#idiom thesaurus

[jaimetout]

I do realize fanfic writers aren't necessarily open and wanting criticism but sometimes it's just so hard to get through a story because of a minuscule error in their process that keeps happening but I can't say anything (because it's canon/j) and it kills me because their writing is so cute and I just really need them to re-read their work before posting and not be the me from a couple years ago

[literaryvein-reblogs]

121 Words & Phrases for Dying

A remarkable creativity surrounds the vocabulary of death. The words and expressions range from the solemn and dignified to the jocular and mischievous.

Old English

swelt/forswelt ⚜ give up the ghost ⚜ dead ⚜ i-wite

wend ⚜ forworth ⚜ go out of this world ⚜ quele ⚜ starve

c.1135 — 1600s

die (c.1135) ⚜ fare (c.1175) ⚜ end; let; shed (one’s own) blood (c.1200)

yield (up) the ghost (c.1290) ⚜ take the way of death (1297)

die up; fall; fine; leave; spill; tine (c.1300)

leese one’s life-days (c.1325) ⚜ part (c.1330)

flit (c.1340) ⚜ trance; pass (1340) ⚜ determine (c.1374)

disperish (c.1382) ⚜ be gathered to one’s fathers (1382)

miscarry (c.1387) ⚜ go; shut (1390)

expire; flee; pass away; seek out of life; sye; trespass (c.1400)

decease (1439) ⚜ ungo (c.1450) ⚜ have the death (1488)

vade (1495) ⚜ depart (1501) ⚜ pay one’s debt to nature (c.1513)

galp (1529) ⚜ go west (c.1532) ⚜ pick over the perch (1532)

die the death (1535) change one’s life; jet (1546)

play tapple up tail (1573) ⚜ inlaik (1575) ⚜ finish (1578) ⚜ relent (1587)

unbreathe (1589) ⚜ transpass (1592) ⚜ lose one’s breath (1596)

go off (1605) ⚜ make a die (of it) (1611) ⚜ fail (1613)

go home (1618) ⚜ drop (1654) ⚜ knock off (c.1657) ⚜ ghost (1666)

go over to the majority (1687) ⚜ march off (1693)

bite the ground/sand/dust; die off; pike (1697)

1700s — 1960s

pass to one’s reward (1703) ⚜ sink; vent (1718) ⚜ demise (1727)

slip one’s cable (1751) ⚜ turf (1763) ⚜ move off (1764)

kick the bucket (1785) pass on (1805) exit (1806)

launch into eternity (1812) ⚜ go to glory (1814) ⚜ sough (1816)

hand in one’s accounts (1817) ⚜ croak (1819)

slip one’s breath (1819) ⚜ stiffen (1820) ⚜ buy it (1825)

drop short (1826) ⚜ fall a sacrifice to (1839)

go off the hooks (1840) ⚜ succumb (1849) ⚜ step out (1851)

walk (forth) (1858) ⚜ snuff out (1864) ⚜ go/be up the flume (1865)

pass out (c.1867) ⚜ cash in one’s checks (1869) ⚜ peg out (1870)

go bung (1882) ⚜ get one’s call (1884) ⚜ perch (1886) ⚜ off it (1890)

knock over (1892) ⚜ pass in (1904) ⚜ the silver cord is loosed (1911)

pip (out) (1913) ⚜ cop it (1915) ⚜ stop one (1916) ⚜ conk (out) (1918)

cross over (1920) ⚜ kick off (1921) ⚜ shuffle off (1922)

pack up (1925) ⚜ step off (1926) ⚜ take the ferry (1928)

meet one’s Maker (1933) ⚜ kiss off (1945)

have had it (1952) ⚜ crease it (1959) ⚜ zonk (1968)

The list displays a remarkable inventiveness, as people struggle to find fresh forms of expression.

The language of death is inevitably euphemistic, but few of the verbs or idioms shown here are elaborate or opaque.

In fact the history of verbs for dying displays a remarkable simplicity: 86 of the 121 entries (over 70%) consist of only one syllable, and monosyllables figure largely in the multi-word entries (such as pay one’s debt to nature).

Only 16 verbs are disyllabic, and only 3 are trisyllabic (determine, disperish, miscarry), loanwords from French, and along with expire, trespass, and decease showing the arrival of a more scholarly vocabulary in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Even the euphemisms of later centuries have a markedly monosyllabic character.

Some constructions evidently have permanent appeal because of their succinct and enigmatic character, such as the popularity of ‘____ it’ (whatever the ‘it’ is): snuff it, peg it, buy it, cop it, off it, crease it, have had it.

It’s possible to see changes in fashion, such as the vogue for colloquial usages in "off" in the middle of the 18th century (move off, pop off, pack off, hop off ).

And styles change: we no longer feel that "pass out" would be appropriate on a tombstone. But some things don’t change. Pass away has been with us since the 14th century. And, in a usage that dates back to the 12th, we still do say that people, simply, died.

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Notes & References ⚜ Historical Thesaurus

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hiya, I hope youre having a good day!

On your advice for stiff writing, you said to 'avoid purple prose'. Im just wondering what that means? Sorry if I missed something from an earlier post.

Purple Prose and How to Avoid It

"Purple prose" is what we call writing that is "flowery" or ornate to the extent that it's melodramatic and pulls the reader's focus away from the actual story. Some things that contribute to purple prose:

1 - Overuse of Elegant and Elaborate Words

Normal Sentence: Clara stepped to the balcony and looked out over the crowd, finely dressed and buzzing with courtly gossip.

Purple Prose: Clara traipsed to the wrought iron precipice and gazed upon the throng, opulently clad and susurrous with scandalous hearsay and scurrilous palaver.

The problem: One of our biggest goals as writers is to effectively communicate the stories inside our heads, and we do that by making sure our prose is generally clear, direct, and precise. The overuse of elegant and elaborate words in the second example defeats the clarity because the reader is constantly having to think about what each word means, and maybe even look them up. When you read "balcony" you don't have to think about what that is. But "wrought iron precipice" requires a little more time to work out. "Crowd" is straightforward and clear where "throng" isn't. Everyone knows what gossip is, but "susurrous with scandalous hearsay" is just... whut.

The Solution: Most of the time, try to use the clearest, most direct words to communicate what you're trying to say. Don't constantly run to the thesaurus to find a fancier word. Ornate words should be saved for times when you really need the special impact.

2 - Overuse of Long Sentences

Normal Sentence: The finely dressed crowd buzzed with courtly gossip. (8 words)

Purple Prose: The throng was opulently clad and susurrous with scandalous hearsay and scurrilous palaver. (13 words)

The Problem: A variety of sentence lengths creates a cadence that helps your story flow. Since purple prose usually adds unnecessary words ("susurrous with scandalous hearsay and scurrilous palaver" takes seven words to say the same thing as "courtly gossip") you end up with more long sentences than short or mid-length sentences, if any at all, so not only do you not get that cadence, you often end up slowing the flow of the story.

The Solution: Keep an eye on your sentence length. If you see a lot of long sentences, see which ones you can tighten up. Not only will this help eliminate purple prose, but it will give you a nice variety of sentence lengths that will give your prose cadence and improve the flow of your story.

3 - Overuse of Figurative Language

I'm fudging the example here because I'm tired and my brain can't do figurative language right now, but it's things like metaphor, simile, hyperbole, idioms, symbolism, onomatopoeia, euphemism, and alliteration.

The Problem: Figurative language isn't usually the clearest, most direct to say something--though once in a while it does add much-needed clarity--so it's definitely not something you want in every sentence. Another issue with figurative language is it can be tricky to come up with something new or not over used, so a lot of figurative language falls into cliché territory. ("Their muscles were hard as rocks," "It was the calm before the storm," "They woke up on the wrong side of the bed...")

Solution: Make sure figurative language is used with intention and purpose. Before you use it, ask yourself what the figurative language accomplishes... how does it enrich the story or the reader's experience? Is it being used in a place that needs the added impact?

4 - Overuse of Adjectives and Adverbs

Normal sentence: She tiptoed down the steps and melted into the crowd, hoping not to be seen.

Purple Prose: She walked gently down the steep steps and quietly melted into the bustling crowd, desperately hoping not to be seen.

The Problem: Quite often, adverbs can be replaced by active verbs. There's no point in saying "walked gently" when you can say "tiptoed." No need to say "said loudly" when you could say "shouted." No need to say "drove quickly" when you could say "sped." And sometimes adverbs just don't add anything. If she tiptoes down the steps and melts into the crowd, isn't it kind of obvious that she's really reeeally hoping not to be seen? Describing that hope as "desperate" doesn't necessarily tell us anything useful. And in much the same way, while adjectives can certainly help paint a picture, when they're being over used, it's a good bet a lot of them aren't doing anything important. Why do we need to know the steps are "steep"? Is that going to be important later?

The Solution: Make sure you replace adverbs with active verbs whenever possible, and try to save adjectives for when they serve a purpose--either to flesh out description in important ways or tell the reader something they need to know for later.

5 - Overuse of Emotional and Sensory Description

Normal Sentence: She hoped no one saw her but couldn't fight off the feeling someone had. The fear made her heart pound and left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Purple Prose: She was absolutely desperate not to be seen, would pass out from shock if anyone saw her. Sweat streamed down her neck and pooled at the small of her back. She was so nervous she shook like a leaf, tasting bile in her throat as her heart pounded in her chest. The incessant chatter of the blathering crowd was almost drowned out by the frightening rush of blood in her ears.

The Problem: There's just too much going on. I love sensory description, but it doesn't have to be ALL the senses. And emotional details are great too, but she's desperate, potentially shocked, frightened, nervous... it's too much emotion. It's melodramatic.

The Solution: Use emotional description only when it's necessary, and don't forget you can also illustrate emotion by using physical and internal cues. Sensory description is great, too, but don't feel like you have to include all the sensory details in every description.

I hope that helps!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[scary-flag]

Tools for (not only) fic writers!

After a discussion on Discord I have thought I'd share all the useful tools that I - a copywriter and editor - use on a daily basis. These can be useful for fic writers, copywriters, novel writers... Basically anyone. :)

https://app.grammarly.com/ - for grammar checks, obviously https://quillbot.com/ - a great paraphrasing tool, especially when you want to change the style of a sentence, for example from casual to formal. Also has a bunch of other cool tools like summarizer. https://hemingwayapp.com/ - grammar checker, but also with suggestions what sentences are too hard to read, where to use an adverb, where to use passive voice etc. https://languagetool.org/ - grammar checker. Multiple languages. http://cliche.theinfo.org/ - a cliche finder, to not use the same words as everyone does https://www.onelook.com/thesaurus/ - THE reverse thesaurus, if you don't know the word, but can more or less define its meaning. Also has words organized by subject. https://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html - lists of idioms and their meanings https://www.calmlywriter.com/online/ - distraction free writing https://visuwords.com/ - a super cool visual thesaurus and dictionary http://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com/ - deletes all your text if you stop writing for 3 seconds. Motivating. https://www.charactercountonline.com/ - character, word and sentence counter. Also shows you the word density. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html - like Scrivener, word processor that allows you to break your work into scenes https://wavemakercards.com/ - for creating story timelines, mindmaps etc. https://www.shaxpir.com/ - manuscript builder, worldbuilding notebook, adding comments to text, setting goals, viewing the edit history http://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/ - for making story outlines and mindmaps of characters, places, etc. Totally free and open-source. https://www.losethevery.com/ - look for a synonym of the "very…" for more sophisticated writing 😉 https://brainsparker.com/ - random prompts and inspirations https://www.tapnik.com/brainstormer/ - random story ideas generator https://writeordie.com/ - deletes all your writing if you are not reaching the goals you have set for yourself https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/ - writing prompts

Have fun! I hope you find it useful!

[supergleedalequeen]

I'm being so serious Taylor Swift's new album butchers every idiom in the English language, gravitating wildly from boring shopping list expressing exactly what she's thinking and the type of "poetry" found written in Sharpie on the door of a Hot Topic dressing room. I want to beat her with the thesaurus she used to write this.

[coolingrosa]

Sorry for the onslaught of questions, but could you tell me how you learned to write so beautifully? Like the complexities of characters' emotions, how you describe things, tips to improve vocab, some good book recommendations, the way u use idioms and sayings so perfectly and just everything else you do? Ur writing is just so good that it actually makes me feel things 😭😭 I need to become like youuu

This is a very heavy duty question and I’ll try my absolute hardest to answer this!

First things first, I do want to clarify that if you’re asking about the writing of chapter one, I want to make a note that a lot of the flowing text and descriptions was written by my co-writer- BarnacleGirl. We have a system where I write the rough draft, and dialogue, then hand it over to her to polish and add on some additions. However, that has not been done for chapters 2, 3 and the prologue. Those three mediums have not been touched by her writing and is simply mine. So if you’re specifically wondering about the details in chapter one, send in another ask directed at her and I’ll get her to answer it for you!

If you have the right idea and meant to send it for the whole fic, I’ll continue!

Character writing hasn’t always been my best work in the past. Nobody starts off writing complex characters with compelling morals until they grow a bit and experience a lot of life. What really taught me how to write was putting myself into each character and making them human. I give my characters the bad parts of myself- the good parts- parts that my friends see and that I don’t. Situations I’ve gone through are sprinkled through my writing and the emotions written on the pages is real because it’s taken from a real person.

This isn’t me saying that if you haven’t gone through hardships, or put yourself into characters, you’ll make flat ones. However, making human characters comes with human qualities- even bad ones.

Killer isn’t a good person.

He’s not. He just isn’t. He’s one of the main characters for the story and sympathized with but with his actions he’s not considered a good person.

But guess what? Dream isn’t a good one either. Nobody is.

Because the idea of good and bad people is an unreachable concept that we as human beings can’t follow. Everyone is going to mess up and hurt somebody on accident- maybe even on purpose. And in return- you’ll deal with hardships and heartbreak too. And the people you hurt or are hurt by will all see you in different lights. You’ll be a good person to many and a bad person to equally as much. So declaring a character a overall good or bad person doesn’t carry the same weight as real life dynamics.

Erasing the idea that characters have an archetype of good and bad really helped me make good characters and kept me out of my box. You can have characters who are horrible to some people but kind to others- characters who love very hard but show it terribly. But that’s what makes these individuals people. The bad traits and the mix of good create who they are. Their good actions and bad actions have to make sense for what they are thinking. Nobody is born evil. People become evil and even your most horrifically evil characters still have to have human traits remaining inside to make them one.

When I get an idea of a character and their vibes, diving into their emotions becomes easy because I can better envision myself in their place. Sometimes this can get emotional, but building that connection with your characters can really help you type out their thoughts and feelings like second nature. I advise you to use a lot of drowning and fire metaphors for emotions- as a rush of cold and heat is the two most common sensations when someone is feeling a strong emotion.

Tips for vocabulary: use a thesaurus LMAOOO

I’m SO bad at vocabulary. I don’t know what so many words mean and I constantly have to find replacement words for some of my text so don’t worry if ur ashamed about doing that- I do it all the time. My favorite thesaurus is word hippo, as it has so many different variations.

I unfortunately don’t have any book recommendations as I haven’t read a lot recently- but my writing style right now is heavily based on on the book All the Light we Cannot See. I’m not a huge fan of the book, but the writing style in it is impeccable and totally influenced my writing when I read it in sophomore year. Roseverse was also directly inspired by For the Forgotten Ones on ao3 and while it didn’t inspire me writing style wise, it did motivate a lot of my world building.

I also really appreciate you liking my work- it makes me really happy! However, there’s no need to become exactly like me in writing, as writing styles are just as complex and different as art styles. How you write is unique to you, and a statement of what you bring to the table. There’s beauty in that. Never be ashamed of your own writing style or skills. Keep wanting to improve, of course, but keep your love for writing centered around what you can make with YOUR hands. Because someday, your personal writing style and art may amaze another person out there who will want to write just like you.

You’re capable of amazement. Never forget that.

[purplepeptobismol]

Hii I absolutely adore your writing but I got a question, do you have any writing tips? I'm an amateur and I'm not good with English like idk whatever I write it becomes stiff

I love your writing ;o; help this beginner writer

Hi anon!!

I appreciate you reaching out!! In all honestly, English isn’t my first language either lolol. Like majority of us, we’re all still learning 🫠 sadly. (I did explain a bit about advice for getting longer chapter here if you wanna check that post out) But that’s not to say that I haven’t seen improvement in my own writing either. I don’t really have concrete tips a professional might give you, but I do have tips for things that have helped me and could help you improve your writing flow!!

• Organize your story! Of course, you don’t have to do it for all of your stories, but it could really help for those really big projects. Planning out scenes and concepts before even starting to write chapter drafts can help getting an understanding of the direction of the story. If you don’t understand your own story, how would you expect others to do so? It doesn’t have to be neat at all either! Just as long as you have all of your thoughts written out is enough. I’m a bit extreme, and I end up doing graphs, diagrams, and character profiles lolol. I’ve recently started using Lore Forge, and I’m been trying to learn how to use Obsidian (but my god, shit is confusing), so you could always use note organizers for those big stories (but you don’t have to, and it’s not necessary)! At the end of the day, if you want your story to be impactful, getting your story concept/scenes planned out can really be a game changer!

• Music! Music is one of my major inspirations for writing. I always say that art can inspire other’s to create their own art, which is true. Literature, music, ballads, dance— all those things can really impact a person’s creativity. Setting a tone for your story by using music can really get your mind to explore and insert yourself in your writing (or if you prefer setting up collages of images, that can also help too).

• Read more! Whether it’s fan fiction or novels, or even articles, getting an understanding of sentence structures and dynamics can really shape a story up! If you find interesting uses of phrases or words, I recommend noting them down so you could see how you can incorporate it in your story!! Trust, I have a whole bunch of them in my notes up and it really helps a lot! Thesaurus is your best friend!

• Think about sentence structures! Sentence structure is the key to flow! You can describe a simple action in multiple ways. Here’s a quick example from my fic:

“Cooper tilted his head slightly with a smile curling his lips.”

If I were to put it in simple words, it would’ve been: “Cooper tilted his head and smiled.”

Which in itself, it isn’t bad at all!! There are multiple ways you can edit the structure by using compound sentences, complex sentences, periodic sentences, etc.

“Tilting his head slightly, Cooper smiled, curling his lips.”

“Smiling with curled lips, Cooper tilted his head slightly.

“Cooper tilted his head slightly, and a smile curled his lips.

“As Cooper tilted his head, a smile curled his lips.

There are many ways you can play around with sentence structures. The trick is to use all of the types throughout your whole story so it doesn’t become too over repetitive! Some work better in certain scenes, while others don’t. As you improve as a writer, the skill to noting which one of them to use becomes more easier.

• Figures of speech are cool! Ever since I was a child, I was always fascinated by the concept of idioms. I’m autistic, and I tend to take things literally, so it was really hard for me to understand people. But when I was in English class in the first grade, and I learned about figures of speech, I was so enthralled by the whole concept of it! Similes, idioms, metaphors, and personifications are something every writer should include in their stories! It makes everything feel so much more alive, me thinks.

• Read your story out loud! When you’re looking at a screen with words, it becomes sort of difficult to grasp the words in your head (or maybe it’s just me, idk) so having it (preferably someone else) read out loud to you can really help with noticing mistakes. My editor tends to do that for me on call or audio messages, but if you have no one available, something as simple as the Google translate lady can help too lolol. You’ll start to realize how many words you overuse when you hear it out loud. Though, I don’t recommend to overusing an automated voice instead of a human one. At some point, you’re hearing the same automatic sound to the point it numbs your mind. When you have a person/human reading it out loud, you can check if the feeling or emotion of the story is in par with the writing being given.

• Act it out! Now, this could be just a me thing…. So, uhm, I have other mental disorders that causes me to hallucinate and enter a state of psychosis. It can be very dangerous (and I wish I could say im safe, and that I take meds, but that would be a lie. I ran out of them and I don’t have insurance anymore RIP). But I try to use that to my advantage. You’ve heard of actors doing things such as method acting, and it’s sort of like that (only way more intense and actually unsafe if you’re not receiving treatment. Please, if you financially can, seek professional help if you struggle with schizophrenia or any other psychotic disorder. Do NOT do this if you’re not in the right state of mind). I try to use my hallucinations to my advantage by putting myself in the perspective/setting of the character and/or scene I’m writing. You can do something similar by daydreaming the scene, or actually acting it out like it’s a script from a movie. When you’re visualizing a scene or acting out the emotion of the characters, you can actually feel it more clearly. Those surges of emotions and images can really help with writing down the details/emotions you want to describe.

• Live life, and go outside! With everything in mind, the only way you can improve in writing is by experiencing things yourself. Your own experiences and memories can hold as references for your writing. How can you describe the taste of vanilla ice cream if you’ve never tasted it? Sure, you can read about it and hear others describe it, but it won’t hit the same as you describing it from your own experience. Of course, there a certain things you can’t experience because it could be dangerous or illegal (idk what you’re planning on writing), so I say you should opt to doing research on the topic, or much more preferably: talking/listening to people who have gone through those things. Art derives from life.

Well, these are my main tips! I can always go in detail with a specific one, or if you have a certain interest or request, please let me know! I hope this could help in some way 🙂‍↕️🤲

[gardengalwrites]

Nine people I'd like to get to know better

Thank you for tagging me, @suleikashideaway and @angelosearch! :)

Last song: "Fuel to Fire" by Agnes Obel (LIVE)

Favorite color: PINK 🩷

Last movie/TV show: Last movie was Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Last TV show was a Korean Drama called Oh My Venus.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: I have a huge sweet tooth and wish I could bake desserts for all of my Tumblr mutuals. 🍰 🍪 🥧

Relationship status: I am currently single and would love to get married to a dreamy man someday. 🌹

Last thing you googled: I posted a chapter of my fic today, so I was googling various phrases and idioms (that I couldn't find in the dictionary or thesaurus lol) to verify I was using them in the correct contexts.

Current obsession: Final Fantasy VIII as you can probably tell. Continuous obsession for the past 24 years.

If you feel like playing this tag game, I choose: @thenapwitch, @maggsdraws, @traceme88, @lochness-tess, @blurryobjects, @rowrowmyboat, @irishais, @wandererstorytellers, @oyasumi-ashurii

✨

[the-mindless]

hey! this is chance & here’s this week’s prompt. what websites or resources do you use while you write or develop a character/story? what do you think of them and would you recommend them?

Hello! I apologize, this is terribly late. I'm still gonna answer though.

Typically for writing I use, well, Google Docs. Yes, it's a pretty shitty app with a lot of weaknesses and ideally I wouldn't recommend it—However, it's free, doesn't have any ads, and easy to use on my phone (with some few exceptions. i.e. Can't add/remove spaces before/after paragraphs...)

Seeing as I'm currently stuck in phone purgatory for a couple more months, it's the best option I can find for now. There's a bunch of other writing apps on the play store, but most of them include ads and/or are confusing to use.

As for resources in general, there are TWO that I always, ALWAYS use whenever possible.

Onelook Thesaurus: A website where you could search for basically any word! Like synonyms, antonyms, that one phrase/idiom/word you vaguely remember, etc etc. Really helpful!

Punctuating Dialogue: A brief and helpful tumblr post on how to properly punctuate dialogue. Even after speaking English for God knows how long, I still need to check on it at least several times during writing.

Otherwise, I often just spend a lot of time browsing and reading through several sources regarding various topics. Y'know, like any normal writer.

Thank you for the ask, chance!

[sumpix]

[anxiousresearchraptor]

None of my writing would sound like it does without the help of the Thesaurus.

(Also weird piece of advice for those who want to use chatgpt in a meaningful way: When you can't think of the word but you know it's ultra-specific and you need this exact word that you've read somewhere (and can't remember where) and your brain's fried, a random description like "looking for a word that starts with a p and it is comparable to the German idiom 'auf Messers Schneide'" spits out either the word you're looking for or a pretty good equivalent.)

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

[silvernyxchariot]

⚠️CW: Me ranting⚠️

I was going to let it go, but... She gave me Karen vibes, the ones at the store that screech, "Excuse me! I don't like your attitude!😡"

And I was so excited to share my Kaveh DPS build too while it was still a work in progress (R1 Redhorn with 4pc Deepwood set (ATK% sands, Dendro dmg goblet, and Crit circlet)). But someone just had to ruin it. Of course, it was on HoyoLab.

:readmore:

Well, I'm going to be aggressive now. 🙄

I am capable of using a dictionary and thesaurus, for one thing, and idioms. Even so, I type what I mean unless I'm using tone indicators, italics, bold, or strikeout font to emphasize a different tone of voice. Hence, also my use of the disclaimer, "⭐️ My work is for entertainment and personal purposes. Do not take, translate, repost, or use it for profit."

So, for the eight millionth time (and I feel like I have to add that to EVERY post), I did not ask for build/team "help" or "advice." You're not helpful. You're intrusive. And overall, annoying as fuck. Just stick with the other meta players because I do not want you here or on my posts. People are free to express themselves, yes, I can't stop them. But seriously, shut the fuck up. I block as many people as I can but they just keep coming out of the woodworks.

If you do genuinely want to help, don't start off with "That's a weird choice of gear you made here..." and "As a Kaveh DPS player with a very well invested Kaveh... he won't deal that much," in your first sentences. You are NOT going to generate a good conversation. Your casual tone indicates familiarity. We're not friends. And "As a Kaveh DPS player with a very well invested Kaveh... he won't deal that much damage," so you're telling me you can't build this character to do what you want him to do. You don't actually put effort into farming that artifact RNG or put love into this character. That sounds like your fault.

I love Kaveh. And I love building him in every which way possible. I've looked at other players' builds, game websites, guides, YouTube, and do this thing called RESEARCH on my own.

Same person, just new pfp with a profile frame. I used a computer/browser because I just blocked them, jfc. 🙄 Alt text provided if you can't read the photos.

R: That's a weird choice of gear you made here... where are you playing him? Because if he's on-field on a bloom team, then he'd like to use a more supportive build I think (which means more EM, and definitely more ER, getting his burst must be an absoulte nightmare right now). And if he's the on-field DPS for a spread comp, he needs lots of love and a different set.

Me: As I've said in the post, "Kaveh's basic bloom build has been complete for the past couple of months, so I decided to give him new ✨accessories.✨" He has plenty of EM in that build. The team composition is up to me; I'm not asking for help.

(I wanted to share my Kaveh build. Not ask for advice. There was no question mark in my post. Build YOUR Kaveh and his team however the you want. And I will do the same.)

[R]: Fair enough, I was merely curious because your build is far away from his usual builds, and as a Kaveh player myself. I was interested to know your team comps. You don't need help, fine, sorry for offering generic advice I guess. Still, I'm feeling a tinge of uneeded aggressivity here.

(Since when is stating plain fact or quoting one's self showing "aggressivity." Just don't butt in when someone ISN'T ASKING FOR HELP.)

Me: Don't worry about it.

[R]: I'm not worried, just slightly confused by your behaviour. It's unusual, even by this platform standards. But hey, at least I was surprised, doesn't happen that often nowadays. So thanks, I guess.

(It's giving me stuck up, private school girl vibes. "I'm not worried," so I see common vernacular goes right over your head. Last time I checked, "Don't worry about it" means "leave it alone.")

[R]: As a Kaveh DPS player with a very well invested Kaveh... he won't deal that much. He's decent, but he's not meant to be a DPS.

("He's not meant to be a DPS," no fucking shit. That doesn't stop people from building characters they love, their way. 🤨)

Me: Stop bothering me.

(And then, I blocked her. I'm not dealing with these fuckers any longer than this.)

If you find this, Karen who's username starts with an R, I will block you still on every platform.

It's always the Ganyu mains and pfp. Fuck.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Is there a way for me to figure out speech & expressions in a specific past century? I've been trying to write a novel set in the 16th century but there are alot of expressions & idioms that I don't know if they existed back then or not. Do I just cut them out completely?

Researching Historical Lingo, Slang, and Grammar

Here are some things you can do to research the proper lingo, slang, and grammar for a historical setting:

1 - Google "slang (or phrases, lingo, grammar) of [era/decade] [location]" - I don't know where your story is set, but as an example, I Googled "slang of 16th century England" and got back 13 million hits, including things like "9 Elizabethan Words to Bring Back," "English Slang 1400 To 1680," "Elizabethan Swearing, Cursing and Vocabulary" and others. If you Google the era/decade and location of your story and take the time to sift through the results, you can get to know the lingo, phrases, slang, and grammar that would make sense in your story. (Just remember not to over rely on it... you want to avoid obviously modern phrases or words... no one in Elizabethan England would call something "freakin' sweet"... but you also don't want to write something so archaic sounding that it annoys the reader.)

2 - Go to YouTube and Search "slang (or phrases, lingo, grammar) of [era/decade] [location]" - YouTube can be a great source for learning how people spoke in a particular time and place. And in video format, this information is usually presented with additional information about the people and place that helps you understand why they spoke the way they did.

3 - Look for Books About Your Time Period and Setting - There are a lot of time/place settings that are popular enough to have books written about them. There's no shortage of books dedicated to life in Tudor and Elizabethan England, for example, and there are books dedicated to writing stories set in that time and place as well. Whether you go to your local library and ask, go to a local bookstore, or look on Amazon, books about your setting and time period can be a really helpful resource for learning about how people spoke.

4 - When In Doubt, Ask Google - If there's a particular expression, idiom, slang, or lingo you want to use but you're not sure if it existed in your story's time and place, try Googling the phrase plus "origin" or "etymology." That will almost always bring up something that will tell you the history of the expression, idiom, slang, or word that you're curious about. For example, let's say I wanted to know if they would have said "right as rain" in Tudor England. The very first hit on Google told me that while "right as rain" did originate in England, it doesn't seem to go further back than the 1800s. So, it wouldn't make sense for my Tudor character to say it. Some articles will suggest earlier variations, too, which can give you a fitting alternative. @definitely-not-julio suggested the OneLook online thesaurus which has an origin tab... and that actually leads to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which is a fantastic resource.

You can also use any number of idiom search engines or the dictionary to learn the origin of a particular phrase or word.

5 - Curl Up and Watch Stuff - One last helpful resource I want to mention is the great and powerful screen, whether that's the TV screen or device screen. There's a whole world of period dramas out there that take place in just about every possible time and place, so if all else fails, try watching a TV series or some movies set in the time and place of your story, and take notes! Just be aware that TV and movies aren't always super accurate, so it's a good idea to still double check anything you use, but they can be a great way to learn all kinds of potential words, phrases, lingo, etc. The Willow and Thatch web site has a list of period dramas by era (click on "best period dramas list") and it also has lists of period dramas by streaming service.

Have fun researching your story!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[rueria]

my writing and publishing process

voice in my head: so... when are you writing this fanfic you've been thinking about for days now?

me: soon! just have to do some things first.

voice: like?

me: like rereading the story again so i can make sure the fic aligns with canon

me: and rereading the story while psychoanalyzing the characters so i can portray the Exactly Right Interpretation of their personalities and dialogue

me: and rereading the story to make sure i didn't miss any symbolisms or metaphors

me: and rereading the story to make an Exact replica of the setting in my head

me: and reading others' opinions and analyses on the story and characters so i can justify that my portrayals are not just me projecting

me: and searching up trivia from interviews and Word of God bc that also counts as part of canon and i don't wanna contradict that even if they're not explicitly included in the story

voice: are you making a fanfic or a thesis

*after human society's downfall*

me: i finally finished the first draft! just need to review it

me: (reviewing) ...the prose kinda sucks.

me: also i used this word too much (opening thesaurus in new tab) also am i using this idiom right? also is the way i described this movement actually physically possible? also

*after the heat death of the universe*

me: wooh! finally something halfway decent that i wouldn't be too ashamed to post!

me: just need to decide on a title, summary, and tags

me: (types "not canon-compliant" and "might be ooc")

voice: fucking bitch—

[pooma-english]

Top 20 Errors in Undergraduate Writing

The Top Twenty:

A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing

Readers judge your writing by your control of certain conventions, which may change depending on your audience, purpose, and writing situation. For example, your instructor may or may not mark errors in your paper if he’s more concerned with its argument or structure than he is with sentence-level correctness; he could also decide an error is not serious. Some instructors may even see the errors listed below as stylistic options. However, a large-scale study by Andrea Lunsford and Karen Lunsford (2008) found that these errors are the most likely to attract readers’ negative attention. Before handing in your papers, proofread them carefully for these errors, which are illustrated below in the sentences in italics.

THE TOP TWENTY

1. Wrong Word

Wrong word errors take a number of forms. They may convey a slightly different meaning than you intend (compose instead of comprise) or a completely wrong meaning (prevaricate instead of procrastinate). They may also be as simple as a wrong preposition or other type of wrong word in an idiom.

Use your thesaurus and spell checker with care. If you select a word from a thesaurus without knowing its precise meaning or allow a spell checker to correct spelling automatically, you may make wrong-word errors. If prepositions and idioms are tricky for you, look up the standard usage.

Here are a couple of wrong word examples:

Did you catch my illusion to the Bible?

Illusion means “an erroneous perception of reality.” In the context of this sentence, allusion was needed because it means "reference.”

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is a magnificent sixteenth-century allergy.

A spell checker replaced allegory with allergy.

2. Missing Comma after an Introductory Element

Use a comma after every introductory element—whether word, phrase or clause—to clarify where it ends and the rest of the sentence begins. When the introductory element is very short, you can skip the comma, but including it is never wrong.

Without a comma after the introductory element, it’s hard to see the location of the subject (“they”) in this sentence:

Determined to make their flight on time they rose at dawn.

3. Incomplete or Missing Documentation

Documentation practices vary from discipline to discipline. But in academic and research writing, it’s a good idea to always cite your sources: omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism.

The examples below follow MLA style. In this example, the page number of the print source for this quotation must be included.

The Social Media Bible defines social media as the “activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media.”

And here, the source mentioned should be identified because it makes a specific, arguable claim:

According to one source, it costs almost twice an employee’s salary to recruit and train a replacement.

Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the documentation style you are using.

4. Vague Pronoun Reference

A pronoun (e.g., he, this, it) should refer clearly to the noun it replaces (called the antecedent). If more than one word could be the antecedent, or if no specific antecedent is present, edit to make the meaning clear.

In this sentence, it possibly refers to more than one word:

If you put this handout in your binder, it may remind you of important tutoring strategies.

In some pronoun usage, the reference is implied but not stated. Here, for example, you might wonder what which refers to:

The authoritarian school changed its cell phone policy, which many students resisted.

To improve this sentence, the writer needs to make explicit what students resisted.

5. Spelling

Even though technology now reviews much of our spelling for us, one of the top 20 most common errors is a spelling error. That’s because spell checkers cannot identify many misspellings, and are most likely to miss homonyms (e.g., presence/presents), compound words incorrectly spelled as separate words, and proper nouns, particularly names. After you run the spell checker, proofread carefully for errors such as these:

Vladmir Putin is the controversial leader of Russia.

Every where she walked, she was reminded of him.

6. Mechanical Error with a Quotation

When we quote other writers, we bring their voices into our arguments. Quotation marks crucially show where their words end and our own begin.

Quotation marks come in pairs; don’t forget to open and close your quotations. In most documentation styles (e.g., MLA Style), block quotations do not need quotations marks. Consult your professor’s preferred style manual to learn how to present block quotations.

Follow conventions when using quotation marks with other punctuation. Here, the comma should be placed inside the quotation marks:

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction", Virginia Woolf argues.

7. Unnecessary Comma

We often have a choice about whether or not to use a comma. But if we add them to our sentences when and where they are not needed, then we may obscure rather than clarify our meaning.

Do not use commas to set off restrictive elements that are necessary to the meaning of the words they modify. Here, for example, no comma is needed to set off the restrictive phrase of working parents, which is necessary to indicate which parents the sentence is talking about.

Many children, of working parents, walk home from school by themselves.

Do not use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) when the conjunction does not join parts of a compound sentence. In this example, no comma is needed before the word and because it joins two phrases that modify the same verb, applies.

This social scourge can be seen in urban centers, and in rural outposts.

Do not use a comma before the first or after the last item in a series.

The students asked their TAs to review, the assignment rubric, a sample paper and their comments, before the end of the quarter.

Do not use a comma between a subject and verb.

Happily, the waiters, sat down during a break.

Do not use a comma between a verb and its object or complement.

On her way home from work, she bought, a book at the bookstore.

Do not use a comma between a preposition and its object.

On her way home from work, she bought a book at, the bookstore.

8. Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization

Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives, the first words of sentences, and important words in titles, along with certain words indicating directions and family relationships. Do not capitalize most other words. When in doubt, check a dictionary.

Financial Aid is a pressing concern for many University Students.

9. Missing Word

If you read your work outloud before submittingit, you are more likely to notice omitted words. Be particularly careful not to omit words from quotations.

Soccer fans the globe rejoiced when the striker scored the second goal.

10. Faulty Sentence Structure

If a sentence starts out with one kind of structure and then changes to another kind, it will confuse readers.

The information that families have access to is what financial aid is available and thinking about the classes available, and how to register.

Maintain the grammatical pattern within a sentence. Each sentence must have a subject and a verb, and the subjects and predicates must make sense together. In the example above, thinking about the classes available does not help the reader understand the information families have access to. Parallel structures can help your reader see the relationships among your ideas. Here’s the sentence revised:

Families have access to information about financial aid, class availability, and registration.

11. Missing Comma with a Nonrestrictive Element

A nonrestrictive phrase or clause provides additional information that is not essential to the basic meaning of the sentence. Use commas to set off a nonrestrictive element.

David who loved to read history was the first to head to the British Library.

The clause who loved to read historydoes not affect the basic meaning of the sentence. The clause could be taken out and the reader would still understand that David was the first to head to the British Library.

12. Unnecessary Shift in Verb Tense

Verbs that shift from one tense to another with no clear reason can confuse readers.

Martin searched for a great horned owl. He takes photographs of all the birds he sights.

13. Missing Comma in a Compound Sentence

A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. When the clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), use a comma before the conjunction to indicate a pause between the two thoughts.

Miranda drove her brother and her mother waited at home.

Without the comma, a reader may think at first that Miranda drove both her brother and her mother.

14. Unnecessary or Missing Apostrophe (including its/it's)

To make a noun possessive, add either an apostrophe and an s (Ed's phone) or an apostrophe alone (the girls’ bathroom). Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive pronouns ours, yours, and hers. Use its to mean belong to it; use it's only when you mean it is or it has.

Repeated viral infections compromise doctors immune systems.

The chef lifted the skillet off it’s hook. Its a fourteen-inch, copper skillet.

15. Fused (run-on) Sentence

A fused sentence (also called a run-on) joins clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence with no punctuation or words to link them. Fused sentences must be either divided into separate sentences or joined by adding words or punctuation.

The house was flooded with light, the moon rose above the horizon.

He wondered what the decision meant he thought about it all night.

16. Comma Splice

A comma splice occurs when only a comma separates clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence. To correct a comma splice, you can insert a semicolon or period, connect the clauses with a word such as and/or/because, or restructure the sentence.

The students rushed the field, they tore down the goalposts.

17. Lack of pronoun/antecedent agreement

Pronouns typically must agree with their antecedents in gender (male or female, if appropriate) and in number (singular or plural). Many indefinite pronouns, such as everyone and each, are always singular. However, theycan be used to agree with a singular antecedent in order to use inclusive or gender-neutral language. When antecedents are joined by or or nor, the pronoun must agree with the closer antecedent. A collection noun such as team can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the members are seen as a group or individuals.

Every guest left their shoes at the door.

18. Poorly Integrated Quotation

Quotations should be logically and smoothly integrated with the writing around them, the grammar of the quotation complementing the grammar of the neighboring prose. They usually need to be introduced (with a signal phrase) rather than dropped abruptly into the writing.

An award-winning 2009 study of friendship "understanding social networks allows us to understand how indeed, in the case of humans, the whole comes to be greater than the sum of its parts" (Christakis and Fowler 26).

"Social networks are intricate things of beauty" (Christakis and Fowler xiii). Maintaining close friendships is good for your health.

19. Missing or Unnecessary Hyphen

A compound adjective requires a hyphen when it modifies a noun that follows it.

This article describes eighteenth century theater.

A two-word verb should not be hyphenated.

The dealers want to buy-back the computers and refurbish them.

20. Sentence Fragment

A sentence fragment is part of a sentence that is presented as if it were a complete sentence. The following illustrate the ways sentence fragments can be created:

Without a subject

The American colonists resisted British taxation. And started the American Revolution.

No complete verb

The pink geranium blooming in its pot.

Beginning with a subordinating word

We visited the park. Where we threw the Frisbee.

These 20 most common errors can be avoided in your writing if you reserve time to proofread your final draft before submission.

[wild-koala]

Time to kill

by Wild-Koala

idiom. to have nothing to do for a particular period: We've got some time to kill before we leave - do you want to have some coffee. Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples.

Link : https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/144691843?asc=u