#descriptive words

[futurebird]

Descriptive words for the exoskeletons of ants:

striate - with many parallel grooves tuberculate - with little protrusions covering the surface reticulate - split into irregular cells opaque - light cannot pass through translucent - light can pass through shiny - reflects light, has visible reflections on the surface matte - textured to absorb and prevent visible reflections. glabrous - smooth punctate/foveolate - covered in little round depressions rugulose - wrinkled pilosity - the degree of pilosity refers to how hairy the ant is reclinate hairs - hairs that lay flat tomentum - wooly hairs clavate hairs - hairs that are club-shaped

[redd956]

Some Sickness Writing Refs

Coughing

Hacking Cough

Wheezing

Shuddering

Dry/Wet Cough

Spittle

Phlegm

Mucus

Whistling Cough

Whooping Cough

Rasping

Gasping

Chesty Cough

Throaty

Croup

Chills

Shivering

Feverish

Shakiness

Trembling

Teeth Chattering

Tremors

Goosebumps

Sweaty

Drenched

Cool Skin

Watery Eyes

Bedridden

Stiff

Sore

Housebound

sick-abed

Bedsores

Suffering

Paralyzed

Debilitated

bedrid

Unconscious

Snooze

Groggy

bedfast

Dehydrated

Pale

Immobilized

Red-faced

Feeble

Incapacitated

Hospitalized

Feverish

Sweaty

Sweltering

Red-Faced

Drenched

Soaking

Teetering

Hot to touch

Beads of Sweat

Heat exhaustion

Damp Clothing

Delirious

Febrile

Clammy

Lightheaded

[blackrosesandwhump]

Words to Describe Blood

For all your whumping and writing needs.

Bead

Congeal

Drench

Drip

Drop

Fleck

Flow

Gush

Leach

Leak

Ooze

Pool

Puddle

Rivulet

Saturate

Seep

Smear

Soak

Speck

Spill

Spatter

Splash

Splatter

Spray

Sprinkle

Spurt

Stain

Stream

Surge

Tinge

Trickle

[kcarkwright]

Texture Words to Make the Reader Think You're Smarterer Than You Are

Gotta trick them into feeling like you know what you're talking about, right?

Abrade (abrading, abrasive) - To be broken down via friction/erosion

Barb (barbed) - having quills or spines or thorns calculated to wound

Bristle (bristled, bristly) having a still and prickly texture

Bolster (bolstered) - padded support

Burnish (burnished) - polished via rubbing

Coagulate (coagulated) - a liquid changed to a semi-solid texture, usually over time

Corrugate (corrugated) - shaped into ridges/groves or wrinkles

Crenelate (crenelated) - ridges over a relatively flat surface. Named after the gaps on top of fortified castle walls for archers to shoot from provided cover.

Diaphanous - a very fine texture that is translucent

Distension (Distended) - expansion via pressure from within. Synonym of bloated—although carries a different meaning when used medically

Emblazon (emblazoned) - inscribed with intricate design; synonym to embellished

Hirsute - hairy

Incise (incised, incision) - to carve into a surface

Keen - multiple meanings. Can mean: sharpened edge; extremely cold; clear scent/sound.

Lusterless - Dull. Posh older sibling to lackluster

Mellifluous - Having a smooth, rich flow

Ossify (ossified) - rigid or fixed into place

Patinated - Having a green or brown film produced by oxidation

Plumose - having many fine filaments [usually used to describe antennae, as exampled here. Look at that Silk Moth, isn't he cute?! TW: bugs]

Serrated - having a jagged, sawlike edge

Shirr (shirred) - gathered together in rows, usually stitched

Slovene (slovenly) - messy and dirty

Stodgy - dull and uninspired; heavy and filling

Suppurate (suppurated) - to produce or discharge, usually pus

Tessellation (tessellated) - patterned by repeated shapes without space in the middle

Unctuous - oily, greasy

Whet (whetted) - sharpened

[ihasafandom]

Problem as a Venom writer that might be applicable to other people and other types of fic and ofic:

too few words for a symbiote's biomass and other structures.

I've got:

flesh/tissue/matter = biomass, biomatter (the one I have the most trouble with in writing)

blood & internal fluids = xenoplasm, protoplasm, plasmatic matrix, biofluid

body = soma, being

skin = membrane, dermis, dermal tissue

head = pseudohead, pseudocranial protrustion

limbs = pseudopods, tendrils, tentacles, extrusions

sensory systems = chemo/photo/thermo/mechano/electro/nocic/etc receptors/sensors

teeth = dentition (fangs and teeth seem fine to me still too)

and ones that are specific to my HCs:

bit that connects to host's brain = holdfast

bit that connects out of material world = threshhold

bit that connects threshhold to pocket dimension = gullet maybe?

Anyone else have any others?

[ardent-reflections]

How can I describe my life to you? I think a lot, listen to music. I'm fond of flowers.

Susan Sontag

[shuckle24]

It is Cold

The weather is cold and listless. The seething sea hostile and frigid, the air cruel, piercing, and pregnant with an apocalyptic volume of water vapour, a tsunami threatening to burst forth out of the strained intermolecular forces of the paper-thin, unforgiving atmosphere. 

It is cold. The very spaces between the air molecules, the vacuum that is the staggering majority of the universe, the absolute nothingness that exists between two adjacent subatomic particles, even the regions of the infinite expanse of spacetime where the fields of quantum physics exhibit no curve or bend, even nothingness itself was cold. A chilling, merciless, sharp cold. A kind of coldness that is addictive. That burns torturously but enticingly, that slices the heart bitterly and lovingly. The kind of cold that gets to you. That gets to your bones, to your souls, to your memories. That chills your evolutionary desire to maintain homeostasis and leaves you longing to curl up and freeze, to submit, to give yourself up, to obey to the calmness, to the stillness of the coolness. 

The weather is cold. It is very cold. 

[psychologicalnausea]

Okay writers...

Do any of you know the name for when you have wicked bad writers block on the story you are supposed to be writing, so you get an idea for a different story and start writing on that, but then it happens again and again and again and suddenly you have 80 half written stories and writers block on all of them so you drown yourself in another story? Is there a name for that other than PURE HELL?! Because I have it and I need the cure.

Alternatively, have any of you had a scene in your head so you write it out and then these ideas just keep coming on how to expand and move the plot along even though you haven't done any planning and then suddenly you're staring at a completed story with no idea how you accomplished it?

[storiesgoeveron]

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[molecularspaghetti]

Three

Heaven’s music in child’s laughter

Hell’s darkness in brothers slaughter

And in the dirt

consumed by all the night of the cosmos

Death speaks.

And says to Her

“show them the meaning of sight”

And so She did.

But the poison is seeping through.

And the balance has begun to rot.

Walking eternity.

A passing wraith.

Judgment higher

Than any faith.

[milo-the-crotonian]

Homeless Man on the Moon

Oh, there in that crater was a nebulous nomad,

Out on the gray fields of Selene's snowmen:

He plucked peonies that shone silver sheen;

Emitting eminent rays as his rugged face gleams.

His beard of moon-dusted stalactites,

Was as worn and ugly as Vulcan's might!

Although, he was not gorgon-tranced

His placid eyes reflected the petal's dance:

Flickering bands of white and chrome—and

Fields of elderberries wherever he roams.

[redd956]

Words: Sense of Smell

Scent

Auroma

Stentch

Sickening

Stale

Moldy

Natural

Sweet

Refreshing

Pungent

Decaying

Waft

Perfume

Burnt

Rotten

Potant

Fresh

Cologne

Douse

Clean

Chemically

Earthy

Noxious

Sniff

Appetizing

Outdoorsy

Smog

Charred

Dank

Rancid

Smokey

Decomposed

Cheesy

Whiff

Sulfer/Rotten Eggs

Antiseptic

Stink

Citrus

Fagrant

Bleach

Faint

Sour

Musk

Oily

Nauseating

Reeking

Redolent

Overwhelming

Sharp

Seasoned

Odor

Must

Powerful

Putrid

Mouth Watering

Aged

Dull

Ancient

Fishy

Eye Watering

Minty

Floral

Resinous

Inhale

Savor

Spoiled

Amrbosial

Spicy

Dusty

[aiviwaivy]

The Silence I Crave

The beeping and clicking and buzzing never stops. The incessant hospital noises drown out any peace or quiet, stealing the silence I crave. They fill my mind with reminders of my illness and isolation instead of comfort and healing.

The high-pitched ringing when call buttons are pushed jolts me awake, even in the middle of the night when I'm trying to rest. Doctors talk loudly outside my room, discussing me like I'm not even here, hovering just beyond the door but never coming in. Nurses gossip as they walk down the hallway, chatting and laughing without realizing I can hear every word. These noises amplify the distance between me and everyone else, dragging my confinement and loneliness into sharp focus.

The machines monitoring me beep constantly, a high-tech soundtrack signaling that I'm still alive. The IV feeds fluid into my arm hour after hour, clicking softly each time a new dose arrives. Alarms shrill when a monitor goes askew. All the noises work in concert to remind me how fragile and weak I am, hooked up to tubes and IV bags and stripped of my independence.

The hospital noises drown out any peace and quiet, filling my mind with my illness instead of comfort and hope for recovery. They make me feel small and powerless, just a patient in a hospital bed waiting for someone to take care of me. I hate how helpless these noises make me feel. I just want silence.

[kuro-tsuki-san]

also with practice it is possible to learn to his and growl and other sounds. So the character may well be doing exactly that. Or not be human and have other sounds to their voice.

5 things your character can't do while speaking

Choke. Just think about it, seriously. Think about what choking is and imagine speaking while it’s happening. That would fuckin’ hurt, man.

Hiss. Look, it’s just not possible, okay? No matter how “evil” you want your character to seem.

Snarl. Animals snarls. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast snarls. The Hulk snarls. You know who doesn’t snarl? PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE SPEAKING.

Shriek. Come on, 99% of the time, “shriek” is not the word you want.Let’s face it: if you put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, your reader gets the picture. Don’t bring to mind banshees and screaming toddlers.

Sneer. I’m not even going to bother explaining this one. “SNEER” ISN’T EVEN A SOUND.

[incendavery]

worryingly specific

receipt:

[pearwaldorf]

This is some cold-ass shit. As President, Biden has to say something. But he can say it in a way that says nothing and everything.

I want to shake the hand of the staffer that wrote this because this is absolutely fucking superb.

I know we (in general but especially neuroatypicals) prefer things to be clear and straightforward. But occasionally, you can do things in full view of the world like this. And that's kind of incredible.