news, gossip, or a report falls into this category. Information in this category is considered the least reliable of all categories.

Yass Used for information acquired through the smell, taste, or the use of Jacobson’s organ. Metaphorically, it has also been extended to things one believes or thinks, and logical deductions. In its metaphorical capacity it is considered second least reliable.

Urr’rr Used for information acquired through one’s whiskers. Metaphorically, it also extends to emotions, intuition, and other such feelings. Considered the second most reliable source of information when used as such.

Pi Used for information one has seen or heard directly. Considered the most reliable form of information in most situations. When it comes to information acquired through multiple sources, if visual or auditory sensations are included “pi” will almost always be preferred.

Ssoen Used by StarClan it indicates information they have access to by virtue of their alleged omniscience. Used by a regular Clan cat it is used to quote the words of a prophecy or to give one’s words the same weight as StarClan’s. In this second usage, it is most often used to give blessings, such as the phrase Troutfur used to congratulate Bonefall.

The lack of a particle can in a way be thought of as a particle in itself too! This indicates that some piece of information is self-evident to the speaker. Examples of when it is appropriate to omit sentence-starting particles have been explored before: introducing oneself, correcting pronoun usage, stating one’s gender, all concerning the self.

Let’s see some examples in practice!

Bab mwrrworrwang Raorgabrrl mwrrgryyr. [Heard-say murder-quality Lionblaze he-rogue-contains.] "I’ve heard that Lionblaze is a murderous rogue."

Yass woo nyyrwang mwrrgryyr. [Smelled/tasted mouse rotten-quality they-rogue-contain.] "I have smelled/tasted that the mouse is rotting."

Urr’rr rrarpabrpabrpabr. [Whisker-felt he-outsider-pummeled.] "He pummeled (me), I felt with my whiskers."

Pi powsh pabparra Ssbass-ulnyams rarrakachka. [Saw/heard trout patrol-amount RiverClan they-outsider-hunted.] "I saw a RiverClan patrol catching trout."

Ssoen ulnyams kafyar-ul ssarshefpa. [Prophetic clan wild-fire-only they-natural-force-will-rescue.] "Fire alone will save the Clans."

There are 3 other important particles to introduce; Karrl, Hassayyr, and Pryyp

“Karrl” indicates that a statement is a command.

Bonfaf, karrl piagorrl urrsshaiwo. [Stonefur, command learning-rank you-clanmate-star-will-kill.] "Stonefur, execute the apprentices."

“Hassayyr” indicates that a statement is a “what if”.

Hassayyr om pyrrs papp. [What-if with you-noncombatant (I-)will-walk.] "What if we went for a walk?"

“Pryyp” indicates that a statement is a question.

Pryyp mew wissuff? [Question kitten they-harmless-suckle?] "Are the kittens suckling?"

We will talk more about “pryyp” and asking questions a bit later, but first we’ve got to discuss…

- Possession

The simplest and easiest way to say that a person is in possession of something is to use their name as a pronoun like so;

Pi woomoerr'pbum Yywayashaiwrah [Seen/heard food-hole-bread Harestar-owns.] "I see the tunnelbun that Harestar owns."

This is only possible for simple statements, and is possible because 'wrah' is a rare, irregular single-stem verb. But more of that will come in another lesson!

There are more common ways to phrase possession. Compare the following two sentences:

Pi woomoerr’pbum Yywayashai urrwrah. [Seen/heard food-hole-bread Harestar he-owns.] "I see that my clanmate Harestar has a tunnelbun."

Pi Yywayashai urrwrah woomoerr’pbm Hrra’aborrl urrnomna. [Seen/heard Harestar he-owns food-hole-bread Breezepelt he-eats.] "I see that my clanmate Breezepelt is eating my Clanmate Harestar’s tunnelbun."

In the second sentence, the phrase “Harestar’s tunnelbun” is constructed with the same words of the sentence “Harestar has a tunnelbun”, however, the opening particle is dropped and not repeated. The difference is that the object (“woomoerr’pbum”) has been moved to the end.

Thus the phrase “Yywayashai urrwrah” (“Harestar he-owns”) can be understood in this situation to be an adjective that modifies “tunnelbun” in the second sentence. This construction is not limited only to statements about possession, but this is the most common case in which it is used. 

You can make possession even clearer with the connecting particle, "en." For example,

Pi Yywayashai-en-woomoerr’pbum Hrra’aborrl urrnomna. [Seen/heard Harestar-’s-tunnelbun Breezepelt he-eats.] "I see that my clanmate Breezepelt is eating the tunnelbun-of-Harestar."

All of these phrasings are perfectly grammatical. The use of a shorter, more explicit construction is a function of style and clarity. It is similar to how the idea could in English be expressed equally with the phrasings “Harestar’s tunnelbun”or “the tunnelbun of Harestar”.

Next, we will learn to ask simple questions.

- Simple Questions

“Pryyp” is a very useful particle! In front of a simple statement, it makes it into a yes-no question. For example:

Pryyp Yywayashai woomoerr’pbum urrwrah? [Question Harestar food-hole-bread he-has?] "Does Harestar have a Tunnelbun?"

To answer you have a couple options. You could restate the verb along with an opening particle to specify how you know:

Pi urrwrah. [Seen/heard he-has.] "He does, I’ve seen."

But what if he doesn't have one? You can negate the verb with the prefix “nyar”! Make sure to place in front of the verb but after the pronoun:

Pi urrnyarwrah. [Seen/heard he-not-have.] "He does not, I’ve seen."

Or you could respond with your opening particle, and a simple yes or no:

Pi mwyr/nyar. [Seen/heard yes/no.] "Yes/no, I saw."

But it isn’t the only type of question you can ask with Clanmew. In conjunction with a question word in the appropriate place, you can ask more open ended questions. Let’s see an example conversation from WindClan camp:

Hrra’aborrl: Pryyp woomoerr’pbum yar urrwrah? [Breezepelt: Question food-hole-rabbit who they-have?] Yywayashai: Pi Ipipfbafba pyrrswrah. [Harestar: Seen/heard Kestrelflight he-has.]

In English,

Breezepelt: "Who has the tunnelbun?" Harestar: "I saw Kestrelflight has it."

In this construction we see some interesting aspects of the grammar. The pronoun “yar” (“who”) replaces the subject in the first sentence, but the verb is still conjugated with “urr”.

This shows that Breezepelt assumes that the answer to his question is going to be a battle-capable clanmate. When Harestar answers though, he uses the “pyrrs” pronoun, as is appropriate when talking about a cleric such as Kestrelflight. Because of how the grammar works, Breezepelt is forced to make an assumption as to what his answer would be and Harestar automatically corrects it.

Harestar could have also answered:

Yywayashai: Pi pyrrswrah. [Harestar: Seen/heard he-has.]

Which is roughly translated to:

Harestar: "He has it."

With this answer Harestar is assuming Breezepelt will be able to figure out which noncombatant has it... but remember; clerics, apprentices, elders, and even close friends of the speaker are all encompassed by “pyrrs”. It may not be as clear as Harestar thinks it is!

To ask a multiple-choice question using “pryyp”, you could do it like this:

Wishwash: Pryyp woomoerr’pbum wragyr nyom Yywayashai nyom Ipipfbafba mwrrwrah? [Heathertail: Question food-hole-bread boar or Harestar or Kestrelflight they-rogue-have?] Hrra’aborrl: Pi (wragyr) mwrrwrah [Breezepelt: Seen/heard (boar) they-rogue-has.]

Which would translate to:

Heathertail: Who has the tunnelbun, a boar, Harestar, or Kestrelflight? Breezepelt: "I saw the boar has it."

Without “pryyp”, Heathertail’s question would be understood as a statement. “Either the boar, Harestar, or Kestrelflight has the tunnelbun.” But by starting the sentence with the appropriate particle she was able to convey it was a multiple choice question.

Breezepelt can also choose if he wants to specify "boar," or simply use the rogue pronoun in this situation. Harestar and Kestrelflight are not enemies, and so simply saying "Pi mwrrwrah" would make it clear that the boar has it.

This sentence also brings up the question of pronoun agreement when there’s more than one subject. Remember this; the pronoun of the most dangerous subject always has priority.

We've come a long way and learned a lot! Next, we'll cover the complicated way that Clan cats count and measure.

- Counting

We arrive in WindClan near the end of a harrowing scene. Cloudrunner's mate Larksplash has died in childbirth, and he has been told that because of complications, the litter has a sole survivor.

Hainyoopa: Ul-arra nyams wi? Ul-arra mew-ul wi? Ul-arra arkoor shai ssarakichkar om Ul-arramew ssaryorru! [Cloudrunner: Whole-amount kin baby-they? Whole-amount kitten only baby-they? Whole-amount existence stars natural-force-they-grab and whole-fraction-kitten natural-force-they-left!] Cloudrunner: "He’s my whole kin? He, who is only a single kitten? StarClan took everything and left me Onekit!"

With these dramatic words, Cloudrunner declared his son's name; Onekit.

The nuances of this expression of grief are hard to grasp unless one has an understanding of the counting system of the Clans. Clanmew does not count with straightforward numbers; instead, they have fractions associated with a given concept.

Arra = Between 1 and 4 = Amount of pieces of prey that can fit in a mouth. Used for small quantities of concrete things. This fraction is the closest Clanmew gets to simple counting.

Rarra = 5 = Amount of claws on one paw, amount of Clans. Used to count body parts or the amount of warriors in a usual patrol.

Pabparra = 9 = Amount of a full day's patrol assignments. Used to count groups of cats, enough to patrol a territory or run a Clan.

Husskarra = 12 = Amount of whiskers on one side of the face. Used to count a day’s work, things that are being sensed in large amounts.

Shomarra = Around 30 = Amount of days in a lunar cycle. Used to count amounts of time longer than a day.

These five “fraction words” are almost always preceded by an adverb specifying how much of that amount. The adverbs paired with the amount words are:

Prra = Beginning, usually one but can be any amount under a “warl”

Warl = Quarter

Yosh = Half

Ark = Three-quarters

Ul = Entire

When they are not preceded by a prefix, they aren’t meant to be taken as an exact number, but as an estimation. Clanmew does not value exactness.

Finally there are two useful phrases that can modify these numbers:

Om owar = And another

Nyo owar = Less another

The choice of number word is based on what is being counted, not what is mathematically most convenient. “Om owar” and “nyo owar” thus are very useful phrases to express quantities over what the usual number for the appropriate counting word is. More rarely they are used to express the concept of “+1” and “-1”. This usage is rare because Clan cats don’t really care that much about precision, especially for amounts over four.

Let’s see some examples:

Ul-pabparra om owar ul-pabparra arrlur. [Whole-patrol-amount and whole patrol I-compelled.] "I sent out two patrol’s worth of cats." Karrl arlkatch praa-shomarra om owar om owar om owar. [Command will-fight beginning-moon-amount and another and another and another.] "We will fight 3 days from now." Shomarra nyo owar ssar. [Moon-amount less another they-natural-force.] "The month is a day shorter."

And now let’s see an example of numbers in a brief conversation:

Bayabkach: Pi pishkaf pabparra Hwoo-ulnyams rarrkachka. [Brambleclaw: Seen/heard red-squirrel patrol-amount Wind-Clan they-outsider-hunted.] Fofnanfaf: Pryyp arra rarr? [Brackenfur: Question amount they-outsider?] Bayabkach: Pi rarra, yosh piagorrl om yosh kachgorrl, rarr.  [Brambleclaw: Seen/heard outsider-amount, half learning-rank and half claw-rank they-outsider.] Brambleclaw: "I saw a WindClan patrol hunting squirrels." Brackenfur: "How many?" Brambleclaw: "An outsider-amount, a quarter apprentices and a quarter warriors."

In this exchange when Brambleclaw says “an outsider-amount” he means a standard 5-member patrol. When he further specifies half warriors and half apprentices he specifies about 2 or 3 are warriors and another 2 or 3 are apprentices.

Here’s another conversation that happened in the middle of a ShadowClan patrol:

Rarrlurfaf: Pryyp woo urrpi? [Russetfur: Question food you-clanmate-perceive] Uboshai: Mwyr, pi ark-arra amam pipa. [Blackstar: Yes, perceive three-quarters-amount toad hear.] Russetfur: "Do you sense/see/perceive any prey?" Blackstar: "Yes, I hear three toads."

In this sentence “ark-arra” implies three toads but there may be more. If Blackstar wanted to specify there’s three and only three toads, he could have said “ark-arra ul” (three-quarter-amount only).

There are also numerous very useful idiomatic expressions using the number systems! Let’s look at a few of them.

Gryyr ul-arra arrl! [I-contain whole-amount I-must!] "I must do everything myself!" Gryyr huskarra om owar huskarra arrl! [I-contain whisker-amount and another whisker-amount I-must!] "This is all overwhelming!"

Finally, let’s examine briefly why Cloudrunner’s lament about his kit was so despairing. 

As you can see from above “ul-arra” would mean “whole amount”. That may not sound particularly emotional but for a Clan cat, for whom life is fundamentally communal, the implication of the whole amount of the smallest possible fraction brings to mind the idea of loneliness.

The names Onekit, Onewhisker, and Onestar (“Ul-arramew”, “Ul-arrahussk”, and “Ul-arrashai”) could very well have been translated as Lonekit, Lonewhisker, and Lonestar.

- Vocabulary:

Down below you will find a vocabulary list used in this lesson.

Particles, threat level pronouns, and number words have been omitted as they are explained at length in the text above.

Some verbs used in tenses other than the present are only given in the present tense. Correct use of the past, present, and future and of different verb forms will be explored in a future lesson.

[If you're craving even more vocabulary, check out the Lexicon]

Common Nouns:

Arrkoor: The universe, existence

Baben: Bone

Bayab: Bramble; blackberry plant (Rubus fruticosus)

Bon: Stone

Borrl: Pelt, skin and the fur on it

Faf: Fur

Fofnan: Bracken

Hrra'a: Breeze

Hussk: Whisker

Ipa: Ear

Ipip: Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Ipo: Eye

Kach: Claw

Kafyar: Wildfire

Mew: Kitten

Nyams: Kin

Pabparra: Patrol

Pishkaf: Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

Powsh: Common brown trout (Salmo trutta)

Pwyr: Toebean; The -paw suffix, used to indicate the rank of apprentice

Raor: Lion

Shai: Star

Skurss: Tyrant; the name of the ThunderClan warrior Iceheart when he was leader of BloodClan

Swash: Tail

Wask: Holly

Wish: Bell heather (Erica cinerea)

Woo: Mouse; Food

Woomoerr'pbum: Tunnelbun

Wragyr: Boar (sus scrofa)

Yywaya: Brown hare (Lepus europaeus)

The Clans:

Ulnyams: Clan

Hwoo-ulnyams: WindClan

Krraka-ulnyams: ThunderClan

Sbass-ulnyams: RiverClan

Washa-ulnyams: ShadowClan

Yaawrl-ulnyams: SkyClan

Ranks:

Gorrl: Rank

Shaigorrl: Leader

Arrlgorrl: Deputy

Shomgorrl: Cleric

Kachgorrl: Warrior

Piagorrl: Apprentice

Shompiagorrl: Cleric apprentice

Pronouns:

Owar: Another

Yar: Who

Verbs: NOTE: All verbs given are present tense.

Akach: Hunts

Akichka: Grapples, grabs

Arrl: Compels, orders; Must

Arrlkatchya: Fights

Babun: Beats (of a heart); In names sometimes translated as the -heart suffix such as Kafyarbabun (Fireheart)

Few: Falls

Fbafba: Flies, is flying (of a bird or winged animal)

Gabrrl: Crackles (of fire)

Gryyr: Contains

Nomna: Eats

Nyoopab: Gallops, running fast

Pabrpabr: Pummels

Pappa: Walks

Pi: To see or hear, to perceive generally

Pipa: To hear

Pipo: To see

Shefpash: Rescues

Shemi: Shines

Sskif: Wants

Ssuff: Suckles

Worr: Kills

Mwrrworr: Kills dishonorably, commits murder

Shaiworr: Executes, kills in StarClan's name

Wrah: Owns

Yorr: To leave behind

Suffixes:

-ul: Only, by itself

-wang: -ness, the quality of being like a thing.

Adjectives:

Eeb: Small

Gabp: Strong

Meewa: De-sexed, genderless

Morrwo: Fast

Nyarra: Of average size

Nyyr: Rotting; Bad

Osk: White

Rarrlur: Russet

Shem: Shining; Good

Ssuf: Male

Ubo: Black

Yaow: Female

Adverbs:

Boe: Very

Mwyr: Yes

Nyar: No

Conjunctions:

Nyo: Less, minus

Nyom: Or

Om: And, plus

Expressions:

-meer: Hello! (Always used with a pronoun prefix)

Ssoen wowa [2nd person pronoun] shai ssarshemi!: Congratulations!

Gryyr ul-arra arrl!: I must do everything myself!

Gryyr huskarra om owar huskarra arrl!: This is all overwhelming!

Try it yourself!

Below are ten open-ended exercises so you can practice and test your knowledge. Feel free to reference the vocabulary list and the main text of the lesson as much as you need. For an extra challenge you can try responding without looking at them or making new sentences of your own!

You’ve just been accepted into a Clan, and even though your leader hasn’t granted you a warrior name yet, they trust you enough to take you to a gathering. How would you introduce yourself to the Cats of the other Clans?

During a patrol you encounter the treacherous and murderous exile Liontail. He tries to appeal to your friendship, but you’re a loyal cat of your Clan so of course you won’t hear this rogue out! Correct his pronoun usage so he knows you’re a threat to him.

You approach the fresh kill pile and smell a rotting squirrel carcass. How would you warn your clanmates?

You are an apprentice and your mentor tells you to check for scents. You can make out 3 unique smells; two strange cats, and a toad. How do you report this to your mentor?

Your clanmate has trouble telling Snowpelt and Whitefur apart. They’re both blue-eyed white cats but while Snowpelt is large and a molly, Whitefur is small and a tom. How would you tell your clanmate this?

Your friend is describing the feared BloodClan leader Scourge, and says they are both small and strong. You want to interject and point out that Scourge was strong because he was small, and often underestimated. How do you phrase this?

While hunting, a rogue attacks your patrol! After the scuffle is over, you notice that the mice you were carrying are gone! Ask your clanmates who has the mice; them, or the rogue.

A RiverClan cat offers you some of the food they brought for the gathering. You know they brought both mice and trouts and you want to make sure you don’t eat any of those smelly fish they are so fond of. Ask them whether they have a mouse or a trout.

You are a RiverClan warrior who just offered a cat from another Clan some of the food you brought to the gathering. The cat in question just asked whether you have a mouse or a trout. It seems kind of obvious to you but it’s only polite to reply. Tell them that you’ve got a trout.

You are the deputy, and you are assigning patrols. At the end, you have 3 cats left over (Kestrelclaw, Hollyheart, and Snowear), and you must ask your leader which of these cats they would like to patrol with.

Once you'd tried them out on your own, you can check your answers over here!

[alica-tech]

a guide on behavioral interviews💼

ok i've got a behavioral interview coming up so decided to make this quick guide on how i prepare for these if it helps anyone else trying to land internships or full-time jobs in the tech industry!

the process

1. ⭐ Introduction (10-15 min)

The interviewer wants to know more about you, your career goals, skills, and how you align w/ the company's mission.

Like a compelling essay, you want a strong hook or opening statement. The first question asked is often "Tell me about yourself" and this should be a brief elevator pitch (30 seconds) that highlights your current status (student, major, study area), your relevant experience, why you're interested in the company/why you're a good fit for the company, and what you're looking for (in a job). Practice this in front of a mirror if you have to!

Doing company research is really important for the whole interview! You want to look informed and interested. You can use sites such as:

Twitter Linkedin Glassdoor company website (blogs/news/about/careers page) any press releases/news articles to find info about what the company is focused on or what they care about most.

Find things that are genuinely interesting to *you* and write it down on a separate notepad to remember it

Review the job posting you applied to and review where you meet their expectations (your strengths) and be aware of your weaknesses (be ready to answer like "I'm working on improving my..." or "I hope this company can give me more experience in..")

Top questions: Tell me about yourself, why do you want to work for us, what are your strengths? Why should we hire you?

2. ⭐ Situational Questions (15-30 min)

This is where you use the STAR method to craft your responses to questions about your communication, work ethic, and collaboration style

STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result

Here's a guide + sample questions that you can encounter in any type of interview!

Also, prepare 5-6 solid situations that you can use to anchor your STAR responses. These can come from your resume, where each project can be something you can tie back to another soft/technical skill the company is looking for.

For example, for my hackathon experiences, i can relate it to any collaboration / communication / time crunch / meeting deadlines question. for my research experience, i can relate it to analytical skills / experimental / problem-solving questions.

For me, I put all my projects/experiences on a google doc, and then I write additional bullet points on things I did, problems I solved, challenges, skills I gained, etc. It's kind of like a super expanded resume. It's a great reference at a glance! Reflecting on your experiences/projects is very important as well, whether large or small.

3. ⭐ Closing (5 - 10 min)

This is your opportunity to end on a strong note, re-iterating what makes you a good fit for the company and asking questions that show you've done your research on the role/company!

What are good questions? Questions that aren't easily answerable on the company site, questions that will help YOU make a decision if you want to work for them

Here's some good ones: What is your current work from home / hybrid / in-person policies? What are the most exciting challenges facing your company in the next 6 months? What's the next step in the interview process / when can I expect follow-up? Is there support for junior / entry-level developers (such as mentorship)? How does the company support work-life balance? Can you share any recent projects / initiatives the company has taken on that you're excited about?

Here's some to AVOID: Avoid asking about salary / benefits unless you absolutely need this information before moving forward, Avoid asking questions you can google easily or know by reading the job description, avoid questions that are clearly outside of your interviewers area of expertise

phew, maybe i shouldve broken this into multiple posts, for now this is a quick overview, hope this helps!

----

additional (free) resources:

interviewbit - variety of questions listed for behaviorals

tech interview handbook - more details on preparing for STAR and example responses

handshake blog post - list of questions you can ask at the end of any interview

exponent's blog post - FAANG interviewing, focusing on company values, finding peer-to-peer mock interviews

pramp.com - practice mock interviews with peers

[ljfeed-spn-j2-bigbang]

Writers! This is how to turn in your story!

We almost are to the first big deadline of this challenge. EXCITING. First drafts of ALL FIC are due May 1. Here's what you need to know about submitting your draft: 1. The deadline for submission is May 1. As long as it's May 1 wherever you are when you send it, you're on time. 2. Absolutely no extensions past May 1. We need to get things moving on May 2 in order to get ready for the art claiming part of this, which takes a lot of time, hence the deadline. 3. What I need from you by May 1: Send an email to spnj2bigbang@gmail.com with this information pasted into the body of the email: 1. Your LJ username: 2. Your final title: 3. Story rating: 4. What ONE pairing (or gen, if no pairing) do you want your story listed under for claiming? 5. Your story summary for artists: 6. Any warnings an artist might need to know before choosing a story: Then, attach your story draft to the email. Do NOT paste the contents of your fic into the email itself. This just freezes my computer and makes me cranky. PLEASE attach your fic to the email, but paste the template information above into the email itself. Got it? Your complete first draft must be at least 20,000 words. No exceptions. Please send it in a word file attached to your email. (No one is going to see this but me, and I'm only looking for word count and story completeness.) A google doc link also is fine. A word about story summaries...for this draft, the summary is aimed at piquing the interest of an artist during the claims process. It probably is NOT the same summary you should use to attract readers. You might consider emphasizing any visual elements in your story. This is not the time to be worried about spoilers! You're looking for a collaborator here, so entice them! Be complete. Yet succinct. You should be able to do your summary in about one paragraph. 4. On May 10 I will post final titles and summaries (without the authors' names attached) for the artists to preview. Artist claims will open May 13. 5. Art/vids first drafts will be due by May 31. 6. I will make a staggered posting schedule starting June 12. Don't worry about this now, I'll make the schedule after I see how many stories have been turned in. You will have plenty of notice! Because this is so important, I'm going to say it again, in all caps: THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS, FOR ANY REASON, TO THE MAY 1 DEADLINE. A few more details:

I don't care what you put in the subject line of your email. Just send it!

If you need to drop out, just don't turn in a May 1 draft and you're out...see how easy that is?

You don't need to tell me you turned in your draft. I will check you in, it just won't be immediate, so give me a bit, ok?

PLEASE be kind if it takes me longer than you think necessary to respond! So that's it. Finish up, don't panic and have fun! There will be more reminders moving forward, so don't worry about forgetting or not having a chance to ask questions. You guys are doing awesome, KEEP GOING! from Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang Challenge! https://ift.tt/GD654q2

[nighthauntzine]

Frequently-asked questions

Here’s a list of questions we’ve received about Night Haunt Zine. We will update this post as more questions come in. In the meantime, if you have any other questions, feel free to send us a DM, or submit them through our site’s contact form if you wish to remain anonymous. 

Q1: Would I need to write/draw horror for the application? 

A1: No, you don't need to; it's optional. However, we ask that at least one of your submitted samples be an MXTX-related piece. 

Q2: I want to do an artist/writer collaboration with a friend. Should we apply separately and just state so in the form? 

A2: Yes, do send in separate apps, because we would need to get a sense of both people's portfolios. This would also help us to ensure that each person is applying entirely out of their own free will. Do state in the form that you'd like to collaborate with [your friend's name]. 

Q3: Will the fanworks be available on AO3 after the zine is published? 

A3: We will have an AO3 collection for contributors to add their works to if they wish, after the digital copy drops or after the physical items ship. We will also add these to a Twitter moment and consolidate the links on Tumblr.

Q4: What is the criteria to be accepted as a writer?

A4: You can refer to our site for the details of the application criteria for writers. While you are encouraged to send us your strongest work, we will not be making our judging criteria public, as we want to avoid having our applicants cater solely to that criteria.

Q5: Can we submit writing samples in Google Docs links? 

 A5: Yes, you may. However, when doing so, please make sure the links are set to public.

Q6: Does the 1-3k word limit for writing samples apply to each sample? Or is it cumulative across all writing samples? 

 A6: The word limit applies per sample.

Q7: Should our portfolio samples be free of identifying information (writer/artist name or handle)? 

 A7: It’s fine to leave your name/handle on your work. This is because we expect some applicants to link us to their AO3, which already contains user handles.

Q8: What's your policy on featuring original characters in the pitch? 

 A8: You may have OCs as background characters, as long as they are not featured at the center of the work. Fleshing out minor characters from canon, however, is totally fine.

[velvetgoldzine]

A DECADENT SPIRAL APPLICATIONS MASTERPOST 🌌

This post will contain contributor guidelines as well as links to the application forms. Please thoroughly review what’s written here.

ARTIST APPS + WRITER APPS + MOD APPS

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

Applicants must be age fifteen or older, and LGBT+.

All application forms require the following: Name and pronouns, age, email, social media, and two yes-or-no questions about contact through Discord and reading this post. The rest of the application varies between contribution types and will be clarified in each section.

If you would like to sign up for both writing and visual art pieces, you are welcome to, but please keep your limits in mind. 

The content of the zine itself will be rated Teen. 

Nonsexual content may be canon-typical, sexual content is strictly prohibited. 

This pertains mostly to written pieces, but will be mentioned here- heavy topics can be addressed tastefully, but we would prefer those not to be the focus of the zine, as we want this to be safe to read and would greatly prefer to not trigger or upset our readers. Please contact through asks or DMs with any queries about that, no further detail will be put in the post in order to be mindful of its readers.

Reader-insert and OC-centric content will not be accepted. Original characters may appear as side characters. No crossovers, and real people may be mentioned, so long as it fits into the universe, but that should be kept to a minimum. 

This zine will do its best to be completely accessible; i.e., all images will have alt text. However, we are still researching how best to do this and information will be released later in the production process. 

Depending on the number of applicants, your application has a chance of being rejected. We will announce what’s happening and inform you by email, but we would like to clarify here first: a rejection in no way is a commentary on your artistic abilities, only the fact that the project needs to be of a manageable size for the people running it. We’re high school students! 

ARTISTS ... APPLICATION LINK

The application will require you to link your three best pieces. These should be finished. You will also be encouraged to link your portfolio/art tag/art blog, but this is not necessary!

You do not have to link to a piece that features Velvet Goldmine characters or actors, but a piece with a similar style to what you’d like to use would be great! 

There are four types of art you can do: art that’s in the book itself, merch art, art to accompany written pieces if you’d like to collaborate, and then possibly cover art- the first three will definitely be included, and we’re still trying to figure out what will be happening with the cover!

Any kind of visual art is welcome! Drawings/paintings, collages, good quality edits/cosplays/etc.

WRITERS ... APPLICATION LINK

The application will require you to link your three best pieces, total length not exceeding 10k. Excerpts are more than welcome. A link to your AO3 or writing tag is also encouraged.

You will not have to link a Velvet Goldmine fic, however, please do include a fic that has a similar style/tone/theme/etc. to what you’re interested in writing!

There are four categories of writing: fanfiction, non-fiction, poetry, and personal work.

Fanfiction and poetry speak for themselves, but non-fiction includes character analysis, film analysis, et cetera. Non-fiction must be centered on Velvet Goldmine- anything about real people, unfortunately, is not allowed. Personal works may be about the writer and Velvet Goldmine, et cetera.

Written works with graphics are allowed (like this), but contacting the mods for more information and/or collaborating with a graphic designer if you have no experience yourself is recommended. 

MODS ... APPLICATION LINK

The application will ask your previous experience as a zine mod, what duties you are comfortable with having, and samples of your work if you’re interested in helping with graphic design.

I will be taking the majority of the responsibility for this project, but things like proofreading, helping me make notes of which contributors have finished what, reviewing graphic design, etc., can be expected.

FURTHER READING (a google doc containing information on formatting and guidelines for submissions, if applicants would like more information!)

[sarkywoman]

Writing Asks

Tagged by @under-the-shady-tree, thanks!

20 questions, writer’s edition, let’s go!!

How many works do you have on AO3? 85

What’s your total AO3 word count? 712708

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Oof, uh... since like, 1999? Um, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Andromeda, Supernatural, Heroes, NCIS, DC, Marvel, The Umbrella Academy, Kingsmen, ASoIaF/Game of Thrones, Borderlands, Community, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter, Misfits, I think I’ve forgotten some...

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM)  A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones)  Young God (Borderlands)  Story and Sorcery (Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel)  My Shame is True (The Umbrella Academy (TV))

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to! Comments are so important in the fanfic community and I know how hard it is to think of something to say about a story, even when you’ve loved it to bits, so I don’t want people to feel ignored. Especially because I appreciate comments so, so much! I will say though, I have lapses, often when my mental health isn’t good, where I simply don’t know how to respond to people and then months go by and I feel weird about replying... so sorry if you’ve ever commented on one of my stories and got silence - it was me not you!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? The Aimless One (Misfits (TV 2009)) Straight up the saddest story I’ve written, no question. Normally writing sad stuff doesn’t make me sad but I had to take a break in the middle of this to just try and grapple with the idea I’d had because it tapped into a lot of depressing thoughts I have about life and death in general. The comments were all complimentary but so upset that at first I was like ‘hooray, it had the desired impact’, then after a while I started to think ‘why did I want to hurt people like this?’

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Probably  Realising All You Ever Wanted, a Hobbs/Dirk fic for the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency fandom. There’s such minor conflict in that one that the sugary sweet ending isn’t out of place. 

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Well. I have some fandoms that are sort of crossovers already, things like Marvel where you have comic versions and movie versions and it doesn’t really feel like a crossover to be picking and choosing. Same with a Dirk Gently/Thor fic I did, because Thor cameos in the DG canon, but not this Thor. I think the most ambitious crossover I’ve worked on was a collaborative chatfic with @freshgratednutmeg that we’re never likely to post, where the need for more background characters in an Umbrella Academy A/o fic led to it being crossed over with Marvel and Brooklyn 99. (Leading to such amusements as Diego sparring with Rosa, and Five competing with Shuri in class.)

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yeah, but it’s never been very well-reasoned so it’s been fairly easy to dismiss. Some people expect everyone to share their own perspective of the characters and it’s weird.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? Not really. I can go there and have done on occasion, but it doesn’t interest me very much. I think I did it more when I was younger because I felt like it was a necessary aspect of grown-up fanfic writing (when I started I was a teenager amongst mostly adults... or other people lying about their age too lol). These days I’m more likely to fade to black or allude to the acts. But I’m not averse to writing it or anything, but it’s never the focus of my story.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Only in the sense that I see them on other sites I didn’t upload to, sometimes in other languages, sometimes not. They normally say my name somewhere on them so they’re not stolen as such, but it’s still uncomfortable to see my work circulated to other sites without my permission.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not with my permission, but yeah. I don’t know how to feel about translations. Obviously I want people of other languages to be able to read my work, but at the same time I’m not fluent enough to be able to check the translator’s work, so I won’t know if they’ve done any better than google. Word choice is pretty important in fiction. A bad translation can totally warp a text.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not for posting or sharing, but me and @freshgratednutmeg cowrite all the time.

What’s your all time favorite ship? All time?! That’s impossible to answer. I’m a multi-shipper for starters, in pretty much every fandom I’ve been in. When I find a ship I love, I love it intensely above all others for the duration of the fixation. Then eventually it gets set aside when I find a new fandom. I’m also indecisive enough to not really have an all-time favourite anything. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones). I can’t begin to describe the pages of notes I have for this beast. Unless I threw them out, which... scanning my room... is a distinct possibility. Ouch. I’d hoped to parallel the books for a long time with this one, but the amount of work for a project like that is too much when you’re no longer as passionate about the source fandom. I suspect what I might do is scenes with interconnecting notes, just so people get some sense of closure.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue, baybee! Kinda makes me want to be a scriptwriter. People are always telling me that the characters ‘sound like’ them. I think it’s from reading voraciously from when I was young and being quite a social child, that moving speech patterns and quirks into writing is something that comes very naturally to me. Too natural, in fact, because IRL I write how I speak and that’s not always suited to the situation.

What are your writing weaknesses? Most things other than dialogue. Even thought processes are an internal dialogue, so they’re okay, but then like... a fight scene? A sex scene? Just even... what are their hands doing while they’re talking? How are these people physically present? Where are they? Are they inside, outside, is the building on fire? My descriptive skills are lacking, to say the least. It’s something I’m working on.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I’m not quite sure what’s meant by this. I’m not fluent in anything other than English so I don’t see that would work well for me. I know a few phrases in German/French/Welsh/Latin/Spanish but nothing useful for conversation. Dropping in words can work, if it’s the same way the speaker would use them amidst their English. Most of the time the characters I’m writing wouldn’t be speaking in another language anyway. We can blame the tag-team of English colonialism and American media for that one I think. I think that sometimes authors utilise a character’s language in a way that just exposes how little the author actually knows of the language and that’s a bit cringe for me.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. None of those are online atm because they’re so so bad XD I should post them just so people can see improvement but... I can’t even read them, they’re hilarious. The most gratuitous self-inserts, the most ludicrous arguments, the most out-of-character romantic declarations.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Hmm, that’s a quandary. I think I’ll differentiate between favourite to write, and favourite end product. Favourite to write was probably  Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM) because it was just a romp through my favourite themes. Given it’s one of my most popular stories, I’d say that just proves you should write what you want! I was going to quickly say  Young God (Borderlands) is my favourite fic for quality of the finished product, because I pretty much just sat down one evening and spilled it into a word doc then reread it back and thought ‘huh, did I write that? Awesome’. But I’m happy with a couple of more recent things I’ve done for The Umbrella Academy fandom, notably  The Price of Parenthood, which is very different to what I usually write and is a look at the life of one of the mothers who gave up her child to Reginald. Also The Water Calls, which was the only thing I managed to write for the recent MerMay event. It took me a little while to puzzle out how it all fit together, then once I had it worked out it came together wonderfully and I was very happy with the tone of it. 

Tagging anyone who fancies doing it.

[simana-x]

Oh yeah, and this is the information page for the BTHB if you’re interested in taking part!

BTHB About Page

Guidelines + Rules

(home ask)

What is this? — Getting Started — How It Works — The Rules — FAQ —

What is this?

This is your motivation to write that fic. Always fun to take prompts when they’re in the form of games you remember from elementary school birthday parties.

You may have seen some bingo cards floating around in the fanfic community. People make a card featuring 24 prompts, and other people will submit a request for one of these prompts to be filled, as well as choosing which character(s) will prominently feature, and occasionally other details as well, depending on the cardholder’s preference. The cardholder then writes the fic and marks it off on the card.

Sounds fun, right? Right.

We all know that some of us are here to get DARK. So, why not make a bingo game focusing on Bad Things?

At this page you will find a list of tropes and scenarios. Currently, there are over four hundred listed. Most are whump-focused, some are more angst, and a few are centered around the ‘comfort’ part of hurt/comfort. Some are fairly general, some are very specific. Some are fairly lighthearted, and some take you right into the heart of Sadism Land.

These are the fics we’ll be writing.

Getting Started

Once you’ve finished reading the rules and FAQ, click on the ‘request a card’ link on the home page or here. This will take you to an application. Let us know the tumblr url you want us to send the card to, and if you want, what fandoms you intend to write for.

Next, you pick your tropes. We’ve got a lot of them, and of course, not everyone would be interested in writing for all of them. Some tropes may not work in the setting you want to write for, some may be difficult to get inspiration for, some may be too dark for you or not dark enough. Go ahead and check off the box next to every trope that you ARE okay with having on your card. You must choose at least 25, so every space on the card has a prompt. (There is no free space; freedom is an illusion.)

There will be a couple of additional questions at the end of the application, then, just submit! Make sure you have your submission box open on your tumblr, with the option to submit a photo, so that we can send you your bingo card. If your submission box is not open, you will not receive a card.

How It Works

When you receive your bingo card, you can start writing! You can write at your own pace and in your own time frame. Go ahead and post your bingo card if you’re making the fics available to your followers, and don’t forget to keep track of which spaces you’ve completed! Doesn’t have to be anything fancy; you can use anything from Photoshop to MS Paint to a text post with strikethroughs to track your progress.

For fic bingos, many people like to take prompts from their followers. Someone will send an ask requesting one of the tropes from your card and a character(s) for the fic to focus on. If you’d like, you can also let your followers prompt other details such as which character you want to have hurt and which one should be the comforter, whether it should be romantic or platonic, an AU to set it in, anything at all. Sky’s the limit. However, prompts are not required; you can select which combinations of tropes and characters you want to write and in what order you want to write them on your own.

Once you’ve written a fic, post it! If in your application you gave us permission to reblog your work, we’ll put it right here on this blog to share with other players and readers. Be sure to tag it with #badthingshappenbingo, or @ us in the post, to ensure we see it. Additionally, please tag the trope featured in the fic, and the fandom you wrote it for.

If you cross-post the fic on AO3, we have a badthingshappenbingo collection, which you can find here! Feel free to add your fic to the collection!

Once you’ve completed five squares in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, you will be added to the Hall of Fame! But don’t feel like you have to stop once you’ve gotten a Bingo; the Hall of Fame will also give special prominence to those of you who get a Blackout - that is, completing every space on your card!

Rules

~ You must have your submissions open in order to receive a card.

~ Although you may request a new Bingo card, you can only have one card in play at a time. We urge you to try to complete your current card before getting a new one if you can.

~ Fics can be NSFW, but they MUST be tagged as such, and all NSFW content MUST be placed under a Read More.

~ There is no word minimum. There is no word maximum.

~ You are allowed to cross-post works you wrote for this event on other platforms, such as AO3, FFN, etc., but we’d like you to also either post the fic on tumblr, or post a link to it, so we can find it.

~ Your entry must be completed before you can mark off its space on your bingo card. The exception is if you are writing a multi-chapter fic, but the chapter featuring the prompt must still be completed.

~ Your entry must be newly written for the bingo, not retroactively tagged or added on to a pre-existing fic.

~ Please indicate somewhere on the post or in the tags which fandom your fic was written for.

~ Feel free to message the blog if we missed reblogging a post you created for this event.

~ Only one prompt per post counts. You can include multiple tropes in a story/chapter, but you can only officially tag/mark off the square for one of them.

~ We love drama in our fics, not on our dash. If a fic is written for a work or a ship that you don’t like, don’t read it. That’s all there is to it. ~ RPF (Real Person Fic) content is not allowed.

~ Although the official Bingo game is a writing-only challenge, you can also participate in this event as an artist. Find the details in this post here!

FAQ

Q: How long does this event last?

A: Forever and ever, I guess. There is no time limit for completing your fics.

Q: How long does it take to receive a card after applying for one?

A: Anywhere from several hours to one week. It depends entirely on how busy the mods are, how frequently applications are coming in, and how long the waiting list is. All of these factors fluctuate wildly from day to day.

Q: Which fandoms can we write for?

A: You can write for any fandom you’d like. This even includes original work, which we like to view as one-person fandoms. The only exception is that we do not allow RPF (real person fic) content. Let’s stick to hurting FICTIONAL people.

Q: I sent in an application, but did not receive a card. Why is that?

A: Most likely, it’s because your submissions were closed. If, however, your submissions are open and you still did not receive a card, it’s probably because either the Google Docs form did not go through, or tumblr ate the submission. Message us off of anon and we’ll get it sorted out.

Q: Can we submit completed fics for this bingo that are also written for other bingos or writing events?

A: As long as the other event also allows it, yes, that’s perfectly fine.

Q: Can we collaborate on fics?

A: When you apply for a card, the username or usernames on the application should always be the author of all prompt fills. If you apply for a card for yourself and another user to share, all works for the card must be a collaboration between the two of you. If you apply for a card for a single user, all works for the card should be written by that single user.

Q: I posted a filled prompt and you didn’t reblog it. Why is that?

A: We aim to reblog all filled prompts. However, due to tumblr being tumblr, occasionally we will miss a filled prompt due to the post not showing up in the tag and/or an @ not making it onto our activity feed. So if you have posted a filled prompt and it has been 48 hours or more without us reblogging, that means we didn’t see it, so you can go ahead and submit or direct message the link to us and we’ll get to it as soon as possible.

Q: Can you add [trope] to the trope list?

A: Probably. As long as it is succinct enough to fit in a space on the bingo card. We would love for the masterlist to be continually expanding. We also want to ensure that all aspects of this event are inclusive to gen writers and to aromantic-asexual characters, due to the fact that they’re so often overlooked or left out of fandom events and activities, so no prompts that inherently require the protagonist/whumpee to be alloromantic and/or allosexual (Unrequited Pining, Cheated On, Left at the Altar, etc.) will ever be included in the masterlist.

Q: Can we make our own cards, or do we have to get them from you?

A: In order to keep track of who’s participating, we ask that you specifically request a card from us. The mods are active, and should be prompt in getting you your card. If you’d like to make your own, feel free - we don’t own these tropes. However, if you make your own, don’t tag the completed fic as #badthingshappenbingo. Only cards made and distributed by us are included in the event proper.

Q: Do we have to post the fics we write for this event?

A: It’s not required. You can request a card for personal/private use if you’d like.

Q: Are there any prizes?

A: Bragging rights, a spot in the Hall of Fame, a sense of accomplishment, and a boost to your grand total fanfic word count. That’s all the reward you need, right?

[do-it-with-style-events]

Interest Check FAQ!

Hey everyone! We were absolutely blown away with the response to our Reverse Bang interest check—we can’t wait to get signups open tomorrow! There were some great questions asked on the interest form, so below the cut you’ll find some answers and explanations about things people have been confused about, plus a full explanation of how we’ll be running writer claims at the very bottom.

What happens if I don’t get claimed / get a piece during claims?

The DIWS mod team is committed to making sure everyone gets a match during claims. If you sign up, you’ll be able to participate. All writers will be given a piece of art, and all artists are guaranteed that at least one of their submitted pieces will be claimed. There’s a detailed explanation about the claims process at the bottom of this post, but rest assured, we will get everyone matched up.

Can I submit more than one piece as an artist?

Short answer: YES!

Longer answer: Yes, but with some specifications. Since we won’t know the exact balance of artists to writers until sign ups close, we’ve created a system that allows us a fair amount of flexibility, so we can adjust with the numbers.

Artists may submit up to 2 pieces which will be guaranteed to go onto the claims slides for the writers to look at. We only guarantee that one piece per artist will be claimed, but it is likely that any piece on the claims slides will be claimed.

In addition, artists may submit up to 2 pieces which will not be guaranteed to go onto the claims slides. Depending on how many art submissions we get and how many writers sign up, we will dip into this list of extra pieces at random to make sure we have enough art to go around. If you submit 2 extra pieces, you’ll be able to rank them, and we’ll go through everyone’s first extra piece before we start adding second ones.

We know this is a bit complicated, and as always please ask questions if you’re not sure about something. It all comes down to a matter of numbers. There’s no way for us to ensure there is exactly the same number of art pieces as there are writers, so we need this flexibility to make sure everyone ends up happily on a team.

What if I’m an artist and a writer?

If you’re signing up as both an artist and a writer, you may submit one initial art piece and one extra.

Is there a theme?

Nope! As long as it’s a Good Omens fanwork and does not include RPF (Real Person Fiction) or one of the Archive of Our Own major archive warning tags without prior approval from the mod team you’re golden!

Are crossovers allowed?

To a certain extent. Fusions, where you take another source material’s setting or aesthetic or inspiration from the plot are allowed, but full crossovers involving characters from other sources are not. A good rule of thumb is if someone could understand the piece fully without knowing anything about the non-Good Omens source material.

What’s the required word count for fics?

Minimum word count for all fics is 5k. There is not a maximum, BUT we strongly encourage you to plan a piece which you can complete in five chapters or less. This isn’t a hard limit, especially since once you’re working with an artist both works may grow from the collaboration, but please base your initial plans around keeping your work relatively small.

Are languages other than English allowed for fics?

Unfortunately no. We can’t guarantee matches for non-English works, and on the moderation side we won’t be able to do check-ins or claims effectively, so all fics must be written in English for this event.

How can I help out as a beta?

Because we don’t require beta readers or do beta claims, we won’t have beta signups for this event. We did for the Mini Bang and then didn’t use the list of signups much, so have decided to forgo it this time. However, we do have pingable beta roles for both fic and art in our discord server, so if you’d like to help out as a beta for the Reverse Bang we suggest you join us over there so writers and artists can contact you if they want help!

What does the timeline for working on event pieces look like?

You can check out our schedule right here!

Also, keep in mind that while posting begins on January 17th, it will go on for several weeks, likely until the end of February. And we don’t require the entire piece to go up on your posting day, so it doesn’t have to be completely finished by then, either.

If you aren’t sure that you’ll be able to commit to this timeline right now, you can also consider joining us as a pinch hitter, for either writing or art, and jump in to help a group that’s lost a member later on.

Claims

We’ve had a lot of really good questions about claims, which makes sense! Claims are complicated, and we totally get that they can be a bit anxiety inducing, so we decided to just give you a walkthrough of exactly how we do claims from start to finish. We’ll be using essentially the same system we did for the Mini Bang.

Before claims, artists will submit a draft of their piece along with some extra info: a working title, tags, warnings, the rating(s) they’re comfortable with, and, if they’d like, a loose summary or concept for a fic they imagine relating to their piece. The mods will collect this info, anonymize it by assigning each work a number, and then put them all into a doc. That doc will be shared with the writers, who will have about a week to peruse them and decide which pieces catch their eye the most.

(A note on anonymity: it isn’t going to be perfect this time. Art styles are much more immediately recognizable than written ones, even in a drafting stage. We are confident though that the randomization element of our claims system should solve any issues recognizing artists could cause.)

During claims, all writers will be sent a google form to fill out. On this form, we ask for a ranked list of the artworks the writer is interested in working on. Last time we asked for a minimum of 7; we’ll decide what this event’s minimum will be after signups have closed and we know what our artist to writer ratio is.

Once the claims form has closed (after 48 hours), the mods will get to work pairing people up. Our system has a lot of moving parts, so bear with us while we go through this.

To start off, we assign every writer a random number. We do not do claims first come first serve, so this random number gives us our sorting order. Writers who are under 18 are given the first numbers, to make sure they can be paired with SFW only artwork.

Our first goal is to make sure everyone gets paired. To facilitate that, we start off by pairing up any art piece which was only claimed by one writer. We continue to pair solitary matches throughout the process when new ones appear as matched pairs are removed from the list.

Once there are no more solitary matches, we start at the top of our randomized writer list and give them the first artwork listed in their claims form. Then that writer and that art piece are removed from the list, and we continue on. As works are removed from the list, new solitary pairs may occur, and we pair them as soon as they show up, then continue down the numbered list.

As an example:

Writer #1 listed arts: 6, 4, 18, 22, 94, 38, 2, 71, 64, and 40 Writer #2 listed arts: 71, 83, 49, 22, 41, 17, 46, 60, 81, and 3 Writer #3 listed arts: 6, 71, 38, 94, 71, 62, 6, 18, 30, and 13

Writer #1 gets art 6; Writer #2 gets art 71; Writer #3 gets art 38, because the first two on their list are already assigned.

As an extra precaution to make sure everyone gets a pair, we’ll be offering writers the option to act as a wild card instead of giving us a ranked list of art pieces. Wild card writers will be assigned wherever we need to fill in once the main process is done. Wild card writers will still be allowed to tell us which ratings they are comfortable with and to give us a no-go list of things they would not like to be paired with, which we will respect when giving them their assignments.

This is a complicated process, we know. It took us about 3 days to figure out how to make all the moving pieces work last time, but in the end it went fantastically, and we’re confident it will work just as well this time. If you have any questions about it please don’t hesitate to reach out; we want everyone to feel comfortable with the game plan before we dive into it!

[pilesofnonsense]

RQBB 2024 Writer Sign-Ups Open!

Writer Sign-Ups are now open for the Rusty Quill Big Bang 2024!

Please read through the information carefully to understand what will be expected of you as a participant.

The sign-up link is at the end of the post under the spoiler cut!

You do not need to have decided what you will be writing at this stage, but please consider whether the fic requirements are compatible with what you have in mind, and be sure that you can commit to contacting us on the below deadlines to share your progress (or withdraw your participation if necessary).

Schedule for 2024 (all deadlines at 23:00 BST / 5pm CDT):

Writer Sign-ups: May 20th - 26th

Full First Draft & Summary Due: August 18th

Artist Sign-ups: August 26th - September 1st

Art Draft Deadline: September 29th

Final Fic & Art Due: October 13th

Posting: October 16th- 27th

Confirmation e-mails for sign-ups will be sent out after sign-ups close; if you have not received a confirmation by May 30, please contact us at pilesofnonsense@gmail.com. We ask that you check your email (including the spam folder!) and reply so we can confirm that your registered email address is correct and you still intend to participate.

Participation Requirements:

You must choose whether to join the Big Bang as an artist or writer. You may not do both.

Writers will require an AO3 account; if you do not have an AO3 account, please request one via AO3’s login page.

If you wish to write M or E rated fics you must be aged over 18.

All participants must read and adhere to the Expected Conduct guidelines (see below).

Minimum Final Word Count: 20,000

Maximum Number of Fics per Writer/s: 1

Maximum Number of Writers per Fic (collaboration): 2

Fic Draft Requirements: At the draft deadline (August 18th), we will require a complete draft of at least 18,000 words. “Complete” means that the fic is written from start to finish with no indispensable scenes missing or left as outlines—think, “If I posted this right now, would I be happy with the story it tells?”

Ideally, you will refine and polish your draft in the remaining time, but it can also be your final draft if you prefer.

Drafts will be handed in via a form that will be sent out to you before the deadline. Drafts should be available in Google docs, or if need be in PDF format.

Summary Requirements: A form for the summary will be sent out to you before the deadline. Summaries should briefly outline the general premise, and include rating, ships, triggers and other warnings, and any other relevant details.

Eligible Fics:

Fics of any rating and with any warnings are permitted, as long as they meet the minimum word count (20,000), are centered around at least one Rusty Quill original podcast (The Magnus Archives, The Magnus Protocol, Rusty Quill Gaming, Stellar Firma, Inexplicables, Chapter & Multiverse, Trice Forgotten, Cry Havoc!, Neon Inkwell), and are tagged appropriately.

We encourage authors to take this opportunity to challenge themselves to take on a project that they might not otherwise—though please consider what is realistic in terms of the deadlines as well!

Fics must be stand-alone (requires no knowledge of previous fics to enjoy), complete (resolves all main plotlines within the story, as opposed to being part I of a trilogy, etc.), and previously unposted.

Crossovers are allowed, but the focus should be on the RQ podcast involved. For example: a fusion crossover with the Leverage Team replacing the LOLOMG in the RQG!verse would not be permitted, though the RQG characters in the Leverage!verse would be.

Please be aware that fics with obscure crossovers, common squicks, higher ratings, etc., may be more difficult to match, and thus take a little longer to get snapped up. We will do our best to find you a suitable match, though!

If you have any questions about the suitability of your fic, please contact the mods.

Matching Process:

The artist sign-up will include a list of the anonymised fic summaries. Each artist will select 3 fics which they would be interested in creating for, with additional preferences (favourite show/shows they do not follow, OTPs and NoTPs, Do Not Wants, etc.) indicated in the comment field. Mods will then match writers to artists, taking preferences into account as much as possible.

If fics are oversubscribed or if it is otherwise necessary for matching, they may be removed from the list of eligible fics before the end of artist sign-ups.

If you have an issue with your match, please let the mods know as soon as possible.

Do Not Wants:

In this event, you will have an opportunity to Do Not Want (DNW) the types of content that you do not wish to work on. Similarly, if you’ve had conflicts with certain people in the past and do not want to risk matching to them, you can include this in your sign-up or draft submission, and we will avoid matching you with them (details of these will not be shared beyond the mod team).

The mods will always account for DNWs within reason; however, attempts to manipulate matches via DNWs or otherwise acting in bad faith will result in the rejection of your sign-up or draft. We are also not private detectives, and will thus not be fielding any requests such as “do not match me with anyone who has ever drawn/written XYZ.” Please keep that in mind when considering whether this event is right for you.

Expected Conduct:

By signing up for this event, you agree to do your best to meet the deadlines. If you might need a little more time, please email the mods to explain your situation before the deadline passes. Those who miss deadlines without contacting the mods beforehand may be dropped from the event without further contact.

In order to participate in this event, you must be willing to contact the mods directly in the event that you have a question, concern, or issue with your participation (as in the deadline example above). We are happy to help participants with anything that arises, but cannot accept “telephone”-style communiques on behalf of others.

Be in regular contact with your match—if you’re going to be offline for a significant length of time, let them know. Radio silence from your match in events of this kind can be very concerning. (If you are having trouble getting in touch with your match, please contact us!)

Please take care to credit your artist/writer in your own final post.

Our Discord server has its own list of rules, which are listed within the server. If you decide to join the server, we require you to read and abide by those rules.

Be kind and courteous towards your match and fellow participants. This naturally means that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are prohibited, but even where those are not at play, you are expected to treat others with respect.

We, like Rusty Quill, have an “all headcanons are valid” policy. Harassment or mockery of those with different interpretations will not be tolerated. This does not mean you cannot discuss how you see the characters with others or that your artist/writer should not take it into account at their discretion, but insistence that any one interpretation must be adhered to is not allowed.

If you have concerns that a work or participant may be in violation of the rules, please bring it to the mods directly. Harassment of other participants (including but not limited to callout posts, name-calling, baiting, etc.), either publicly or in the Piles of Nonsense discord server, over their identities, fanworks, or headcanons will result in an instant default.

A full overview of the Guidelines can be found on our Challenge Guidelines page. We also have an FAQ.

The writer sign-up form can be found here.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to working with you!  

[mr-entj]

Career 102: Getting a job you have no experience in

Combined with the following asks:

Hey Mr ENTJ. Do you have advice on how to move from academia into industry for someone who has only research experience? Only a CV and not a resume? Thank you!

How do you spin skills from one industry to be applicable to another? I'm a theater and English major (yes, I know) and it's been difficult finding work lately, because I am stuck living in a state where there are little jobs for that. I've worked on films, weddings, as a curator guide at a museum, and have my AA. I've had good interview after good interview, and have been outright told at three different places that I was a perfect fit. And then they went with someone else. Any advice?

Hi Mr. ENTJ I love your blog, is a great source of information for me so thanks for that! I have a question if you don’t mind. What kind of advice would you give to a graduate student who has not worked on their field during college and now is looking for a job? I’m a Business major but I’m currently working as a language teacher at a private institute (it started as a part-time job) My salary’s really good, however I’d like to start working in business but I have no experience on that :( thnks!

Hi there! I've read some of your advice to other askers and find what you say very perceptive and realistic. I'd like to ask your opinion. I have Bachelors and Masters degrees in the life sciences. I worked in academia for 2 years but my field lacked funding so I left. I have no commercial experience.I have problems getting a job because of this and most companies' resistance to hiring nonpractical grads. I want to go into consulting which is more flexible with degrees. What would you advise?

Hi mr entj! This may be a bit of a stupid question but what should I do if I can't find the job in a field(actually sub-field of a field) that I'm aiming for? I'm looking to be a concept artist but I can't seem to find any such jobs that don't require atleast a year of experience and since I'm a fresher I don't have that. In my country, there is also not a tradition of getting small student jobs so I don't have that experience either. Help me with some tips please.

Related answers:

Resume and Cover Letter Guide

Job Hunting 101

Top 3 job hunting mistakes college students make

Tips on transitioning from school to the workplace

Job interview tips

To break into a field that you have no experience in, translate the experiences in your current career into the “language” of your target career. The ultimate goal is this: make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager (and recruiter) to understand your background. People are lazy, they aren’t going to waste their time performing mental gymnastics to figure out how your obscure experience applies to their available job-- if they can’t figure it out-- your resume goes into the rejection pile. Make it easy for them.

To do that, see below.

Step 1: Collect multiple job descriptions of similar roles 

The goal is to source as many overlapping skills as possible for the same role so that you can update your resume to reflect them. To illustrate this, let’s say you’re currently a school teacher but your goal is to become a Communications Manager for a tech company. What kind of skills are tech companies looking for in Communications Managers? A simple search on LinkedIn for “communications manager” yields 42,000 results:

You don’t need to read all 42,000 job descriptions, but pick 4-5 that interest you from top companies (i.e. Lyft, Twitter, Facebook, Google) of similar nature. Top companies are leaders of the pack; their job descriptions are reliably the ones that other lower tier companies will copy.

Step 2: Identify key themes

All job descriptions that aren’t scams will have sections called “roles/responsibilities” and “minimum qualifications” with detailed bullet points describing what they’re looking for in the ideal candidate. As an example, I’ll use the Lyft “Internal Communications Manager” job description above and a “Communications Manager” job from Twitter to identify the key themes.

Lyft - Internal Communications Manager

Responsibilities

Work closely with and influence key company leadership to develop and disseminate their important messages to team members, including aligning the team on our strategy, goals, and priorities (Key theme: Communication)

Own strategy and results for keeping all relevant team members informed on important org news and updates in a timely and engaging manner.  (Key theme: Stakeholder management)

Provide strategic, direct hands-on support to key senior leaders  (Key theme: Project management)

Proactively identify new opportunities and develop new programs to continually up level our internal communications program  (Key theme: Analysis)

Successfully collaborate with cross-functional partners to execute on a comprehensive plan for seamless communications.  (Key theme: Collaboration)

Maintain the Lyft voice across all communications, written and verbal, and across company leadership (Key theme: Branding)

Keep Lyft fun!  (Key theme: Culture fit)

Twitter - Communications Manager

Roles And Responsibilities

Coordinate with various Twitter teams on product launches, announcements, issues and other news  (Key theme: Project management)

Craft communications materials with a high degree of consistency, conviction, and strong tone of voice (e.g. messaging docs, communications plans, blog posts, statements, Tweets)  (Key theme: Communication)

Drive proactive, creative storytelling around our products and the people who build them across a range of media, both traditional and non-traditional (press, podcasts, speaking engagements, video, etc.)  (Key theme: Communication)

Help the team establish and maintain relationships with reporters nationally and globally.  (Key theme: Stakeholder management)

Manage a high-volume of incoming queries from media covering product matters, and be able to consult and drive towards decision-making on press response during high-pressure scenarios  (Key theme: Project management)

Serve as a company spokesperson in the U.S. and in other markets.  (Key theme: Branding)

Draft, manage through reviews, and upload blog posts and Tweets for announcements and updates  (Key theme: Communication)

Track press coverage for key announcements; identify and correct inaccuracies in stories  (Key theme: Analysis)

Support team to drive proactive stories in global, local and industry-focused publications  (Key theme: Project management)

You’ll notice that the same key themes will emerge for similar roles. Extract these key themes and copy and paste them into your resume. Move to step 3. 

Step 3: Translate your experience and achievements to map to these key themes

From the Lyft and Twitter Communications Manager job descriptions above, we have the following 7 key themes:

Communication: Writing, editing, speaking, etc.

Stakeholder management: How to be organized and manage large groups of people of different levels and backgrounds

Project management: How to be organized and adaptable to support senior leaders with whatever they need done

Analysis: How to be a critical thinker who can spot better ways to do things (AKA performance/process improvement)

Collaboration: How to achieve success with people from different backgrounds

Branding: How to write in the company’s voice or a voice not your own

Culture fit: You need to jive with the company’s organizational culture

As a school teacher, you may not have the exact experience required but you’ve definitely done work that maps to these key themes. Use the verbiage from the job descriptions to write new bullet points for your resume:

(Key theme: Communication): Crafted and distributed weekly internal communications to 500+ students on academic updates, key event announcements, and other news in collaboration with administrative staff

(Key theme: Communication): Managed a high volume of inquiries from parents and administrative staff on the academic performance of 30+ students, provided updates and resolved concerns resulting in strong performance ratings

(Key themes: Stakeholder management + project management): Collaborated closely with senior leadership and a team of parents, educators, and volunteers to fund, launch, and manage the school’s $400,000 music program resulting in new extracurricular opportunities for 40+ students

(Key theme: Analysis): Led strategic initiative to improve academic curriculum and identified new teaching methodologies for 20 ESL (English Second Language) students resulting in an 15% increase in annual graduation rates

It won’t be a perfect fit, you will still get a lot of rejections, but your profile and background are much easier to understand to someone hiring for a communication manager role than it was before. Use your new resume as a script for the job interview to explain your experience as it relates to the role they’re hiring for.

Key Takeaways

Brand yourself for the role you want, not the role you have. Your resume and LinkedIn should contain a description of the role you’re aiming for and what skills/experience you bring to the table. If you’re currently a school teacher who wants to become a Communications Manager, then brand yourself as a “Communications leader with expertise in education, project management, and collaboration with people of various backgrounds.” This also makes it easier for recruiters to find you online because if they’re hiring for a Communications Manager, they will not be searching for a school teacher, they’ll be searching for key words related to that specific role.

Apply everywhere. You’re going to get rejected, a lot, it’s part of the process and you’re an underdog so don’t take it personally. Job hunting is a numbers game, always cast a wide net.

Progress is better than perfection. If your goal is to become a Communications Manager for the United States White House but you’re currently a school teacher, then the odds are you won’t immediately get hired by the White House. The goal here is to first break into the industry and work your way up. Accept the role that you want in a company that may not be your first choice because progress is better than perfection. Once you accumulate achievements in this role, other more reputable companies will be willing to take a chance on you.

Networking is everything. This is why human connections are the most powerful-- resumes can score interviews, but relationships build careers because hiring is about trust. If people don’t know you and your experience doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence or trust, they won’t extend an offer and commit to a legally binding employment agreement. To build that trust, use university career offices, professional networking events, internet job sites, forums, and other venues to engage and meet people. Socialization leads to trust which leads to opportunities.

[rwrbreversebang]

Rules

First and foremost, because this is a general event meant to celebrate the novel in all its entirety, all ships—or lack thereof—are welcome in the fan works created. And below we will describe the rules of participation.

Propriety 

Though there is a screen between us, please do remember that all participants and we Mods are all humans. Always remember to speak with respect and kindness.

A huge part of this event is collaborative, so all participants must be mindful and respect one another’s squicks and no gos within the artist/writer teams.

General Requirements

Do not post the entirety of your works to any social media until your assigned posting date, however teasers are permitted to an extent. If you have a question about whether or not your teaser is too revealing, please ask us, that’s why we’re here.

You must comply with mandatory deadlines and check-ins; failure to do so will result in ineligibility to participate in the bang. This will make your art invalid to claim or require a pinch hitter to write the story in your stead. Though, we understand emergencies and life issues can get in the way, just please be open and honest with your Mods.

Artist Requirements

All art pieces must be created for this specific event by your own two hands, you cannot turn in an already published piece or anything of the like.

You cannot claim your own art if you decide to also participate as an author.

I know you’ve read this a thousand times over, but this is a—let’s say it together now—collaborative event! So you are highly (HIGHLY) suggested to be in contact with your author and to communicate with them through the process. Due to this, please give each other up-to-date contact information whether through Tumblr, Discord, Twitter, or email when you begin communicating. 

Artist Specifics 

Digital traditional art: Your final piece must be no smaller than 800x600 pixels, and the idea of a completed art piece is up to uour  discretion, what you would ordinarily post on ur own blog. You are permitted to create more pieces to accompany the story if you so wish once you and your author begin collaborating (but this is completely optional).

Comics must be at least one full page.

Playlist entries should have at least 12 tracks in the queue, with a completed front and back cover, and a accessible link.

Graphic edits should include a coherent story arc, while adhering to Tumblr sizing limitations.

For any other inquiries, please message us through the ask box or email.

Author Specifics 

You cannot claim your own work if you also signed up as an artist.

The minimum word count is five thousand (5,000) words and absolutely no maximum, but do take caution that your fic must be completed and beta’d by the final submission date.

All writing pieces must be beta read before publication. You may use your own beta or request a beta through the bang.

Again, this event hinges on the fact that it is CALLABORTIVE! This means means that you are highly (HIGHLY) suggested to get in contact and stay in contact with your artists as you create your project with one another.

As authors, you are required to take into consideration your artist’s squicks, no gos, triggers and etc. You want to stay respectful and thoughtful to your partner.

Please! Please! Do NOT claim a NSFW artwork unless you are 18+, we know that this is mainly based off of trust, but if you do lie about this and we somehow figure it out, you will be removed from the event and prevented from participating in any future events.

How To Sign Up

The sign up date and check in date are all published in our schedule.

Signups for the event will be through a google forms link, but for now we want to simply get a head count of how many people are interested and or excited to participate.

All forms—amidst the four separate ones for artists, authors, pinch hitters, and betas—will ask for your name, contact email, and one reliable social media contact (tumblr, twitter, instagram, discord) which are all required. If you agree to be a pinch hitter as an author in your form, you will not have to fill out the pinch hitter form separately. Beta forms have slightly different questions asking on their strengths and preferences for what to beta.

The discord link will be sent in the confirmation email once you’ve signed up.

Once Artists Complete Their Works 

One of the most important rules we hold is that when an artist completes their piece for the claiming rounds, that you do NOT include a watermark or signature for the preview page. We want folks to choose anonymously to try and make this as much of a fair playing field as possible.

We know art theft is a concern, but we promise that the preview page is simply a google doc with limited permissions, with the art works all shown in a column and it will not expand from that private viewing.

The preview will only be open to participants of the event, and we ask kindly for no one to share the link anywhere to anyone.

The only information in the preview page is simply the art piece, with a number indicating it for claims. The NSFW work will be divided with a distinct warning. But that is all, anything else the artist wishes to clarify to their author will be discussed once we pair everyone up.

You will be able to edit your artwork as much as you please once linked up with your artist, but it must be recognizable from your original submission.

Look above for the mandatory aspects of your art medium.

No artworks or artists can be accepted once the previews are opened to the authors.

Claiming 

Artworks are anonymous, without any watermarks or signatures by the artist. So they will be claimed based off the artwork and that is all.

All art pieces will be given a number to make claiming run smoothly.

All claims, once submitted to us, are final. So please authors be careful in choosing artworks you can and are excited to write for.

Take your time with claims, they are not done on a first come/first serve basis. But we will do our best to match everyone up with their preferred choices.

Authors should not choose an art piece with a possible trigger/squick already in mind before they even speak to the author.

Check-ins

All check-ins are mandatory. You will receive the check-in forms through a link via email and posted on the discord server. We really hope everyone is honest and consistent with communication.

All check-in dates are already scheduled and you can see them on our schedule post, though if you have a conflict on any of those dates, please communicate that to us before hand.

When you sign up for the event, you are required to give us an email that you check regularly and can communicate easily through.

You are only “required” to communicate with your artist/author directly after claiming and directly before posting begins. But again, we highly suggest you communicate throughout.

Always stay as kind as possible to one another.

How To Contact The Mods In Order Of Preference

Email  »  RWRBREVERSEBANG@GMAIL.COM 

Discord DM

Tumblr Inbox 

Tumblr DM

Instagram DM

Posting

Posting is obviously the final part of this event, please as stated above, do not post your works anywhere publicly before hand, besides small teasers that shouldn’t give much of anything away.

Your posting dates will be assigned by your Mods, but if there is any sort of conflict just message us ASAP.

There are no requirements for actual posting, besides the fact that the artist/author duo discuss with one another when they’d like to publish, and tag this blog on the post for round up.

There will be an AO3 collection that you can opt into joining, whether through the link or search box. It will be revealed and not-anonymous from the start.

There is also no posting standard, but in your posts we do ask that you both link to one another’s pieces so to help the folks consuming your works understand the full picture.

Because tumblr is unreliable, we ask you to both tag the blog, RWRBREVERSEBANG, and also send us the links through the submissions form.

If you miss your posting date, please contact us and speak with us to figure out when and how you can publish your work.

All stories and art works will be included in daily roundup posts, and a final master list of works.

Feedback

Please, whether participating as an author, artist, beta, pinch hitter, or simply enjoying the works, let’s spread love to one another’s creations. Reblogging means so much more than just a like on tumblr, and kudos are sweet, but comments are a God send. I promise that literally anything you say in the comments will make the creator feel like there is a legion of birds fluttering around in their heart.

And of course, if you have any feedback for the Mods or the blog in general, our ask box is wide open!

[myulalie]

Working with a beta-reader

More spefically, writing fanfiction with a beta-reader.

I’m making the distinction because in my experience in fandom, a beta-reader can go from cheerleading and spell-checking to being an actual critique partner and those are two different things.

In my understanding, a critique partner will give you in-depth analysis of your writing and help you improve it when it comes to plot, characterization and style.

A beta-reader is more likely to talk about how the story makes them feel, and what they get out of it (or what they expected but didn’t find) rather than give you pointers on how to fix anything.

My experience with beta-readers is fairly new and limited. I had an exceptionally good relationship with @a_taupe_fox, who worked with me for the Malec Server Mini-Bang 2020, and since then I worked loosely with one beta-reader mostly for spell-checking, and friends of mine for second opinions, occasional spell-checking and cheer-leading.

I remember being terrified of working with a beta at first, because as a writer I’m fairly territorial with my works, and I was afraid a beta-reader would headbutt with me all the way. The first thing I did was ask fellow writers about their experience with beta-reading, which led to beta-readers talking about their experience as well, and I took lots of notes.

I believe I have learned enough to tell someone about my own experience and hopefully, answer some of the questions I had back then!

Choosing your beta

I use the word “choose” losely here because sometimes you don’t have a choice to make, except telling them you’re not interested in what they have to offer. They might be the one choosing to beta-read your fic!

In order to get a hang of their personality and style, I encourage you to simply have a chat with your beta, especially if you intend to work closely with them on a longer piece.

The idea is to get a feel of the kind of person they are, as well as the basics: - age, preferred pronouns, first language and favorite genre in fanfiction, - have they read/seen the source material? - should you be awake of certain trigger warnings?

I mention first language here because I am not a native English speaker, and I believe this piece of information matters. A native English speaker will spot unusual words and sentences in your writing and offer idiomatic expressions to use instead.

Someone who shares your language and culture will understand why you made this mistake, and get the cultural references that you might use. Both have their advantages!

If your beta is a writer, I suggest having a look at what they do in order to pinpoint what you like in their work. You can then ask them to help you emulate it, or on the contrary be aware of something they tend to do and will influence their opinion, but you don’t want to write yourself.

We all have our preferences!

Even if your beta is not a writer, it’s important to determine what you expect from them:

Do you need grammar and typo edits? Are you a pantser and you need someone to help you fix plot holes?

You might want to tell them a little about yourself too, to explain your background or your writing process.

Whatever you decide, make sure to have a conversation with your beta and establish boundaries, but I’ll come back to this in a moment.

How to beta-read?

I personally share a google doc with my beta, and I give them access in suggestion mode rather than edition, because I’m interested in their comments, not how they would write the fic (tbh it's Taupe who told me to do it this way, and I agree with them).

I’m also a firm believer that you can learn from your mistakes, and I’d rather see that my beta suggested the correct spelling of a word than never realize I made a mistake.

Suggestion mode, as the name implies, enables your beta to make suggestions as well as leaving comments. This is where boundaries come into play. Everyone is different, and you need to establish what you want or need, but also what you’re not interested in.

Don’t be afraid to be upfront about it.

I personally don’t like it when someone tells me what to do, or gives me ideas. This is my story, and I want to come up with ideas and solutions myself. I will shut down if someone imposes their views on my story.

It takes a great deal of self-control to see past it and work out what I like/don’t like about their suggestion in order to come up with something on my own. I need to be clear about this from the get go.

It’s okay to disagree with your beta, and I think it’s important to be open to discussing whatever you disagree on.

Fall back on what you meant to write, tell your beta how you want to do things and their advice might come in handy.

You can also ask your beta to reduce their input according to your needs. Ultimately, the decision is yours, and if you’re not a great match and struggle to work together, you can re-evaluate their role.

You will always have the possibility to put an end to your collaboration.

[ljfeed-spn-j2-bigbang]

Writers! This is how to turn in your story!

We almost are to the first big deadline of this challenge. EXCITING. First drafts of ALL FIC are due May 1. Here's what you need to know about submitting your draft: 1. The deadline for submission is May 1. As long as it's May 1 wherever you are when you send it, you're on time. 2. Absolutely no extensions past May 1. We need to get things moving on May 2 in order to get ready for the art claiming part of this, which takes a lot of time, hence the deadline. 3. What I need from you by May 1: Send an email to spnj2bigbang@gmail.com with this information pasted into the body of the email: 1. Your LJ username: 2. Your final title: 3. Story rating: 4. What ONE pairing (or gen, if no pairing) do you want your story listed under for claiming? 5. Your story summary for artists: 6. Any warnings an artist might need to know before choosing a story: Then, attach your story draft to the email. Do NOT paste the contents of your fic into the email itself. This just freezes my computer and makes me cranky. PLEASE attach your fic to the email, but paste the template information above into the email itself. Got it? Your complete first draft must be at least 20,000 words. No exceptions. Please send it in a word file attached to your email. (No one is going to see this but me, and I'm only looking for word count and story completeness.) A google doc link also is fine. A word about story summaries...for this draft, the summary is aimed at piquing the interest of an artist during the claims process. It probably is NOT the same summary you should use to attract readers. You might consider emphasizing any visual elements in your story. This is not the time to be worried about spoilers! You're looking for a collaborator here, so entice them! Be complete. Yet succinct. You should be able to do your summary in about one paragraph. 4. On May 7 I will post final titles and summaries (without the authors' names attached) for the artists to preview. Artist claims will open May 14. 5. Art/vids first drafts will be due by June 6. 6. I will make a staggered posting schedule starting June 13. Don't worry about this now, I'll make the schedule after I see how many stories have been turned in. You will have plenty of notice! Because this is so important, I'm going to say it again, in all caps: THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS, FOR ANY REASON, TO THE MAY 1 DEADLINE. A few more details:

I don't care what you put in the subject line of your email. Just send it!

If you need to drop out, just don't turn in a May 1 draft and you're out...see how easy that is?

You don't need to tell me you turned in your draft. I will check you in, it just won't be immediate, so give me a bit, ok?

PLEASE be kind if it takes me longer than you think necessary to respond! So that's it. Finish up, don't panic and have fun! There will be more reminders moving forward, so don't worry about forgetting or not having a chance to ask questions. You guys are doing awesome, KEEP GOING! from Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang Challenge! https://ift.tt/2TUa37s