kaineeh - Tumblr blog

[kaineeh]

Don't be scared of the rain,

Or the storms she drags in the waves of her hair.

Don't flee from the snow, or the howling wind that escapes her lips when she sings her cold lullabies in your ear.

The sky stares down into the depths of you, and cries with you, and screams with you.

Don't run away when you see your broken pieces in her face.

[kaineeh]

What is poetry?

"To see the world in a grain of sand

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour."

- William Blake

[kaineeh]

Instagram: waitingforalice

[kaineeh]

“Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.”

Barbara Streisand

[kaineeh]

things fictional couples do that make me lose my mind + writing prompts

taking each other’s hands during a stressful situation, instantly reliveing the pressure of the situation

smiling in-between kisses

during a hug, one of them pulls the other closer, followed by the other one nudging their head into the crook of their lover’s neck

forehead kisses

they’re in bed, one of them’s like “it’s time to get up” and their lover pulls them back down, wraps their hands around their body, snuggles up close, preventing the other one from getting out of bed

forehead kisses but it’s the male being kissed on the head

dancing together, one of them takes the other’s hand, kisses it

saying “i love you” completely randomly

bantering, judging each other but in a way that’s like, what you’re doing right now, is really stupid, but you’re adorable and i can’t help but love you

when one of them is like… i don’t know… hurt or something… and the other one is just like… tending to their wounds… and then just like… wrap them into their arms… thankful that they’re alive…

when one of them is hurt by the antagonist… and their lover goes… absolutely ballistic and does everything in their power to get to the person they love, to the point in which the antagonist and it’s crew have to physically restrain them… and it still doesn’t stop them… they jsut keep kicking… doesn’t matter what happens to them… doesn’t matter if they get beaten in the process… as long as their lover is safe…

when they haven’t seen each other for a while (bonus point if they’re not sure the other one is alive) and all this time they’ve been trying to stay strong, but when they reunite, they crash into each other’s arms, and completely breakdown…

“i’m not worthy of anybody’s love.” “that’s not true, you’re worthy of mine.” followed by the lover breaking eye-contact… + a love confession

when one of them has never had a proper birthday party for whatever reason, and their lover makes it their mission to give them the best day ever, followed by “you didn’t have to do all this for me. just being with you is enough.” “i know. but i thought you deserved ?’’ and their lover smiles, a kiss is shared

one of them being like… i’m totally getting off track here, but you’re like, really hot so i’m going to pick you up and throw you on the bed, followed by their lover smacking them on their head (gently) because they have important things to do

’‘you shouldn’t be here.” “i had to make sure you were okay.” silence. “can i come in?” more silence. you decide. angst or happy ending?

when they’re forced apart, and they get to say goodbye, and they cry, share a last kiss, holding hands until the very end, until they’re so far apart they have to let go…

any form of physical intimacy ever

one of them resting their head on the other’s lap, falling asleep

wearing their lover’s clothes! (also, “can I get my shirt back? ’'no.”)

being jealous! not to the point of it being unhealthy, just a moderate amount of cute jealously, in which their partner just laughs it off and gives them a kiss

a slow burn being like… i’m not in love with them! cut to scene of the person in question staring dreamingly at the object of their desire

when a character is falling in love, and their love interest is making them smile, and they’re flustered, blushing, in such a happy state of mind that they look to the ground, trying to hide their burning red cheeks

banter in which one of them’s like… “i love you” and the other person’s like “ok” and the first one’s like “say it back” and the other one’s just like “no 😝” and the first one gets frustrated because “why wouldn’t you say it back we always say i love you before we leave”

when they’re doing something outside, it’s dark outside, and one of them views something pretty in the sky, like a shooting star, or just the stars in general, and they pull their lover by the hand, all excited to watch the shooting star, and their lover looks at them in pure admiration

when it’s a slow burn, and the characters just look at each other like “fuck it i’m done with this” and kiss

edit: The character thinking “seriously? I love them?!!’’ because somebody reblogged the post saying that and it did something special to my heart

[kaineeh]

[kaineeh]

From the Writing About Writing Facebook page.

[kaineeh]

The Red Herring

The Red Herring is a writing tool in which the writer purposely dangles a clue or a suspect before the reader in an attempt at misleading them from the answer to a mystery. This clue is meant to sidetrack the reader from what is really going on in the narrative.

What exactly is a Red Herring?

As we said above, it is a trick to mislead the reader. Say there is a murder of a wealthy woman and there are three suspects: her husband, her lover & her servant. The husband acts edgy throughout the narrative, is shown to be jealous and quick to anger. The reader begins to suspect it was the husband who murdered his wife. While the reader is sizing up the hubby, nobody is watching the servant and the lover.

How to Write a Red Herring

The concept of a perfect Red Herring is playing on the preconceptions and prejudices of the audience. The audience excepts a certain suspect to every crime and a clue to turn out to be the key of the mystery. You have to think of the reader as a cat playing with a lazer. They will follow the path you place before them because they trust you (horrible mistake I know). Some helpful things to keep in mind:

The red herring is innocent. You must remember that. Don't trap yourself into writing the RH into the corner. The reveal will not work.

On the other hand, the guilty party should not be completely clean and innocent until they are reveal to be the villain/impor. The true reveal should never come out of nowhere.

Remember the prejudices of your audience. For example every crime show on TV has the husband the first suspect whenever a woman is killed.

Your clues do not have to be bloody knives and ill intentions. Clever clues such as scents left behind after a crime or the way a character speaks about the incident should also be used.

Other characters are a good device. If Character B thinks Character A is acting shady, the audience maybe swayed by the notion. After all we trust in our narrators, biased or not.

You must ask yourself: what does the reader expect?

Examples of Excellent Red Herrings

In Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, Carter overhears the villain, Set, speaking French to a minion which leads both Carter and the reader to suspect Desjardins- the only French speaker in the narrative.

In Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, we suspect like every one in the narrative that Sirius Black is the antagonist. He is an escapee from a notorious wizard prison, convicted of multiple murders and his first appearances are rather dramatic. With everyone watching the convicted murderer, nobody is watching the rat.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, we are lead to believe that Cersei Lannister murdered Jon Arryn. She is certainly capable of it as well as having a strong motive. While looking at the very likely suspect of Cersei and the obvious motives, we are not seeing another murderer and another murderer. It was Littlefinger & Lysa, to "save" Sweet Robin/ begin the War of the Five Kings.

The film series Final Destination is a great example of this. In one scene, one of the victims is plugging in a dodgy radio whilst Death spills water across the floor only for him to slip on the water and fall into the bath instead of getting electrocuted. Another scene sees a gymnast on a bar with a nail sticking out of the bar. We expect her to step on the nail and fall to her death but instead another gymnast steps on it inciting a chain reaction.

[kaineeh]

Writing Masterpost

Character Help

MBTI Personality Test

MBTI Personality Descriptions

123 Character Flaws

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

List of Personality Traits

Character Virtues And Vices

Underused Personalities

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Character Name Resources

Surnames Masterpost

Write Real People Generator

Types of Voice

55 Words to Describe Someone’s Voice

Showing Character Emotion

Character Motivation

Writing Characters Of Colour

More On Writing Characters Of Colour

Describing A Character’s Skin Colour

All Characters Talk The Same

Character Description

100 Character Development Questions

Character Development Questionnaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Check List

Character Development Through Hobbies

List Of Character Secrets - Part 1 - Part 2

Mysterious Characters

Flat Characters

European Characters

Creating Believable Characters

Writing A Character Who Has Lost Someone Important

Writing A Drunk Character

Writing Manipulative Characters

Writing Vampires

Writing Witty Characters

Writing Natural Born Leaders

Writing Rebellious Characters

Writing Hitmen

Writing Indifferent Distance Characters

Writing Bitchy Characters

Writing Popular Characters

Writing Rich Characters

Writing Child Characters

Writing Villains

Villain Archetypes

Writing Stalkers

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Writing Homosexuals as a Heterosexual

Writing Males as a Female

Writing Convincing Male Characters

Writing Characters Of The Opposite Sex

Revealing A Characters Gender

The Roles Of Characters

Creating Fictional Characters From Scratch

Creating A Strong, Weak Character

Writing Characters Using Conflict And Backstory

Writing A Character Based On Yourself

Switching Up A ‘Too-Perfect’ Character

Help I Have A Mary-Sue!

Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Realistic Dialogue

Flirty Dialogue

On Dialogue

General Help

Alternatives To Said

Avoid Saying ‘Very…’

100 Ways To Say Good

Avoiding Unfortunate Implications

Begin A Novel

Finishing Your Novel

Creating Conflict

Show Not Tell

Words For Emotions Based On Severity

Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone

A Guide To Writing Sci-Fi

Naming The Story

The Right Point Of View

Essential Story Ingredients

Writing Fantasy Masterpost

Five Rules For Thrillers

Pacing Action Scenes

Writing Races

Using Gender Neutral Pronouns

Dos and Don’t of Writing

General Writing Tips

How To Avoid Tense Change

Seven Steps To A Perfect Story

Plotting

Outlining Your Novel

Creating A Compelling Plot

The Snowflake Method

Beginning and End, But No Middle!

Prompts and Ideas

Prompt Generator Lists

Creative Writing Prompts

Story Starting Sentences

Story Spinner

Story Kitchen

Writing Prompt Generator

Quick Story Generator

Dramatic Scenes

Plot Bank

Masterpost of Writing Execrises

Writers Block?

Visual and word prompts on pinerest boards 

Research

Survival Skills Masterpost

Mental Illness

Limits Of The Human Body

Stages of Decomposition

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Importance Of Body Language

Non Verbal Communication

Tips on Drug Addiction

Depression

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Anxiety

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

Degrees of Emotion

List Of Phobias - Part 1 (A - L) - Part 2 (M -  Z)

Psychology In Writing

Psychology Of Colour

Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Street Gang Dynamics

How To Pick A Lock

Death Scenes

Realistic Death Scenes

Fighting and Self Defence

Fighting Scenes

Problems With Fighting Scenes

Every Type of Fight Scene

How To Fight Write Blog

Fantasy Battle Scenes

Body Language Of Flirting

Flirting 101

Kissing

Sex Scenes

Friends With Benifits Relationships

Ballet Terms

Torture Guide (Trigger Warning)

Sibling Abuse (Trigger Warning)

Dream Sequences

Kleptomania

Psychiatric Hospital

Understanding issues, -isms and privilege

Guide to writing smut

Post-Apocalyptic Cliches To Avoid

Revision

General Revision Tips

Cliché Finder

Reading What You’ve Wrote So Far

Synonyms For Common Words

Urban Legends On Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes

Revising A Novel 

Setting

Average Weather Settings

Apocalypses

World Building 101

Bringing Settings To Life

Creating A Believable World

Mapping A Fictional World

Mapping Your World

Religion in Setting

5 Editing Tips

Sounds to listen to whilst writing

Coffitivity

August Ambience

Rainy Mood

Forest Mood

SimplyNoise

Soundrown

iSerenity

Nature Sound Player

myNoise

Tools

Tip Of Your Tounge

Write Or Die

Online Brainstorm

Family Tree Maker

Stay Focused

Writeometer App

Hemingway App

[kaineeh]

Chemical Christmas Day 5

Crown

A kingdom of ruins

A foolish ruler

The people have deserted

This dying town

The animals have left

Just take a look around

At the mess left behind

From frantic gains

And ignored banes

Leading to wreckage and sewage

Seeping up from the cracks

Built by greed

And forged in fear

Heated by hatred

And cooled with liquid lies

Tarnished silver

Black obsidian

This is the crown from fascism's cradle

[kaineeh]

This isn't as much a fact thingy ask, but more a personal one, if that's okay, what are your top 5 favourite books?

I'm going to go with my top 5 for 2020. I read a lot in Lockdown

Misery by Stephen King

Sex with Kings by Eleanor Herman

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Prince's Gambit by CS Pacat

Game of Queens by Sarah Gristwood.

I recommend all of the above

[kaineeh]

“May those who follow their fate be granted happiness; may those who defy it be granted glory.”

— Mizuo Shinonome

[kaineeh]

please like or reblog if u save

[kaineeh]

“You can love someone so much…But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.”

— John Green

[kaineeh]

“Has anyone ever told you your anger is disproportionate to your size?”

“No one has been stupid enough to say it to my face – until now, that is.”

[kaineeh]

Writing great friendships - Part 2

A lot of people requested that I do a Part 2 to my writing friendships post, so here it is:

1. Knowing & keeping each other’s secrets

I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me a secret, you best believe I’m going to tell my best friend. That’s just how it works.

So, if you have two characters who are supposed to be the best of friends, I suggest having them know each other’s secrets. If your MC suddenly develops magical powers or has a new crush or got into their dream university, they’re probably going to want to share it with their best friend.

If best friends don’t know something about each other, there has to be a VERY good reason.

Hand-in-hand with this is the keeping of each other’s secrets. If your MC’s best friend turns into a werewolf every night, they should be able to trust that the MC won’t blurt it out to the press or their peers.

If you want to write an unhealthy friendship, you can subvert these. Have the one friend keep mountains of secrets/be unable to keep the other’s secrets. OR have there be a secret that is worth telling someone else, but the friends are so blindly loyal that they still keep it under warps i.e. one friend is hurting themselves/someone else/being hurt by someone. These cases warrant sharing a secret in order to protect your friend.

2. Helping each other without being asked

This doesn’t have to be in every friendship, but it’s a good way to show your readers how much these characters care for each other.

Maybe one friend has run out of money for the month and the other leaves cash in their bag without saying anything. Maybe one of the characters aren’t feeling well and the other makes them a care package. Maybe your MC’s best friend is struggling at school. It could be a real testament to your MC’s character if they helped that friend with notes/tutoring etc.

Friends want the best for each other and don’t need to be begged to help each other. This goes along with the point in my Part 1 post that friends can often tell what’s wrong with each other without having to ask.

If you want to use this for an unhealthy friendship, turn helping into enabling. If one friend has a gambling problem and the other is continually there to bail them out without consequences, that’s not healthy assistance - it’s enabling an unhealthy habit. If one friend is too lazy to do their homework and the other always allows theirs to be copied, the same applies.

3. Becoming like family

By now, my followers have probably realised that I like Supernatural, so I’m going to reference it once again: Family don’t end with blood.

Long-term friends become so comfortable around each other that they behave like family members (and oftentimes become close with the real family).

This means doing domestic things together with ease and already having the division of responsibilities figured out. One friend may cook when they’re together and the other washes the dishes etc. My best friend and I lived together for two years and we had a standard deal that she kills all the insects and I open all the jars/bottles. We didn’t even have to discuss it. We knew.

This could also take the form of extreme comfort (like not caring about appearances around each other/admitting gross details to each other). Think of close sibling relationships. 

This could also mean security in the relationship, meaning that they feel free to call each other out/bicker without fear of the friendship ending.

This can be turned around for toxic friendships - where one friend is manipulated to stay in an unhealthy/abusive friendship because the other is “like family”.

4. Freaking out when the other gets hurt

This is especially useful if you’re writing something with lots of action/battle.

If one of the friends gets wounded in a fight, the other should be crazy with worry. They should want to be by the other’s side/help with caring for their friend etc.

If one of the friends are unconscious, even better. This way, their friend can refuse to leave their bedside until they wake up or read to them while they’re in a coma or whatever.

I’m not saying this is necessarily the healthiest thing in the world, but including it in your book will definitely show the reader how much these friends care about each other.

5. Talking to each other

This may seem like a very obvious point, but oftentimes friendships are mentioned in literature, but never really shown to the reader.

It won’t cut it to just tell the reader that these two characters are best friends, you need to show them interacting frequently. They should be in as many scenes together as possible. And they should communicate a lot.

This is often neglected in stories where romance features heavily. Character A has a best friend, we’re told. We see said best friend, Character B, once in the beginning of the novel. Then A meets heartthrob C and is never seen doing anything with B or talking to B about anything but C. No. I’m not going to believe two characters are the best of friends because you tell me they are. Readers want to see it for themselves.

Alright, that’s all I have on writing friendships. I hope that this can be useful to you guys :)

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own tips. Follow me for similar content.

[kaineeh]

Choosing between self-publishing and traditional publishing

This is a much-talked-about topic. So, rather than going the traditional pros-and-cons route, I’m going to give you some advice on which factors to consider when making your decision:

1. First thing’s first: what’s the difference?

Self-publishing a book means that you are putting it out there on your own - no publishing house and no literary agent. You will be in charge of every aspect - editing, proofreading, marketing, the book launch, cover design etc.

Traditional publishing means that your book has been purchased by a publishing house and that said house is responsible for getting your book out into the world. This process also usually entails being represented by a literary agent.

2. Factor: Your knowledge base

Few writers are writers only, which means that you might have a particular set of skills or a vast array of knowledge in an area that could assist you in one of these publishing routes.

Knowledge needed for self-publishing: some business knowledge, knowledge of the entire process needed to publish a book, knowledge of self-publishing platforms etc.

Knowledge needed for traditional publishing: knowledge about the publishing industry - about literary agents and publishing houses, about what to look out for in contracts, about querying and going on submission etc.

Keep in mind that this knowledge can be acquired. It doesn’t have to be something you already possess. But the type of studies/research you do will be determined by the route you choose to take.

So, if you majored in an area of business, if you worked for a publisher for years etc., you already have a good foundation for self-publishing.

If you’re like me and you’ve been researching the industry since you were 15 (and have a law student’s knowledge of contracts), your skills may assist you better in traditional publishing.

So, think about the type of knowledge you have/would be able to acquire.

Keep in mind: marketing knowledge is applicable and needed for both routes.

3. Factor: Budgetary concerns

We’re not all in the same financial situation. I know it’s not fun to talk about money, but it does play a significant role in publishing.

With traditional publishing, you will have to spend money on marketing. Furthermore, if you hire an editor/critique service in order to polish your manuscript before you query, that’ll cost you a few bucks too.

However, self-publishing requires a lot more money. You need to pay a cover designer, critique service, editor, proofreader, formatter etc.(there are often packages to this effect) And you will have to pay for marketing as well. If you use platforms like CreateSpace or IngramSpark, you don’t have to pay for the printing itself, since it’s print-on-demand.

This consideration isn’t about whether you have bags of money just waiting to be used. It’s about whether you have the financial and personal capacity to save the money you need (and whether you can budget well). Calculating how much you need to save each month in order to self-publish and sticking to that calculation will be necessary for the self-publishing route (unless you have quite a few dollars lying around).

So, if you are on a VERY tight budget (like me as a student) or know that you are absolutely horrible at sticking to your saving goals, consider trying the traditional publishing avenue.

HOWEVER, the income you receive from the published product must also be kept in mind. With traditional publishing, authors get a (relatively small) advance and then a small percentage of the sales as royalties (12% is generous where I’m from). Since the publisher paid for everything, they also get most of the profit. With self-publishing, you get the biggest percentage of the sales revenue (some of it will go to the printing and distributing platform). 

4: Factor: Your personality/preferences

Are you a very versatile person? Would you like spending your time on various different aspects of the publishing process? Do you need control of every aspect of your book baby’s release into the world? Are you good at managing projects? Can you be difficult to work with? Are you excited by the idea of paving your own way and ignoring industry stigmas? Are you great at sticking to self-imposed deadlines? Then you’re probably more suited to the world of self-publishing.

Do you want to focus on writing (and marketing) and not really the other stuff? Are you okay with relinquishing some control? Do you work well with others? Does prestige matter to you? Does the idea of managing a big project alone give you the jitters? Then your personality might work better for traditional publishing.

Please don’t think that this is set in stone. I’m not trying to place anyone in a box. This is just another factor you can take into account when making your decision.

5. A decision doesn’t bind you for life

You can be a hybrid author. If you’ve decided to pursue traditional publishing, you can always switch to self-publishing later once you’ve made a name for yourself. If you’ve already self-published one (or a few) books, nothing prevents you from querying agents for a different project and going the traditional route. (In fact, having self-published books might count in your favour.)

So, it is an important decision, but it isn’t set in stone.

I hope that this is helpful. If you have any questions, head over to my asks. And if you want to request a writing advice post, don’t be shy.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with the route you’re thinking of taking. Follow me for similar content.