Author Kyle Hartman

Author, reader, re-blog anything pertaining to writing, reading, or science. Book Reviews. My writing, and updates on my writing.

[brynwrites]

A well-written redemption arc validates the victims, not the villain.

D.N. Bryn

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Subjects You Should Study if You Want to be a Better Writer

If you’re looking to be a writer, chances are you’re already pretty good in an English or Language Arts class. But aside from studying older literature to learn from, focusing exclusively on Language Arts materials is only going to get you so far. So, here are some subjects I’ve studied that I’ve found helpful to my writing.

Psychology: Since Psychology is the study of behavior, this is a good tool to study if you’re having problems with characterization. Understanding how people act and what thought processes cause people to take certain actions. This can help you give a character a more realistic response after experiencing emotional trauma, or may just help you slip into someone else’s mindset in order to write them better.

Cultural Anthropology: This may be more vital if you write Fantasy or Science Fiction, since both genres tend to require world building. Understanding the cultural element of society, what shapes it, and how it impacts behaviors, social norms, and etiquette can make worldbuilding easier for you. 

History: If you write Fantasy, War Dramas, or Historical Fiction, the subject of history is going to be your best friend. Whether it’s pulling from real people, events, or conflicts, history is littered with a goldmine of possible story ideas.

Screenwriting/Playwriting: If you struggle with ‘show don’t tell’ or dialogue, this is probably going to be a useful skill to learn. Since films and plays tend to lack an internal narration, they’ll push you to have to learn how to convey information visually or through dialogue, taking away the crutch of narration. This can also be useful as a means of writing a skeleton version of your chapters with just basic setting and dialogue and then go in later and fill in the narration elements.

Linguistics/Phonology: If you want to create conlangs (constructed languages) for your story’s setting, then learning about the building blocks of language can be advantageous.

[heywriters]

Cultural Anthropology (which I took a class in and loved) is relevant also if you’re writing about different real world cultures. This helps if your characters travel, move, have friends from other countries, or are multi-cultural themselves.

This subject is useful for historical fiction, war dramas, as well as any genre in which you wish to include multi-cultural or multi-national elements. It’s also just a subject EVERYONE should learn a bit about since it covers topics like culture shock and xenophobia.

[xengineerstudies-deactivated201]

March 23, 2019

I should probably tidy up my desk, but I was practicing for hydromechanics earlier and this is what happened haha

The semester hasn’t even started yet, but I’m trying to get ahead of things before it gets stressful👼🏽

I have to wait for the lectures though before I can really understand everything, so far I’m at chapter 3 of our script, not too bad I guess

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Subjects You Should Study if You Want to be a Better Writer

If you’re looking to be a writer, chances are you’re already pretty good in an English or Language Arts class. But aside from studying older literature to learn from, focusing exclusively on Language Arts materials is only going to get you so far. So, here are some subjects I’ve studied that I’ve found helpful to my writing.

Psychology: Since Psychology is the study of behavior, this is a good tool to study if you’re having problems with characterization. Understanding how people act and what thought processes cause people to take certain actions. This can help you give a character a more realistic response after experiencing emotional trauma, or may just help you slip into someone else’s mindset in order to write them better.

Cultural Anthropology: This may be more vital if you write Fantasy or Science Fiction, since both genres tend to require world building. Understanding the cultural element of society, what shapes it, and how it impacts behaviors, social norms, and etiquette can make worldbuilding easier for you. 

History: If you write Fantasy, War Dramas, or Historical Fiction, the subject of history is going to be your best friend. Whether it’s pulling from real people, events, or conflicts, history is littered with a goldmine of possible story ideas.

Screenwriting/Playwriting: If you struggle with ‘show don’t tell’ or dialogue, this is probably going to be a useful skill to learn. Since films and plays tend to lack an internal narration, they’ll push you to have to learn how to convey information visually or through dialogue, taking away the crutch of narration. This can also be useful as a means of writing a skeleton version of your chapters with just basic setting and dialogue and then go in later and fill in the narration elements.

Linguistics/Phonology: If you want to create conlangs (constructed languages) for your story’s setting, then learning about the building blocks of language can be advantageous.

[heywriters]

Cultural Anthropology (which I took a class in and loved) is relevant also if you’re writing about different real world cultures. This helps if your characters travel, move, have friends from other countries, or are multi-cultural themselves.

This subject is useful for historical fiction, war dramas, as well as any genre in which you wish to include multi-cultural or multi-national elements. It’s also just a subject EVERYONE should learn a bit about since it covers topics like culture shock and xenophobia.

[vulture-jack]

The permian is interesting as hell but it is so

so deeply cursed

[vulture-jack]

X

[autumnobile-deactivated20200219]

Capitalizing the first letter while capslocks is on

[joosh-actual-deactivated2018092]

That just HAS to be the incorrect head.

[glumshoe]

Nope! Here’s a fossil in situ:

The whole Caseidae family was fucky-looking…. everything in the Permian period was fucky-looking.

Cotylorhynchus, along with the more famous dimetrodon (the one with the sail-fin back), was a synapsid - meaning that they branched off the phylogenetic tree along with mammals, and are thus more closely related to us than they are any other modern animals. Personally, I love our ugly cousins. 

[badgerofshambles]

It shouldn’t have a scientific name. We should just call it Chungus and be done with it.

[markv5]

[amargedom]

“I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.”

— Edgar Allan Poe (via goodreadss)

[authorkylehartman]

You treated your daughter as an option, so I took away that option.

Not gonna post a lot about this, just those are powerful words and make a strong argument in any sort of story

[authorkylehartman]

Find Your Way

Can’t be alone

Collapses inside

When I leave

Don’t want to tell you

Sits by the door

When you’d come home

Not knowing

Abandoned

Calls out

Not a fucking pawn

In your twisted game

Of trying to hurt me

Accepted that

Never loved me

Don’t want to accept

The children are pawns

For your convenience

Turned your back

By ignoring my pleas

For her brother

Favorite sibling

To ease her heart

Did I ever know you?

How could you?

See why everyone

Runs from you

Didn’t take the key

From you

For habitually lying

Wanted her

At your convenience

Not hers

Doesn’t need you there

Sporadically

No

Often

Consistently

Her convenience

You love her

Find that please

[damselwrites]

Words to use instead of “said” organized by emotion/intention

[myfirstisthefourth]

Useful. ☺

[valtsv]

woman in a victorian novel: *develops a fever from worrying too much*

me, shivering and sweating from stress-induced anxiety: wtf that’s so unrealistic

[sergle]

I’m thinking about this on twitter again but I want to say it here too

[sandydragon1]

Write your first draft with your heart. Edit it with your head.

[heywriters]

“Don’t listen to any advice before you start writing. Just start. If you listen to too much advice you will get overwhelmed. Once you start, you will find out what you need to know next.”

— Margaret Atwood (via writingdotcoffee)

[scrawl-your-heart-out]

When the protagonist can’t sleep, they lie in bed. Alone. It’s quiet. They’re thinking. 

A lot of things can happen when someone’s alone. When it’s quiet. When they’ve only got their thoughts to entertain them. 

[menpale]

[sigulary]

Some cute cats with flowers that I did for practice.