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I’M MOVING!!

I know I’ve been basically dead for along time now. I’ve been very busy with school and other activities. However, I did take the time to further develop my stories. I’m actually writing my ideas guys! Ain’t that crazy??

Anyway, the reason why I’m writing this post is because I decided to move this side blog to a new main blog on another account. This blog will still be here as an archive, but I’ll no longer be using it.

Here’s the link to the new blog: https://endless-minds.tumblr.com/

Hope to see y’all there! :)

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i love in fantasy when its like “king galamir the mighty golden eagle and his most trusted advisor who would never betray him, gruelworm bloodeye the treacherous”

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O-O"

There have probably been tens of thousands of amazing stories that we will never get to read because the writer felt discouraged.

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It be like that sometimes

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Sometimes I feel like writing tips are sought out by people hoping that by combining them it will have the same effect as a potion or incantation and will magically make their writing good and them good at it. That, that's never going to be true. That doesn't happen. "Show don't tell" is not an essential oil that will cure your story's cough. Avoiding the word "suddenly" will not prevent your story from catching a cold. Writing a love triangle will not cast misfortune upon your crops.

Just, write stuff. Then write stuff again. Then again.

I created more problems in my new writing by trying to avoid the problems of my old writing. I've edited to death some stories so that they no longer have any style or intrigue. Some writing tips I wielded like a bludgeon and had to rebuild my stories all over again. Misuse or overuse or abuse or whatever of writing tips can damage your writing and how you feel about writing. They are not cures and they will not ward off all potential criticism. Don't take writing tips too seriously.

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in 2020 may the epic stories i write in my head finally make it onto paper

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The first rule of writing is hoard notebooks

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so i made some memes

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There truly is a difference between "whispered" and "said quietly."

You can even write "said softly" or "in a low tone" and each evokes something slightly different when read. Do not take the No Adverbs advice so hard. So much of dialogue is tonal, so when you need a different word use it. Don't sacrifice meaning and character in important scenes for the sake of a "rule."

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Unconventional Writing Advice:

The sound of water is great to get creativity flowing. Write in the shower for best results

Drinking coffee won’t banish the shadow folk. Get some sleep. You’ll be alone by morning

Forget outlining, channel your psychic intuition and divine the plot instead!

Having trouble finishing your WIP? Make a DIY blood-pact to seal your commitment

Success is built upon the bones of failure. Remember this.

If the writing gods don’t answer your prayers, replace them with ones who will

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Writing Prompt #1074

“When I said dress to impress, I didn’t mean—”

“You’re trying to tell me a carefully hand-stitched cosplay is less impressive than picking some stupid dress from a department store? I think the fuck not!”

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Reminder for my non-jewish followers that don’t really know what Hannukah [and all the other attempts to translate it over] is about, think the following:

Ostensibly people just kinda eat fried things and light candles and contemplate. Yes.  But its also “The current ruling party demanded we not be jewish, forced conversion and desecrated our places of worship. So, its time for a rebellion to kill the occupation and take our shit back. Welp we did it, but they fucked up the temple real bad and the way time works says we won’t have the right things to keep our sacred fire burning. We can use this oil we found but it probably won’t last the whole time we need to wait. Wait, holy shit it’s lasting all night! x 8 nights. Lets fry some things and make it a holiday.”

Its another “They tried to kill/convert us all, they failed, lets eat and remember this keeps happening” holiday.

No, its not jewish xmas. No its not anywhere near our be all end all holiday.  It IS however a very good “eat food in winter and focus on the light in the world etc in the middle of the winter” thing. 

Its hard to put words to it, but like. I just wanna let it settle in that its nothing like xmas

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Writers: If you enjoyed writing it, that’s enough. Writing can be an end in itself. It doesn’t have to be “good” by anyone else’s standards. It doesn’t have to be published or validated in any way. Delight in putting words on the page. Delight in falling down pretty rabbit holes that might not “make sense” to others. IT’S OKAY TO WRITE JUST TO WRITE, just to have fun, just to please yourself. This is your permission slip. Go forth and create nonsense. I’m cheering for you. xo

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do y’all ever go to spell the word ‘rhythm’ and just… can’t

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What grade level should vocabulary be for a good novel in your opinion? I think Stephen King said keep it at a 4th grade but I’m not sure what that is ha ha

Stephen King writes horror for a mass audience and churns out multiple books a year. He has a point, but it’s specific to him and does not mean anything to every writer. Writing at a “grade level” is a hilarious concept in itself. It implies we’re all writing for US school children and adults who never advanced past that. Not to mention in the US we had a popular game show for a while called “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?” where adult participants were weekly bested by a panel of ten-year-olds at basic academics.

I’ve never considered what “level” my words should be at, I just write for the characters and narrator. Most books I love do that too, and in school I learned many big words by reading books above my supposed “reading level.” Meanwhile, all my classmates who outspokenly hated reading loved “Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark” and dog-eared every copy of Goosebumps the school library had to offer. So that might explain Stephen King’s philosophy. Scary books need smaller words to achieve their point, and “scary” can be understood by any audience.

Write what you want. Write characters who use small words or narrators who think in big words. If a reader thinks it’s too hard to understand, they can read something easier.

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Hi I don't know if this is the right blog to send this to but do you have any resources/pages I can look up to find out how the hell basic stuff in american highschools work? You would think that finding such information would be easy but I can't for the life of me find any (I'm not from the US and my country doesn't have such a school system)

Hey, there. So, I don't know how the internet works in Austria, but I just Googled "how does american high school work" and got some decent links. Some quick tips from an American high school alumni about the average US HS:

Basics

Government funding (taxes) pays schools to operate, and currently the amount of money a school receives is bleakly based on how well the students pass tests at the end of each year

U.S. school years are "grades"; when you are 6 or 7-years-old you enter 1st Grade and are considered a "1st Grader"

High school is four years long, ages 14-19, grades 9-12

BUT those are the only years where we are not called "Graders"

9th=Freshmen, 10th=Sophomores, 11th=Juniors, 12th=Seniors

Freshmen are nervous and giddy because they're finally in the "big" school, and they can get on the older kids nerves

Sophomores are glad they're no longer freshmen, so they're cocky and are actually more annoying than freshmen

Juniors are usually mellow, but are also a little excited because they're almost seniors/adults so they can get rowdy

Seniors are the coolest people on campus and they know it, but they can't wait to graduate: some stop caring about school completely and we jokingly call this "senioritis"

These different "classes" of students sometimes mingle and become friends, but often they stick with other kids their age

Some schools are different, but most cut the year into two sections called "semesters" and possibly into "quarters" which mostly has to do with when grades (your score or mark in a class) are released after tests are taken

Grades are received via a "report card" and this goes for all schooling, not just HS

Grades go thusly: A (100%), B, C, D, F (50%) with a +/- telling you how high or low you scored within that percentile range

Students have the option of "dropping out" when they're 16, and taking a test to get their General Education Degree (GED) instead

Kids who don't drop out but continue to do badly in school might be instead homeschooled or sent off to a nearby school for lower achieving students; whatever the name of the school is it's spoken of quietly by other students

Inner-city HS' like in Chicago or NYC follow the same system but function differently from schools in the rest of the country

Day-To-Day

School is about 7-8hrs long, five days a week

A campus can be "indoors" meaning the students walk through hallways, or "outdoors" from building to building to get to classes

Each class is roughly an hour long and there are, on average, six or seven classes a day plus time for lunch

Each class probably has a different teacher (we always call them "teachers")

Many schools call the first class of the day "homeroom" and it's like an address for each student in that class (my HS didn't do this)

You are assigned a locker, sometimes with a partner, and this is where you keep all your books and stuff

If you get sick or hurt you go to the nurse's office

In SOME regions you can go to the school nurse's office for sex/pregnancy aid or advice

Some schools have a special counselor for mental and emotional problems too

If you ever need to leave class for any reason, even to go to the bathroom, you have to tell the teacher first

Some schools/teachers have a "hall pass" that basically says you're allowed to be out of class right now, and "hall monitors" to check these passes

A common punishment for rule-breaking is "detention" and it is when you are required to show up outside of school hours, sit in a room with other punished kids, and do absolutely nothing for a couple hours

The school computers are usually old and bad, and the internet is probably censored

There is a school library, but it might also be old and sad

Students can sometimes get jobs on campus that don't pay money, like being a teacher's aide (TA) or working in the library or cafeteria

There are scheduled emergency drills for fire and other events

There are regional drills for tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters

In my school district, our active shooter drill is called "Code Blue" and it's when we lock all the doors, curtain the windows, and hide under our desks. I first did this drill when I was five-years-old, and I did it when I was seventeen too.

Academics

depending on the region and how much money the school makes it might have very advanced classes or very remedial classes

Math, science, and language (English literature) are currently the fundamental American high school classes

some schools put all their funding into sports because those bring the school extra money from the community

others, say in L.A. or NYC, might put it all into theater and musical productions

Physical education (P.E./gym) is usually required and there's usually a gym and locker room

Smaller schools will have one big room called the multipurpose room which can be the gym, cafeteria, assembly hall, and theater

Bigger schools will have a separate building for each of these things

Foreign language classes are common in high school; generally French, Spanish, and German

Any class that isn't required but can teach you useful skills is called an "elective"; cooking, welding, art, photography, dance, music, car mechanics, web design, drama, sports medicine, etc.

There earliest age you can get a driver's license is 16, so there is usually a driving class at school

My HS was big and rich, so it had tons of electives and sports. Most schools have just a few of each

Sports teams are segregated by gender, but during P.E./gym you usually all play together

Classes or activities that occur outside of school hours are called "extracurriculars" and you choose to sign up for them, they are not required

Traditions

The American school year lasts from late August to early June with breaks in November and December for holidays; Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's

Study popular American holidays because they play a big part in school, mainly Halloween and Valentine's Day

Football is a big deal in just about every HS. There can be other sports, but football is any public high school's bread and butter

The football season starts in September with a Homecoming game after which is a dance (a lot of American HS movies involve this)

Spirit Week happens at some point, usually before a big football game, and it's when you go to school dressed up to a theme (my school loved "Decade Day" where you came dressed in clothes from another decade) or just wear the school colors and pretend to care a lot about your school

Student Council is a group of students (popular girls usually) elected by the other students (their friends) to plan the dances and spirit week themes and other fun events; not all schools have this

Prom is the biggest, fanciest dance of the year, but it's traditionally only for seniors because it's an old-fashioned rite of passage before graduation

Not every student goes to dances, or games, or celebrates the holidays for a variety of reasons

Club Rush is an event at the beginning of the year where all the unique clubs set up tables and attract new members; common clubs are chess, audio/visual (AV), LGBTQ, drama, and 4H (agriculture and animal husbandry aka farm kids)

Clubs meet after school or during lunch and do club stuff, idk i was never in one

School buses are a special social gathering because only kids who live near you will be on your bus; this can be good or bad

Never sit at the back of the bus unless you're up to no good (skanky couples make out there, tweakers hide their drugs there, bullies just live there)

Don't sit at the front unless you want to befriend the driver and possibly get teased for it

If you have your own car and license you are automatically cool even if you're not really cool at all

There's so much more I could add! Keep this post around because there will probably be a lot of responses from other Americans. Also, movies/televison about US high school really are mostly accurate in the details. They're a bit more dramatic and clever than I remember high school being, but they look like how HS looked.

If you're writing about US high school from an older era, you will have to do different research for that since many things have changed.

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Dudes, just write. Stop asking me if you should start/continue/finish what you’re writing despite having x, y, or z problem. If you want to write I am in NO WAY authorized to tell you when to stop/start. That’s up to you and always will be.

If you think “no one will ever genuinely like this” you are 100% wrong. 100%. Think about all the trash out there that has fans. I wrote stuff when I was twelve that had more genuine fans among my family/classmates than ANYTHING I never shared with another living soul. It’s impossible to write something no one will like.

If you think “I’ll never finish it so why even bother?” you’re only depriving yourself, man. That’s like saying, “I like this cookie, but I can’t eat the whole bag. Guess I won’t even try one.” ????? Just write the story, to hell with endings. Some of the best works in the world went unfinished by the author/composer/architect, yet we admire the heck out of them. Maybe, instead of thinking you’ll never finish something, tell yourself this is the one you will finish (and repeat it until you do).

If you feel “this hurts to write, I’m too close to the subject material” either set it aside or full speed ahead. You MUST know how many classics, prize winners, and life changers came from someone’s very real pain and experience. Addicts, traumatized persons, victims, quite often they find solace and healing in writing about their experiences. Most importantly, so do their readers.

If you want to write, write. Otherwise only you are standing in the way of what you want.