#lessons for life and storytelling

[freebooter4ever]

[clarisse-doodles]

Cass + ballet 🩰 (ft. supportive siblings and good dad Bruce)

I love the idea of Cass enjoying dance. It's an outlet that allows her to express herself without words, and I think she would enjoy the highly technical aspect of ballet combined with its storytelling and emotional side. and as a former dancer I always have fun imagining my fav characters do ballet :)

[queenielacy]

Both Drew and Roman got caught up with their obsessions and it cost them

[femmefatalevibe]

Aspiring Writers Guide: Part II

Tips For Writing Fiction:

Study your subject and the primary motivations, desires, insecurities, and fatal flaws that would plague the characters within the chosen setting/plot. Consider your narrative's culture and structure its "norms." How do your characters navigate these settings – conform, rebel, lead, follow? Structure your plot points around dilemmas, successes, and tensions that the reader would expect to occur within the plot you've set up.

Develop characters that you illustrate how they are a "product of their environment." Allow readers to get inside the characters' minds. Ideally, each character struggles with their own "moral dilemma" that they contemplate or attempt to work through over the course of the story. Build tension through plot points that provide contrast between characters with different "moral" scripts to undercover something deeper about each character and the fabric of their "society."

Embrace the "ugliness" inside of each character's mind – the deep or unprovoked thoughts that others relate to, but outside of a literary context, wouldn't dare to say out loud. Use show, not tell to display their flaws, triumphs, and other natural ebbs/flows that come with existing.

Have a plan for writing, but let the work finish itself, depending on how the characters develop themselves

Use descriptions, not observations to set the stage. Evoke and show provoked emotions, not describe the characters' feelings directly

Tips For Non-Fiction Writing:

Dive deep into a subject of interest, and consider its history, trends, and innovations. What conclusions or new perspectives can you articulate from this information?

Develop a multi-layered "thesis" to organize your ideas and clarify your POV. How do these interpretations help us come to unique and a deeper understanding of previous studies, research, anecdotes, and developments within this field of interest?

Begin your story on an unexpected or controversial note. Consider using a personal story or historical "fun fact" to draw the reader into the piece. Introducing your story with a personal story, question, or seemingly deviant question can easily hook your audience.

Give them a chance to ponder your new insights or thought-provoking ideas while reading your story. Use personal stories and research study findings to give authority to your story. Extract the main takeaways from these anecdotes, and use them to offer questions about the situations, dilemmas, or overall subject matter to your audience.

Be clear about your structure and how you organize your points. Ensure there's a logical flow between paragraphs, grafs, and sections (or chapters).

Don't forget to evoke emotion through your language and word choice. Allow your humanity to come through, use clever, relevant, humor. Make the audience feel like they're entering an educational fantasy land where the "storylines" envelop your mind as much as they do the page.

[pattytacuri]

emotional scar

The emotional scar left within me is forever bleeding I try to cover up with the love of someone else but I continually fail

Nothing compares to the paradise that were your hugs, your kiss, and your caresses.

And yet I keep trying to forget you in the arms of another.

It's an experiment trying to heal my heart and soul from your lust disguised as love

2/24/21

[owl-bear-in-flight]

Terry Pratchett and I used to joke that we talk about "going to meet our maker," and if we kill characters in our fiction, then maybe one day there'd be a knock at the door and we'd open the door, and there would be some of our characters looking up at us sadly saying, "Why did I have to suffer and die?" And you'd want to say, "For the entertainment and enlightenment of other people." And they'd look up at us and they'd go, "Is that enough?" You know it has to be enough.

-Neil Gaiman (in his MasterClass on The Art of Storytelling)

[the--days]

so it's like this.

you're young and you're scared and you're trapped in the feywild (happens to the best of us) with the love of your life. You're a half-elf and she's a fullblooded elf but you don't think about it very much because you're barely surviving day to day. And you get offered a deal to get yourself home again, and you take it. And the price of your freedom is that you leave her still trapped there, alone.

And then five years pass. And you age a century in that time, and you grow, and you change, and you find her again, and you're still in love, and you meet people, and you lose people, and you love them too, and you learn, and you start wanting a future again, and caring again, taking care of yourself, taking care of other people--

and after all of that, at the end of things, you find out the man responsible for all of the misery in your short, sad life has cast a spell which gives him complete control and ownership of you- mind, body, and soul (again. this happens to the best of us). And you are given the choice to stay under his thrall, and live a thousand years-- or to age and die, like humans do, and to be free of him.

And the love of your life is there, and you're married now, and she's still a full blooded elf, and you're still a half-elf, and you think about what that means a lot more than you used to.

And still, after everything you've learned-- you choose your freedom. You choose leaving her behind.

[cahyadina]

#11/30 : Karena Allah mau, bukan sebab jungkir balikku.

Mau jungkir balik atau salto sekalipun, kalau doa-doa baik itu belum waktunnya dikabulkan, tentu tidak akan.

Orang-orang mengira hidupku baik-baik saja, lancar-lancar saja, tidak paham seberapa kali aku hancur berantakan dikerumuni rasa bersalah jika suatu hari tidak memenuhi harapan.

Sebelum hari dimana manusia-manusia itu memberi selamat, menganggapku berhasil mencapai impian, aku sudah sekian kali menemui kegagalan-kegagalan hidup yang membuatku patah.

Beberapa orang mengira aku beruntung karena lulus ujian kenegaraan di usia 20an tahun. Tapi, dulu mereka juga yang bilang di usiaku yang 20an tahun itu mengapa belum mampu memenuhi harapan dan ekspektasi keluarga.

Jatuh bangun aku berusaha lulus kuliah tepat waktu.

Bersyukur sebelum wisuda aku diterima mengajar di sekolah negeri di Jogja.

Berjuang menjadi tenaga honorer disana, mengajar les kemana-mana demi tambahan uang untuk hidup.

Masa ujian kenegaraan itupun mereka tidak tahu betapa pusingnya, belum lagi sepatuku jebol tepat setelah keluar ruang ujian, bajuku lusuh, keringat dingin bercucuran. Rasannya ingin berteriak.

Mereka tentu tidak akan mengerti sekalipun aku jelaskan lewat pidato atau seminar.

Maka, aku biarkan saja.

Fokus pada apa yang harus aku capai. Terpenting jangan menyakiti keluargaku, atau aku patahkan hidungnya!

Apapun itu, mari usahakan apa yang mesti diperjuangkan. Biar Allah nanti mengatur jalan ceritannya. Diri ini hanya perlu terus ikhtiar. ♡

Allah tahu kapan anak panah itu tepat sasaran.

[Ditulis di kos sembari melepas lelah. Selasa, 23 April 2024]

[awakeneddominicangirl]

Separation

Every part of myself that I have kept down out of survival, to keep the status quo, to "belong" in this life and society that is not mine, a community that is not mine, has created chaos. It has racked havoc. At times, it has lept out of its cage ravenously, wanting what it feels it is owed from people, from life. It is angry. It is bleeding. It is hurt. It is grieving. It is stuck. It can't get out. It does not know what else to do.

These parts. Beautiful parts. Hidden. Kept in cages. Kept in split parts. Missing other parts. Being left out to eat. To drink. To get a glimpse of life, of light, of the world. But, having quickly to go back to its cage like a show animal. You're hidden. Don't show yourself too much. You're a threat. They can't see you. You'll create havoc. You'll create discord. You'll make people angry. You'll make people sad.

What do you do when you wake up, and you wake up to the life that you're living, and that is a result of hiding all the parts of you that glimmer? You allow certain parts out. Only the ones that won't make people uncomfortable. But they'll make you uncomfortable. Not the parts, but having to keep those other parts in cages. It takes work. It's a full-time job. It's exhausting. It hurts. My soul hurts.

It criticizes others. It judges others. It picks people apart. Everyone must be perfect. You as you are, are not good enough. It resents others. You get to live the way that I wish I could. You get to be YOU and not think twice about it. You get to be you and be celebrated. You get to show the world that this is you, and you're surrounded by all these people - this massive group of people projecting, wanting you to be something else - someone else to make them feel more comfortable. To get their needs met. And it is a disappointment. You're not heard. You're not seen. And when I say seen, I mean that all parts of you are not acknowledged and seen. You as you are, are not seen. They can't be seen. They can't be acknowledged. They're incapable of acknowledging or they simply feel uncomfortable in that presence because it reflects back their own discomfort and grief and sadness with their own selves. The split parts of themselves. The repressed parts of themselves.

[freebooter4ever]

oh my goodness lupita??!?!? D:

[softmagichands]

Don’t have regrets

[personalgrowthoasis]

Why Childhood Loves Shape Us More Than We Realise

Travel with me down memory lane as we explore our first loves and childhood memories. Let's bring back the joy and innocence, and remember that our past shapes us. Also, check out my handcrafted creations on Etsy! https://tinyurl.com/bdd6chav

Do you remember the exhilaration of your first childhood crush? That innocent feeling of fascination and admiration for another person, before love is weighted by the complexities of adulthood? Let me take you on a journey down memory lane, to when I was just five years old and I experienced the sweetness of my first love. When my family moved to Spain from Bulgaria, the move was a daunting…

[femmefatalevibe]

(writer anon!) I really like to write fiction, but I'm also interested in writing nonfiction to broaden my skills, if this helps.

Hi love! I'm not a professional fiction writer/author, but my first mentor was one (high school English teacher), so I'll share some of the fiction writing tips I still remember (hopefully correctly lol) that I didn't mention in my original, general writing post:

Tips For Writing Fiction:

Study your subject and the primary motivations, desires, insecurities, and fatal flaws that would plague the characters within the chosen setting/plot. Consider your narrative's culture and structure its "norms." How do your characters navigate these settings – conform, rebel, lead, follow? Structure your plot points around dilemmas, successes, and tensions that the reader would expect to occur within the plot you've set up.

Develop characters that you illustrate how they are a "product of their environment." Allow readers to get inside the characters' minds. Ideally, each character struggles with their own "moral dilemma" that they contemplate or attempt to work through over the course of the story. Build tension through plot points that provide contrast between characters with different "moral" scripts to undercover something deeper about each character and the fabric of their "society."

Embrace the "ugliness" inside of each character's mind – the deep or unprovoked thoughts that others relate to, but outside of a literary context, wouldn't dare to say out loud. Use show, not tell to display their flaws, triumphs, and other natural ebbs/flows that come with existing.

Have a plan for writing, but let the work finish itself, depending on how the characters develop themselves

Use descriptions, not observations to set the stage. Evoke and show provoked emotions, not describe the characters' feelings directly

Tips For Non-Fiction Writing:

Dive deep into a subject of interest, and consider its history, trends, and innovations. What conclusions or new perspectives can you articulate from this information?

Develop a multi-layered "thesis" to organize your ideas and clarify your POV. How do these interpretations help us come to unique and a deeper understanding of previous studies, research, anecdotes, and developments within this field of interest?

Begin your story on an unexpected or controversial note. Consider using a personal story or historical "fun fact" to draw the reader into the piece. Introducing your story with a personal story, question, or seemingly deviant question can easily hook your audience.

Give them a chance to ponder your new insights or thought-provoking ideas while reading your story. Use personal stories and research study findings to give authority to your story. Extract the main takeaways from these anecdotes, and use them to offer questions about the situations, dilemmas, or overall subject matter to your audience.

Be clear about your structure and how you organize your points. Ensure there's a logical flow between paragraphs, grafs, and sections (or chapters).

Don't forget to evoke emotion through your language and word choice. Allow your humanity to come through, use clever, relevant, humor. Make the audience feel like they're entering an educational fantasy land where the "storylines" envelop your mind as much as they do the page.

Hope this helps! x

[pattytacuri]

Inti

running in the sun warms my body, warms my thoughts it invokes my need to worship it like my ancestors before the colonizers declared it wrong and pagan but they couldn’t wipe away my blood, my DNA and my deep connection to the Sun, my ancestral GOD Always bringing me to the surface of gratitude and love

9/11/22

[filmcourage]

21 Lessons On Writing And Selling Books - Anna David [FULL INTERVIEW]

[eliceislandent]

On this day, August 10, 1984, John Milius's "Red Dawn" hit theaters...and a generation of moviegoers was never the same.

On this day, August 10, 1984 “RED DAWN” was released.

I didn't see the movie in theaters because I was a bit too young, even though the modified ratings system had introduced the “PG-13” rating just a month earlier, in July 1984. However, I've more than compensated for that over the years with dozens of repeat viewings, thanks to the expanding universe of TV channels as cable became widespread—much like the invading Russian army in the movie. (Shout out to TBS Superstation, Channel 27, New York. Much love.)

The scene where Russian paratroopers land on the grounds of an American high school and initiate their attack was, and still is, utterly thrilling for me.

“I would say they are way off course. Very unusual.”

I had the pleasure of meeting John Milius during my time at AMC. He's a force to be reckoned with—a big man in height, girth, and personality. He regaled me with tales of surfing in Southern California and the best spots for shooting guns in Connecticut. I probably spent the first ten minutes of our meeting gushing about my love for “Red Dawn” and how I used to reenact key scenes as a child. To which he responded that he still acts them out himself.

Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film became a commercial success, grossing $78 million against a budget of $17 million.

Years later, when I launched my production company, I pitched the idea of turning “Red Dawn” into a TV series to MGM. By then, a movie remake had been released, which, although a decent film in its own right, didn't quite match the original's magic.

During this period, the Russians weren't the adversaries they were in the 1980s—and might be becoming once more. There wasn't much interest in the 2010s to portray Red China as an invading power. Many movie and TV execs were wary of being banned from China, viewing the Chinese theatrical market as the future of entertainment. I had hoped that Milius would direct the pilot, but this notion seemed too audacious for some execs, many of whom deemed him too red-blooded and volatile. I begged to differ.

Sadly, I never got to find out how it might have turned out. MGM didn't buy into my vision for the material. It's a pity, as I would've loved to see the story of the “Partisan Rock” signers evolve in the aftermath of World War III.

I still would.

Wolverines!

“In the early days of World War III, guerillas – mostly children – placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives so that this nation shall not perish from the earth.”

-Inscription on fictional Partisan Rock