Minimum possible effort

An original character and (hopefully) original comic blog. But mostly reblogs of inspiration or writing resources

[hacvek]

reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics

[mostlyghostie]

Bookmarks now available to order on my shop!

Are you a Pristine Hardback reader or a Well-Loved Paperback reader? Shelved perfectly in alphabetical/thematic/colour order or piled in haphazard stacks on the bedroom floor?

[natache]

[glassgallows]

Anyway here's some additions from the Maasai and Kikuyu, two grassy plain-dwelling groups from Eastern Africa that I think count as unfuckwithable

[m4r5h-deactivated20230823]

Feel like Poland should be included since we're literally called "people of the fields" according to the etymology of Poland.

Also look at her GO

[twofingerswhiskey]

I’m Métis, here’s some of ours! You’ll notice it looks remarkably similar to the above.

We also have some less intricate clothing (if it looks a bit Victorian to you - that’s pretty much the right era for most of this!)

[bone-collector-cryptid]

Can’t believe no one’s done it yet I will be the person to add the cowboys: Latin American focus.

Here is the Chilean huaso:

Gauchos, from primarily Argentina where they’re a large national symbol close to the level of cowboys in the US. Also gauchos are in Uruguay.  Their pants are called bombachas and the other garment wrapped around them are called chiripas.  They work in grasslands called pampas, known for being really fertile:

While they’re not as dressed up as the others or have as prominent of a culture, for a broader Latin American cowboy context, I feel like also adding llaneros, who are from Colombia and Venezuela, in the llanos region, a type of tropical grassland similar to the pampas, hence the name llanero. Pampas get annual flooding and these guys would go barefoot a lot, and you can see that the stirrup on the horse’s saddle is really different than what you’re probably used to seeing, to accommodate for that, which is what I want to point out as an aspect of plains cultures developing clothing/accessories/tools to suit the environment. 

Cowboy culture happened wherever Spanish colonial influence and grassland biomes came together.  They differ based on the grasslands having different climates (ex tropical in South America), and the local indigenous influence (ex, backtracking to gauchos, they would use this tool called bolas to catch animals, which were basically two balls tied to a string that you threw and it spun around an animals legs, and were an indigenous invention):

I would love to keep posting cowboy dress lol but will stick to the post’s theme of grassland of course.  

[sunflowers-and-vangogh]

Adding to the post, I, hereby, present people of Kalash and Chitral:

Chitral means ‘field’ in the native language Khowar. Both Chitralis and people of Kalash are known to be indigenous people of Asia.

[lyralit]

traits turned sour

honest - insensitive

persuasive - manipulative

caring - overprotective

confidence - arrogance

fearless - cocky

loyalty - an excuse

devotion - obsession

agreeable - lazy

perfectionism - insatisfaction

reserved - aloof

cautious - skeptical

self loved - selfish

available - distractible

emotional - dramatic

humble - attention-seeking

diligent - imposing

dutiful - submissive

assertive - bossy

strategic - calculated

truthful - cruel

[theliteraryarchitect]

this might be weird to ask, but how do I critically look at another person's writing and implement what I like in their writing in my own writing? I've been having trouble improving in my writing, and frankly Im not sure how to go about doing that, even. It's easy to see what I like about another person's writing, but hard to pinpoint exactly why...

THIS IS NOT WEIRD TO ASK. It is, in fact, the most important question EVER.

How to Read Like a Writer

Re-read. If you get halfway into a chapter and think, Wow this chapter is super creepy–I wonder how they did that. Or get to the end of a book and think, I feel the poignancy of the fragility of human life in an inherently volatile economic system–I wonder how the writer made me feel that way… Go back and re-read that shit.

Read slowly. When you read like a reader, you read pretty fast. When you go in for your second, or third, or fourth re-read of a passage, chapter, or book that you want to know more about, read it slowly. Really. Slowly.

Read for technique, not content. Readers read for content (”In this paragraph, Damien gave Harold a classified envelope.”). Writers read for technique. (”In this paragraph, the writer made me feel curious about the contents of the envelope by giving sensory details about its appearance and weight.”)

Ask the right questions. They usually start with HOW: How did the writer make me feel? How did they accomplish that?

Read small. Did a chapter make you feel sad? Find out WHERE EXACTLY. What paragraph, sentence, or WORD did it for you? Was it a physical detail? A line of dialogue? A well-placed piece of punctuation? Stories are made of words and sentences. Narrow it down.

Practice. Reading like a writer is a skill that takes time to develop. Over time, you’ll get better at it!

How about y’all? Anything to add to this list? I made it off the top of my head so I’m sure I’m forgetting something. What have been your experiences with learning to read like a writer?

Hope this helps!

//////////////

The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library or get The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. xoxo

[mckitterick]

this is SO IMPORTANT for creatives! understand WHY you love things, why they move you, how the writer (or artist or whomever) did the thing that made you laugh or cry or see the world through a fresh perspective

I like to mark passages that really work for me, that reveal some insight into the human experience or deliver a beautiful image that lingers in my mind or a powerful scene our great dialogue or whatever. by marking it, one can go back later for inspiration or insight, especially when stuck in a revision or feeling uninspired

[taiey]

The curtains were blue because everything in the room was carefully colour coordinated, reinforcing the character’s stylish and controlled characterisation. The curtains were blue because everything in the room was a different colour, reinforcing the character’s eclectic and globe-trotting personality. The curtains were blue because the character is elsewhere established to hate the colour blue, subtextually implying that their deceased spouse was responsible for that decoration choice.

The curtains were blue because throughout their filmography the director consistently uses cool tones to mark moments of distance between characters. The curtains were blue to tie the events in that room into the broader oceanic motif of this particular novel. The curtains were blue because the assonance evoked a contrast with the following stanza of the poem.

Even the curtains looked expensive: floor to ceiling velvet drapes, in a flawless royal blue. She tucked the saucer up on the windowsill and tied back faded blue curtains with a loop of string. The narrow blinds were the same navy blue as the pinstripe suit of the man who served eviction notice that sent them to this office.

The curtains were blue because the author’s childhood home had blue curtains, which they discussed in their letters related to their feelings of comfort in that place. The curtains were blue because the author’s childhood home had blue curtains, which they discussed in their letters related to their feelings of grief in that place.

The curtains were blue as an allusion to the contemporary joke about literary criticism, an extension of the author’s autocritical approach that will be further discussed in section seven.

The curtains were red, as a pun on;

The curtains were read.

[s-graves-writes]

How to Keep an Edit Notebook

In my How to Edit a First Draft post, I mentioned something I call an edit notebook. Edit notebooks help you figure out what level of revisions your WIP requires, and exactly what is wrong with your manuscript. I use a 3-subject notebook per project, and a section per draft. An edit notebook is composed of a few parts:

1. Chapter-By-Chapter Notes

this is where you read through your manuscript and take notes on scenes

you usually want to note what happens in the chapter, how well it is written, and whether or not it is relevant to the plot

2. Overall Plot Notes

these also happen while you’re reading over your WIP

I usually made them in-between sections of chapters, but some I made while reading

these include things you’d like to add/change/remove from the plot

3. Analysis (Note: This is the most important part! The whole point of an edit notebook is to figure out how much editing you actually have to do. I sort these into different “levels.”)

Novel-Level: If all your notes say “delete scene,” “scrap,” “poorly written,” “unecessary” etc., then you’re probably looking at a full-on rewrite. Pull on your big-boy pants, grab a cup of coffee, and start re-plotting. 

Chapter-Level: If your notes are less about how bad the plot is and more about how bad the writing quality is, then your revisions should focus more on pacing, the order of your scenes, point of view, and rewriting/recrafting scenes to make them better. 

Line-Level: If the plot is flawless, there aren’t any plot holes or dull moments to be accounted for, just grammar/sentence structure problems, then this is when you print out your novel and go through it with a red pen. 

Of course, there are steps in-between, and sometimes you’ll spend several drafts in one level. But in general, this is what you should be looking for!

4. Redrafting (Especially important when making novel-level edits, which is probably what you’re dealing with when you have a first draft)

list possible scene ideas, brainstorm

try to write out your new plot, or at least the “tentpole” moments (the important events) 

from there, fill in what goes in-between the major events

remember, you can’t really know if it works or not until you actually write it!

5. Reoutlining

I like to make a summary sheet (below the cut), which ideally includes your major plot points, major flashbacks, subplots, symbols, conflicts, resolutions, and the story arc (as well as anything else you want to keep track of) 

plot out timelines/arcs for characters

basically do whatever you would normally do before you begin writing something new. Except, this isn’t new! You know what you’re doing and where you’re going this time. You got this.

Keep reading

[randomitemdrop]

You know how a lot of melee weapons started out as peasants’ tools that they adapted for combat? Item: zax, a specialized axe and pick traditionally used to cut slate into roofing tiles

[randomitemdrop]

Found another one: Coa de Jima, a circular blade with a long handle used to harvest agave

[surlifen]

NO ONE knows how to use thou/thee/thy/thine and i need to see that change if ur going to keep making “talking like a medieval peasant” jokes. /lh

They play the same roles as I/me/my/mine. In modern english, we use “you” for both the subject and the direct object/object of preposition/etc, so it’s difficult to compare “thou” to “you”.

So the trick is this: if you are trying to turn something Olde, first turn every “you” into first-person and then replace it like so:

“I” →  “thou”

“Me” →  “thee”

“My” →  “thy”

“Mine” →  “thine”

Let’s suppose we had the sentences “You have a cow. He gave it to you. It is your cow. The cow is yours”.

We could first imagine it in the first person-

“I have a cow. He gave it to me. It is my cow. The cow is mine”.

And then replace it-

“Thou hast a cow. He gave it to thee. It is thy cow. The cow is thine.”

[some-stars]

This is perfect and the only thing missing is that when “thy” comes before a vowel it’s replaced by “thine”, i.e. “thy nose” but “thine eyes.” English used to do this with my and mine too (and still does with a and an).

[fremedon]

The second person singular verb ending is -(e)st. In the present tense, it works more or less like the third person singular ending, -s: 

I sleep in the attic. Thou sleepest in the attic. He sleeps in the attic.

I love pickles. Thou lovest pickles. He loves pickles.

I go to school. Thou goest to school. He goes to school.

The -(e)st ending is only added to one word in a compound verb. This is where a lot of people make mistakes:

I will believe it when I see it. Thou wilt believe it when thou seest it. He will believe it when he sees it.

NOT

*thou willst believest it! NOPE! This is wrong

If you’re not sure, try saying it in the third person and replacing the -(e)st with -s:

*He will believes it when he sees it. ALSO NOPE! 

In general, if there’s one auxiliary, it takes the -(e)st ending) and the main verb does not. If there are multiple auxiliaries, only one of them takes -(e)st:

I could eat a horse. Thou couldst eat a horse. He could eat a horse.

I should go. Thou shouldst go. He should go.

I would have gone. Thou wouldst have gone. He wouldst have gone. 

You can reduce the full -est ending to -st in poetry, if you need to drop a syllable:

thou sleepst, thou lov'st.

In some common words–mostly auxiliary verbs, or what you might have learned as “helping verbs”–the ending is always reduced:

I can swim. Thou canst swim. He can swim.

Sometimes this reduction takes the last consonant of the stem with it:

I have a cow. Thou hast a cow. He has a cow. 

Or reduces the -st down to -t:

I must believe her. Thou must believe her. He must believe her.

I shall not kill. Thou shalt not kill. He shall not kill.

However! UNLIKE the third-person singular -s, the second person -(e)st is ALSO added to PAST TENSE words, either to the past stem in strong (irregular) verbs or AFTER THE -ed in weak (regular) verbs: 

I gave her the horse. Thou gavest her the horse. He gave her the horse.

I made a pie. Thou mad’st a pie. He made a pie.

I wanted to go. Thou wantedst to go. He wanted to go.

This is different from the third person!

*He gaves her the horse. He mades a pie. He wanteds to go. SO MUCH NOPE!

It’s not wrong to add -(e)st to a long Latinate verb in the past tense, but it’s unusual; it’s much more common to use a helping verb instead:

I delivered the letter. (Great!)

Thou deliveredst the letter. (Not wrong, but weird)

He delivered the letter. (Great!)

I did deliver the letter. (Normal if emphatic, or an answer to a question; otherwise, a little weird.)

Thou didst deliver the letter. (Great!) 

And a couple last things:

1.) Third-person -(e)th is mostly equivalent to and interchangeable with third-person -s:

I have a cow. Thou hast a cow. He hath a cow.

I love her. Thou lovest her. He loveth her.

I do not understand. Thou dost not understand. He doth not understand.

HOWEVER! Third-person -(e)th, unlike -s but like -(e)st, can, sometimes, go on STRONG past-tense verbs:

I gave her the cow. Thou gavest her the cow. He gaveth her the cow.

This never happens with weak verbs:

*He lovedeth her. NOPE NOPE NOPE!

And even with strong verbs, from Early Modern (e.g., Shakespearean) English onward, it’s quite rare. But you will see it from time to time.

2.) In contemporary Modern English, we invert the order of subjects and auxiliary verbs in questions:

Will I die? I will die. 

Has she eaten? She has eaten.

If there’s no auxiliary, we add one–do–and invert that:

Do you hear the people sing? You (do) hear the people sing.

In Early Modern English, this process was optional, and mostly used for emphasis; all verbs could be and were moved to the front of the sentence in questions:

Hear ye the people sing? (Or singen, if we’re early enough to still be inflecting infinitives.)

Do-support was also optional for negatives:

I don’t like him. I like him not.

Thou dost not care. Thou carest not.

She does not love thee. She loves thee not.

3.) Imperative verbs never take endings:

Hear ye, hear ye!

Go thou and do likewise!

Give me thy hand. Take thou this sword. 

4.) Singular ‘you’–that is, calling a singular person by a plural pronoun–arose as a politeness marker; and ‘thou’ fell out of use because it eventually came to be seen as impolite in almost all contexts. In general, once singular ‘you’ comes into use, it is used for addressing

people of higher social status than the speaker

or of equivalent status, if both speakers are high-status

strangers

anyone the speaker wants to flatter

‘Thou’ is used for

people of lower social status than the speaker

family and intimate friends

children

anyone the speaker wants to insult

It is safer to ‘you’ someone who doesn’t necessarily warrant ‘you’ than to ‘thou’ someone who does.

5.) And finally, that ‘ye’? That’s the nominative form of you–the one that’s equivalent to ‘I’ or ‘we.’ 

I  → thou → he/she/it  → we → ye → they

Me → thee → him/her/it → us → you → them

My → thy → his/her/its → our → your → their

Mine → thine → his/hers/its → ours → yours → theirs

Any time you’re using ‘thou’ for the singular, the second person plural– ‘y’all’– declines like this:

ye:  Ye are all a bunch of weirdos.

you: And I love you very much.

your: This has been your grammar lesson.

yours: This grammar lesson is yours. 

[robininthelabyrinth]

There is no joy like the joy of a writer who has just figured out that a throwaway line they put into the first few paragraphs of a story is actually the key to a major plot point and possibly even the theme underlying the entire thing.

Just…yesssssss.

[mothmanismyuncle]

like to charge rb to cast

[leepacey]

since everybody’s talking about south korea’s mandatory military service because of BTS, now seems like a great time to say that forced conscription is always morally wrong, and 90% of the world’s imprisoned conscientious objectors are south korean men who refused to join the military. despite the UN, human rights groups, and the south korean general public saying a mandatory draft with no alternatives is unethical, the current far-right administration and their new incel president have said they will be making LESS exemptions in the future because of declining birth rates. 

the choices for south korean men are literally: join the military for 18 months, flee the country before they’re age 24-ish (they don’t let men who haven’t served yet leave the country once they’re around that age, because of the possibility of them fleeing), or go to prison for 3+ years, where they’re given prison labor so it’s like they’re “serving” south korea anyway. the south korean government also keeps a public database of draft dodgers, assumedly so they can be publicly shamed for the rest of their lives (and it affects future employment, of course).

currently the only exemptions are for “cultural merit” (olympic athletes, asian game winners, classical musicians and dancers, etc, hence why people thought BTS would fit in this category because it’s all about who brings prestige to south korea internationally, and BTS literally accounts for 1% of south korea’s entire annual GDP), mentally and physically disabled men, certain STEM programs where they can work as engineers instead of serving, firefighters, and some extreme examples like “this guy is the only doctor in a small town” or “this guy’s wife just died and there’s nobody else available to raise their young kids” — and it’s a big open secret that the sons of wealthy businessmen and chaebols mysteriously always get exempted for one reason or another, of course.

the cultural merit exemption rule was written back in the 1960s, before kpop and kdramas and all that ever existed, so in the last decade or so, a lot of people have been calling for an expansion of who gets exempted and how that rule’s defined, while others say giving celebrities special treatment is unfair. i don’t know if i even have an opinion on this because i’m so anti-military i’m just like.. exempt every man, dissolve the military, fuck it all — but: in the past, enlisted celebrities like kpop idols and actors have faced such extreme levels of bullying, sexual harassment (including other soldiers taking pictures of them in the public showers to sell online), and more, to the extent that just a few months ago, shinee’s taemin was transferred to a public service role because of how much the harassment and bullying he was facing was affecting his mental health.

the south korean military is literally known for its bullying, hazing, violent homophobia, corruption and favoritism with superior officers, high suicide rates, and more — but i digress. fuck the military and fuck the south korean government :) not for BTS, but for every south korean man forced to serve a country that does not give a fuck about them

[averywax]

This is such an incredibly american/western take it's breathtaking. You know when countries have mandatory conscription? When they have homicidal, dictatorial, nuclear-equipped next door neighbors. "Conscription is immoral" okay, I guess when North Korea pulls a Russia SK will just roll over and die then!

You know which democracies have conscription? Israel, SK, Switzerland, and Sweden. Israel and SK are both legally at war with their neighbors, and Sweden reintroduced conscription in 2017 in response to Russian military activity. Idk what Switzerland's deal is but their basic service is only 21 weeks so it's pretty mild.

[wantstoflyafraidtofall]

hey writers! OneLook Thesaurus lets you find that word you can’t think of but can describe! go check it out!

[caramelminx]

I can't convey how happy I am to learn of this resource!!!

[balioc]

When people suffer, it often makes them into worse people.

It sucks.  I know it sucks.  It is quite possibly the single most unjust thing about this universe of ours, which is filled from top to bottom with soul-breaking injustices.  If you yourself are suffering, it’s pretty much the most insulting thing you can hear, a cosmic insult-added-to-injury where the authors of your pain are sneering at you for retroactively having deserved it. 

And yet it’s true, for basically any sane definition of “worse” than can be applied to human beings. 

…I was going to have a very long essay here about all the different ways in which this phenomenon can manifest.  I don’t think I need it, and I don’t think you need to see it.  You can generate any number of examples perfectly well on your own, even if they’re not things that you’d ever want to say or even think.

The point is that, as with any Big Truth of the Human Condition, you’re not going to be able to engage with the world in an enlightened and principled way until you own up to it and face it down.

Don’t worry about fault or responsibility or moral dessert.  Don’t worry about how much you’re supposed to blame the poor suffering soul for the poison fruits of his pain.  Blame is a stupid sideline, more useful for crafting rhetorical barbs than for actually figuring out what to do.  

But make yourself remember –

* Alleviating the suffering of bad people is a useful tool for making them into better people, or at least for preventing them from becoming even-worse people.  This is true even if they don’t deserve it, which as postulated they presumably don’t.

* The fact that people are suffering…or the fact that their suffering is unjust…is not a contradiction or counter to the claim that they are bad, or that the things they are doing is bad.  It is supporting evidence for such a claim.

* If you decide that you are going to dedicate yourself wholly to fighting on behalf of those who are suffering – or, especially, to fighting on behalf of some specific subset of those who are suffering – you are constantly going to have to deal with the fact that your clients are doing terrible things, and that by reasonable standards they’re often much worse people than the people who are making them suffer.

* Redemptive stories about the morally-purifying nature of harsh ordeals aren’t always false, but they’re usually false. 

[uncle-knobheads]

Fic authors deserve more credit.

Story time: I started a book about 23 hours ago and just finished it. Also in that time I slept for 10 hours, spent time with family, was at work, etc. Anyway, I enjoyed the book (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda). But it felt like it flew by, so after I finished I looked up the word count because what are pages? Pages are meaningless. I only function in word counts anymore.

The estimate I found was 58,580. My immediate reaction was “oh, that’s why. That’s nothing!” But what a shitty response. Because no. That’s not nothing. That’s a whole. Damn. Book. An entire novel! And Fic authors regularly bust out 30k, 50k, 100k, 150k words. AND THEY DO IT FOR FREE. WHILE WORKING AND LIVING THEIR LIVES.

So anyway, thank your favorite fic author today because they deserve it. Because they’re amazing. They’re the MVPs.

[galadrieljones]

Some rough word count equivalencies for you, via famous novels, just to give you an idea of what OP is saying:

30k fic = Animal Farm by George Orwell

50k fic = The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

75k fic = Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

100k fic = To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

150k fic = The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

200k fic = Moby Dick by Herman Melville

250k fic = Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

300k fic = A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin

350k fic = Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

400k fic = Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

I WROTE SOMETHING AS LONG AS MOBY DICK AND I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW

[princesweetpea]

I can’t believe I’ve surpassed Animal Farm.

Holy shit.

[iffeelscouldkill]

This is awesome. With that said, huge appreciation also to fic writers who write shorter fics - 10k, 5k, 1k, 500 words. Because yeah, huge long fics get a lot of love, and a lot of labour goes into them, but the same is true for tiny fics as well. Not everyone is banging out huge great novels, but little ficlets are fantastic and still bring readers a ton of joy.

So if you’re feeling a bit downcast because you can’t write that 50 chapter epic or your latest WIP is “only” 2k and it still took you ages - that’s amazing. Seriously. Not everyone is naturally wordy or prolific. And you can say a ton with just a few hundred or thousand words.

Props to short fic creators - you guys are awesome.

[corancoranthemagicalman]

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe = 38k fic

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory = 30k fic

Of Mice and Men = 30k fic

Breakfast At Tiffany’s = 24k fic

For those writers who discredit themselves because they feel they aren’t writing the novels that others might, you’re still writing a novella, my dears. You’re still putting time, effort, and passion into something. Well done.

(honestly shout out to all fuckin fic writers. You didn’t have to give us shit and still y'all out here living ya best life and doin something you love. Bravo.)

[spooky-scary-virgil]

in conclusion: all you fic writers are amazing and deserve more love

[badwritermedia]

the elusive 7 act Structure

[proserpine-in-phases]

[averywax]

I'm litchrally on my last chapter after 4 years of writing this project...and I have absolutely NO interest in writing

[cedar-west-deactivated20230408]

If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?