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“HEY, Writers!” Ask Policy

I do not answer research questions. Research is the responsibility of the author. Stop asking other writers to do it for you.

What counts as a research question?

1. Portrayal questions (“How do I write a character who is x?” where “x” is referring to a life experience, physical/mental condition, gender, culture, occupation, etc.)
2. Specialist/Non-Writing Encyclopedia questions (“Where should my character break their leg to heal within a few months?”, “What technical terms are used in designer fashion?”, “How does child support work?”, etc.)
3. Whether an idea is offensive/insensitive or not
4. Location, historical era, or other setting-specific questions

For very simple questions like “how do I…?” please, copy/paste your question into a search engine first. It’s faster.

Check these blogs for answers to questions about…

• ethnicity/race @writingwithcolor
• fight scenes/combat @howtofightwrite
• medical/injury @scriptmedic
• psychology/mental health @scriptshrink
• crime/justice @scriptcriminaljustice
• various other research topics—The Script Family, @wordsnstuff

ASKS I MAY DELETE!

1. Requests for my opinion of your concept, for prompts, ideas, names, plot, or dialogue—essentially, don’t ask me to write parts of your story for you—or requests that I read, review, or edit your work (including covers, original drawings, writeblrs, etc.)
2. Questions I’ve already answered multiple times. This does include writer’s block and self-doubt. Check #writers block #motivation
3. Non-writing questions, e.g. marketing advice.
4. Multiple questions within one ask (I do prefer separate asks).
5. Long, dense asks that I have to dig through to find your question.
6. Responses to posts I’ve shared—just reply/reblog if you have an opinion!
7. Magic / occult / supernatural questions.
8. Sexuality / sex scene / sexual anatomy / erotica questions.
9. Whiny and/or argumentative statements/questions about something in writing you dislike.
10. “Signal boost” requests for your post, blog, website, book, charity, etc.*

If I do respond to an ask that violates these guidelines, it doesn’t mean my policy is changing. Do not jump in with more like questions.

If I do not respond to an ask even though it doesn’t violate these guidelines,

• Tumblr ate your ask.
• It was time sensitive, but I didn’t have time.
• You forgot to ask a question entirely—yes, this happens.
• I didn’t understand it due to typos, faulty English, etc.
• I forgot.

Want to see if I’ve already answered or have shared info relevant to your question?

• Check #answer on this blog
• Use the search feature
• For desktop users, there is a tag list link on the sidebar

I am currently in the process of tag wrangling.

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wonderful-emoji:

speakswords:

Alright this is rly sad but here goes. I started doing my once-in-awhile bot purge from my followers list. And. I used to be able to just quickly scan and see the bots. They were the ones with default icons and generator-sounding names like “noun-girl-827”. And if you weren’t sure, you could click on the blog and it would be immediately obvious it was a bot because there’s either just bad porn click bait, or nothing there.

Well. This time I had to give up immediately because I got like ten followers down the list and was having immense trouble figuring out who’s a bot and who’s real. Never ever used to see this but like 5/10 of the first few followers I checked on had just totally empty blogs. It wasn’t until I’d already blocked 2 - assuming bots bc empty blogs - that I thought to check if they had any likes. And bam! There it was. All of their user activity.

We have people on this website now who have never reblogged a single post.

Y'all, I’m sure you’re sick of seeing “you have to reblog thing” but you literally have to reblog things. That is how this website works. You understand that, right? How do you think the post you hit “like” on got in front of you? It wasn’t because you liked enough things and Tumblrs algorithm figured out what you like enough to hand it to you. It’s because you followed someone, a human person, who reblogged that post. And it came from another person who also reblogged it.

You are killing this website by refusing to interact with it in the way that makes it better than the other websites you ran from to come here.

Anyway, I’m sure you’re all nice people, but I’m not going to play the “bot or not” game if you have an empty blog I’m going to block you.

PSA for newer users

PSA on the PSA (that I confirm is valid and it makes me sad): bots can have like lists too. You can still tell they are fake because they spam-like things under specific tags.

So block blank blogs at will, babes. There be bots about.

(via mahaloapollo)

aeide-thea:

tockthewatchdog:

loved one: i have a problem

me a machine built to solve problems: great here’s the solution

loved one: im so fucking emotional about the problem

me: i have the solution

loved one: i get so angry. i’m frustrated

me: i am holding the solution in my hand and showing it to you

lloved one, yelling now: the universe is indifferent

me: solution

#the trick here is that the problem actually has two parts: #one part is the problem itself #the other is the emotional distress and feeling of loneliness generated by the problem

#and counterintuitively you have to take care of that second part FIRST #because otherwise—as you point out—they won’t be able to absorb the solution #so step one is going ‘i love you i’m so sorry this is happening to you i love you’ and listening to them for a while

#and then once they remember that they’re not an island of misery in a sea of nothingness #you hit them with the solution (proposed gently so that it doesn’t seem like you’re trying to shut them up about the problem) #it’s probably going to feel weird to do it but I guarantee you it works

#tl;dr: when someone’s complaining about a problem it’s about an 85% chance that they actually want attention sympathy and kindness #and the actual problem is something they can solve—but only once they’ve fulfilled the immediate need

(via @bill-blake-fans-anonymous)

(via mahaloapollo)

heywriters:

Improving syntax simply takes practice and creativity. Take any sentence in your WIP, especially weak ones, and rearrange the words. Then read it out loud and listen for the difference.

Example of reworking syntax:

• She spent all month cleaning and repairing the house before it was put up for sale.
• Before the house was put up for sale, she spent a month cleaning and repairing it.
• Cleaning and repairing the house before putting it up for sale took her all month.

Rearranging syntax can also help “fit” a sentence between two other sentences, like a puzzle piece. If a whole paragraph sounds off, one sentence might be the problem.

• It was a competitive market and time was running out. She spent all month cleaning and repairing the house before it was put up for sale. It didn’t feel like enough.
• It was a competitive market and time was running out. Before the house was put up for sale, she spent a month cleaning and repairing it. It didn’t feel like enough.
• It was a competitive market and time was running out. Cleaning and repairing the house before putting it up for sale took her all month. It didn’t feel like enough.

Practice this while writing or editing. Find sentences that don’t work in a paragraph, or just sound awkward to read. Rearrange them in different ways like the above examples until you find one you like.

Changing the wording, or diction, can also improve a sentence. If changing the syntax does not satisfy you, change the wording next and see if that helps. Reading your work out loud or letting a native speaker review it will help you so much.

Below are the references I used for this ask. They are more in-depth and contain links to other information on syntax.

What is Syntax? Definition, Examples of English Syntax - Writing Explained

Define Syntax: Learn the definition of syntax as a grammatical / literary concept with example sentences & worksheets. What is syntax? Find

Writing Explained

Syntax in the English Language: Definition, Examples, and 3 Ways to Use Syntax Effectively - 2022 - MasterClass

Syntax is the set of rules that helps readers and writers make sense of sentences. It's also an important tool that writers can use to creat

MasterClass

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theticklishpear:

I didn’t create the 10-point plot model, only use it for my own writings, so I’m not sure of the creator’s intentions (I’m not even sure who created it at all, since it was a handout in school ages ago with no attribution). I tend to use it for overall plot of an entire book. It’s not meant to be all-inclusive for every single plot moment that will occur, but rather it’s meant as a general outline to then build up further. It’s a starting point.

That said, I have used simplified versions of it for shorter stories and character arcs as well, so take a look toward the middle/bottom of that article for a glimpse into that process. If the 10-point plot model appeals to you, there are ways to modify it to fit multiple POV narratives.

Start first by looking at each of the characters in turn and mapping out their stories, even if you don’t intend for all of it to get on-screen. This also includes mapping out plot events that are common to more than one character’s progression.

You could certainly do 10-points for each of them, but unless several of the more major events are going to cross over, then you might instead think about reducing it to five- or seven-point plots. Every arc is going to have a beginning, middle, and end, and within that, there will always be a climax of some kind. (Remember that climaxes don’t have to be BIG, like battles. Climaxes can be small and still be meaningful.)

Perhaps something like this:

Now, obviously these are subjective and you can tweak things for what the story needs, particularly in terms of pacing.

You might choose to have one for each character and each line runs parallel to the others, or you might choose to mesh them together into one larger 15- or 20-point model.

Remember: You can put as many or as few scenes in these boxes as you want. As much or as little time can pass between these blocks as you need. The boxes can be used for one character or three. They don’t have to be rigid.

There isn’t really a good way to lay out one definitive point model that any multiple-POV narrative could use because the pacing for those kinds of stories tends to vary widely. When it’s important to have a scene from one character versus another character is very dependent upon what each of those characters is going through, what’s important to the overall story you’re trying to tell, and how you want it to progress.

I have my 10-point plot model up on a wall with post-it notes that I move around a lot before deciding on an order of events for a story. For a multiple-POV narrative using these models, I imagine it would be much the same. Lots of mushing together and pulling apart, and mushing together again in a slightly different arrangement until you get the overall arc of the book and the beats of the individual character arcs to feel right when you’re telling yourself the story in your mind. 

I know that didn’t really answer your question much, but I hope you’re willing to cultivate some patience and try to figure out whether these work best for you, or if another model will be better. It takes time to figure out what works for the type of story you’re telling because nothing is a one-size-fits-all method.

Good luck!
-Pear

How to Write a Novel with Multiple Points of View from NY Book Editors
Writing in Multiple Points of View from @wondrousworldbuilding
Writing with Multiple POVs from @roselinproductions
4 Things to Look For from @brynwrites
8 tips for using multiple POVs expertly from nownovel
Mastering Multiple POV in 6 Steps from Mythic Scribes

Resources for Writing Injuries

wordsnstuff:

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

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Head Injuries

• General Information | More
• Hematoma
• Hemorrhage
• Concussion
• Edema
• Skull Fracture
• Diffuse Axonal Injury

Neck

• General Information
• Neck sprain
• Herniated Disk
• Pinched Nerve
• Cervical Fracture
• Broken Neck

Chest (Thoracic)

• General Information
• Aortic disruption
• Blunt cardiac injury
• Cardiac tamponade
• Flail chest
• Hemothorax
• Pneumothorax (traumatic pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax)
• Pulmonary contusion
• Broken Ribs
• Broken Collarbone
  

Continuar lendo

(via servantprincess)

neurotypical-karen:

The inherent violence of buildings you have known being destroyed. I’m not saying this from an activism perspective, I’m talking about the shock to the system and the incomprehensible nature of a whole building simply not existing anymore. Rooms that you will be unable to visit again or make more memories in. It’s like a death. And we very rarely hold funerals for it. Am I making sense? I feel like i’m going crazy

I watched an urban exploration video of Detroit with my mother who grew up around there. It included footage of multiple theaters, schools, and stadiums being demolished. The destruction of the Silver Dome, a place she had told me about for decades, made her audibly gasp. She hadn’t known it was gone. She described the footage as “traumatizing” and wouldn’t watch any more videos after that. She’s not very expressive usually, so I’m sorry I showed her.

(via servantprincess)

runcibility:

that-girl-from-ap-geography:

fierceawakening:

buckythelittlepuppy:

queencatradora:

always-slytherins:

lana–22:

what-even-is-thiss:

queencatradora:

tryingmygoshdangdarndest:

bleachtrippin:

queencatradora:

queencatradora:

queencatradora:

i went to the dentist today and my dentist honest to god said “can i ask you a question…….what the hell is in your mouth”

it was in awe lmao

then the hygienist and assistant all came over to look too and they were like “wooooow” and my ass was sitting there like

oh my god i posted this and then went to work, and

story time

okay so to preface this, my hometown where i’m originally from is a really fucking weird place. like from the outside it seems like a normal suburban town, but once you’re there for awhile you get the feeling that’s something’s not…quite all together. a lot of people are really fucking weird there — so much so that that was a running joke in school growing up, that people in the town were just like that. everyone knew not to go out to the farm lands surrounding the town especially at night, we called it “the cuts” and people used to disappear out there all the time or get shot at by the especially weird people that would live out there. the news was and still is truly a thing of horror. every time i come back i’m regaled with even more stories of crazy shit that has happened there.

to put it in perspective we generally never had “normal crime” like robbery or anything like that when i lived there, though that did happen sometimes. the news stories were always like, “a kid was kidnapped by local residents and tortured in a house around the corner,” “a random person was chased down and shot for sport in a really nice neighborhood,” “someone was gored to death by a bull while out car shopping,” etc. (these are all real, btw). everyone does drugs and the whole town is located really close to a government site where they test nuclear weapons and chemicals and shit. this is how i grew up, in this bizarre environment.

i need to preface it this way so that you get that it’s weird. it’s a fucking weird place. i used to listen to the welcome to night vale podcast and make comparisons from it to my hometown, that’s how weird it is.

i only say this so you know that this town is where i got my orthodontics from.

all the kids in my town went to this one particular orthodontist. i also used to go to a dentist in town that a lot of people went to as well. i had a permanent retainer put on my bottom teeth after braces and no one had ever said anything to me about the model of retainer itself or it being weird type of retainer at all. i saw a ton of other people (mostly other kids that were my age at the time) that had the same type of retainer as me too so i never thought about it.

so i kept my retainer in — it’s never caused me problems and it keeps my teeth straight, why not?

however i went to a dentist for the first time in a metropolitan area now, and when he saw it in my mouth his literal first reaction was to say “uh can i ask you a question….what the hell is that”

LITERALLY the words that he said

which in hindsight makes almost too much sense. of course my town of all towns would put these weird unnecessary contraptions in kids’ mouths, and of course it happened so much that everyone just thought it was normal. that sounds exactly, to a T, like my hometown.

my permanent bottom retainer is apparently this prototype that is so rare that he’s literally never seen it before in his life, not in dental school, nowhere. it’s not that it’s an outdated type, it’s just rare as fuck. they were still staring at pictures of it on my chart in wonder when i left the office.

so just know somewhere out there, in a weird ass suburban town where they test nuclear weapons and a good portion of the residents go fucking nuts, there’s probably hundreds of people still walking around with this same contraption in their mouth that exists nowhere else in the world thinking, “yeah, that’s cool. that makes sense. let me go drink the definitely not-contaminated water now and never move away from here.”

This sounds like an X-files episode

Okay, so I looked into it and I think that the town is Tracy, California.

I looked up the bull-murder thing OP mentioned and Tracy seemed to be only town that came up with a matching case. Though the man didn’t actually die from his injuries everything else matches up one for one. So just to make sure that it was the right town I looked to see if there was any murder-torture of young people in Tracy, and unfortunately there was. It was a 17 year old boy who escaped and survived the torture. And just to solidify that it was in fact Tracy I looked up shootings in residential areas and there was one of a 20 year old man who was shot and killed in a nice neighborhood.

Okay, but I decided to look into Tracy more to find out more information about it and the town is super suspicious. There’s been a lot of murders and shooting in the town. Back in 2009 an 8 year old girl, Sandra Cantu, was kidnapped and murdered by a Sunday school teacher who said she had no idea why she killed Sandra. Another case happened in 2018 when four underage boys were shot and one was killed by four teenage boys. There’s a lot of news stories on shootings, homicides, and drug busts in that town. It’s a really cute town from the outside, if you just look up Tracy, California there’s a lot of really cute businesses and nice articles on sweet things that happen in the town, but if you actually look into it the town is really sketchy.

So yeah, this sketchy town with a military base, multiple homicides and shootings is maybe Tracy, California.

………………..yeah, you guys caught me

i grew up in tracy

also i have to add another person’s tags to this since it’s honesty hour because they’re hilarious and true

Honestly I wasn’t even surprised when I found out it was in California. Even less surprised when googled it and found out it was near the Bay Area. That sounds about right.

Apparently the motto is “Think Inside the Triangle” and I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Im rebolgging just to add that it’s illegal to see the news from the city in UE. Like, LITERALLY:

it’s….what now

Please get out of this place

How did this post get weirder

This absolutely tracks. I went on a date with someone from Tracy once, and she almost started a fight with a koi in a pond.

We were walking along, and she was gesturing with a drink in her hand, and lost her grip. Drink lands near the edge of the pond, lid pops off, ice slides out and some lands in the pond. Koi come swimming towards the pond’s edge, gaping their mouths and she yells at them for going after her drink. I think it’s a bit.

No, she gets down on her hands and knees and tries to get in their faces, like she was in a bar calling someone’s macho bluff.

She wouldn’t back down from a fish. That’s pure Tracy energy.

(via fandomfan315)

vamprisms:

characters who refuse to heal. characters who change but only for the worse. characters who are trapped by their grief and rage. characters who unravel throughout the narrative. i am putting them in my pocket for later

(via cloudstation)

daisywords:

daisywords:

can’t believe it’s 2022 and we still have posts around about not overusing “said” like seriously? Imagine if I made a list of words to use instead of “and.” wouldn’t that be stupid?

Gail Carson Levine was RIGHT

heywriters:

Similes, while they are a form of figurative language, to me feel like they are “telling” me about something instead of “showing” me that thing. They are a useful tool in describing something informally, like to a friend, or when you want your comparison to be easily understood, like to a child.

For example,

• The messy warehouse was like a jungle with cords and rope hanging like vines. The tall shelves were packed so solid they were like tree trunks.

This does a fine job of describing a scene without being too flat. There is nothing truly wrong with it except the repetition of “like” can get on a writer’s nerves, and occasionally a reader’s. Compare it to this example,

• Vines of cord and rope hung from the rusting jungle of overstocked shelves, unreachable inventory in its canopy.

By using metaphor the scene is more immersive. Instead of simply describing ideas to the reader, metaphors can make them feel and understand those ideas more intimately. Both versions are fine, but each has a different affect.

You do not need to go into your work and remove all the “like” similes. I use them whenever I want to, especially as placeholders in first drafts so I can try to transform them into metaphors later. Then sometimes only a simile will do for a scene, and in that case “is like” is free to stay.

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bamfcoyotetango:

seriouslydidijustdothat:

martian-martian-martian:

do-you-have-a-flag:

nonbinarybriarmoss:

ok excuse me but w h a t

we love to see it

for context for those unaware of why this is particularly funny

A Deep Dive Into the Anne Rice Fanfiction Debacle

The more I dig, the worse it gets.

Medium

It’s actually not AS funny as it seems: It’s crazier.

For those who have actually played the game, theres a huge fine print thing you have to sign, and if you read through it, it actually says that everything posted on the site is immediately released by the creator as the property of AMC, which, insanely, means if they use the entire plot of your stupid fanfic game as part of the show, they don’t need to credit you ever.

It’s actually a genius way to try and DISCOURAGE independent fanfic, replacing it with a place where the corporation owns and censors everything you make without credit.

If you post something in a normal fanfic, there is some legal precedent for your ownership if your work is plagiarized by the canon production, but the app is one step ahead.

Adding important tags

from @martian-martian-martian

#reminder to never write fic through corportate-owned methods#not apps#not contests (looking at you disney)#not games or online journals or any place where your rights aren’t being visibly and viciously protected#this includes wattpad with last year’s(?) deal with paramount#basically the only safe place now is ao3

and more from @s-cullayy

#yeah as soon as i saw this i was like oh so they’re just trying to get free content from people#that they don’t have to credit#folks this is what ao3 is for#don’t do the writers rooms job for them if you’re not getting paid

Adding on that if you see anything and I mean ANYTHING like this; read All of The Fine Print.

Not some.

Not most.

ALL OF IT.

Because of shit like this.

Almost had my rights to my own photos taken once if I hadn’t read the fine print on the rules/conditions

(via fandomfan315)

elytrians:

elytrians:

idk if this is a trope or whatever but i love it so much when fictional characters massively downplay the severity of their injuries but in more of a comedic way than a tragic one. like some guy gets impaled and they just glance down at the shard of metal sticking out of them and say some dumb bullshit like “oh man. that’s gonna need some ice.” and then pass out while all their friends yell at them for being an unfunny idiot with terrible priorities.

(via servantprincess)

xcziel:

brindlefern:

nctinmotion:

Source: This

(via servantprincess)

heywriters:

Primary suggestion is that you prioritize certain siblings. Determine which siblings your MC spends/spent the most time with and focus on developing them more than the rest.

In most large families, siblings are closest to those closest to them in age. Oldest kids hang with older kids, younger with youngest, etc. This has to do with shared experiences as well as proximity. Perhaps the oldest kids were already teenagers when the youngest were born, so they have less in common. In some families, the oldest raises the youngest, thus the two have a close relationship that way.

Gender may also play a part. Some families intentionally or inadvertently group with other siblings of their gender: sisters know sisters best, brothers know brothers. Large families often have homes that require rooms be shared, so boys and girls have their own areas of the houses to grow up together.

When creating ten individuals is unnecessary for the story, emphasize what makes them a group. Perhaps mom is a very tidy person, so that trait was passed on to some of her children. Dad likes sports, so all of the kids support his favorite team. Every kid inherited grandma’s cheekbones, every kid has dad’s freckles, many of them are allergic to cats, they are all of the same faith, etc.

Knowing what their family life was like and how the sibling hierarchy worked will help you best in developing your MC. Each sibling’s affect on the MC personally doesn’t need to be developed if it’s not relevant.

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hexglyphs:

hexglyphs:

i’ve seen a lot of good character dynamics on my dash recently but there’s an excellent one i think you’re all forgetting: two people who are the smart, sensible voices of reason respected by their peers for their level-headedness and intelligence when they’re apart, but who turn into unholy chaotic disasters with zero impulse control as soon as they join forces

like they each have an IQ of 160+ but whenever they’re together they cancel each other out and regress to utter Dumbass Bastard Mode™️

(via servantprincess)