writing-blackmare

[writing-blackmare]

[writing-blackmare]

So I started writing a new project and it's completely different to anything I've ever written before.

One thing about me is I am a chronic underwriter. I spend absurd amounts of time world building and then when it comes time to actually writing the story the plot I've constructed falls completely flat.

This project I've done zero planning or world building and I'm overwriting.

I also want it to be a cozy book with low stakes and honestly it's really cathartic writing something where there's just not a lot of stress. I keep catching myself writing towards a dark place and keep having to tell myself to stop. I'm so used to stories, whether books or TV shows or games, being just gratuitously dark and pessimistic and morbid that it's infected my brain and made me default to it, but I also hate that. I wanted to write stories where people explore worlds and things might go wrong but it's not the end of the world or anything.

I think if I'd read more books like that I might feel better about the world.

[writing-blackmare]

A countryside milky way.

Gifu, Japan.

[writing-blackmare]

Word List: Kill

for your next poem/story

-cide: killer; killing

Avicide - the killing of birds

Barmecide - providing only the illusion of abundance

Biocide - a substance (such as an algicide or fungicide) that destroys or inhibits the growth or activity of living organisms

Deicide - the killer or destroyer of a god

Ecocide - the destruction of large areas of the natural environment as a consequence of human activity

Floricide - the killing of a flower

Herbicide - an agent used to destroy or inhibit plant growth

Ixodicide - an agent that destroys ticks

Liberticide - the destruction of liberty

Menticide - a systematic and intentional undermining of a person's conscious mind; brainwashing

Mildewcide - an agent that destroys mildew

Ovicide - an agent that kills eggs; especially: an insecticide effective against the egg stage

Phytocide - a substance (as a herbicide) used to kill unwanted plants

Piscicide - a substance used to kill fish

Taeniacide - an agent that destroys tapeworms

Uxoricide - murder of a wife by her husband

Vaticide - the murderer of a prophet

Verbicide - deliberate distortion of the sense of a word (as in punning); one who distorts the sense of a word

Vulpecide - the killing of a fox by means other than those of hunting with hounds

Weedicide - herbicide

More: Word Lists

[writing-blackmare]

tumblr: on languages

[writing-blackmare]

[writing-blackmare]

Science Terms for Non-scientists

There is a huge amount of misunderstanding around common science terms. So here I am to blow away the fog! Hopefully some of you can find this useful for both everyday life and your writing.

Hypothesis: A statement made by a researcher regarding what they think is going on. Also called an “educated guess,” as in the person has the background knowledge to attempt an explanation prior to any testing. A hypothesis must be testable.

Observation: Literally what it sounds like. It is a fact of something a person sees. For example, a researcher may make an observation that the sky appeared orange at sunset or that their rat ate 24 food pellets in month. There is no thinking about it, no extrapolation, just the facts.

Law: This is a statement made following repeated experimental observation. A law is always true under a given set of conditions. They are not theories, as they do not try to explain what is going on.

Theory: This is the explanation for the repeated observations. It is supported by experimentation. Note: theories can never be proven true, only false (you can never test every single instance of the situation). You can just build evidence to support it.

The scientific method (though not always followed):

A person makes an observation.

The person forms a hypothesis attempting to explain the observation.

The person comes up with ways to test the hypothesis.

The person implements these tests.

The person evaluates results and revises the hypothesis if needed.

Field: This is the sub-specialization of a scientist. For example, a biologist may be a general biologist, marine biologist, molecular biologist, cancer biologist, neuroscientist, immunobiologist, epidemiologist, ecologist, behavioral researcher, neuropsychologist, etc.

Field work: This is the type of experiment that is performed outside of the lab. For example, an ecologist may be performing evaluations of stream conditions. While they are physically at the stream, they are doing field work.

Bench work: This is work inside the lab. For example, a scientist who is actively working on something like cell culture or running a gel is doing bench work.

Science writing: This is writing with a focus on science! It may be writing scientific articles, writing protocols, evaluating and editing proposals, or writing for popular press and audiences. Yes, this is its own separate career, typically requiring a background in at least science and possibly scientific writing or journalism.

Journal: This is where scientific papers are published. Some common journals in my field are Nature and The American Journal of Medicine and Neuron. There are a lot. And some are very obscure. They are rated by this thing called “impact factor” that is supposed to relate to journal quality (better impact factor gives your research better exposure), but in my opinion is nonsense. Also, you should trust peer reviewed journals more than journals that are not peer reviewed…that means that other professionals in their field have evaluated the paper.

Principle Investigator (PI): This is the person in charge of a particular study. Often that is the person who runs the lab out of which the study comes. Their name will be last on the paper. Note: name order on papers is very important. First and last author are the important ones. If your name is in the middle, you’re not as big of a contributor unless it is noted otherwise in the journal.

EDIT: It has been pointed out in the notes that author order sometimes varies by field. So these comments on order are not always true.

I hope you found this interesting and informative! Hopefully I will be able to post a biology-specific post like this soon. :)

Happy writing!

[writing-blackmare]

I want a simple life. I want to get up late, drink tea, and read old books. I also want a spaceship and a pet dragon. 

[writing-blackmare]

have you guys ever noticed how pretty the bi flag is???

Like, look at it

It looks like a sunset

just

#the sky is bi confirmed

[writing-blackmare]

Mind Map Software: FreeMind

Hi all,

So an analyst has started working in my team the past week to work on cleaning up all the reports and stuff in my department (because it’s a GIANT mess), and one of the things he uses is called FreeMind, and it’s a way of creating mind maps.

And as he was explaining how it worked and what you can do with it all I could think was “HOLY SHIT THIS IS PERFECT FOR PLANNING MY NOVEL” I just downloaded it and threw together a quick example. It’s extremely simple in design, like 5 or 10 minutes and you’ve got everything you’ll ever need to use. You can see an example pictured here:

You can make it as expansive or as limited as you want, and I feel like it’s formatted in a way that’s way better than word documents or spreadsheets to note down ideas.

Obviously it can’t replace a full outline document, but I’m gunna use the fuck out of it when I get one of those random ideas or sparks of inspiration that I don’t quite know how to fit in yet and I don’t want to scroll through a giant document to find it.

If anyone is interested, you can download it here (for free): http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download Really recommend it for people who like designing mind maps like this. EDIT: Of course the picture is too small to see, so here’s a bit of a bigger one:

[writing-blackmare]

i swear to god, men raising their voice is the most terrifying thing in the whole world. they dont understand, like its an immediate panic response, game over

[writing-blackmare]

[writing-blackmare]

[writing-blackmare]

I feel like there should be 2 more points 3). Even if the books were set in Ireland, there are plenty of POC there.

4). It’s fucking fantasy! I don’t think in a world with magic and dragons and an assortment of magical creatures you necessarily have to adherence to the ethnic demographics of the country where the story is set. There’s no excuse to exclude anyone in a work of fantasy.

never mind new favourite response to that JK Rowling post: 

“actually the books are set in Ireland and you don’t exactly see black and Asian people walking around Ireland.”

Okay

1). Hogwarts is in Scotland and the students come from all over the UK 

2). And yes, yes you do see black and Asian people walking around the UK, I am sat in a pub in England right now and there are all kinds of diverse people around, what are you even on, where are you getting your information, oh my god 

[writing-blackmare]

resource for procrastination

if you’re anything like me, working on a computer is a dangerous thing. i’ll get distracted by everything - that one email i should respond to, all the pictures of my dog, tumblr, and so on. I recently discovered an amazing resource to stop that.

it’s called writer’s block, and is free to download! 

when you open it, it shows this screen, where you can choose either a time limit or word goal

then when you start, it opens a document that fills the entire screen like this

and you cannot quit the app or open anything else until your word/time quota is filled. i just wrote half of my english speech that i’ve been putting off all morning, and it took only 20 minutes!

so yup, it’s called writer’s block and is free for both mac and windows. enjoy!

[writing-blackmare]

Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine

[writing-blackmare]

.