artdragon324

[artdragon324]

4 Strategies to Avoid Wordiness

Wordiness is when a sentence contains words that, if removed (or replaced with a shorter alternative), convey the same message and remain grammatically correct. It may happen when you use more words than necessary within a sentence, especially short, vague words that do not add much meaning.

Omit unnecessary words by using a "who does what" construction (Take out: it is, there is, there are, which, that, this, and self-references such as in my opinion, I think, it seems to me.)

Wordy: It was a night that was dark and freezing when the ship Titanic was struck by an iceberg.

Better: An iceberg struck the Titanic on a dark and freezing night.

Avoid too many abstract and difficult words

Wordy: “Conservatism is the paradigm of essences toward which the phenomenology of the world is in continuing approximation” (William Buckley, Jr.).

Better: Conservativism is the belief in absolute values whose expression change with the times.

Shorten sentences by rearranging ideas

Wordy: The president of the school board that presides over Dade County schools is accepting of the participation of students in alternative classes of their choice.

Better: The Dade County School Board president allows student to choose electives.

Omit repetitious words and ideas

Wordy: The cookies are baking in the oven. The cookies are chocolate chip.

Concise: The chocolate chip cookies are baking in the oven.

Notice how the wordy phrases below can be reduced to one or two words:

along the lines of = like

as a matter of fact = in fact

at all times = always

at the present time = now, currently

at this point in time = now, currently

because of the fact that = because

by means of = by

due to the fact that = because

for the purpose of = for

for the reason that = because

have the ability to = be able to

in the nature of = like

in order to = to

in spite of the fact that = although, though

in the event that = if

in the final analysis = finally

in the neighborhood of = about

until such time as = until

[artdragon324]

4 Strategies to Avoid Wordiness

Wordiness is when a sentence contains words that, if removed (or replaced with a shorter alternative), convey the same message and remain grammatically correct. It may happen when you use more words than necessary within a sentence, especially short, vague words that do not add much meaning.

Omit unnecessary words by using a "who does what" construction (Take out: it is, there is, there are, which, that, this, and self-references such as in my opinion, I think, it seems to me.)

Wordy: It was a night that was dark and freezing when the ship Titanic was struck by an iceberg.

Better: An iceberg struck the Titanic on a dark and freezing night.

Avoid too many abstract and difficult words

Wordy: “Conservatism is the paradigm of essences toward which the phenomenology of the world is in continuing approximation” (William Buckley, Jr.).

Better: Conservativism is the belief in absolute values whose expression change with the times.

Shorten sentences by rearranging ideas

Wordy: The president of the school board that presides over Dade County schools is accepting of the participation of students in alternative classes of their choice.

Better: The Dade County School Board president allows student to choose electives.

Omit repetitious words and ideas

Wordy: The cookies are baking in the oven. The cookies are chocolate chip.

Concise: The chocolate chip cookies are baking in the oven.

Notice how the wordy phrases below can be reduced to one or two words:

along the lines of = like

as a matter of fact = in fact

at all times = always

at the present time = now, currently

at this point in time = now, currently

because of the fact that = because

by means of = by

due to the fact that = because

for the purpose of = for

for the reason that = because

have the ability to = be able to

in the nature of = like

in order to = to

in spite of the fact that = although, though

in the event that = if

in the final analysis = finally

in the neighborhood of = about

until such time as = until

[artdragon324]

Writing Notes & References

Alchemy ⚜ Antidote to Anxiety ⚜ Attachment ⚜ Autopsy

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Bruises ⚜ Caffeine ⚜ Color Blindness ⚜ Cruise Ships

Children ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ Childhood Bilingualism

Dangerousness ⚜ Drowning ⚜ Dystopia ⚜ Dystopian World

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Emotions: Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness

Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness) ⚜ Quirks

Facial Expressions ⚜ Laughter & Humour ⚜ Swearing & Taboo

Fantasy Creatures ⚜ Fantasy World Building

Generations ⚜ Literary & Character Tropes

Fight Scenes ⚜ Kill Adverbs

Food: Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary & Hollywood Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs

Genre: Crime ⚜ Horror ⚜ Fantasy ⚜ Speculative Biology

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

How to Write: Food ⚜ Colours ⚜ Drunkenness

Jargon ⚜ Logical Fallacies ⚜ Memory ⚜ Memoir

Magic: Magic System ⚜ 10 Uncommon ⚜ How to Choose

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Related Words

Mystical Items & Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Relics ⚜ Poison

Pain ⚜ Pain & Violence ⚜ Poison Ivy & Poison Oak

Realistic Injuries 1 2 ⚜ Rejection ⚜ Structural Issues ⚜ Villains

Symbolism: Colors ⚜ Food ⚜ Numbers ⚜ Storms

Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions

Terms of Endearment ⚜ Ways of Saying "No" ⚜ Yoga

Compilations: Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ For Poets ⚜ Tips & Advice

all posts are queued. will update this every few weeks/months. send questions or requests here ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[artdragon324]

GUYS WTF!?

How are there so many people on this hellsite that actually know I exist?

...

*confused screaming*

[artdragon324]

Writing Basics

will update this every few weeks/months. alternatively, here are all my tagged writing basics/refreshers

Basic Grammatical Terms ⚜ Improve your Vocabulary

Parts of Speech ⚜ Punctuation Marks ⚜ Poetic Meter

Adjective or Adverb ⚜ Conjunctive Adverbs ⚜ Tips on Adverbs

IPA Symbols ⚜ "i.e." & "e.g." ⚜ Lexical Universals

Prepositional Meanings ⚜ Prepositional Phrases

Questions Part 1 2 3 ⚜ Avoid Wordiness

Words

Commonly Confused Words Part 1 2 3

"Troublesome" Words Part 1 2 3 ⚜ Transition Words

Word Alternatives Part 1 2 3 4 ⚜ Nonsense Words

all posts are queued. send questions/requests here ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[artdragon324]

Um...

I have a discord server.

Um...

Yup...

[artdragon324]

The silly telephone has been reincarnated.

Also in these photos I'm very violently gripping the thing with my pale ass beat-up hands lmao.

CONTEXT:

In school, my art class got the opportunity to work with clay and make either a bowl, a vase, or a mug. I chose to make a mug, and the stupid idea to turn it into Commander Tartar was the first (and only) idea my two braincells could come up with. As for the glaze colors, I chose random ones I liked 😅. I just got the finished mug today, and while it's bumpy in most some spots, I'm quite proud of it.

Bonus photos:

[artdragon324]

Artists, let’s talk about Instagram commission scammers

There’s been a huge rise in commission scammers recently, mostly on Instagram. A lot of new artists don’t know what to look out for, so I figured this might help people.

How they begin

Usually the scammer will write to you asking about a commission. Something deceptively cute - mostly I encounter asks about pet portraits, with one or two photos sent. They’ll probably try to sell you a sweet little story, like “It’s for my son’s birthday”. They will insist that they love your artwork and style, even though they don’t follow you or never liked a single piece of your art.

What to look out for:

Their profiles will either be private, empty, or filled with very generic stuff, dating at most a few years back.

Their language will be very simple, rushed or downright bad. They might use weird emojis that nobody ever uses. They will probably send impatient “??” when you don’t answer immediately. They’re in a crunch - lots of people to scam, you know. 

They’ll give you absolutely no guidelines. No hints on style, contents aside from (usually) the pet and often a name written on the artwork, no theme. Anything you draw will be perfect. Full artistic freedom. In reality they don’t really care for this part.

They’ll offer you a ridiculous amount of money. Usually 100 or 300 USD (EDIT: I know it might not be a lot for some work. What I mean here - way higher than your asking price, 100 and 300 are standard rates they give). They’ll often put in a phrase like “I am willing to compensate you financially” and “I want the best you can draw”, peppered with vague praise. It will most likely sound way too good to be true. That’s because it is.

Where the scam actually happens

If you agree, they will ask you for a payment method. They’ll try to get to this part as soon as possible. 

Usually, they’ll insist on PayPal. And not just any PayPal. They’ll always insist on sending you a transfer immediately. None of that PayPal Invoice stuff (although some do have methods for that, too). They’ll really, REALLY want to get your PayPal email address and name for the transfer - that’s what they’re after. If you insist on any other method, they’ll just circle back to the transfer “for easiest method”. If you do provide them with the info, most likely you’ll soon get a scam email. It most likely be a message with a link that will ultimately lead to bleeding you dry. Never, and I mean NEVER click on any emails or links you get from them. It’s like with any other scam emails you can ever get.

A few things can happen here:

They overpay you and ask for the difference to be wired back. Usually it will go to a different account and you’ll never see that money again. 

They’ll overpay you “for shipping costs” and ask you to forward the difference to their shipping company. Just like before, you’ll never see that money again.

The actual owner of the account (yes, they most likely use stolen accounts to wire from) will realize there’s been something sketchy going on and request a refund via official channels. Your account will be charged with fees and/or you get in trouble for fraudulent transactions. 

You will transfer the money from your PayPal credit to your bank account and they will make a shitstorm when they want their money back, making your life a living hell. They will call you a scammer, a thief, make wild claims, wearing you down and forcing you into wiring money “back” - aka to their final destination account. 

Never, EVER wire money to anyone. This is not how it’s supposed to go. Use PayPal Invoice for secure exchanges where the client needs to provide you with their email, not the other way around.

You can find more info on that method HERE.

What to do when you encounter a scammer:

Ask the right questions: inquire about the style, which artwork of yours they like, as much details as you can. They won’t supply you with any good answers.

Don’t let the rush of the exchange, their praise and the promise of insanely good money to get to you. That’s how they operate, that’s how they make you lose vigilance. 

Don’t engage them. As soon as you realize it might be a scam, block them. The sense of urgency they create with their rushed exchange, and pressure they put on you will sooner or later get to you and you might do something that you’ll regret later.

Never wire money to anyone. Never give out your personal data. Never provide your email, name, address or credit card info. 

Don’t be deceived by receiving a payment, if you somehow agree to go along with it. Just because it’s there now doesn’t mean it can’t be withdrawn. 

Here is a very standard example of such an exchange. I realized it’s a scam pretty fast and went along with it, because I wanted good screenshots for you guys, so I tried going very “by the book” with it. 

Please share this post, make it reach as many artists as possible. Let young or inexperienced artists know that this is going on. So many people have no idea that this is a thing. Let’s help each other out. If you think I missed any relevant info, do add it as an rb!

Also, if you know other scam methods that you think should be shared, consider rb-ing this post with them below. Having a master post of scam protection would AWESOME to have in the art community.

[artdragon324]

What's your favorite Splatfest in Splatoon 3?

Non-Special Splatfest: Drums v Guitar v Keyboard

Special Splatfest: Power v Wisdom v Courage

[artdragon324]

Spotify Wrapped.

[artdragon324]

Gender coining!

Name: Temperagender, Temperafluid.

Temperafluid, also known as temperagender, is a fluid gender in which a person’s gender is a mix of at least three different genders that slightly contradict each other at all times. These genders can be of any alignment (masculine-aligned, feminine-aligned, androgyne, epicene, xenic, etc.), and are (usually) not influenced by outside factors including but not limited to weather and outside judgement. For example, a temperafluid person can be agender, juxera, and gendersatyr all at the same time one day, then proxvir, demicisgender, and musicgender the next.

Official Wiki Page:

Tagging (can ignore if desired): @radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian

@mogai-coining @mogai-reblog @dragonpride17 @just-ur-local-term-coiner @io-archival

@daybreakflags

[artdragon324]

Tips for Writing Concisely

“Instant prose” can come from being forced to write papers of a particular length or being told that a paragraph must always contain exactly five sentences. This habit leads to the opposite of conciseness—wordiness in sentences and redundancy in paragraphs, which can confuse the reader and cloud your ideas.

Write what you mean—nothing more and nothing less.

Trust and respect yourself as a writer enough to not overstate what you mean.

Study sentences in your first draft to see what you can delete without losing meaning.

Read each paragraph aloud. Be sure that all sentences support the topic sentence.

Keep concrete, specific examples. Cut out extra words, empty phrases, weak qualifiers, negative constructions, and unnecessary “to be” verbs.

Also, watch for sentences and clauses beginning with it is, this is, and there are.

EXAMPLE 1

Wordy: The economic situation of Anne Moody was also a crucial factor in the formation of her character.

Concise: Anne Moody’s poverty also helped form her character.

EXAMPLE 2

Wordy: Frequently, a chapter in a book reveals to the reader the main point that the author desires to bring out during the course of the chapter.

Concise: A chapter’s title often reveals its thesis.

WEAK INTENSIFIERS & QUALIFIERS

Sentences are more forceful without them.

Notice how much clearer the following sentences are without the words in brackets:

We found the proposal [quite] feasible.

The remark, though unkind, was [entirely] accurate.

The scene was [extremely] typical.

That behavior is [fairly] unique for such an intelligent animal.

The first line [definitely] establishes that the father had been drinking.

SPECIFIC & CONCRETE Make sure that sentences are specific and concrete in their conclusions instead of raising more questions:

Wordy: In both Orwell’s and Baldwin’s essays, the feeling of white supremacy is very important. (This raises the questions: How is it important? Why?)

Concise: Both Orwell and Baldwin trace the consequences of white supremacy. (This revision states its point conclusively.)

"TO BE" Avoid unnecessary use of “to be” verbs:

Wordy: There are two pine trees which are growing behind this house.

Concise: Two pine trees grow behind this house.

REDUNDANT WORDS/PHRASES

Wordy: Any student could randomly sit anywhere.

Concise: Students could sit anywhere. (If they could sit “anywhere,” seating was clearly “random.”)

NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS TO POSITIVE

Wordy: Housing for married students is not unworthy of consideration.

Concise: Housing for married students is worthy of consideration.

SIMPLIFY

Wordy: This is a quote from Black Elk’s autobiography that discloses his prophetic powers.

Concise: This quote from Black Elk’s autobiography discloses his prophetic powers.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Basics ⚜ Avoid Wordiness

[artdragon324]

YEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!-

HELL YEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!-

[artdragon324]

[artdragon324]

Note. Goal. Post. Thingy. (why tf am I doing this)

10 notes - Will post a sketchbook dump

20 notes - Will post some animations (miscellaneous 2D ones)

30 notes - Will post myself singing

(Will add to this later)

[artdragon324]

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

[artdragon324]

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