studiously-yours

[studiously-yours]

Hey guys! As a writer myself, it’s hard to have a lot of resources for writing in one place. That’s why I decided to create this masterpost, and maybe make more if I find future resources. I hope you like it, and expect to see more masterposts like this in the future!

Generators

Character

Appearance Generator

Archetypes Generator

Character Generator

Character Traits Generator

Family Generator

Job/Occupation Generator, (II)

Love Interest Generator

Motive Generator

Name Generator

Personality Generator, (II)

Quick Character Generator

Super Powers Generator

Names

Brand Name Generator

Medicine Title Generator

Name Generator

Quick Name Generator

Vehicle Generator

Town Name Generator

Plot

First Encounter Generator

First Line Generator, (II)

Plot Generator, (II), (III)

Plot Device Generator

Plot Twist Generator

Quick Plot Generator

Setting/World-Building

City Generator

Fantasy Race Generator

Laws Generator

Pet Generator

Setting Generator

Species Generator

Terrain Generator

Prompts

Subject Generator

”Take Three Nouns” Generator

Word Prompt Generator

Misc

Color Generator

Decision Generator

Dialogue Generator

Journey Generator

Title Generator, (II), (III)

Some Tips

Just a few I found from the writing tips tag!

Writing action / @berrybird

How to create a strong voice in your writing / @collegerefs

How to plot a complex novel in one day! / @lizard-is-writing

8 ways to get past writer’s block / @kiramartinauthor

psa for writers / @dasakuryo

”Write Using Your 5 Senses” / @ambientwriting

How People Watching Improves Your Writing / @wherethetransthingsare

Writing Science Fiction: Tips for Beginners / @fictionwritingtips

Creating Likeable Characters / @authors-haven

Vocabulary

Descriptive words / @somekindofstudent

Words to replace “Said” / @msocasey

Obscure color words / @mintsteelpeachlilac

Words to spice up your stories / @busyibee

Words to describe someone’s voice

Words to Use Instead of Very / @gaybybirth

Touchy Feely Words / @gaybybirth

Some Advice

Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules for Writers

”But my plot isn’t UNIQUE or BIG enough!” / @youreallwrite

8 Things Every Creative Should Know / @adamjk

(How To) Get Over Comparing Yourself to Other Creatives / @adamjk

How to Get Over Common Creative Fears (Maybe) / @adamjk

14 Tips From Stephen King On Writing / @i-can-give-you-prompts

Playlists

Electronic Thoughts / @eruditekid

“Mix About Writing” An Instrumental Mix / @shadowofemirates

Shut Up, I’m Writing! / @ninadropdead

Chill / @endlessreveries

Breathtaking Film Scores / @tweedskirts

Music to Write to Vol. 1: Starlight / @crestadeen

Music for Written Words / @ghoulpatch

Dead Men Tell No Tales / @scamandersnewt

Fatale / @dolcegf

All These Things that I’ve Done / @referenceforwriters

Feeling Soaking into Your Bones / @verylondon

I Can Feel Your Pulse in the Pages / @rphelper

Morally Ambiguous / @scamandersnewt

Wonderwall / @wheelerwrites

Pythia / @mazikeene

Ballet: To Dance / @tanaquil

Websites and Apps

For Writing

ZenPen: A minimalist writing website to keep you free of distractions and in the flow.

The Most Dangerous Writing App: A website where you have to keep typing or all of your writing will be lost. It helps you keep writing…kind of. You can choose between a time or word count limit!

Evernote: An online website where you can take notes and save the product to your laptop and/or smartphone!

Writer, the Internet Typewriter: It’s just you and your writing, and you can save your product on the website if you create an account.

Wordcounter: A website to help check your word and character count, and shows words you’re using frequently.

Monospace: An Android app for writing on the go when you feel the inspiration, but you don’t have your laptop on you!

For Productivity

Tide: An app that combines a pomodoro-esque timer with nature sounds and other noises! (Google Play / Apple Store)

ClearFocus: An Android app with a pomodoro-type time counter to let you concentrate easier and stay productive.

Forest: An app with a time counter to keep you focused and off your phone, and when you complete the time limit, a tree grows in your garden! (Google Play / Apple Store)

SelfControl: A Mac downloadable app that blocks you from distracting mail servers, websites, and other things!

Prompt Blogs

@writeworld

@dialouge-prompts

@oopsprompts

@prompts-for-the-otp

@creativepromptsforwriting

@the-modern-typewriter

@theprofessionalpromptmaker

@writers-are-writers

@otp-imagines-cult

@witterprompts

@havetobememes

@auideas

@putthepromptsonpaper

@promptsonpaper

@fyotpprompts

@otpisms

@soprompt

@otpprompts

@ablockforwritersblock

@awritersnook

Writing Tips Blogs

@writeworld

@anomalously-written

@awritersnook

@clevergirlhelps

@referenceforwriters

@whataboutwriting

@thewritershelpers

@nimblesnotebook

@slitheringink

[studiously-yours]

WRITING ADVICE/PRINTABLES MASTERPOST

Hello, writers! With final exams and papers coming up, we thought you might want some references for tackling those big projects. Luckily, we’re here to help! We’ve made a masterpost of all our writing printables, so you can get started with confidence. Take your writing to the next level, both for your grades and for yourself. 

We hope this helps. Have a happy finals season, y’all! 📚📝📔

SUBJECTS

Art and Art History

Close reading literature

Close reading poetry

Journalism

Lab reports

Poetry analysis

Research papers

Rhetorical analysis

GRAMMAR: HOW AND WHEN TO USE THINGS

Apostrophes

Articles 

Commas

Fragments and run-ons

Passive voice

Prepositions

Semicolons, colons, and em dashes

Sentence structure

Subject-verb agreement

Verb tense

Verb use

Verbs of attribution

Verbs that need prepositions

CITATIONS/STYLE

APA documentation

Chicago Style citations

Chicago Style formatting

MLA citations: example

MLA citations: format

OTHER GENERAL WRITING ADVICE

Advice for transitioning from high school to college writing

Brainstorming

Can I use clichés? 

College writing myths

Direct quotations

Editing tips

Essay exams

Final revisions checklist

Paraphrasing your sources

Poetic devices

Primary and secondary sources

Respectful writing

Sexist language, and how to avoid it

Thesis statements

Transitions

Visual aids

Wordiness

GOOD LUCK! 

[studiously-yours]

Anime vs. Manga: The Shikon no Tama

Easily the most important part of any story is the backstory: The explanation of what we’re doing, how we got here, and why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place.

Or we could, you know, just skip most of that part and fill that time with fighting an imaginary ghost monster instead.  They both accomplish the same thing, right?

Yes, I’m talking about episode 26 of the anime series, which was ostensibly an adaptation of manga chapter 94.  Chapter 94 was probably THE most important chapter in the series, as it laid out the history and objective of the Shikon no Tama and how it relates to everyone’s fates.  Unfortunately, the anime decided that an info dump wasn’t exciting enough, so deleted all the really important parts and instead invented a mock battle to fill that deleted time, all while making sure to utterly assassinate Inuyasha’s character in the process.

To make sure people have a clear understanding of just how egregiously the anime screwed up… just about everything in this episode, I am going to post the ENTIRETY of the manga that was used to create episode 26.  I’m including the set-up scenes as well because they contain a secondary, but equally-important sin on the part of the anime: the complete destruction of Inuyasha’s character.

To begin, here is the manga version of episode 26 as originally written:

And now that you’ve gotten an idea of what this episode should have said, now go check out how episode 26 handled it.

I’m not going to point out every little change the episode makes, since a lot of it is just recap or harmless padding to fill space.  I’m only going to discuss stuff that completely changed the meaning of the story.  And there’s still plenty of that to go around.

First off, and the reason I included the dialogue between Miroku and Inuyasha at the beginning, is the first of many examples of the anime utterly Flanderizing Inuyasha in this episode.  Originally he was just annoyed at Sango not being able to remember where Naraku’s castle was and that they had to wait so long for her to recover.  However, he never callously suggested they force her to work with them or completely disregarded how she felt.  Inuyasha is insensitive, yes, but he is not a psychopath.  Good lord, anime.

Next, as you’ve noticed, there was originally no barrier on Midoriko’s cave.  The group actually had already come to the cave many chapters earlier and had already seen Midoriko’s mummy, however they needed to find someone from the village to explain it to them, rather than find someone to remove the barrier.  However, I don’t find this addition to be particularly intrusive to the overall meaning of the story, so I’ll let it slide.

Next we have what I originally thought was a massive oversight on the anime’s part, but it turned out to be a Dub-Induced Plot Hole.  What was originally Miroku’s line about Magatsuhi was given to Sango, and if you listen you’ll hear that Sango does indeed say “Magatsuhi” in Japanese, however the sub and the dub both translated this word out as “evil”.  Which is odd considering they left its counterpart untranslated as “Naobi” (which is a legitimate alternate spelling of “Naohi”, and is indeed what anime Miroku says, but it’s odd they’d switch the spelling from what the manga used).  But, thanks to the English version, we miss the early introduction to the semi-final villain that shows up at the end of the series.

Next, we have more Inuyasha Flanderization where Inuyasha’s line wondering if Midoriko was victorious or not was changed to “lawl, Midoriko is sucky priestess cuz she lost”.  Seriously, anime, just… stop.

And here we have the big deletion: The revelation that the birth of the youkai aspect of the Shikon no Tama mirrors Naraku’s birth, and that Naraku being born, Kikyou being killed, and Kagome being sent back in time were all manipulations by the jewel itself in order to create a new warring pair of miko and youkai in order to renew itself.  The entire explanation up until now was building up to this point, but the anime just went “meh, not important” and skipped it.  What the actual hell?

To make matters worse, the anime yet AGAIN Flanderizes Inuyasha by changing his line about severing the fate of the jewel into another idiotic, “Well, this means Naraku’s the real bad guy and I’m gonna use the jewel for myself, herpa derp!” that’s completely the opposite of what the original work said.  The manga used this story to point out that the Shikon no Tama is the real Big Bad, and Inuyasha recognized that and pledged to defeat it.  He’s not interested in using the jewel anymore, so just staaaahp.

The remainder of the episode, aside from moving the conversation about Sango’s grandfather finding the jewel and entrusting it to Kikyou, is completely made up because we need a fight in this episode, dammit!  So, Myouga drags the Shikon shard back into the cave for some unknown reason, which causes the youkai to start reviving, and then there’s the prerequisite action sequence.  The problem is, in the manga, we never see Midoriko’s face.  Her head is mostly decomposed in the manga, but in the anime her corpse is still pristine and beautiful, and then in the flashbacks she’s shown completely unobscured.

And has Kirara with her.  Which the manga in a much later chapter shot down by implying Kirara is less than 300 years old, whereas Midoriko lived 500 years prior (“When the nobles ruled the world” refers to the Heian era, and the Profiles book mentions the jewel renews itself in 500-year cycles).

And after all that, this isn’t even the only place where the anime shot itself in the foot by making up stuff about the jewel.  Back in episode 19 when Inuyasha forced Kagome back home through the well and she couldn’t return, the anime added a line explaining that it was because she didn’t have any jewel shards with her.  Whereas in the manga:

Seriously, why wasn’t Inuyasha plugging the well with a tree sufficient explanation?  Nooo, they had to BS some explanation about her needing jewel shards to use the well, which then came to bite them in the ass later when the group lost all of their shards and Kagome could still use the well.  The anime initially tried to cover for itself by insisting Sango had a secret stash of shards Kagome could use, but then later quietly forgot that they’d ever asserted such a thing.

So why can Kagome use the well?  Because the jewel wants her in the Feudal Era to complete its renewal cycle, as the deleted explanation stated.  So, in a roundabout way, she does need the jewel to use the well, but the jewel simply needs to exist, but not necessarily on her person.  As for why Inuyasha – and only Inuyasha – can also use the well…. bhhuuh…  Reasons.

[studiously-yours]

Ok, what's with this, McDonalds? I order 3 kid's meals for my kids. 2 'girls' and 1 'boys,' (which by the way is a stupid way to label your toys-- I have 3 girls, but 1 always gets a 'boy' toy). Anyways, why are both of my girl meal fries smaller than the boy meal fries? I paid for 3 kid's meals, all cost the same price, but for some reason, your employees decided my daughters didn't need the same meal as my supposed son?

[studiously-yours]

[studiously-yours]

DEAR RESEARCHERS OF TUMBLR

You know what’s awesome?  Research.  You know what’s not awesome?  Not being able to get access to research because it’s stuck behind a paywall and you don’t belong to an institution/your institution doesn’t subscribe to that particular journal.

FEAR NOT.

Here is a list of free, open access materials on a variety of subjects.  Feel free to add if you like!

GO FORTH AND LEARN SHIT, MY FRIENDS.

Directory of Open Access Journals- A compendium of over 9000 journals from 133 countries, multilingual and multidisciplinary.

Directory of Open Access Books- Like the above, but for ebooks.  Also multidisciplinary.

Ubiquity Press- Journals covering archaeology, comics scholarship, museum studies, psychology, history, international development, and more.  Also publishes open access ebooks on a wide variety of subjects.

Europeana-  Digital library about the history and culture of Europe.

Digital Public Library of America- American history, culture, economics, SO MUCH AMERICA.

Internet Archive- In addition to books, they have music and videos, too.  Free!  And legal!  They also have the Wayback Machine, which lets you see webpages as they looked at a particular time.

College and Research Libraries- Library science and information studies.  Because that’s what I do.

Library of Congress Digital Collections- American history and culture, historic newspapers, sound recordings, photographs, and a ton of other neat stuff.

LSE Digital Library- London history, women’s history.

Wiley Open Access- Science things!  Neurology, medicine, chemistry, ecology, engineering, food science, biology, psychology, veterinary medicine.

SpringerOpen-  Mainly STEM journals, looooong list.

Elsevier Open Access-  Elsevier’s kind of the devil but you might as well take advantage of this.  Mainly STEM, also a linguistics journal and a medical journal in Spanish.

[studiously-yours]

[studiously-yours]

Persona Q got real

[studiously-yours]

The Takarazuka Revue

Takarazuka was the first troupe to introduce the revue　”Mon Paris”, to Japan which was staged in 1927 and heralded the arrival of the revue era. All performers are women - a unique feature, considering the composition of other revue companies around the world. The first performance of the Takarazuka was in 1914 and the revue is still going strong today.

Photos courtesy of http://still-life-zuka.livejournal.com/

Info taken from the Takarazuka Revue website: http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/history.html

[studiously-yours]

I found a whole Takarazuka Rose of Versailles Snow Troupe performance on YouTube~ I am freaking out so much right now~~~ TTvTT I love Takarazuka so much…

[studiously-yours]

What are the differences between stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes? What are they? How do writers use them? Let’s take a look at some vocabulary and how we define these terms to make sense of them for ourselves.

Stereotype (n): A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or...

[studiously-yours]

The menace of nuclear war in spring 2013 embodies the Korean War's toxic legacy.

[studiously-yours]

KURAGEHIME or PRINCESS JELLYFISH

Review #1 KURAGEHIME or PRINCESS JELLYFISH. First off, this is an anime based off a josei manga. It’s 11 episodes long. A live action adaptation just got released in Japan at the end of December, which I am really excited about now.  PRINCESS JELLYFISH is a camp-style anime about 5 girls who live together in what they call a nunnery. The girls are self-proclaimed otaku, but at first function more like (but not completely like) a group of hikikomori (lit. withdrawal). (side note: a hikikomori is a reclusive person who does not participate in society for 6 months or more. It’s an actual phenomenon in Japan defined by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare and as of 2010, there were over 700,000 individuals living as hikikomori.) Each of the girls in PRINCESS JELLYFISH all have one thing they are passionate about, rather than being general fangirls, who are passionate about many things. One likes trains, one likes dolls, one likes the Three Kingdoms, one likes mature old men, and the main character, Tsukimi, likes jellyfish. (The kanji for Tsukimi’s name is 月海 (lit. “moon sea”), while the kanji for jellyfish 海月 (pronounced kurage) is just the kanji for her name reversed. Tsukimi muses that it might be the reason her mom named her that, but her mom tells her it’s because when she was born she saw the moon over the sea and thought it was beautiful.) Anyways, Tsukimi meets a “stylish” girl at a pet shop while looking at her favorite jellyfish, who she named Clara. Clara is a spotted jellyfish and the pet shop owner put Clara in with a moon jellyfish. But Tsukimi knows that spotted jellyfish and moon jellyfish can’t be in the same tank because the mucus from the moon jellyfish will poison the spotted jellyfish. Tsukimi tries to talk to the employee at the shop, but she’s too timid to get her point across. Enter he stylish girl. This girl helps Tsukimi save Clara and then follows Tsukimi home and passes out on her floor. In the morning, Tsukimi finds out that the “stylish girl” is actually a boy in cross-dress. He slowly worms his way into the otaku girl’s lives and becomes their friend. Tsukimi is the only one who knows that Kuranosuke (or Kurako when around the otaku) is actually a boy. Cue campy fun and antics. This show was really interesting to me because it was a boy cross-dressing, rather than a girl (which seems to be the most prevalent in manga/anime). His reasons for cross-dressing were also interesting. It wasn’t because he needed to gain access to something (like girls cross-dressing to go to an all boy school--HANA KIMI, or to be in an all boy club--OURAN). He was cross-dressing because he doesn’t want access to the power his family holds. His father is a politician and his brother is following in his father’s footsteps. So, Kuranosuke cross-dresses so he won’t be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. It’s also interesting because he is in almost the same position as Tamaki in OURAN. Kuranosuke is the child of a mistress, just like Tamaki. But, Tamaki has to fight to gain access to his father’s world, even as an only child, while Kuranosuke is just expected to gain access to it, even with an older brother. But Kuranosuke’s older brother is legitimate, which could be part of the reason Kuranosuke is allowed to be a deviant. Both Tamaki and Kuranosuke choose to do what makes them happy instead of what will help their family. Tamaki starts a host club, while Kuranosuke cross-dresses. It’s also reminiscent of YAMATO NADESHIKO SHICHIHENGE because Kuranosuke gives the girls a make-over and Tsukimi can’t look at Kuranosuke with her glasses on because he’s too sparkly. In YAMATO NADESHIKO SHICHIHENGE, Sunako can’t look at the boys because they are “bright creatures.” So, basically PRINCESS JELLYFISH is a combination of three of my favorite things: OURAN, YAMATO NADESHIKO SHICHIHENGE, and jellyfish. Perfection. Last note: I watched it in Japanese, but the girls started watching it in English. Whenever Kuranosuke said ‘ore’ (first person male pronoun), Tsukimi started singing “olé, olé” to try and distract the other girls so that they wouldn’t find out the truth about Kurako. In the English language version, the translators changed ‘ore’ to ‘a boy’. So, Tsukimi starts singing “oh boy, oh boy” instead of “olé, olé”. They did not change the subtitles though. -studiously yours

[studiously-yours]

For my studies, I'm going to follow the example of one of my Professors and some of my classmates and post reviews about films or shows that I watch, that (mostly) will relate to my thesis. This should help me focus. I'm not going to choose a specific number to watch, because some of the shows might have several episodes.I think my goal will be to make at least 52 posts this year.  Starting today.

[studiously-yours]

“Your job — as students who are receiving an education — is to be aware of your privilege. And use this particular privilege called “education” to do your best to achieve great things, all the while advocating for those in the rows behind you.”

source

[studiously-yours]

Found from various places online:

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Angela Y. Davis - Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Y. Davis - Race, Women, and Class

The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Three Guineas by…

[studiously-yours]

Earlier this month, Kotaku published an explainer on how anime art has changed in Japan over the decades. Now, let's have a look at how some manga characters have evolved.