#you dont use proper structured grammar!!!! you write how people speak!!!!

[four-for-fidelity]

client: umm, excuse me! ☝🤓 this is a sentence fragment. PLEASE be more professional!!!

me: ma'am this is marketing

[sturlsons]

french in 1.5 years anon

Kinda random but I just found out that I’ll be required to be intermediate/advanced in French by the next 1.5 years; ALL I KNOW IS THAT MEIRDE IS A BAD BAD WORD! Idk if you’re a native speaker but I was wondering if you could provide me of any good French language resources (or language in general since I’ll be needing to learn Arabic soon as well), and like tips for language learning and how to go about it? Sorry to bother you haha this is MY stress but I appreciate any help! Have a great day!

HEY. so i really fucking dropped the ball on this one, i’m sorry. 2019 has been one health fiasco after another (or more like the same fiasco again and again) and i kept telling myself i want to sit down and make a proper post for this, until i realised that that’s just never going to happen given the way things are rn. and i’d rather give you a quickly-written post which is actually helpful than never write that perfect bullet-pointed one. 

first of all, i’ve been in your EXACT position (so no, i’m not a native speaker) except i had about...six months to go from je m’appelle teesta to voyez-vous, le problème qui se cache derrière tout ça n’est pas le manque de respect mais la personne dont il s’agit or whatever. i was like, i can so do this. (spoiler: i didn’t, because i was 18 and overconfident and stupid and didn’t actually know how to learn a language.) GOOD NEWS: having learned 3 more foreign languages since then, i am now REALLY GOOD at learning languages REALLY FAST. 1.5 years is a good amount of time, so don’t stress.

i’m going to go generic on this, with some extra tips about french since i speak it, unlike arabic. 

first thing, that typical thing everyone hates to hear but knows is coming from the mouth of an accomplished person (pat on my back) in any field whatsoever: you’re going to have to work really hard and practice like fuck. 

there’s just nothing else that can replace it. i’ve filled up notebooks and notebooks with japanese verb conjugations, once i did like 1800 of them in one sitting. but you better believe that a bitch will never forget those now. resign yourself to putting in at least three hours of your day to this until you get to the level you need. (and three hours is...kind. at my peak i was literally reading through french dictionaries at the library, 10 AM - 8 PM. i treated it like a workday.)

now, what you need to establish is: are you a hands-on learner or a digital one. 

i don’t really care for all the auditory learner and visual learner stuff, i don’t know about anyone else but i personally used those as excuses to avoid certain exercises. unless you have actual disabilities preventing you from accessing certain methods of learning, you can train yourself into anything. it’s a matter of practice. i could barely understand a new song without reading its lyrics first, now i eat up podcasts. 

SO. the question here is different. a hands-on learner, like i used to be more or less throughout my bachelor’s, is someone who absolutely cannot retain information unless they’ve written it down BY HAND at least once. pen and paper. (i’m still like this but i’ve learned to combine it with digital methods to go faster.) if this isn’t a hurdle for you, congratulations. your process is going to go that much faster, at least for french. (you’ll have to spend hours practicing your written arabic however, if you’re not familiar with the script.) 

now, if you’re a hands-on learner, you need to add an extra hour to your daily time. no matter how fast you write, you will take that time. and you cannot shorthand your way into languages. you need to understand how french is spelt, what accents it uses, that they put a space before exclamation points, question marks, and semicolons. (side tip: learn the IPA. it will be useful to you forever in language learning, at least for the romance languages.) i’m not gonna teach you how to make notes since i’ve never benefitted from copying someone else’s style, so if you don’t have a set method start establishing that. you need regularity and rhythm when you learn a language. my grammar notes look the same regardless of the language. i don’t have my french ones since it’s been years and i didn’t take good ones then anyway, but here’s my japanese and russian stuff. 

JAPANESE NOTES // RUSSIAN NOTES

now, it bears mentioning that these notes are NOT the notes i take when i don’t know shit. these are final level notes. they’re brief, idiosyncratic, and only reminders. something to refer to when i’m revising and suddenly forget a rule. the first notes i make are much more elaborate, whether they’re pretty or not. i’ve gradually lost the fucks i had about really going ham on academics so my russian notes are very messy, but my japanese ones from back in the day are magnificent. here’s a look. during lesson one i realised that japanese and my mother tongue, gujarati, are syntaxically similar as shit, and i started taking notes with references in gujarati. it sped up my learning process 2x while my french classmates were still going “BUT WHY IS IT LIKE THAT”. 

PRACTICAL GRAMMAR // THEORETICAL GRAMMAR

if you plan to learn more languages in the future, this will be so valuable. sometimes a phrase i learn in russian doesn’t make sense in its french explanation, but a phrase in english might use the same logic. bam, put down the translation in english then. you get what i’m saying? the more languages you learn, the easier it gets to learn languages. 

now if you’re a digital learner, i’ve got great news for you. duolingo and anki are your best friends. duolingo’s memed to hell and has a system that might not work for everyone, but they’ll do the brunt work of compiling grammar notes for you in the beginnings/ends of their lessons. note those down and transform them into anki flashcards, and you can learn grammar concepts without doing 20 exercises. (do those exercises if you can, though, nothing beats mindless practice.) now anki is an intimidating-looking but actually super intuitive app that basically builds digital flashcards for you and shows them to you in a rhythm based on your own learning speed. it’ll show you the front of a card, let’s say merde. you say the english translation out loud, shit, and hit enter. correct! was that easy? anki’ll show it to you in 10 minutes. hard? it’ll show you in 1 minute. super easy? merde won’t come up again until tomorrow. eventually you get so good at it that you can bury a card for 2 months. anki will also show you the same cards reversed, which is harder but trains you better. you’ll see shit and have to remember what it’s called in french, which is more difficult than you’d think it is. 

you can use anki for more than just vocab, like i mentioned. it’s a little tricky learning to convert grammar concepts into front/back flashcards, but you can do it. for example, here’s a sample of one of my russian grammar cards: 

front ^^

back once i hit enter^^

see? not that difficult. now don’t be an idiot like me who manually entered every single flashcard into anki. you can find pre-made packages online (but you can’t guarantee they’ll be correct) or you can make your own without killing your fingers. what you wanna do is open up a spreadsheet and make two columns, A for front of the card and B for back. it’ll look like this:

then you’re gonna save that spreadsheet as a .CVS (comma separated values) and import that into anki. bam, your flashcards are made for you with half the effort. there’s also a script floating around somewhere to make excel translate words automatically for you, but i don’t recommend that unless they’re really easy words. google translate can fuck up. reverso is your friend. 

you need to review your anki cards every day. it’ll take less and less time as you go along. i can review 300 russian cards in 15 minutes now. but you need to keep the rhythm going. download ankiapp and sync your cards, review them on commutes or in the hallway or whatever. trust me, it’s magic. 

apart from this, if a traditional textbook helps, go for that. i’ve always used textbooks and workbooks, more as supports than as principal methods, but it does help. it’s structured and organised and these people know how to train you. bescherelle is a good go-to for french. 

media is always a great way of immersion too, until you get to the country itself. it’ll show you how french people speak french. when i first came to france i didn’t have that experience and even though i spoke an arguably decent amount of french when i got here, it was like, if this is french then what the fuck was i learning in high school. if you like watching movies this is your chance. watch the classics first so that you can get an idea of french pop culture. amélie (though the pop culture aspect here is about shitting on it) and les intouchables, for starters. watch your favourite films, first subbed, then subbed and dubbed, then just dubbed. i watched all ten seasons of friends with french subs, it was wild. with music you want to start off with some indie-ish singers since they will universally sing softer and slower, making things easier to understand than idk, la tribu de dana. (if you’re into bts there’s a hilarious video of their baepsae choreo set to la tribu de dana.) anyway - angèle, cœur de pirate, céline dion, fréro delavega, uhhh that fucking french sufjan stevens. what’s his name. VIANNEY. don’t fucking listen to biglo and oli or like, fatal bazooka right away. you will not understand shit. i barely understand it. white people are wild. ooh listen to stromae. orelsan too, he’s a rapper but he has a relatively clean diction imo. he also sang the french opening for OPM. they call him orelsan-san in japan.

last but not the least: if you have the opportunity to interact in french with people, DO IT. native speakers will do their best to help you and be kind about it. people who learned french might sometimes be assholes from experience. it’s a whole superiority complex thing, and very hypocritical. anyway - online or IRL, wherever you can practice your french, do it. it’ll be immensely helpful. there’s nothing like the frustration of not being able to express simple things to get you motivated to get better. do your best to immerse yourself - changing the language on your devices can make a difference too. 

i think that’s all i have and again, i’m sorry for taking this long to finally deliver, thanks for your patience! if you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to hit me up, on anon or not. 

good luck - it’s not going to be the easiest but nothing is as gratifying as beginning to understand the workings of a language. you’re gonna love it!

[efrondeur]

Do you have any writing or dos/donts tips for new fanfiction writers??

I’m just gonna start this out by saying i’m so honored that you asked me this especially since i’ve only been writing for less than a year whoops but anyway... Buckle up.

Proper grammar is very important

While it might be easier to type how you text and message people, basic sentence structure is important in a. Making your writing legible and b. Making it flow well

Use commas, just be careful how you use them

If what your saying can be said as an aside, chances are you’re going to use a comma or a hyphen

COMMAS ARE NOT USED SIMILAR TO THE PAUSE POINTS WHEN YOU SPEAK GET THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW

Yes sometimes, commas and speaking pause points line up, but it’s not always

Use sentence length to set the mood

Longer sentences slow the reader down, so using FANBOYS or semicolons can really help to create a calm mood

Shorter sentences make the reader read faster, so you can use it to show anxiety or fast paced thoughts or actions

Make grammar your bitch

Proper grammar is important, but misusing grammar can be extremely helpful in setting the mood

For example: run on sentences, bad grammar, but if you use them, it shows that the character is having one long, trailing thought and possible anxiety depending on how the run on is structured

Also, not everyone talks properly. Not everyone says “I’m going to go read.” In fact, most native English speakers say “I’m gonna go read.” Learn how the character speaks, and use that.

If you’re going to use google docs (cause lbr not everyone can afford Word) get the grammarly extension on chrome, it’s like your own personal beta

PLAN

Know where you want your fic to go and make notes

If it’s a longer fic, write out a timeline, get your thoughts down and in order, it’ll save time as you write it out as well as prevent forgetting any plot points

Write down what the characters are like at the start of the fic and then at the end of the fic. Longer fics should have some sort of change and growth

However, if you’re going to write a shorter fic, this doesn’t always apply. Some shorter fics are specifically written just to show one point in a character’s life or characters lives and therefore there might not be much growth

Stay open to ideas

Sometimes your writing is going to take you in a different direction than planned. That’s okay.

If you don’t like where it’s going, DON’T DELETE THE SECTION, instead, move it somewhere else, i.e. a new doc, and start from where it started to veer off it’s path

DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER WRITERS; THIS WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL

First, everyone has their own way of writing, don’t try and mimic it, or your writing won’t feel genuine to you or your reader

Second, there is always going to be someone better than you. Always. The more you compare yourself, the harsher you’ll get on yourself, and the less you’ll like writing

Third, everyone has to start somewhere. You will post bad fic. I have. Everyone has. It’s how you start, and it’s how you get feedback and grow. Don’t be ashamed of it

Fourth, you are never done growing. You will always be learning new ways to write, new ways to better express feelings and thoughts

Body language

Body language is a solid 60% of conversations, whether you notice it or not

People can actively hid something in their voice from you, but it’s harder to do so with their body, as so much of what we do is subconscious

Learn what your character’s tells are: when they’re lying, annoyed, happy, frustrated, upset, etc. Also, using general tells are pretty good, too. Quite a few people tend to look to the left when they lie, or cross their arms when they’re being defensive.

Showing is better than telling

Through body language, thoughts, and actions, you can show a character’s feelings a whole lot better than outrightly saying it.

This doesn’t mean never tell, but when you do it all the time, the story gets kinda boring

Find your audience

You want to hit moms in their forties? Write like a realistic, romance author

Wanna hit teens? Write about more fantasy and science fiction, hitting romance while still developing characters as they grow and age

Reach out to others in the fandom

talk with people, make friends, come up with headcanons together

encourage them and they will encourage you

having people to talk to about things is honestly so important and the entire reason i’ve been able to keep writing as well as the reason why i stopped for months before i started writing for voltron

Find how you relate to characters. Don’t make them you, but use how you understand yourself to write them. It’s how I write anxiety, depression, adhd, and anger disorders

Have fun when you write

Talk with friends who enjoy what you’re writing about, share little snippets, get people excited or make them cry

Get yourself excited about making people squeal because of tooth-rotting fluff, or have their heart melt with heavy angst

Read other’s works

Learn what you like and what you don’t, what others like and what they don't

See what works when it comes to imagery and what’s better to just say

But oh my god, don’t ever steal. You’re writing should always be your own. You can take inspiration from other people, but when you steal their work it’s unbelievably rude and is extremely upsetting to the author, plus it’s against literally every sites rules and copyrights, and don’t copy their writing style, it just doesn’t work

One thing I do, that I honestly wish I didn’t, but is at least helpful for me

I always get in the mindset of the character, i.e. if Keith’s upset, I get myself upset and then write, or if Lance is super enthused, I get myself really happy

This can be really exhausting and taxing at times, so do this at your own risk

Music can completely change how you write

Find or make a playlist that has the mood for how you want to write something

Be aware of how the song is affecting your writing, and change it if you need to

When the characters are talking, try to hear their voices in your head and channel that when you write

If you listen to the character’s speaking what you want them to say, it becomes easier for the reader to hear that as well

It makes the characters a lot more believable

Relationships aren’t black and white

there’s cutesy little things, fights/arguments, sex (if you write that) and so much more

think about how you interact with your friends. how you sometimes get frustrated with them and just need to be alone, or how easy it can be to talk with them and spend time with them and how sometimes it can be a mix of the two. it’s a lot like that just with romance and kisses

no two relationships are the same. keith and lance don’t have the same dynamic as shiro and allura. hunk and lance don’t have the same dynamic as hunk and keith. everything and everyone is different and compliment each other in different ways. 

I think this is it and i’m sorry with how long this is, but this is everything that i’ve learned/have helped me over the past 10 months. I hope they help you too!!!