So Many Words

Hello! C.D. Smith here. Been writing for years. Nothing big. Just whatever's popped into my head. I graduated from Pittsburg State University (KS) in 2014. I majored in Creative Writing and a minored in history. I'm currently a Starbucks barista. I know...writer in a coffee shop. Haha.

[mikedawwwson]

Why Did They Come?

[wobblyjimbles]

TOO FUCKIN’ phenomenal to NOT reblog!!!!

[crookedreads]

This is every reader’s catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven’t read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing. There is no way to finish, and perhaps that shouldn’t be the goal.

Pamela Paul, My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues (via crookedreads)

[writingguardian-deactivated2024]

Hey, can you give me some advice on writing a horse ride and a sword fight for my WIP? I have no idea what any of technical terms are!

(Hey there! I certainly can!

Terms and phrases for riding horses (with a fight scene in mind!)

Walk, trot, canter, gallop - paces.

Halt = asking the horse to stop

Aids = instructions given to the horse, by the rider

Mount/Dismount = to get on/off the horse

Vault = to swing onto the horse, generally whilst it is moving

Contact = pressure/’feeling’ on the reins, between the riders hand and horses mouth. (used to direct the horse - see a little more about using the reins in this post - on writing horses in your WIP)

Near side = left side of horse

Off side = right side of horse

Hindquarters = horses rump/back end

Lame = A limping horse

Sound = a horse that isn’t lame 

Rein back = asking the horse to step backwards

Half -Halt =when the rider asks the horse to pay attention a little

Transition = When the gait changes, (walk to halt, trot to canter, etc)

Rear = When a horse goes up on its hind legs

Buck = when a hors eputs its head between its front legs, and throws its hind legs up

Baulk = When a horse hesitates, or refuses to go forward

Spook = When a horse shies at something, and jumps

Haute Ecole = an ancient method of training horses for war

Barding = Armour used on horses. (It’s old timey knight stuff, but it might be what you want. More about that here)

Sword fighting terminology

(!!! I’m the first to admit I know next to nothing about swordfighting, only what I’ve researched for my own WIP. This terminology is from here, the brilliant Lisa Shea.)

Advance - a short forward movement.Blade - the length of metal that is used for attacking or defending (i.e. the entire metal length beyond the guard).Boar’s Tooth - a guard where the sword is before your front right leg.Deflect - actively change the incoming sword’s speed or angle by hitting it with your own sword (or foot etc)Diagonal - Moving forward diagonally forward - right.Edge - the sharp side of the blade. Japanese blades were typically single edged, while Medieval swords could have both sides sharpened.Empty Fade - Leaping backwards as if to fade but immediately leaping forwards again.Fade - Leaping backwards while leaving the feet in the same orientation.False Edge - the back / trailing edge of the sword, usually the one you do NOT intend to cut with.Front Guard - a guard where the sword is held vertically in front of your face.Full Iron Gate Guard - a guard where the sword is halfway between your right and left legs, angled right.Fuller - a groove running down the length of the blade. I have some books which claim this is a “blood groove” to help blood flow out of an enemy but other books which seem more reliable say it’s to help the sword come out of a body without being caught (it breaks the suction).Grip - the part of the hilt you grip with your hand for control.Guard - a cross-piece on the hilt that keeps your hands safe from your opponent’s weapon sliding down the length of your blade. Also called a cross-guard.Guard - (meaning #2) - a position of safety, a pose where you can defend yourself from attack.Guard of the Woman - a guard where the sword is over your right shoulder, behind your back.Half Iron Gate Guard - a guard where the sword is held before your left leg.Hilt - the generic name for the entire part of the sword near your hands, the part that is not the blade.Long Point - a guard where the sword is straight out from your chest, with your arms extended.Lunge - leaping forwards while leaving the feet in the same orientation.Pass Back - Taking a step backwards by moving your front foot into the rear position.Pass Forward - Taking a step forwards by moving your rear foot into the front position.Pivot - Rotating 180 degrees while keeping the front foot stationary.Pommel - the knobby end of the hilt, used by the second hand for a ball-in-socket pivot point in many moves, or merely as a counterweight in one handed attacks.Posta - the Italian word for guard, as in a position of safety.Posta drill - a series of movements from guard to guard, to help you learn the guards.Retreat - a short movement backwards.Shed - to allow a sword to slide away off your sword without trying to impede / change it, so you are then free to attack or move.Short Guard - a guard where the hilt is at your hip and the sword is pointing up and forward.Slope - moving diagonally backwards back and left.Stance - the position your body is in to be ready for an attack or defense.Step Across - Rotating 180 degrees by crossing the front foot across the back foot and then turning in place.fTail Guard - a guard where the hilt is at your hip and the sword is pointing behind you.Tip - the pointy end of the blade.True Edge - the front / leading edge of the sword, usually the one you intend to cut with.Two Horn Guard - a guard where the sword pommel is at your chest with the sword pointing out.Window Guard - a guard where the hilt is at your ear and the sword points forwards.

___________________________________________________

I hope this is helpful to you!

If anybody has any writing related questions, as always feel free to message me, Aoife @writingguardian

(Also, I’m having a 1000 followers give away! Check it out!)

[saltrat88]

[killin-the-machine]

These people went from lifting chips to pulling off some action movie shit

[bookworm-on-rainy-days]

[being-john-malkobitch]

Every book in the History of Literature summed up in a single sentence

[jenny-hanniver]

I ugly-laughed at several of these.

[crakrats-joanielspeak-deactivat]

I CAN’T. STOP. LAUGHING. FUCKING. CHRIST.

ENDING ON … I can’t even say it …

MARRIAGE IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT AND SO ARE CLOCKS. 

[bookmania]

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

[teesadutta]

[archatlas]

The Colbert Report 11.19.14

[kyssthis16]

You see how she explained how race is a social construct (it is) while ALSO SAYING THAT RACISM EXISTS AND IS FUCKED UP? You see how she did that? Don’t mistake this for colorblindness because it clearly isn’t.

[2brwngrls]

Toni Morrison breaks it down. 

[yeahwrite]

Scribbler Subscription Boxes

Hey Y’all! I don’t know if you’ve heard of the only subscription box created just for writers, but you should! It’s called Scribbler, and it’s created by authors Victoria Scott and Lindsay Cummings. Scott has written nine books, including the Fire & Flood series and The Collector series. Cummings, author of eight books, has written The Balance Keepers trilogy and The Murder Complex series among other novels.

A month-to-month subscription is $29.99USD, a three-month prepay is $84.99USD (28.33/month), and a six-month prepay is $164.99 (27.50/month).

Each month of Scribbler is given a theme and this month had the theme of emotional touchpoints. This box included:

·       A letter to subscribers, from Victoria and Lindsay

·       Pencil case with a quote from Sarah J. Maas’ popular series Throne of Glass- the opposite side says “Hope. You cannot steal it. And you cannot break it.”

·       A pack of small highlighters

·       A sheet of typewriter stickers that can be written on when a word count goal is reached

·       #writer decal

·       Motivational print

·       A postcard detailing the box’s contents as well as sharing the next month’s theme

·       Kemmerer’s novel More That We Can Tell (available for purchase on Amazon, B&N, IndieBound, and local retailers)

·       Signed bookplate to place inside the novel

·       A temporary tattoo with MTWCT’s title

·       Signed bookmark for Kemmerer’s novel Letters to the Lost

·       Writing Passport, penned this month by author Brigid Kemmerer

·       A letter labeled “Writer Gold Inside!”

(Frame and typewriter are mine) The Writing Passport goes into the importance of creating emotional imbalances and reactions for all the characters in a story, even if the story isn’t directly about them- it’s a wonderful reminder that secondary characters have their own lives and don’t exist solely for the main character’s story. Secondary characters are tools, but not machines (unless they’re a robot. Then they’re both.)

The passport isn’t long, but it isn’t a lightweight bit of writing. There’s enough information condensed in there that could easily cover a day of college class’ worth of education. Kemmerer challenges readers to make themselves uncomfortable with how far they might push a character. She does it in her own writing with wonderful success. After all, if we all wrote happy stories with no challenges to our characters, it wouldn’t be much fun to read, would it?

Now, the letter. Y’all. This letter. I have been incredibly fortunate to have gone to a college with a creative writing program. I had teachers who are publishing their millionth book and who have told their classes about the difficulty of getting published from the slush pile. This mostly metaphorical pile is made up of writers who are sending in their books to be published but are not represented by an agent. It is extremely difficult to get published from the slush pile. Most of my teachers warned us off even trying to get published that way, since it can be a long, painfully disappointing process. Your story can be picked up by an editor, so it’s not impossible, but agents create a direct line from your work to someone who may be interested in buying it.

The letter in this month’s box is an invite for Scribbler’s subscribers to have a Skype chat with agent Mandy Hubbard. AKA, the profession of someone who can move you from the slush pile to a direct email to an editor. AKA, the person who is willing to take a chance on you and your story because they believe in what you’ve created. Hubbard is a successful published author herself, and the founder of Emerald City Literary Agency. She knows both sides of this part of publishing, which has got to be invaluable for her authors!

Most chats I’ve heard of involve the invited speaker on video conference, chatting about their job and what they’re looking to represent. After that, the floor is open for watchers message questions for the speaker. I imagine this chat will go somewhat like that! The best part is that this type of communication will be available in every box! Most chats I’ve been notified about cost quite a bit of money, much more than this entire box of goodies. I may or may not have shrieked loudly enough to scare my dogs when I opened this letter.

Overall, the amount of things you get for the price is fantastic. I’ve subscribed to literary boxes before and while the goodies I got were fun, there wasn’t a single one that was as thoroughly useful as this one. I’m so excited to put those typewriter stickers to use next week when Camp Nanowrimo starts! The motivational print has been looping in my head while writing this review to the point of driving hubs nuts with my humming.

Scribbler has set a high bar for itself and I’m incredibly excited to see this box develop and grow!

[brianmichaelbendis]

So im having a problem. Ive been wanting to do a comic for a while i have confidence in my writing and areas of my art and have no problems with ideas but ive been trying to do a short 5 page story to start but everything ends up growing to something bigger. Any advice?

take the one story that seems the most sprawling or out of your control and do an exercise with it.  take out ANYTHING you don’t need.  scrape the story down to its basics.  I mean, the bare basics. 

 just to show yourself what the story actually needs.  what it really needs.  sometimes that sprawling out of control story is really ego OR you actually don’t have a good take on the story yet.  you’re all over the place.  

or you may just have a big sprawling story.  

but to find out, start sculpting. don’t add.  just sculpt.  cut. cut cut cut,  you’ll find out a lot about yourself and your craft.  its an excellent exercise that a lot of us do all the time. 

[prokopetz]

“Character who looks dangerous but is actually harmless” and “character who looks harmless but is actually dangerous” are both well and good, but consider: character who looks dangerous, and actually is, but for a completely different reason than they look like they should be.

[prokopetz]

And no, I don’t mean like “guy who wears robes with a water motif is actually a fire wizard”. I mean like “seven-foot-tall mountain of gleaming muscle with sword the size of a surfboard strapped to his back is actually the Nine Realms’ most feared lawyer”.

[powells]

Black Girl Magic

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Orleans by Sherri L Smith

Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

Is You Okay? by GloZell Green

Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela Deprince and Elaine Deprince

The Steep & Thorny Way by Cat Winters

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

This Side Of Home by Renee Watson

When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

Goldie Vance by Hope Larson, Brittney Williams

Shiny Broken Pieces A Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra, Dhonielle Clayton

Stone Mirrors The Sculpture & Silence of Edmonia Lewis by Jeannine Atkins

Shadowshaper Cypher 02 Shadowhouse Falls by Daniel Jos Older

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

[blackgirlslit]

#BlackGirlMagic ✨📚

[afrodesiacworldwide]

[tatu-lu]

Mesmerized 😃

[hundondestiny]

Are those blades???

[thefoxxdenn]

Yes and no. Those are Buugeng (buugong?) An ancient style of bo-staff that was used in combat as well as dances. Basically the idea behind them was that they’re effectively unblockable. By the time your mind has processed where the blade/shaft was, it was already cutting you in half.

[yainterrobang]

Not only was it already invented… it was invented by a woman.

I’ve always loved alternate history, especially steampunk, but as a reader with multiple science degrees, I often wondered if there was a place for people like me in historical fiction. Where were the female mad scientists? When I set out to write Ink, Iron, and Glass, I decided the answer should be: front and center.

If you ask most people to name historically important female scientists, they will immediately supply Marie Curie, perhaps followed after a pause by Ada Lovelace, and then their mind will draw a blank. As background research, I set out to discover just how many names ought to be on that list. Was it truly unrealistic to write about nerdy teen girls in nineteenth-century Italy?

To lead us down that rabbit hole, an anecdote.

An early reviewer commented that my novel shouldn’t contain a circular saw because they weren’t invented yet in 1891. Normally I try to let such things go, but in this case the irony is too sharp: not only was it already invented… it was invented by a woman.

CLICK HERE: Read more from Gwendolyn Clare on female scientists and Ink, Iron and Glass on YA Interrobang!

[thefangirl126]

“Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.”

[yainterrobang]

The trick is figuring out what works best for you.

As a YA author, there’s always a little juggling trick you have to do between taking care of yourself and taking care of your readers. Sometimes you’re strained too thin between deadlines, or fending off insecurities, or the stress of making sure you’re putting forth the best work possible. And sometimes that piles up into a big mountain of Anxiety.

For the past few years, I’ve been living with depression and anxiety. It absolutely affects my work. There are days when all I want to do is lie in bed, and even when the guilt of not working makes me tense and mournful, I just can’t get up. There are also days when all the “what ifs” and “have beens” surround me like gnats, swarming and biting until I’m short of breath and unable to focus.

There’s no simple cure for this. There’s no one piece of advice that’s going to work for everyone. The trick, then, is figuring out what works best for you.

CLICK HERE: Read more about writing with anxiety and depression from Tara Sim on YA Interrobang.

[bookworm-on-rainy-days]