fragmentedartistry

[fragmentedartistry]

Person A: “…What the fuck is that?”

Person B: “A cat.”

Person A: “That is clearly a dragon wearing a cat ear headband.”

Person B: “No it’s not, it’s a cat.”

Person A: “That breathes fire?”

Person B: “…..It’s a very rare breed.”

[fragmentedartistry]

Some idioms and phrases you should know about:

Salt of the earth: a very good or worthy person.

Gut-wrenching: making you feel very upset or worried.

Make a spectacle of yourself: to do something that makes you look stupid and attracts people's attention.

Pass muster: be accepted as adequate or satisfactory.

Putty in someone's hands: easily influenced by someone else, excessively willing to do what someone else wishes.

Look before you leap: carefully consider the possible consequences before taking action.

Set the wheels in motion : to do something that will cause a series of actions to start.

Off the books: without being included on official records.

A long Haul: something that takes a lot of time and energy.

An end in itself: a goal that is pursued in it's own right to the exclusion of others.

Night owl: a person who prefers to be awake late at night.

Kick the Bucket: to die.

Alter Ego: a person's secondary or alternative personality immediately or extremely quickly; at once.

Freak of Nature: something or someone that is unusual, rare, or abnormal in some way / To avoid attracting attention to yourself.

[fragmentedartistry]

#160: Writing in Unusual Places

A desk, chair, notebook and pen. More recently a keyboard and screen. Also a cup of tea or coffee. Those are the things that people usually associate with writing. We ‘sit down’ to write.

Sometimes, I write at my desk in the living room by the window. When I don’t know what to write next, I look at the cars passing by our house. Every 10 minutes or so a bus goes by – a red double-decker typical of London streets. It reminds me to get back to work.

I used to write on the sofa a lot, but I don’t do that anymore. It’s too comfortable, and I’m prone to falling asleep there.

Before the pandemic hit, I loved going to coffee shops to write. I’d go in the morning before work. When I had a day off, I would go when it was quiet after lunch.

I also spent many months writing from the British Library at St Pancras. That’s my favourite place to write for sure. I can’t wait to go back.

Living rooms, coffee shops, libraries – those are the usual places where writers go. But recently, I’ve been experimenting with writing from unusual places.

Last week, I wrote an entire article while on the train on my way to work. There’s no reception on the London Underground (not in the tunnels anyway), and that means no internet. There’s no scenery passing by to distract me either. The tube is a fantastic place to write.

Another thing that I started doing recently is outlining when walking. I often get lots of ideas when I go out for a walk. I decided to be deliberate about it and focus on stories and articles that needed thinking through.

I use the speech-to-text feature on my phone to take notes. I don’t speak in finished prose, but it works surprisingly well for recording ideas and short snippets.

Get away from your routine, and you’ll escape the usual distractions. Writing doesn’t have to involve sitting down at all. What are some places near you that you never thought of as writing spots? Could you go to the forest and write for an hour sitting on a tree stump? Have you tried writing from your local park?

This works at home too. Try writing from a different room. Sit on the floor or the stairs. If you usually write on a computer, get a notebook and try longhand for a bit or try a new editor (I heard that Writing Analytics is pretty good 😄). If you write from an outline, try discovery writing for a bit. If you’re a discovery writer, try writing from an outline.

When I think about it, I’ve never been on the bus that passes by my house. Maybe I should catch it one day, climb to the upper deck and write something.

What’s your favourite place to write?

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

SUBSCRIBE

(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Past Editions

#159: Writing With the Headlights On, September 2020

#158: Wordsmiths and Storytellers, August 2020

#157: The More You Write, The More Ideas You’ll Have, August 2020

#156: Being a Good Storyteller is a Superpower, August 2020

#155: Do You Care About Your Stories Too Much?, August 2020

[fragmentedartistry]

Hey you

Yes you.

You there.

You’re pretty great.

Have a good day.

[fragmentedartistry]

[fragmentedartistry]

The world is a little happier with you in it.

[fragmentedartistry]

white people baby naming culture peaked when bella really named her kid Renenemone

[fragmentedartistry]

Editing Tips

DISCLAIMER: These tips work for me, they may not work for everyone, but I hope that at least some of these may be helpful for some of you.

1. Figure out your writing style

Do you overwrite? Underwrite? In my drafting and writing stages I tend to just let the words flow. During the editing stage, I fix up what I wrote. If you tend to underwrite, try to find where you can expand and write more details. If you overwrite, see what you can cut down.

Similarly, if your writing lacks in dialogue, try to add some. If your need more description or action, add some of that.

2. Sort out your goals

This mainly applies to chapters in novels, however it can also be applied to short stories. Whenever I am editing a chapter, I try to figure out what my goals for it are. For example, to solve a conflict, to introduce a conflict, to add tension, to introduce a new character or anything else. Then I try to see if I’ve accomplished that, and how I can try to make it more effective.

3. Read aloud

This one’s quite well-known, read out your work so it’s easier to catch mistakes or awkward phrasing.

4. Variation in sentence structure

While doing line edits, it helps to vary your sentences and structure. Make sure that your sentences don’t all start with the same word, or are all the same length. Vary the types of sentences and the length of those sentences. This can also be used to change the tone, build tension, etc.

5. Simplicity

Personally, I often find that I overcomplicate my sentences during the drafting process. This makes it hard to read and follow the story. To combat this, I try to split up and simplify my writing to make it easier to understand. A text that is overly simple is usually preferable to an overcomplicated one, but this also heavily depends on the style and the genre of a piece.

[fragmentedartistry]

cannot say enough how freeing it is to stand in front of the mirror and cutting your own hair with your favorite music playing and the faith that it’ll either be cute or funny, and either way it’ll grow back eventually. dye washes out and scrapes heal and impulsive things that make you happy are worth doing solely to make you happy!

[fragmentedartistry]

Person A: "If dying is a natural part of life then technically murder isn't that big a deal. It's just death knocking on their door early."

Person B: "That may be true but I don't think you can use that logic to get out of going to jail."

[fragmentedartistry]

Person A: " Hey, I just wanted to tell you that you look very beautiful."

Person B: "Bold of you to say considering I'm wearing a mask."

[fragmentedartistry]

Otp prompt #21

Imagine A and B laying together in bed on a hot summer day, the windows open and box fans blaring through their small apartment. A begins complaining about being hot, as their AC broke earlier, so B gets an idea. They run out to the kitchen and get a cup of ice, and when they get back they dump the ice down their partners shirt.

“What was that for!” A whined

“What? You said you were cold!” B chuckled

[fragmentedartistry]

[fragmentedartistry]

circa 1958, furniture style

thumbnails thumbnails thumbnails

[fragmentedartistry]

✹ pansies, orchids, and friends ✹

buying me 3 ko-fis (about $9) gives you a free plant doodle of your choice like this! ✨

ko-fi.com/prinsomnicaf

[fragmentedartistry]

@Sadboi, this is so accurate that words can't express it.

[fragmentedartistry]

Artist support

A lot of amazing artist don't get all the attention and notes that they deserve here on tumblr, so that's why I'm making this post!

Please reblog this and tag at least 3 of your favourite writers/artists/or any other content creators

This way, you can introduce other people to your favourite artists and it's also a way to make all the talented creators on here feel loved!

So please help them out! <3