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mamacesawrites · 4 years ago

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Maybe-Nevers

@jasperwhitcock made a post that put me into a trance-like state where I needed to write this little oneshot or I’d explode

though i chose a different song than what you put in the tags Cassandra it just came on as i wrote the first bit and felt too perfect

Summary: As Jacob struggles with the frustrations of make up homework, Bella does what she can to be there for him. What was an attempt to meet Jacob halfway turns into a moment that adds to the list of ways Jacob has helped her heal from loss. Ao3 link

Songs: Through Fire and Flames by Dragonforce , It’s the Only One You’ve Got by 3 Doors Down

Word Count: 1823

Maybe-Nevers

It was a homework day for us, so that meant it was quiet time in the garage.

I liked doing homework in the garage with Jacob. He had a desk in the far back that he used for making lists for parts, plans for engines, and pieces of tiny machine parts that I assumed were spark plugs. On homework days we'd push that to the side against the wall. I was content keeping my reading on my lap and my writing on the desk, since he had a habit of sprawling his work out.

The only sounds between us were our pencils scribbling on our assignments. I was so engrossed with my history assignment about the 1960s Civil Rights movement that I didn't notice that Jacob was struggling until I heard the sharp snap! of his pencil breaking.

I jumped at the sound. I looked him up and down. Jacob's fists were shaking.

I tried to keep my voice calm for him. "What's wrong?"

His mouth was shut tight, and I could tell he was grinding his teeth. I tentatively put my hand on his arm. It was hotter than his usual heat. I could feel his muscles straining, but his arms stopped shaking as he registered my touch.

"I just-" Jacob took in a deep breath when I started rubbing my thumb back and forth. His words became slow and deliberate. "I just find it frustrating. Not only do I have a ton of make up work to do, every time I feel too stupid to get it I- I want-"

He ripped his arm away from me. He ran his hands through his short hair. My heart ached for him. Not in the way it ached for…others…but in the way it did for him. Seeing my personal sun struggling with his new self hurt.

"What can I do to help? I can help." I knew I was begging for my own selfish reasons. I didn’t want to see my friend so stressed. I tried to take a deep breath quietly. I don't need to be scared. Jacob would never hurt me.

His back was turned to me. He had his arms crossed, and his breathing was ragged. "Bella, I need you to leave me alone for a sec. I need a break from thinking about math and shit."

"Okay…" I trailed off. I grabbed my bag and supplies as quick as possible, which meant that I kept dropping pencils as I walked towards the door.

"No, Bella, I don't want you to leave for good." Jacob rolled his eyes for emphasis. "I just need a few minutes to take a break, okay. Go wait in the house and have a snack or something."

I was confused, but I set the stuff that was still in my arms by the door. I threw a confused look over my shoulder to see Jacob walking over to the radio.

Oh. He was going to listen to some music, and he remembered that I don't like listening to music.

I hurried out the door before I could hear whatever song he put on. I made it halfway down the path towards the house before I stopped. Jacob didn't listen to love songs, right? Maybe…maybe I could go be there with him. I could try.

I made my way towards the garage with intention. If he needed a break to listen to some music, I'd be there. He already had to try adjusting on his own so much. I wasn’t there for him when he changed. The least I could do was put myself through some…discomfort...for him.

I didn't recognize the blasting beat as I opened the door. What I did recognize was Jacob smiling as he moved things around the garage. He was nodding his head along to the bass as an electric guitar solo played.

I didn't move from the doorway yet. I was too busy admiring the way he looked like his old self. I was too caught up in seeing my smile. The grin that reminded me of the sun.

He noticed me as the lyrics started up. His face went from shock, to confusion, to closed off. "Sorry." He went towards the radio but I blocked him before he could.

"No, no. It's okay." I tried to smile at him. "I'm okay."

The song was still permeating through the garage with its loud shrieks of electric guitar strings being strained. It was tough, angry, and I really did like it.

I tilted my head towards the radio. "What song is this?" I asked loudly.

Jacob eyed me for a second. Probably to gauge my reaction or wait to see me fall apart. I didn't blame him, a part of me was waiting for it too. Yet I knew I would be okay. I was with Jacob. He would keep me together.

" Through Fire and Flames by Dragonforce."

A good, tough, angry title. I could dig that. I nodded along off-beat as the solo kept building up. I giggled, sure I was making a fool out of myself.

Jacob seemed to loosen up just watching me. "I didn’t take you for a metalhead, Bella.”

I laughed. “Me neither”

As Jacob started to close the space between us, the song ended on a final guitar shriek. Soon I heard the beat of drums that were much tamer than the first song. Soon a man’s voice started singing.

I froze. The words were draping me and skirting around the edges of the hole in my chest. I think Jacob noticed the change. He reached behind me to turn it off, but I grabbed his hand. I looked up at him. My eyes were welling up with tears, and I knew I probably looked terrified.

Each lyric felt purposeful. Like this song was from Jacob to me. I wanted to try it out. I...needed to stay with him. Without letting myself chicken out, I put my hands on his shoulders and started to sway. He didn’t stop me. Instead he put his hands at the small of my back and swayed with me.

We went in circles around the space in the front of the garage. The words were draping over us like waves of healing water. The singer’s voice was rough and warm but tender. So soft, just like Jacob was as he held me. I leaned my head on his chest to hide my tears.

This wasn’t a love song. Well, not a romantic one.

Jacob started humming along.

“You know this one too?” I whispered.

“Of course. It reminds me of you.”

I blushed, and brought my face away from his chest to look at him. His face was free of anger and frustration. He was soft. His brown eyes were seeing me. It was as if he was reading my mind, something even...it was something no one had ever been able to do.

“Memories have left you broken.

And the scars have never healed.

The emptiness in you is growing.

With so little left to feel.

You're scared to look back on the days before.

You're too tired to move on.”

We kept sway-dancing. I recalled the time when he showed up to my school dance. We had a bit more rhythm now. Maybe because changing into a wolf had given him more than a cure from clumsiness. It seemed to have given him a sense of rhythm that I still lacked. He was strong enough to lead this dance now.

“Jacob…” I started. He put his finger on my lips.

“Just listen, Bella.” he commanded quietly.

I obeyed, but only because I knew that the hole threatening to burst open was only closed because he was holding me.

The music swelled, and suddenly he started moving us with purpose. Simple steps to still keep me upright, but we were becoming one with the song as it spoke to both of us.

“You hide behind your walls of 'maybe nevers'

Forgetting that there's something more,

Than just knowing better.

Your mistakes do not define you now

They tell you who you're not.

You've got to live this life you're given,

Like it's the only one you've got.”

I smiled, which turned into a giggle, which turned to gleeful laughter as he spun us around. He lifted me into the air.

“Oh, what will it take?

Oh, to get you to say that I'll try.

And what would you say if this

Was the last day of your life?”

Jacob’s voice wasn’t smooth like ice. It didn’t hit a perfect pitch. It was gruff as the man on the radio. He was hitting a deeper timbre, which seemed to harmonize perfectly. His singing voice was pleasant. I’d heard him hum to himself before, even when he tried not to let me hear. Still, I heard what he was saying clearly this time. I knew what he was asking me.

I couldn’t tell if we were still dancing in rhythm, but I knew he was holding us as we went. The garage blurred around us from my tears. He was still clear. He was radiating warmth and compassion and kindness.

We rode out the final chorus by going back to the sway-dance we started. I was full on sobbing now. He just held me. In his unique, quiet understanding, he didn’t try to speak to me. He let me cry into his chest. Eventually he picked me up to move us to the rolling chair by the desk. He just held me as I sobbed. The radio hadn’t been turned off, but the music was just a pleasant buzzing in the background.

He pet my hair gently. I eventually brought myself back to the present through the sound of his heartbeat. It was like a steady drum. The sweetest song I would ever hear if I could help it.

I pulled back. I smiled sheepishly while I wiped my eyes. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

His lips upturned in a sad grin as he helped me wipe the tears. “Don’t be. Thank you for that. I needed that.”

I nodded. “I think I did, too.”

He looked at the desk next to us, then the clock on the wall. It was past our usual end time. He started chuckling. “Well, I guess we’ll have to save the rest of our work for next homework day.”

I giggled. I pushed myself up off of his lap. “Let’s eat dinner, then.”

He helped me gather my things. Then we left towards the house where Charlie was probably waiting with Billy. I noticed that the radio hadn’t been turned off as we walked down the path to the small house. Jacob kept watching me, trying not to make me notice. I think he was waiting for me to curl up in pain.

I didn’t, and I held it together through the night as I slept.

Let me know if you want to be put on the taglist for any of my writing!

#mama cesa writes #twilight #new moon #twilight oneshot #twilight fic #twilight fanfic #oneshot #emotional hurt/comfort #platonic jacob black x bella swan #jacob black x bella swan #platonic relationship #jacob black #bella swan #i barely edited this #spellcheck counts as editing right?

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sansukh-book-project · 3 years ago

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Updates on fourth step (and step 4.5!)

Hello all!

Progress has definitely been made! I was able to stick to my schedule and finish doing my proofread on Friday! Overall, there were very little errors that needed correcting. A couple instances of a word misspelled, a few instances of a word missing, but overall the text itself was immaculate. The main things I had to note were that there were many dashes that needed fixing, and also a consistent capitalization error. Dets had a habit of not capitalizing the beginning of a dialog if it was in the middle of a sentence. Let me write up a fake example. The sentences would look like this: She jumped to her feet and cried out, “how can that possibly be?” However, all dialog, whether it’s in the middle of a sentence or not, needs to have the first letter of the first word capitalized. The dialog itself technically counts as it’s own sentence and so grammar rules still apply to it. So for our example, it should read: She jumped to her feet and cried out, “How can that possibly be?” Beyond fixing dashes, this was probably the bulk of the notes I took that needed fixing. Below is a picture of all my post-it notes, most stacked on top of each other.

I’ve finished fixing my first two documents, and am well on my way to incorporating my notes from the third document.

Now you might ask, what’s next? Well, funny story. I got to the end of Sansukh proper, and through my tears, I couldn’t help but want to read the epilogue story Tasalalkhud. It just didn’t feel complete without including that story as well. So, now I’m off to do all the steps I’ve done previously with Tasalakhud. I’ve already done the reformatting, the spellchecking, and the dash fixing. Now I’ve just got to read it and do my final proofing.

I also came to some decisions during my proofing. Originally, I had split the text for purely practical reasons; my computer did not like documents over 350 pages. I had originally planned to think more critically about how to split the volumes. However, I found that I actually liked where each volume ended! Volume one ends on a cliffhanger during the Battle of Helms Deep, with Gimli missing and Legolas asking Thorin to find him. I think this is a fun place to end it, as who doesn’t love a good cliffhanger, and it marks the point when the acknowledgement of their feelings begins. Volume two ends as the ring is destroyed, nicely wrapping up the story of the war. Volume three, then, becomes a sort of extended epilogue and wrapping up story. I wound up really liking these divisions, and so I’m thankful to serendipity that they happened naturally.

I also finally made a decision on how I want to handle the endnote translations for khuzdul and other languages. I had been waffling between making a glossary at the back of the books or including the translations on the page as footnotes. I’ve decided to go with a hybrid approach. I think for the endearments, family names, curses, or other terms that repeat frequently, I will include them all in a glossary at the back of each volume. Not knowing the translation of these words does not detract from my understanding of the text. For any phrases or words that need immediate translation, they will have a footnote on the page. This way, for words and phrases that are important to know in the moment, I won’t have to flip to the back of the book to know what is being said. I think this is a good compromise. It means I don’t have to translate the same word over and over again, but it lets me stay on my page when I do need a translation right away.

So, step 4.5 is to do my proof-editing of Tasalakhud. I have a week off coming up in August, and I should be done with my proofing by then. I look forward to using some of my time off to work on footnotes, the glossaries, and other appendix matters.

Until then my friends, thank you as always for joining me on this journey. It’s been about a year now since I originally downloaded the text, and I almost can’t believe how much time has passed since I began this project. While this is certainly the longest project I’ve ever worked on, it’s also one of the most rewarding.

#the great sansukh book project #sansukh #also as a teaser:#one of my coworkers is also a bookmaker in her free time #I got some great advice from her on how to prepare these documents for printing #and she's also offered to put me in contact with other local bookmakers #so I may be doing more work but for a higher quality product #we shall see!

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rpbetter · 4 years ago

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Traditional Writing Advice & RP

I see a lot of people reblogging writing advice posts, and while it pleases me to see people trying to appreciate RP as writing, those pieces of advice don’t always translate from traditional writing to RP writing.

Following the advice for writing a traditional book manuscript you want to have published, you are going to run into some issues if you follow every point of it faithfully in an RP setting.

For one thing, this isn’t just your story, you’re telling it with another writer. In RP, our reading audience and our writing partners are the same. We have to create well-written, engaging stories that are also meant to be picked up by someone else and furthered. For another, even among the most writing proficient RPers, this is a more relaxed style of writing for a reason; we’re writing neither a paper to be graded nor a work to be published, we’re expressing creativity with other people. It can fall flat quickly, to your writing partners and to yourself, if you are writing in an extremely formal manner in RP.

Writing is one of the creative pursuits that has lent itself heavily to what I’m going to politely call snobbery, and that is part of the problem here. The RPC is rather filled with muns who are self-concious, devalue themselves and their work, and can be desperate for the approval of being A Real Writer. If you love writing and you do write, you’re a writer. No, that definitely doesn’t make you a good writer, but following rules not meant for you isn’t going to make you one either.

There is a wrong way to write, actually, there are hundreds of wrong ways to write that make me want to rip my own face off on the regular. The thing is, there is no one-size-fits-all correct way to write any more than there is such a standard in visual art. There are principles that one should know and follow, but your style might be neoclassical or modern or impressionist. Saying that, in my personal opinion, things falling under the heading of modern-style art is horrid, thus inherently wrong and not art, I’d be imposing my personal aesthetics instead of encouraging people to follow appropriate principles, run with their passion and skill, and make art that moves people who are not me. That’s important, in general, but it’s even more important when we’re talking about creative art as a hobby-as a legitimate passion project one isn’t obliged to devote themselves to.

That’s the way we need to be looking at writing as well. Not as an academic and absolute Right Way, but as an art form that has principles, and indeed, literal form. By insisting otherwise, we’ve damaged writing as a hobby and a profession, and it really shows in the RPC where you have a rather stark division of muns who, on the one side, are so ate up with bizarre concepts their professor threw out about never using “said,” forcing the ideology of their personal academic experience on others, and using traditional writing advice as Word of God to shame others and elevate themselves. On the other side, you have a ton of muns who just won’t even bother anymore, and why should they? They’re genuinely not up to par, but working on it means both a process of shaming and killing their own creative experience.

In saying all this, I want to be really clear here: I am in no way saying that shitty writing, an inability to follow basic grammatical principles, being unwilling to use the damn spellcheck that is standard everywhere, and having no concept of things like storytelling, characterization, and word flow is excusable or ideal.

It isn’t. It’s a terribly destructive force in the RPC, and I’m not in the camp of excusing disinterest in learning, improving, and perfecting one’s hobby because it is an unpaid hobby. In my opinion, it’s part of the blight of the current RPC. However, the snobbery and inability to recognize that there is nuance to learning and writing situations has done nothing but worsen this issue.

So, that being said, some items that are 100% good to use traditionally and in RP include:

Grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

We’re not all native English speakers, and grammar is difficult anyway. It can also turn a story bland with expedience when too properly adhered to. Know the basic principles, but also, be asking yourself about both popular works of fiction and your own favorite works. Chances are, they do not strictly adhere to the rules. Experienced, naturally gifted, and learned writers all manipulate those rules to work for their stories, characters, world-building, and so on. It becomes a personalized writing style, and it’s alright if it takes you some practice to find yours.

Just remember, grammar exists for a reason. Removing or mutating too much will leave you with a difficult to read and understand mess that isn’t a style, just a fucking mess.

If you struggle with grammar, the best way to help yourself is to practice. Additionally, seeing what errors you are making can be quite helpful; Grammarly offers a free add on for both Google Chrome and FireFox that will show you spelling and grammar mistakes. It also explains the mistake, while offering you a suggested fix. This way, you can see the mistakes you’re making in action. {Presumably, there are other such resources, but since I have no experience with them, I’m not the one to recommend them.}

As I said above, spellcheckers are standard now, in fucking 2021. This has been standard on devices and browsers for so long that I highly doubt most people on tumblr even remember a time when you had to use additional software to have them.

You make a mistake or misspell, and if it isn’t corrected for you, it’s underlined very obviously for you to tap/click/float over to correct. If the word is so terribly misspelled that no suggestion comes up {not all spellcheckers are created equality; some do not recognize slang or relaxed spellings, archaic word use, myriad, particularly specialized jargon-legal, medical, technical-and so on}, we also live in a time period where we can highlight the word, right-click that bitch, and select from the menu the option to search for the word. If the word was so weirdly misspelled that your checker couldn’t figure it out, it is incredibly rare that Google doesn’t throw out the correct spelling when you search it. If the spelling was correct, but the word-use is slang, jargon, or archaic, Google is also going to tell you that-you’ve confirmed it is correct, and can now decide if you want to use it or pick a possible synonym for it instead.

There is no fucking excuse for egregiously misspelled words anymore. None. I mean...listen, I spell quite terribly myself, but no one reading my RP replies is ever going to know that fact. Having difficulty with spelling is not, and has not been for a very long time now, an impediment to writing.

Furthermore, we all miss a typo here and there, especially if we write lengthy novella. Those aren’t always going to be caught by spellcheck, and we might edit the reply five times without seeing it. That happens, it’s alright when it’s minimal! Anything other than that, though, it’s just a combination of rushing and laziness. You really couldn’t be assed to take your time with that reply, read it over at least once before posting, and/or to click the underlined word.

There. Is. No. Excuse.

Again, not all spellcheckers are the same. If you feel like yours is lacking, try an extension for your browser. Since I said it above, I obviously have Grammarly on my mine. My replies effectively go through three different checkers, actually. I write all drafts outside of my browser where it is initially checked by Pages, then, when I paste it into tumblr, it’s being checked natively and by Grammarly. It wasn’t my intention, I just wanted to be positive I was never losing a draft or cooking my ancient laptop with Google Docs. However, it’s been nice as hell to get the perspective of multiple checkers, and as such, I definitely recommend it. It isn’t like I’m putting any extra effort into this, and I’m not paying for Grammarly, either.

When you refuse to behoove yourselves of the spellchecker natively available to you, at least, you’re seriously telling your writing partners that they were not important enough for you to click a fucking word. It’s inexcusable.

Punctuation being nonexistent isn’t a writing style or aesthetic, neither is a refusal to capitalize anything. If never using a comma is part of your Aesthetic™, please, rethink your fucking life and the hobby you’ve chosen.

Punctuation is a part of grammar, and I understand that there can be complexities present that might be confusing. That is one of the reasons why you should bother to know the basics as regards when and how to use punctuation. It’s also another way in which telling people that they should adhere to advice meant for traditional and academic writing can be a shit idea. Especially in an RPC known to misunderstand shit and go overboard.

When you tell the RPC that writers use too many commas, the RPC stops using them all around. Especially, when you also attach this to the idea of evil “wordiness.” That’s something that the RPC is desperate to avoid anyway, as the majority of people here are allergic to reading and writing; anything you advise that lessens the word count for them is going to be grabbed and erroneously applied. Someone implies that wordiness and commas equals run-on sentences, and the RPC gets not only believes it, it gets this message, “if I take out the commas, it isn’t a run-on sentence.”

You have all fundamentally misunderstood what a god damned run-on sentence is. It’s not a long sentence, it isn’t a proliferation of commas. A run-on sentence is when two, or more, sentences that should be individual are conjoined without proper punctuation {a fucking comma, for example} or a coordinating conjunction.

Run-ons can be surprisingly short, in fact. As in the example I lifted from here, “I love to write papers I would write one every day if I had the time.“

That should be written with a comma, separated into two sentences, or broken with a comma and the conjunction “and.” It’s also what I see incessantly on my dash from this bizarre idea that we shouldn’t be using commas. That a run-on sentence is a very long one separated only by commas. That is literally not what a run-on sentence is.

You absolutely can use too many commas {if you want to read some examples of how to use commas, go here}, but I rarely see anyone doing so to such an extreme. The extreme being that a sentence becomes a nonsensical string of conjoined thoughts, ideas, and descriptions that could have been written better broken up into fully formed sentences. I sometimes see muns who go a little nuts with commas by putting them in wildly incorrect places in this way.

What I see constantly is either muns berating themselves for perfectly normal, readable sentence structure or muns reactively using no punctuation at all.

It is all legitimate run-on sentences or those made so short and blunt that they become nonsensical, change the tone of the writing, or have no flow together.

Which brings me to...

Sentence flow is a thing, and you should be doing it.

Unfortunately, this good writing advice tends to throw people. We’re not talking about the flow that needs to be present in academic sentence structure, or exactly the flow that is present in poetry. Though it may require practice to understand and apply well, it’s an incredibly simple concept.

You want to balance out shorter, blunter sentences with those that are longer and more flowing. It gives the text a pleasant, natural rhythm. However, it isn’t just about length, a thing that the RPC is weirdly fixated on. Rather, it’s about word use within those sentences as well.

It’s always important to write with a tone that works with your scene and, overall, with your muse. For example, in a tense, aggressive scene, or with a muse who is generally this way, it gets the message across to use short sentences and clipped words. We can feel the tension, annoyance, and threat.

Furthermore, the way your muse thinks about and uses words is relevant. A well-educated muse from the 1800′s isn’t going to have the same approach to words that a modern-day high school student does. You should be making that clear in the way they speak, but also, in the way you express their thoughts and actions. If you are only writing your muse’s personality and emotional tone when your muse is speaking, you’re not giving me the tone all the way through. It can feel like a marked delineation in flow.

However, you should be considering the overall flow of your writing as well. Did you just lay down back-to-back eloquently verbose sentences? If so, you may want to either follow them up or space them with a shorter sentence comprised of simpler words.

This is legitimately good writing advice for any manner of writing.

So is...

Show, don’t tell.

Which is another piece of advice that throws people when they try to make it more complex than necessary. That, and it grates up against the RPC’s need for short, quick writing. The idea that anything a mun gives you that your muse cannot react to verbally or with action is filler to be avoided. That idea comes from some principle advice that translates badly to RP; essentially, don’t wax poetic for three pages when it has nothing to do with the plot, characters, scene-setting elements, action, and so on. Don’t be Tolkien describing every tree and rock in excruciating detail on the way to destroy the One Ring, basically.

That isn’t fully appropriate advice in RP, where we’re having to write tiny chapters to each other to add onto. While it still has some merit, the RPC definitely has taken it to mean that you shouldn’t show anything. My muse’s private thoughts, emotions expressed and unexpressed, stirred-up memories, things they planned to say/do, but that were naturally interrupted by the flow of the thread all become Unnecessary. With...no mind to what they are showing and creating.

This particularly erodes writing muses as legitimate feeling people. As in the last example of what my muse intended to say or do that was interrupted. That’s a normal, human experience. It would be difficult and not enjoyable to read every instance of a muse’s broken thoughts and impulses or intentions, but giving one every so many replies in a natural feeling way keeps my muse presenting as a real person having a real person’s experience. Simple things like this go a long way toward your muse being “believable,” and by ignoring them or refusing to do them, you’re not making your muse very realistic. So much of the human experience is private, unknowable to outside parties.

Look...if you only knew me based upon a sterilized version of what I was saying to you or doing purely within the context of single interaction at a time, you wouldn’t know me at all. You’d have no idea what sort of nuance there is in my words, how I am expressing or withholding an opinion or emotion. I may not have any opinions, emotions, or other experiences that you are not contributing to. That’s very unrealistic, I’m not actually a person anymore. I haven’t any personality, I didn’t exist before you interacted with me.

That is the way it is with muses too. By stripping them of their internal experiences, we’re stripping them of more realistic feeling characterization. {It becomes, or adds to, a disastrous domino-effect of projected, cardboard stand-in style muses that are in no way a joy to interact with.} This is bad writing, makes for bad reading and interacting.

No one seems to understand show, don’t tell. Let me put it in a simple example: don’t tell me your muse is a good person, show me. Don’t tell me your muse is upset right now, show me.

Your muse has character traits you feel makes them A Good Person. They are compassionate, selfless, and genuinely interested in others. Don’t just leave that in the muse’s bio, or relegate it to statement-style lines like, “she cared deeply about others.” Show me these traits in action and thought. You don’t require anything dramatic to it, either. A muse like this should be a good listener, proceed with their love language in a way reflects personal involvement and a desire to comfort, be willing to sacrifice time and personal interests {don’t keep it to dramatic and literal self-sacrifice to show “selfless”}, legitimately doesn’t think of themselves first and foremost and may need reminding to care for themselves, and will be troubled by unfairness and cruelty in the world.

Your muse has been in a disagreement with a loved one, they’re not just “upset,” they are sad, angry, disappointed, and maybe even confused or surprised. While those are more descriptive and defining of the type of complex “upset” going on here, don’t leave it at these words. Don’t tell me that she said, angrily. Show me that she is having thoughts based on these emotions, actual emotional turmoil at her expectations of a loved one being devastated. Paint me a picture of the sadness in her features, the anger in her walk, how her words come out unpolished and jumbled in her surprise and turmoil.

This is what it means to show me, not tell me.

It also extends to scenes and recollections.

If your muse is happy sitting in her garden, don’t just tell me this. Show me why she is happy there, and define the sort of happiness in her thoughts, body language, voice, and expressions. Describe the aspects of the garden in tones of the happiness they bring, draw comparisons between this and her outward expression of joy with similar word use. It ties together both seamlessly in a way that we can relate to and feel, even if we hate the outdoors.

If this muse had a traumatic incident in her past, this is going to inconveniently come up, even if only in her mind. Don’t play coy about it and drop shit on your partners like, “she was thinking of things and stuff that was bad again.” No. Even if you are alluding or otherwise keeping the actual event secretive, you need to be describing how the muse is feeling, how she is experiencing the world around her through an overlay of upsetting reminders. Show me how she is having a visceral reaction to triggering stimuli while having to keep working or talking.

Additionally, even when your muse isn’t experiencing the scene you have set directly, you should show me instead of telling me about it.

Since my actual least favorite PSA on how it’s better to just tell people because no one wants to read “all that” deals with rain, we’re going to as well. Because it doesn’t have to be excessively descriptive to fucking show me it’s raining or has rained instead of just stating the fact.

Not, “it was raining.” Not, “it was wet outside.”

“In between her words, the distant, wall-dampened splash of cars driving through puddles.”

“He passed by windows beaded with moisture on his way to the kitchen.”

Wow, that was so complex, really a lot to read to get the idea that it is, or has been, raining outside without me directly telling you this!

There isn’t anything wrong with being more descriptive than this {nor is there anything wrong with using the word “rain,” so long as you’re backing it up with a description}, some of us do like to read and write about things like oil-slicked puddles in the street if our muse is seeing them or it is otherwise relevant. It’s just that you don’t have to do this, or have to do it at all times, to show instead of tell. This is yet another serious misunderstanding.

It isn’t that the description is often really that excessive, it’s more often that it is irrelevant to the extreme of sticking out weirdly. In the puddle thing, if my muse isn’t seeing it and/or I am not using that description to further experience, their mindset, personality, or tying it to an analogy later in the reply, it feels weird.

Some superfluous shit isn’t bad either, and superfluous can be purely subjective. It is, again, when it is to such an extreme as to leave your writing partner feeling oddly about a point in the text that seemed to ring with importance, but then held none. That isn’t an act of showing or telling, and neither is it your partner trying to show off as a gifted writer. For whatever reason, they just saw or felt that moment with such passionate clarity they had to include it immediately instead of waiting until a better moment for it. That’s literally it, there’s no need to project your insecurity in weird ass ways.

There are definitely other pieces of traditional-based writing advice that are great and either do transfer to RP perfectly or can with small amendments, but these are the most basic, commonly seen, and important combinations. They are also easy to better understand and apply!

When reading writing advice posts, please, ask yourself how they fit into RP. If they do at all. Many times, when it comes to the absolute basics of writing coherently and enjoyably, or developing characters, they’re great. It’s when they get into topics of some nuance that they don’t cross over so well and are outright damaging.

These pieces of advice are often being misunderstood or misapplied already, then are being passed around to a community notorious for its lacking application of critical thinking. Severe misunderstanding will happen, and terrible writing “rules” within the RPC develop from them.

Do be interested in writing, don’t separate traditional writing and RP writing into categories like “real writing and RP,” be invested in learning and improving. Just ask yourself how it applies to cooperative storytelling that is often thematic in nature, and proceed with caution and the mindset that writing is an art.

If you have the principles down and both yourself and others are enjoying your writing, you’re not doing it in an inherently wrong way because it wouldn’t be published. You’re not writing RP to have it published, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a difference to keep in mind when reading PSA’s about the Rules of Writing Whatever.

#tumblr rp #rp help #rp advice #rph #tumblr rpc #rpbetter #rpb #roleplay better #tumblr rp advice #traditional writing advice and rp #queue

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lifewithlala · 6 years ago

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How to handle group projects

And not lose your head in the process

You also hate it? Lemme give you a hug, grab some coffee and talk about the horror stories we’ve been through with our groups in the past! But I also wanna share with you some tips that have worked for me and that I have learned through experience.

1. Choose your teammates before attending the first class. Usually, in the syllabus, they’ll explain if there are any group works and give additional information about the project. Like what it should be about, how many weeks, the number of members each group should consist, how much it will count to your final grade etc. If you’ve read the syllabus before attending the first class, you get enough time to choose and ask who you want to work with. That way you avoid working with someone that you know doesn’t do shit.

2. Set specific roles in the group right away in the first week. Who is the leader of the group? The one who will be in charge of the external communication with the professor or supervisor? Is there a secretary that keep meeting notes, logbooks and other documents to archive? Is there an editor to spellcheck and keep a constant text flow? What about someone that manages layout or other graphic components? Each group is different so there are bound to be different roles. Try to specify these so you avoid giving all these tasks to 1 person and of course, avoid unnecessary confusion.

3. Set internal deadlines. It’s totally okay if the deadline is Wednesday at 00.00. But it’s not okay when the team members think they can all submit their work at 23.59. Let them understand the importance of delivering things early. Set an internal deadline of 1 or 2 days before the actual deadline so you can avoid any complications, put the work together, edit and check the quality.

4. Be willing to help the others. This part is so crucial. Constantly ask the other team members about the project, some people will find that annoying but seriously, that way they feel a little pressured and they are likely to work on it earlier. But also keep in mind that being supportive goes along the way. If each team member tries their best to create a pleasant atmosphere, the members will work with gusto on the project even if it gives them some stress. This is also a reason why you must carefully choose the team leader too. That way you have someone cheering on y’all even on the darkest of times.

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frighthouseofalighthouse · 6 years ago

Note

All weird asks!! They're so good!

Sorry this is a bit late, babe! I wanted to wait til I had the opportunity to answer all these uninterrupted!

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?

Coffee mugs! tbh I drink tea out of coffee mugs because who actually uses teacups? I mean my grandma has tons and I would use them, but the handles are so tiny and I am v clumsy so it scares me.

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?

Chocolate bars!!! I’m too impatient for lollipops and plus they always get coated in saliva which just...drips down my chin since my mouth is already full.

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

Bubblegum! I love cotton candy but I can only handle a bit at a time tbh. Also I haven’t had bubblegum in almost two years bc of braces and I miss it so much I can’t wait to have it again.

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

Okay, so even though I’ve always been homeschooled, when I was in elementary school we did this program with a ton of other homeschoolers where you could take actual classes and stuff. My teachers always said I was quiet and focused and studious, and you could always count on me to be lecturing everyone else on the instructions if they hadn’t been paying attention. (does any of that surprise anyone?)

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups? GLASS SODA BOTTLES. nothing beats soda that’s been bottled in glass rather than plastic. You ever had orange cream soda from a glass bottle????? SLAPS ASS MY DUDE.

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

Pastel/boho/preppy/goth, my dude. I have so many sides to my fashion and aesthetic.

7. earbuds or headphones?

EARBUDS BC HEADPHONES NEVER FIT OVER MY EARS RIGHT. BUT EARBUDS WITH SOFT TIPS BECAUSE MY EARS ARE TOO SMALL FOR THE PLASTIC ONES.

8. movies or tv shows?

Tv shows tbh because even though I can binge 4 eps of 45 minutes each per night, they’ll hold my attention a lot more than a movie. It’s weird.

9. favorite smell in the summer?

Thunderstorms/petrichor, also natural bogs. PEAT BOG SMELL FUCKING SLAPS.

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

None. I liked trampoline time back when we took gymnastics, if that counts. I also liked jump roping and Irish step dancing.

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?

Nothing lmao. I sleep til like noon and then I microwave something for lunch.

12. name of your favorite playlist?

My catchall playlist, Things I Love, my summer playlist, Summer Songs, my Gryffindor playlist, My Queen And Country playlist for writing, and my playlist for The Raven Cycle. (after I post this I’ll edit it and link them)

13. lanyard or key ring?

Keyring, a lanyard would like constantly detract from my outfit if that makes sense???

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

Sour Patch Kids or Swedish Fish.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

Between The Grapes Of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, The Handmaid’s Tale, and To Kill A Mockingbird!

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

Just fucking sprawled every which way.

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

My grey converse if it’s comfortable out, my silver flip flops if it’s hot, and my fur-lined black combat boots if it’s cold.

18. ideal weather?

65-70 degrees, partly sunny, breezy, not humid.

19. sleeping position?

I need to sprawl to fall asleep, but once I’m asleep I curl up into a little ball.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

Laptop and notebook ONLY IF I’m sure of myself, which isn’t often. But I do write dense, scribbled paragraphs on sermon note pages if something comes to me during church lmao.

21. obsession from childhood?

The American Revolution, weather, astronomy, and mysteries/ghost stories.

22. role model?

Idk tbh? Lately I’m just trying to define and live up to my own standards?

23. strange habits?

Pulling the collar of my shirt up to my mouth and sucking on it. Also being a perfectionist in my writing. I don’t do messy drafts. It’s all perfect by the time I write it, and I edit/spellcheck as I go.

24. favorite crystal?

Amethyst (my birthstone), bismuth, opal, and blue goldstone.

25. first song you remember hearing?

Other than nursery rhymes/kid’s songs, it was Light Up The Sky by The Afters, or California Dreamin’ by The Mamas And The Papas.

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

Find shade/a cool spot and read with a cold drink.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

ALSO READ. And snuggle with thick socks and a cup of tea and play DS games all day.

28. five songs to describe you?

My five faves atm -

I Am Here // Pink

The Pines // Roses and Revolutions

Soldier, Poet, King // The Oh Hellos

Traveler’s Song // Aviators

Hymn // Kesha

29. best way to bond with you?

Share my interests about politics, history, books, true crime, paranormal, tv shows, and also be kind and understanding when I don’t text for long periods bc I don’t feel up to talking.

30. places that you find sacred?

The woods on the hill behind my house. Dense, deeply green, secluded woods. Hedge mazes. Old and crumbling castles. Anywhere beneath a clear sky and a full moon. Your heart when you’ve come to terms with your fears and made peace with yourself. Anyplace with historical significance. Bookstores on an autumn/winter day. Libraries.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

A kickass plaid, bruh. Also my leather jacket - once I lose enough shoulder weight to fit in it again.

32. top five favorite vines?

Fre shavoc ado, the one where the dog eats the butterfly, the Lin-Manuel Miranda one where he’s brainstorming, “what the FUCK kind of weather is this, and the dad and son with the saxophone and the oven door.

33. most used phrase in your phone?

“oh mood”

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

“WOW! It’s NatureStone!”

35. average time you fall asleep?

Right now it’s 4-5 am because I suck.

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

I Can Haz Cheezburger, My mom used to look at the website with me when I was like 10.

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

They both have pros and cons. :/ Duffel bags are easier to carry but suitcases keep stuff from getting broken better.

38. lemonade or tea?

TEAAAAAAAAAAAA

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

Lemon meringue pie!!! my stepdad made a really good one the other week.

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

Nothing, since I was homeschooled. Same weird shit that always happens at home. Our safe word for when I got overwhelmed in math was “quokka” and we’d stop and look at cute quokka pictures.

41. last person you texted?

My gf :)

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

Jacket pockets because things are not only hard to fit in girls’ pants pockets, but if you put a chapstick/lipstick in there it starts to melt :(

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

BETWEEN HOODIE AND CARDIGAN. SO VERSATILE. SO COMFY.

44. favorite scent for soap?

Irish Spring soap or the blue Dial bars smells better and cleaner than anything to me.

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

Fantasy. It can take me a bit to get into it, but once I do, I love it. I only do sci-fi if it has rebellion and isn’t heavy on the sci. And superhero movies are great but a lot of the tropes are meh. Fantasy has a lot more versatility if you ask me.

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

Sweatpants/leggings and a soft, well worn tee.

47. favorite type of cheese?

Parmesan, white cheddar, or Muenster.

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

Raspberry!

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

“do no harm but take no shit.”

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

A really poorly edited political ad on tv a couple years ago. There was weird jazz playing, flames in the background of an image of the Capitol Building, and then the top of the dome opened and this guy’s face was inside. It is the single funniest ad I have ever seen and I laughed for 10 minutes so hard I was like an inch away from passing out.

51. current stresses?

Passing my driving test next month, getting a job, figuring out if my math skills are okay enough to take the SAT or an equivalent test.

52. favorite font?

Baskerville or Georgia!

53. what is the current state of your hands?

My fingernails are short bc I picked them while reading earlier, my cuticles suck bc I pick at those two, and my pinky is obliterated and scabbed because of when I accidentally sliced through the nail with a razor while shaving the other day. So, not great, but I’m living.

54. what did you learn from your first job?

That kids can be really annoying but also really cute and hilarious if you can get them to calm down. And also that baby fingernails are surprisingly sharp.

55. favorite fairy tale?

The OG Princess and the Frog where it’s implied the prince and “faithful Henry,’ his carriage driver, fall in love and ride off together at the end. JACOB AND WILHELM GRIMM SAID GAY RIGHTS.

56. favorite tradition?

Every December, my mom and I drive around after dark at night and I play Pokemon and we rate everyone’s Christmas decorations based on tackiness.

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

So isolated I was as a preteen/early teenager, my self harm, and the internalized anger over my abusive relationship and PTSD.

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

Writing, puzzle solving, singing, and calligraphy.

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

“Benvoli-no.” (I recently remembered I used to say that a lot and I need to bring it back)

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

Dark, fairy tale anime with a lot of secrets to uncover and some dark woods.

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

TV show - “I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself.” - Doctor Who

Movie - “It’s not about deserve. It’s about what you believe. And I believe in love.” - Wonder Woman

Book - “If you never saw the stars, candles were enough.” - The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater

62. seven characters you relate to?

Dean Winchester - Supernatural

Sam Winchester - Supernatural

Jack Kline Winchester - Supernatural

Charlie Bradbury - Supernatural

Gansey - The Raven Cycle

Blue Sargent - The Raven Cycle

Hermione Granger - Harry Potter

63. five songs that would play in your club?

Final Song // MO

Call Home // Heathers

I Am Here // Pink

Babylon // 5 Seconds of Summer

Shake It Off // Taylor Swift

64. favorite website from your childhood?

WEBKINZ AND THE OLD AMERICAN GIRL WEBSITE

65. any permanent scars?

Yes, I have several that remain from self harm, scars all over my left knee from being a clumsy child, and most of all a major scar down the center of my chest from heart surgery when I was a baby.

66. favorite flower(s)?

Rose, lavender, lilac, and dahlia.

67. good luck charms?

Not really???

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

Olives, mushrooms, radishes, cottage cheese, and ranch dressing are all foul.

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?

Martin Luther didn’t actually nail his 95 theses to the church door, he just kind of passed them around, which is a lot less dramatic tbh. Also light-up signs were first used in New York City in 1884.

70. left or right handed?

I’m left-handed!

71. least favorite pattern?

I think zebra stripes, leopard print, and houndstooth are super ugly.

72. worst subject?

Math for sure. Even science would be easier if it didn’t involve so much math.

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

Wendy’s fries and chocolate frosty!!!

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

I think a 7, usually. My pain tolerance is pretty high because of a) years of self harm, and b) due to my PTSD my muscles are constantly tense and in pain anyway.

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

I was 4, and it had been loose but it fell out when I was trying to blow up an inflatable ball.

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

Fries or roasted potatoes that are charred and crunchy on the bottom. Chips are a close third.

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

Idk, my grandma’s the one with the green thumb mania lmao. But She keeps a lot of violets and arrowhead plants in the windowsills!

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

NEITHER I HATE BOTH COFFEE AND SUSHI IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

Never had a school ID, but my temporary license photo is actually pretty good right now!

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

I really like earth tones for myself.

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

THEY ARE THE SAME MF THING. Also I call them both, it just depends on what comes out of my mouth haha.

82. pc or console?

PC, I guess, though I don’t really game. I just watch my stepdad game.

83. writing or drawing?

WRITING. I cannot draw to save my life.

84. podcasts or talk radio?

Podcasts, talk radio is so annoying.

84. barbie or polly pocket?

Barbie, although I loved both.

85. fairy tales or mythology?

Mythology I guess??? Although again, I love both.

86. cookies or cupcakes?

COOKIESSSSS

87. your greatest fear?

Rejection, losing people I love, people secretly hating me. Also drowning, spiders, clowns, and guns.

88. your greatest wish?

To be a semi-successful author and work in a library/museum.

89. who would you put before everyone else?

My mom and my gf.

90. luckiest mistake?

Almost dropping a knife blade first on my foot but it landed between my toes.

91. boxes or bags?

um boxes I guess? I’m really good at fitting things in tetris style.

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

FAIRY LIGHTS AND DIM YELLOW LAMPS.

93. nicknames?

Ell, Alexander, Ellie, Little Lion, and Nerd.

94. favorite season?

FALL FALL FALL FALL

95. favorite app on your phone?

Tumblr or Spotify. Two apps I couldn’t live without.

96. desktop background?

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

About a half dozen. Mine, my mom’s, my stepdad’s, my grandparents’ home number, my grandpa’s, and my grandma’s.

98. favorite historical era?

Both the American Revolutionary period and the Victorian Era (esp in Britain)

THANK YOU LOVE THIS WAS SUPER FUN

#a series of essays anonymously published

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patrickdiomedes · 16 days ago

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10 people I'd like to get to know better

Last Song: "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar

Favorite Color: Dark blue or turquoise

Last Book: Do comics count? If so, then Volume 1 of JJK.

Last Movie: Saw the Extended Edition of The Two Towers at Alamo Drafthouse last night

Last Game: Tried playing Path of Exile 2. Got banned from chat for 10 min for saying that Elon Musk is "a loser who's so desperate for approval that he had to pay someone else to make him a build in a video game so it would look like he knows what he's doing".

Last Show: Probably an episode of Community I put on in the background

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Sweet

Relationship: Single.

Last Internet Search: Guantanamo Bay, because I wasn't sure if I was spelling it right and spellcheck was underlining it, but that was jut because it wasn't capitalized.

Tagging: if you see this and you want to, just consider yourself tagged

10 People I'd Like to Get to Know Better Tag

tagged by @bonlynx (thanks for the tag! i really do appreciate it)

Last Song: kickstart my heart - motley crue

Favorite Colour: hmmm toss up between black and green

Last Book: oh my god it's been so long but i tried rereading eragon by christopher paolini awhile back

Last Movie: treasure planet

Last Game: elden ring

Last Show: one piece

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: all of them please

Relationship: single and i kind of want to stay that way until i die

Last Internet Search: "can you only use spells in the top slot elden ring" ...listen i know that only spells go there but the stupid fucking game shows the ring on the top slot for some reason after you first talk to ranni

tagging

@sevengreenapples (idk if your other blog is working yet) @englishmajorloser @w3-posts @pupkou @slowtovvn @pebbles-scatter @hot-insurrectionist @spock-smokes-weed @cuntyfishmcbites @mai-komagata

feel free to ignore if you don't want to do this btw

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sorbriquette · 6 years ago

Text

Tagged by @basic-banshee Thank you Ban <3

1. How did you begin writing? I was writing from childhood. My primary school tutor was really encouraging so I started posting fanfic on FF.net illegally at like age 9. It was bad. When I was about 13 I started doing online RP and fell in with a group of brilliant people who helped me keep that up for YEARS and is kinda how I got into writing properly, not my shitty childhood fanfic.

2. What was your first writing project? Tell us a little about it. Like I said, shitty childhood fanfic. First legit project though would probably be last years NaNoWriMo (where you write 50k in a month). I wrote the first draft of a high fantasy kinda thing I’m working on but like the entire plot of that has been scrapped and I’m starting from scratch this year so...

3. What is your preferred medium for writing first drafts? Oh, I use ywriter 5 (link here) it’s like a free program that lets you write (without a spell check importantly so I don’t stop) and like add in like character and location and item tabs so you can keep track of what and who appears in the story and what each scene fulfills and shit. Imma shut up before this turns into an add but it’s really good and yall should check it out (even if I basically just use the POV system myself)

4. What rituals or habits do you have around writing?

I don’t really have any I don’t think? For me it’s kinda just sit down and go for as long as I’ve got the motivation. Usually late at night admittedly but yeah there’s nothing particularly consistent about the way I write.

5. We all have a “type”– of character, plot, theme– what is yours? I feel called out.

Probably wit though. Across all my characters RP, actual story, weves, I like the snarky asshole ones. I’m weak for that banter.

Also kinda both theme/character: good characters bore the shit out of me. I like ‘em morally grey or immoral and as such I write a lot about the subjective nature of morality in my original shit.

6. Introduce us to one (or more!) of your OC’s. Right so my current original shit has 6 mains and asking me to choose between them is inhumane so you get the 4 starting ones and the other two will remain a mystery.

Ren --> Brings a knife to a gun fight because ��you gotta live life on hard mode’, makes bad choices for fun, stupidly reckless, very loyal but issues with authority. Military deserter turned pirate. Unofficial leader of this band of misfits.

Marcel --> Brings 2 knives to a gun fight because he is both a follower and coward. Just here for a laff and a taste of freedom. Prince of a country but does not want to rule. Falls in love with the first man who pays attention to him. Alignment is chaotic dumbass.

Kia --> Supposed to be the party thief but ‘it’s easier to loot a corpse than pick a pocket’. An actual proper coward, will leave everyone else to die if it saves her. Can’t take anything seriously. Tries to life-hack everything. Thinks murder is the solution to everything.

Corvus --> Absolute pacifist regardless of the danger. RLLY into blackmail (and plants). Lowkey the token evil teammate. Perpetually rolling his eyes. Makes all the plans and then gets salty when no one follows them. Would sell you to Satan for one corn chip.

7. What’s your favorite genre to read? FANTASY! Which is why, despite only really writing fic for Carry On, I’ve not actually read any of Rainbow Rowell’s other work. Contemporary romance doesn’t really interest me.

Also I’m weak for anything featuring like crime, but the criminals doing the crime, not the crime solving.

8. Your favorite genre to write? Fantasy again! Both high and low but with a preference for high because I like to world build.

9. How do you conduct your authorial research? LMAO what?

Like I said I like to write high fantasy so I don’t so much research as like to perpetually learn and incorporating things I like in.

10. What does your editing (gasp) process look like? So in 3. I said ywriter doesn’t have spell check? For fanfic I give it a cursory read over and fix anything glaring, then I copy it into word and use spellcheck and also grammarly. Then to the betas for the final round (I should do more but also?? Just fanfic)

My NaNo project tho? Never got edited at all.

11. What are your favorite tropes? BRuh I love all the tropes. I am WEaK for tropes. So trimming down to the favs:

I have a weird thing for catagorising so I love me some Cast Calculus

I try but never quite succeed with Blue and Orange Morality

Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking barely counts but I love it

A comedic Rashomon AKA that thing where everyone is being interrogated and they all tell completely different stories

I high key love a Magnificent Bastard in any form

And I mean a nice round five would have been good but how can one resist a Deadpan Snarker

Also I don’t think this is what I was meant to do for this segment but I enjoyed it so wevs

12. Show off your writing space. ABSOLUTELY NOT MY ROOM IS A MESS

13. What is the most useful piece of writing advice you’ve ever used? Don’t write for anyone but yourself. Write what you want to read.

I know it’s been said a multitude of times but idk the first time it really resonated with me was when VE Schwab mentioned it. I can’t find the source but I think she was quoting someone, soz!

14. What is the least useful piece of writing advice you’ve ever ignored? Write what you know.

Like get fucked? What I know is fucking boring. Let me write what I can imagine.

And though I don’t consider it real writing advice cause it was just 1 dumbass post on pinterest I saw one time “when writing a woman's pov make it more about emotions than a males. Her emotions, other peoples emotions’ etc. etc. Basically a load of shit. Don’t write a gender, write a fucking character.

15. Your writing beverage/snack of choice? I drink a lot of tea but it usually goes cold.

16. How do you compile your ideas? I don’t mostly, it’s a bad habit. Sometimes I drop stuff in my phone for fanfic or I have a couple of pocket sized leather note books I used to carry around for my original shit.

But mainly it’s just left in my head to get forgotten :\

17. What are your controversial opinions ™ on the craft of writing? I’m about to get crucified but here goes:

Writing isn’t hard.

Originally and concepts and stringing together a proper story? Yeah it’s a challenge. But just writing? Nah. not for me at least. If I’m sitting in front of a blank word document it’s because I have a problem with the scene. It doesn’t happen that often but when it does I find the best thing to do is go back and redo the sequence because going off no 13. It probably means I’m not interested in the scene.

But that’s just my opinion so please extinguish your torches and put down the pitchforks.

Tagging: @mydamnsunshine @thatsbitchcraft and any of my mutals who write. Chances are if you haven’t been tagged I thought you already had so go ahead and consider urself tagged.

#tag game #this ended up being a lot longer and a lot later than intended #twas fun tho #tbh I wrote this like 3 days ago and just edited it now

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artistic-writer · 7 years ago

Text

AO3 Tumblr Posting Visual Tutorial

For @shireness-says and whoever else finds this remotely useful :) It’s long, so under the cut we go!

Step 1 - You need the Google Doc Script

But don’t worry, its easy to get

If you go to this page, you will see this:

Which, when you click, will take you to a Google Doc like this:

Now, we need to save a copy of this currently view only doc. This is easy and not as scary as it looks! Ignore all of the other jargon under the list, and we only really need to complete steps 1 and 2 at this point!

Step 2 - Creating your script

Once you have the doc open, you need to delete all of the text in it. Don’t worry, you won’t delete any important script, just the words! When the page is blank, it will look like this. You will notice, at the top, there is a new menu option called “Post to Ao3″

Now you need to add some words. Hmmm...lemme see...

Write what you want, or copy and paste from another google doc if you are like me and create things in all sorts of random places. It is at this point you might want to add some author’s notes, word count, etc - anything apart from tags you want to also show up on your Tumblr post. Now, remember that extra menu? Click it and it will give up two options - have a play around with them both. It’s basically a switch. One turns ON the HTML and one turns it OFF. For posting, we need it ON.

BOOM! Look at all that extra blue stuff! It’s code, and will be invisible when you post, don’t worry. So go ahead and select all (Ctrl+A) and then copy (Ctrl+C) your text!

Step 3 - Posting to Tumblr

Obviously, you need to go to Tumblr. Duh. When you go to post a new text post, you will see the little cog symbol in the top right hand corner - don't fret if you hadn’t noticed it before, it’s not largely important. It brings up a little menu, but the part we want is at the bottom of the list and labeled “Text Editor”. By default this will say Rich text, but we want it to say HTML - so go ahead and change it.

Your posting box will turn into this but don’t worry, it's not scary. You paste (Ctrl+V) your text into the body section and it will appear with all the little blue coding! Neat, huh? You wanna see how it will look when you click post? No problem!

Preview, baby! Then all you have to do is add tags and post/queue/schedule!

Pro Tip!: Copy and paste the coded script into your HTML editor on AO3 and paste to Tumblr and Ao3 at the same time!

If you wanted to add a tag list for people, not a problem! We just need a little bit of extra coding:

<p><a class="tumblelog" spellcheck="false">@hollyethecurious</a> .</p>

Where all you need to do is replace the “@hollyethecurious” with @who you want to tag!

EDIT: Adding a Cut! for @searchingwardrobes

#tutorial #ao3 script #html #tumblr tutorial

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stupendousclouddragon · 4 years ago

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Microsoft Word Free Download Mac Full Version

Documenting is a part of our fast-paced life and the dependency of our day to day life on documenting software is really high. There are a lot of ways through which our day to day needs for documenting can be met, but nothing can beat the standard usage of a word, the official documenting software from Microsoft used by millions of office workers, students and home users across the globe.

Here is the download link: Link1 - (v16.36) or Link2 - (v16.34) or Link3 - https://techshare.xyz/?p. Microsoft word 2010 free. download full version free download - Microsoft Office 2011, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 97/98 Import Filter for PageMaker, and many more programs. Microsoft Office Word is mentioned in top word processing tools 2020 for Windows. Generate files in DOC and DOCX formats, write texts, select fonts, colors and page parameters, add standard graphs and diagrams, import images, etc. Multiple languages are supported along with dedicated spellchecking.

There are a lot of key aspects to the software that makes it user-friendly and adaptable to almost any operating system. The growing popularity of words increased with a ton of loaded features that were released into the recent edition of windows. The word document could be operated at ease with a very simple user interface and the software is pretty easy to learn if you are new to the Word documenting software.

License Official Installer

File Size 4.1GB

OS Windows

Language English

Developer Microsoft

Overview

There are a lot of editing tools that come along with the software that makes it even more user-friendly. There is a lot of other software that do the same job but there is no software that has this much amount of editing tools that will help you customize your word document. There are pre-defined styles of text documents that you can use to suit your needs saving time in editing and aligning.

There are also various features such as mailing options that would enable you to directly mail the text document that you are typing using the system. there are a ton of other opportunities with which you can escalate your experience with a word from Microsoft.

1. Text styling, alignments and much more

When it comes to typing a document, it is pretty easy to type the whole thing out, what becomes difficult is the work that goes behind in editing the size of the texts, aligning them with the background and getting them grammatically correct. The recent edition of Microsoft word gets you done with all these with the latest features that are added into the software frame of Microsoft word.

There is a huge variety of text styles to choose from and also the size can be altered according to your needs. There are also various alignment formats that will help you align the typed text to perfect alignment as well. There are also various other aspects that you would have to look forward to getting the most out of your system is that the grammatical sense of the document.

The grammatical correctness is the essence of a good document and there is a built-in spell check with the word that would highlight wrong spellings in red and highlight spacing and formatting errors in a light blue tone. The user can right-click on the highlighted word and select from the range of options that would seem to be the perfect fit for that sentence. There are also various text formatting options that will add a personalized touch to your text document in Microsoft Word.

2. Cloud support (outlook)

This is probably the best thing about Microsoft word. There is a built-in cloud support feature that you can access by getting an outlook account. Now the main picture is that this cloud support would act as a back up for your files in case word shuts down in the middle due to some issues when you are working on a particular file. With this feature you can restart Word and start your work from where you left off.

There is also another advantage that you can work on a particular file uploaded into the cloud from almost anywhere so that you don’t have to rely on your computer where you might have stored the file locally. This cloud feature supports an online edition of Microsoft word that will help you in editing and creating a text document over the internet and upload it into the drive. This can be retrieved anytime later by downloading from the cloud.

3. Multiple collaboration setup

Microsoft Word Free Download For Mac Full Version

One of the other such key highlights with the word is that you can use the multiple collaboration file editing that allows multiple users to make changes into the document provided that they have the access to that document. This feature is useful when it comes to combined projects and combined works that are done on a single file. This new feature was released along with the recent version of Microsoft word and no wonder that the feature grew with immense popularity over a period of time. This was greatly used by the people in the server-based operating network and this pretty much increased the user count to a huge number.

3. Saving, printing and converting

The saving feature in Microsoft word is more sophisticated and easier with the new edition of a word. Word has a feature with which you can get the hardcopy of the text document that you are typing with the help of the printing option. The only pre-requisite to use the print option is the connectivity to a printer to the system you are using the word in. There is also another feature where you can convert the typed document into a PDF document, PowerPoint and much more.

System Requirement

RAM requirement: 64-bit: 4GB RAM 32-bit: 2GB RAM

Hard disk space: 4GB of HDD

Operating system: Windows 7 and more.

Browser connection

Download Word latest edition for free windows

The installer for Microsoft Windows can be done using by clicking to the link that is at the bottom. Make sure that the minimum requirements of the system are met before download. The latest edition of the word is more useful when connected to the internet on a regular basis.

Download Microsoft Word Latest Version for Free - ISORIVER

There are a lot of ways through which our day to day needs for documenting can be met, but nothing can beat the standard usage of a word, the official documenting software from Microsoft used by millions of office workers, students and home users across the globe.

Price Currency: USD

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Document Editor

Microsoft Word Older Version Free Download

Download Microsoft Word 2019 VL 16.36 for Mac full version program setup free. MS Word 2019 VL 16.36 for Mac OS X is the industry-leading program developed for creating, polishing, and sharing beautiful and professional documents.

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MS Word 2019 VL 16.36 for Mac is a handy program for creating, polishing, and sharing beautiful and professional documents. It delivers unparalleled value and productivity in professional documents creation. MS Word 2019 VL 16.36 for Mac comes with many different features for producing high-end documents. From academic to business, and from social record handling to most complex documents creation, it is the only program that can fulfil the user’s needs. It supports many languages so users can deliver the best documents to their audience.

Its complete document editing toolkit enables users to decorate their documents with stylish colours, beautiful fonts, fantastic borders, perfect charts, and much more. It enables users to write with confidence as it intelligent technology can help with spelling, grammar and even stylistic writing suggestions. With tools at fingertips, writers easily go from pen and paper to digital inking and edit intuitively.

To make the collaboration more impressive and quick, it enables users to share the documents with the click of a button to invite others to edit in realtime or add comments. Plus, regardless of the user’s preferred full language or accessibility options, everyone can work together to do more. At the end, users can also share files with a few taps to quickly invite others to edit or view the documents. All in all, MS Word 2019 for Mac is the most popular program for creating and editing various documents and we highly recommend it to all users.

Supported Languages

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Prepare correspondence using Word, Excel, and Outlook

Technical Details of Microsoft Word 2019 VL 16.36 for Mac

Software Name: Microsoft Word 2019

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writtenbyjos-blog · 5 years ago

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First Chapter is Complete!

I set myself a goal of 2,000 words for the first chapter of my novel. I think I got really into it because I ended up going over. Looks like I missed that rush you get when you write a chapter!

I told myself not to edit so all I did was basic spellchecks and made sure no words or letters were missing. It hurt but I ignored the urges to change things around or scrap scenes out. I’ve decided that editing will only be done at the end when the book is fully complete.

It was still a struggle writing in 1st POV, I got the hang of it but then I think I lost myself somewhere. Either way, I managed and now I’m already getting a bit of an inkling on what not to do... We’ll see how it goes.

So, today I posted the first chapter on Wattpad. I feel good about it, especially because I have been meaning to let others read my stories and with everything going on, it felt like the right time.

The UK will be in lockdown for about three weeks so I have time to continue writing and banging out those chapters.

I’m going to try to keep to the goal of 2K for future chapters, it’ll help make things a bit easier and I might even write more than one chapter a week. I definitely made an improvement though, hard to believe I went from 345 words at midnight and by 9 pm, I was barreling towards 3K.

Current word count: 2, 867 words!

#writtenbyjos #writing #writers on tumblr #first chapter #wattpad #writerlife #writer #my writing #writing progress

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annoteate · 7 years ago

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If you are applying to UK universities, you will need to write a Personal Statement: “up to 4,000 characters of text that show you’d make a great student “ (UCAS). This can be really difficult for most students, so I hope my experience of the process can help. Feel free to message if I can help in any other way!

Prepare

Begin by starting to think about what you want to tell universities about yourself. Take note of any advice you receive from universities or your teachers about what impresses admissions tutors.

Make notes (maybe a mind-map or a bullet list) of things you could include. Try answering these questions if you’re stuck:

Why is this subject great?

What makes you great for this subject?

What could this subject lead you on to?

What are you currently studying?

What do you find particularly inspiring?

What are you looking forward to studying more?

Any memorable lessons/projects/trips/reading you could discuss?

Do you have relevant work experience/hobbies?

You’re probably a more impressive candidate than you think, so speak to your family, friends, and teachers to remind you what awesome things you do.

Your goal is to be original and memorable without exaggeration, cliché or controversy. You need concrete evidence that shows you have qualities the university is looking for rather than simply saying you have them. Try the STAR technique.

Plan

Think about how you can structure what you want to tell the admissions tutors to best show off yourself. There’s no set rule, but try to group things together to avoid sounding like you’ve written everything down as you thought it.

Some sort of introduction and conclusion is nice, but you do need to be mindful of the very limited character count (see below). There’s no point using up space by repeating your points three times to introduce, develop and conclude. Instead, consider structuring the essay to begin with an overview of the subject, ‘zooming in’ on yourself and where you hope to fit. This way, you can conclude with something personal and hopefully memorable.

If you are applying for a course where candidates will barely be considered without experience (e.g. medicine, education) make sure that is prominent.

Write

Anyone can write “I am a hardworking student who is enthusiastic about [subject]”. Make yourself memorable by proving this: “Because [topic], was so interesting, I [read//wrote//did] [book/journal article//essay/article//project/volunteered] which [thing you learned]”.

They want to see your personality! Use standard English, but don’t worry about being so formal you appear wooden.

If you find getting started hard, write a few sentences with the intention of discarding them. Try opening with “I like [subject] because…” and seeing where it takes you. You can cut this later, but it helps you start.

Write without considering word-counts or grammar or order. You can (and will) edit later anyway, so don’t aim for perfection (yet!).

Edit

After you have a completed draft, you can start editing. Leave plenty of time, as you will probably go through this process several times before your statement feels right. This process has three goals: ensuring it meets the character count, ensuring it makes sense, and ensuring you look good.

Edit on three levels: page, sentence and word. Start by reading through the whole page, considering how it flows and whether there are sections which need moving, shortening or cutting altogether.

Next, look at your sentences and whether they make sense. Sites like Grammarly and Hemmingway can help with this but reading it yourself is also really important. See if you can make sentences shorter by rewording ideas and phrases. Try to vary sentence length and structure.

Then start looking at word choices. Every word should serve you: cut anything which can be lost without changing the meaning. Use strong, specific words to make your points clearly and concisely.

Finally, you can proofread. Use spellcheck or Grammarly, then read it through yourself with a fine-toothed comb.

A Second Opinion

Once you have an edited first draft, pass it on to at least one other person for feedback, ideally a teacher. They will probably suggest edits, but look at these as opportunities to improve rather than criticism. Once you have considered their suggestions and edited again, show them (and/or someone else) your redraft. Repeat until all the feedback is good, then you can upload to UCAS.

Phew, you’re done! Congratulations on getting this far with your studies, and best of luck with your applications!

#studyblr #appblr #UCAS #personal statement #a-levels #university #applications #studyspo #advice #study tips #writing essays #personal essays

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mjvliteraryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Should I Ever Pay For An Editorial Appraisal Of My Book?

Photo by ThoughtCatalog on Unsplash

Great! You’ve finished your book! You’ve been working hard on it for weeks… months… ten years, even! You’ve checked through, double-checked, put it through the spellcheck and your reasonably priced grammar software, and now you think you’re ready to go ahead and submit it to publishers, or upload it to your self-publishing platform. But, think again.

Have you had a professional look at it? Not a piece of software, or your sister-in-law, who has a college certificate in English Lit, but a bona-fide editorial professional, with experience of copy-editing books, beta-reading and proofreading? If you haven’t, there is one very simple message: you should. It doesn’t matter if you’re publishing your first novel, or are a best-selling global brand, absolutely without a doubt you either should or will have a professional read through your manuscript and suggest – perhaps even make – changes which can be very minor, or utterly ruthless. There is a very good reason why publishing books is considered a professional field, and even in these days of massive self-publishing (in 2018 Bowker’s annual report claimed that over 1 million books were self-published in the previous year – that’s over 2700 per day!) it is vital, perhaps more than ever, that your writing quality is as good as you can possibly make it. The phenomenal rise in self-publishing has had a predictable, inevitable side effect: the market has been flooded with books which are – to put it politely – not particularly good. If you want to compete with them all, your writing needs to be better. Sure, a good story and top-end marketing will get you sales in the beginning, but book sales rely on another necessary evil: book reviews. If your reviews are coming in numbers, with many criticizing your grammar and editorial conscientiousness, that initial surge in sales will peter out very quickly.

But, editorial professionals are expensive, right? Well, not necessarily. Don’t you need to pay good money to get good quality? Again, not necessarily.

RESPECT YOUR READER

Because of the high cost of printing, particularly when selling print-on-demand copies - which will most likely be your Amazon KDP model – you will quite probably have to sell your book for a much higher cover price than you would like. To be frank, the more a reader has had to pay for your book, the better attention to detail she will expect from it. Just imagine if it were any other product – a new car, or a pair of shoes – and you paid much more for it than the market’s low-end version - wouldn’t you expect the quality to reflect this price tag; isn’t that why you might choose a BMW over a Renault, or a Ralph Lauren shirt over one from H&M? If it starts to unravel at first use, wouldn’t you feel somewhat cheated? I recently reviewed a book which was less than 120 pages long and littered with grammar errors, with an Amazon price tag of $18! Needless to say, my review was scathing of this point above all others, and its star rating was directly affected because of it. Imagine a hundred reviews of your book all saying the same thing.

A reader has chosen your book, over the billions of others on the market; they have invested hours – days – of their time in giving your work a chance. The least you can do is pay them the respect of providing a quality product. Surely that’s common courtesy, is it not?

WHICH SERVICE DO I NEED – BETA READ OR EDITORIAL APPRAISAL?

Now that you have established the reasons why you should have a professional check over your book, how do you know which service you should commission from them? Well, this is where their expertise and advice comes in. In lesson 4 of my podcast series “Fiction Writing Basics: Preparing To Publish”, I state that a beta-reader’s service is necessary and invaluable before publishing your book, and furthermore that you should always take their advice, no matter how much it stings. Their expertise has to be considered an authority; in other words, if you are not going to take their advice, why use them in the first place? If you don’t agree with their recommendations, on one or two points, engage in dialogue, and give them the opportunity to explain their viewpoint. If you find yourself consistently disagreeing with them, on every point, perhaps it may be time to accept the match between you is not right, you might be making a lot of mistakes, or they may not be as good as you thought they were – all are equally possible scenarios. But, whatever you choose to do with their advice, always consider it fully before making any rash decisions, or dismissing their findings out of hand. Remember, they are impartial commentators, and they are not in the business of selling your book, nor interested in dashing your dreams; most are probably writers themselves.

A beta-reader’s rates may vary dramatically – some will not charge you at all; same may be absurdly priced – and the fee may not necessarily be a reflection of how good their own literary proficiency is, or their creative streak. Get amateurs to read your book, by all means – as many as possible – but don’t be fooled into paying professional rates. This is why it is extremely important to carry out your due diligence on a beta-reader, just as an editor, proofreader, or indeed any other professional in life. Read their reviews and testimonials; take a look at their portfolio of client projects, if it is available – from that you can see their work quite openly. A professional to the stars is going to charge a lot more for their services than your average go-to for self-publishing authors. Does this mean they are better? Well, probably yes, actually, but that does not mean you won’t find some are simply riding their celebrity reputation and nothing else. On the flip side of this, you will also find that there are superb professionals happy to help you for a fraction of the cost – if you can find them.

A beta-reader will assess every aspect of your book, including editorial quality, inconsistencies and gaps in the narrative, story and character development, as well as your book’s structural layout, and perhaps, if a genre specialist, legal implications relating to defamation and libellous content. In this respect, a beta-read is very different to an editorial appraisal. Depending on the service you pay for, your editorial appraisal can vary dramatically – some may provide very similar feedback to a beta-reader, but they may call it something different, like a “manuscript assessment”. An editorial appraisal, on the other hand, should go through your book, line by line and chapter by chapter, looking for editorial inconsistencies and grammatical flaws. It will provide similar technical feedback to the beta-read, but will more likely veer away from the creative construction in your book, particularly where that creative critique is subjective – an editorial appraisal will assume that you are already past this stage when you commission the service. Of course, there are exceptions; if the errors or inconsistencies are clear and need to be addressed, a good, reputable editing service most definitely should advise you of this in the appraisal. In our own editorial appraisals we pride ourselves on being extremely scrupulous, and will always advise you if we don’t think your book is ready to proceed with proofreading or copy-editing – we would certainly expect other companies to be equally as ethical. Unfortunately, many run their online editing service more like a non-refundable app than a personal service for their clients.

HOW DO COSTS AND SERVICES VARY?

The cost of a “manuscript assessment” can be very pricey, and there may be several reasons for this: it does involve a lot of work – far more than a standard editorial appraisal – and the companies which offer them want to make the time and investment they have spent - which may include legal research - worth their while. Many authors who commission appraisals and assessments decide not to go ahead with the work, or that there is much more to do than they thought – indeed, the assessment is intended to go ahead and advise the author to do just that. Another reason for the expense associated with a manuscript assessment is that these editors wish to make it clear they are not standard beta-readers but probably hugely qualified professionals, and in their opinion their rates should reflect this. They are also picky with their clients, more often working on a consultant basis with business customers, such as publishing houses – pricing is traditionally a useful tool for sorting the serious business from the flippant. The Literary Consultancy offers Arts Council funded reading for low-income authors, particularly those from under-represented or disadvantaged groups, but even in this case, the selection process is extremely competitive, with limited bursaries, and submissions based on reputation gained from writing contests, etc.

Editorial appraisals, on the other hand, are generally available to all, but still the prices vary wildly, with each company employing a different approach toward them. Some will charge very high rates based on the word count - in many cases as much as you might be prepared to pay for your entire editing job; indeed, there are those which will only offer to read the manuscript in full and will expect fees of upward of £300. One would assume that their attitude toward this is similar to those who wish to make the time spent worth their while, in the event that you choose not to proceed with their service, in the same way that private legal and medical professionals charge for a consultation – as professionals they are giving their advice; following up with work is not their immediate objective. There are those which may be skeptical of companies which provide completely free editorial appraisals, but to many companies, particularly those trying to find their feet, offering a free service is vital to the development of their brand and reputation; arguably, they might even work that much harder to get long-term professional clients, and with these companies, you are potentially more likely to get a tailored appraisal, not based on any word count or restrictive business-like conditions you may find from an anonymous online service; indeed, our approach to carrying out an editorial appraisal is to read at least the first few chapters – more, if required, even so far as finishing the book in full. Besides, the fact is that most literary editors are freelance jobbers, sole traders or authors themselves, who got into the business because they simply love books.

So, the question of whether or not an author should pay for their appraisal is not answerable by a simple yes or no, though whether an author should refer to a professional before publishing is most certainly not in doubt, no matter what their proficiency or career grade as an author. Deciding which type of service to undertake depends on what sort of advice you require – a beta-read, a manuscript assessment or a simple editorial appraisal. Some are steeply more expensive than others, but the answer of which company you should choose is different for every author and every book. And, as far as getting what you pay for goes, well, that comes down a to a simple matter of trust, reputation and research – but remember that, as in any walk of life, more expensive isn’t always better.

If you would like a free editorial appraisal of your manuscript, click here.

Posted by Matt McAvoy: 3rd August 2019

#bookediting #publishing #authors #writing #copyediting #proofreading #editorialappraisal #manuscript #beta reader #what does a beta reader do #manuscript appraisal #book appraisal #ReturnToRealBooks

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