theburnedoutnerd

[theburnedoutnerd]

to begin with, the sweet grass by mary oliver, from “devotions”

[theburnedoutnerd]

instagram | photos are my own, reblogs fine, do not repost/reuse

[theburnedoutnerd]

daydreaming isn’t enough i need it to happen to me in real life

[theburnedoutnerd]

7 January 2025

First day of classes after Christmas break, it was so nice to be back :) I survived the last electrochem test and even though I'm 99% sure I won't get the grade I want, I'm glad at least it's behind me. Group mates got a hold of a giant ruler in lab today and one of them went around knighting everybody, but as soon as I got my hands on it I just smacked my bestie with it and that's all you need to know about what kind of friend I am lol. Said bestie made friends with a pigeon afterwards (as pictured) and that's all you need to know about her.

Started reading The Turn of the Screw last night and the language is... strange - a bit convoluted I'd say, but apparently Henry James was just Like That™️. Maybe I'll get used to it

[theburnedoutnerd]

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” — E.L. Doctorow

[theburnedoutnerd]

[theburnedoutnerd]

sometimes the best writing advice is "just let it be bad." revolutionary. terrifying. but it works.

[theburnedoutnerd]

i light all the candles, got flowers for all my rooms

[theburnedoutnerd]

My favorite detail about Jurassic Park is that it has a baked-in justification for any and all retcons it might need to make due to paleontology advancing forwards.

Because there is not a single dinosaur that has ever appeared in Jurassic Park.

Not one. Not in the books. Not in the movies. Not ever.

"Now what John Hammond and InGen did at Jurassic Park was to create genetically engineered theme park monsters." ~Alan Grant

Grant says that in a moment of cynicism. It's part of his arc for the film. But it's not inaccurate. What Jurassic Park has, what it's always had since the very first novel, are "Mostly Dinosaurs".

"And since the DNA is so old, it's full of holes! Now, that's where our geneticists take over!" ~Mr. DNA

It's impossible to recover a fully intact gene sequence from an ancient amber mosquito. Cloning a pure dinosaur would have been completely impossible, and so the park filled in the gene sequence with whatever works. Frog. Lizard. Bird. Whatever they need to get the result they are trying to get.

Every single dinosaur is a chimeric beast made up of mostly dinosaur and a bunch of other stuff that some scientists thought would achieve the appropriate dinosaur-like result.

"Nothing in Jurassic World is natural! We have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different." ~Dr. Henry Wu

Which, from a writing perspective, is fucking genius. Because now you have a preset excuse for each and every plot hole your movie has.

Like. Why don't the raptors have feathers? Because of the chimera DNA.

Why do dilophosaurs spit venom? Because of the chimera DNA.

Why do T-Rexes have movement based vision? Oh, they don't. But Rexy does. Because of her chimera DNA.

Why is the Spinosaurus so fucking big? Because of the chimera DNA.

Why are the velociraptors mislabeled? Because Hammond's a dipshit.

Like. I've always marveled at the way Jurassic Park started out by giving itself a blanket excuse to be wrong about every single thing it ever said about the central attraction of its franchise. It's honestly beautiful, and allows the series a degree of immortality well into the era where we know better about its animals.

[theburnedoutnerd]

how im tryna be in 2025

gromit gets it

[theburnedoutnerd]

i love reorganizing this shelf every month

[theburnedoutnerd]

Once more for the fanfic writers...

There is no wrong or right way of doing this fanfic-writing thing. Free yourself in 2025 by embracing whatever sort of writer you are.

If you can only post a story once a year or you want to post everyday, it's okay.

Whether you can only write drabbles or 100k stuff, it's okay.

Maybe your strength lies in writing fantasy, or romance or adventure, or non graphic smut, or omergaverse, or whatever kinky stuff there is out there, or comedy, or musical, medieval stuff, etc., it's okay.

Whether you're in a large or a tiny fandom, it's okay.

There is an audience for everything and everyone. It's not possible to dip one's toes in everything. Things can be learned and you can diversify if you really want to do more things with your writing. There is no gun to your head though. Even our favorite artists aren't good at everything.

It seems like recently there is so much pressure on fanfic writers to write certain stuff, in a certain way and for certain fandoms.

Let's not forget that from the get-go fanfic-writing is a FUN HOBBY and hence the secret is for you to write what you want to write, how you want to write it, when you want to write it and for whatever fandom you love.

[theburnedoutnerd]

i could write a story set in a world where birds are known for spreading diseases and everyone thinks birds are gross and disgusting and people are afraid of them & if you say "wow that bluejay is really pretty" then people look at you like you have a third head, or tell you about how much they hate birds. and if you say "i think maybe the bird hate is unjustified" then everybody says "so do you think it's good that some people get the disease from them and die!?" or they say "i think all birds should go extinct. there's other animals that can do whatever roles they do in nature. let's kill them all" and this is a popular opinion. does it sound familiar? huh? does it? wouldn't that suck? bugs. it's bugs.

[theburnedoutnerd]

Writing Ideas: Fantasy Settings

Fantasy settings - the locations where fantasy series, novels, short stories, and movies take place.

Ways to Create Fantasy Settings

Place modern concepts in a medieval setting. George R.R. Martin had great success inserting thematically modern storylines into his vaguely medieval fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Try your own version of this by thinking up a fantasy story idea that feels contemporary yet is set in a medieval world.

Envision a quest that crosses many terrains. The quest is a classic fantasy trope, and it remains ripe for innovation. Use a quest narrative to think up a fantasy world that incorporates many settings, each with its own unique geographic flavor. Think about how the setting will impact your protagonist's quest both for good and for bad.

Head to outer space. To get creative with outer space, pick a setting that breaks the known laws of physics, incorporates aliens, or forces its human inhabitants to adjust in an extreme way. Imbue your your sci-fi fantasy setting with myths and a deep lore.

Dip under the sea. Underwater settings are popular in the fantasy genre, but not nearly to the degree of medieval worlds, dystopian future cities, or distant planets. As you pick an underwater setting for your novel or screenplay, decide whether your characters will be regular humans or whether they're amphibious creatures that can breathe underwater. Like all fantasy settings, an underwater world is a great vehicle for character development, so make sure to build out your protagonists and antagonists at the same time you embark on world-building.

Examples of Fantasy Settings

Middle Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien set The Lord of the Rings trilogy in this land resembles a pre-historic Europe filled with mythical creatures like dwarves, orcs, and wizards.

Westeros and Essos: These two lands comprise the setting of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which takes a page from Tolkien's high-fantasy world. Martin's books, and the TV series it inspired, Game of Thrones, overlay real-world motivations like lust and power atop a mythical domain filled with dragons and White Walkers. It’s a place where people take magic as a given.

Narnia: C.S. Lewis set The Chronicles of Narnia in a fantasy world that children can reach. This is established in the first book in the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this sense, Lewis distinguishes himself from his English contemporary Tolkien by intentionally merging the real world with a fantasy land.

Roleplaying games: Sometimes the best fantasy settings are those created in real-time during a roleplaying game (RPG) like Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D, the world is filled with wizards, dragons, elves, orcs, and mystical clerics. Many games involve epic clashes of good and evil in lands reminiscent of medieval Europe, but the exact course of a game will depend on the decisions of the people playing it.

High Fantasy vs. Low Fantasy

In high-fantasy storylines, the entire world is constructed and clearly operates differently than the world we know. High-fantasy worlds may resemble certain areas of earth at specific periods in time, but their laws of physics and cultural customs are unique.

Low-fantasy stories are set in the real world as we know it but incorporate magic or other fantastical elements.

Fantasy settings tend to bend the rules of real life.

Some fantasy settings recall eras past, such as steampunk novels set in Victorian England or epic fantasies that recall medieval Europe.

Other fantasy books and movies use futuristic sci-fi settings that incorporate spaceflight, time travel, and other tropes of science fiction.

Meanwhile, dystopian urban fantasies often take place in post-apocalyptic settings.

In classic fantasy books and fairytales, the fantasy settings enable the main characters to grow and evolve.

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[theburnedoutnerd]

[theburnedoutnerd]

the author's barely disguised hobbies and interests

[theburnedoutnerd]

𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔞 𝔨𝔦𝔰𝔰 𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯