Summarizing is an important part of skipping several events along a timeline, but you donât need to introduce the new part of the narrative with a 10 page long info-dump on everything that happened. If nothing is omitted, then thereâs no point in skipping it at all. If youâve chosen to skip a long period of time, then cherry pick the important information for the scene youâre introducing and make it clear that time has passed. Donât share a lot, because you donât want to reveal too much and certainly not too soon.Â
Be Clear About The Timeline
Unless the aspect of not knowing where in the timeline these events are happening is a purposeful tool youâre utilizing, you need to make sure the reader is aware of how much time has passed and where they stand now within the conflict. What has changed, what has persisted, what has worsened or resolved, and how has this affected the characters?Â
Utilize Flashbacks
Sometimes itâs a good idea to leave the reader a bit disoriented by the shift in time, and in this case I think using flashbacks can be a creative way to turn up the suspense and give them information while also showing them the space which is occupied by what they arenât allowed to know yet. Instead of explaining something, you could show them a part of the period youâve skipped and let them infer its significance or glean the important information.Â
Take Advantage of Formatting
Referring to the flashback point a bit, let your readers know very clearly that theyâve revisited the past. An easy and pretty universal way to do so is through formatting, like creating a divider between the present and past narrative pieces, or italicizing the flashback portion of the chapter. This also makes it easier to pop tiny flashbacks in as they become relevant or imperative to the reader continuing to connect the dots.
Recognizable Triggers
When you move forward in time a considerable distance, you need to create some consistency in what triggers this decision, like a common occurrence, resolution to a smaller conflict, etc. This build up will be noted subconsciously in the readerâs mind and as soon as those things return later on, the tension will build naturally.Â
Transitions Within The Text
Donât end a chapter abruptly on a cliffhanger and then skip 10 years. I mean, do what you want, but in most cases this is a bad idea. The pace and timeline of your story should have good ebbs and flows, and the flow of your story will be noticeably jolted if there are no transitions leading up to and out of time skips.Â
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MY CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS (Check it out, itâs pretty cool. At least I think it is.)
Donât forget ColourLovers, either! Itâs a social media-esque site where you can browse tons of palettes and share your own.
You can browse the most popular ones or search for certain colors, themes, and even specific hex codes!
When you find one you like, you can download a wallpaper swatch of it and also select the specific colors it uses to look at more palettes that use those same ones.
ColourLovers is my go-to for when Iâm having trouble coming up with a color scheme! Itâs also been around for over a decade, so thereâs plenty to browse through.
Okay guys, for writing/general reference, a bit about what a âblacksmithâ is and isnât:
A blacksmith is a generalist, a person who uses tools and fire to work iron.  Some blacksmiths work more specifically, so you get, say, an architectural blacksmith, who focuses more or less exclusively on things like gates, rails, fences, or an artist blacksmith, who makes wacky sculptures or what have you.  These days, though, thatâs a pretty blurry line.  âBlacksmithâ is a pretty damn broad term, but itâs nowhere near broad enough to cover everything encompassed in âmetalworkerâ, which is how I often see it used.  There are a LOT of different skills for working metal, and no one knows them all.  Some other terms:
A farrier shoes horses. Â They may make the shoes, or they may buy them and then size them, but they actually do the shoeing. Â Unless the blacksmith is also a farrier, they donât know shit about horsesâ hooves and are not qualified to deal with them and probably donât want to.
A blacksmith works IRON, usually almost exclusively. Â They might work with bronze or do a bit of brazing, but those are really separate skillsets. Â If you work, say, tin and/or pewter, you are in fact a whitesmith. Â You could also be a silversmith or a coppersmith, and so on.
Knifemakers and swordsmiths have their own highly specialized and fairly complex specialties, and usually a blacksmith wouldnât mess with that unless they want to pick up a new skillset or if theyâre really the only game going for a long way around. Â By the same token, a swordsmith might never have learned the more general blacksmithing skills. Â Theyâre not the same thing is what Iâm trying to say here. Â Likewise armorers. Â Thereâs overlap but itâs not the same thing.
If you make metal items via molds and casting, you work at a foundry and are a foundryman.
Look, when metalworkers and individual shops and masters were the height of industry, this shit got REALLY specific.  There were people who spent their whole lives making pins.  Just pins.  Foundries specialized and made only bells, only cannon, only cauldrons, etc.  This is scratching the surface, I just wanted to make the point that âblacksmithâ is not the same thing as âmagical muscly person who knows how to do everything related to metalâ.
This sort of thing really illustrates the huge difference between writing fantasy and writing historical fiction, I think.  In real European medieval history, a smith might live, perhaps to the age of 50* - if heâs very lucky 60 or so. And he (sometimes she, but mostly he) has to be earning money throughout his life, so probably doesnât have time to develop a whole set of skillsets, so if you write him being able to do loads of different things and having the right tools for all of them, it looks odd. And if you write a woman, you probably do feel you need to give a bit of explanation about why sheâs doing the job, since itâs a pretty sexist society on the whole, so sheâs a little unusual.Â
In fantasy, though, itâs all different.Â
Tolkienâs dwarves have an average lifespan of 250, so they have much longer to pick up skills (and live in an environment where probably itâs much easier and encouraged for them to do so: they live in cities that are concentrated on providing made items and skills to other species: they arenât a generalist society, very unlike any human institution I can think of.) They also âmake mighty spellsâ so very unlike real medieval blacksmiths, they are probably working metal with enchantment as well as tongs.Â
We donât know about their gender role situation, but I donât think thereâs anything in canon to say that the women arenât making things (and even if there was, there are loads of dwarf cities that last for thousands of years, so no doubt thereâs variation between them).Â
Tolkienâs Elves of course live forever and also have more-or-less perfect memory, so thereâs no reason for an Elven smith not to have all these skills and others, particularly if they are nobility (I donât think in real-world history you get many noble smiths) and have other people helping to make sure they eat and have clothes and so on. And it seems less of an issue being female, too: Galadriel and Arwen are notable makers of magical items. Â
*Iâm assuming that if heâs a smith, he survived the terrifying childhood mortality rates, and we only have to think of adult lifespans.Â
I love to talk about historic blacksmithing! My husband and I run a blacksmithing shop (specialized in blade making) and weâve done a LOT of educational demonstrations where we forge while lecturing on history, culture, techniques, etc. (So feel free to ask me things! I get all excited about it!)
Letâs talk first about the name! Historically Smith would mean metal worker and the color would tell you what type of metal. Black is the designation for iron (because of the color it takes after being heated and cooled several times.) Today Smith more generally means maker, but is still most commonly applied to metal workers.
And, as the OP said, if you need a tinker (tinsmith, also works pewter), silversmith (whitesmith), goldsmith (white- or yellow- smith), or coppersmith (red-, brown-, or green- smith), thatâs a different discipline.  Not that a blacksmith has no idea how to work those metals, but his knowledge will likely be limited to how it applies to his general discipline.  For example, weapons and armor made for nobility might have precious metals used to decorate them. (Aside: The techniques for iron vs copper are complete opposites and one of my favorite modern blacksmithing proverbs is about brass, an alloy made with copper and zinc. It runs, âBrass, brass, what a pain in the⊠brain.â )
One of my choice historical bits is talking about medieval blacksmithing in England. This is something we actually have records of because of the guild structure. There were so many blacksmiths in urbanized areas that your permit to open a shop would permit you to make only a specific set of items. Pin drawers, chain makers, armorers, swordsmiths, farm tools, nails, wainwright (hoops for wagon wheels or barrels), farriers (horse shoeing)⊠all of those might be different shops. And that isnât even a complete list! (Naturally there was a lot of overlap on high-demand items.)Â
But even better, Yorkshire records that show us that women were regularly involved in the trade! It was still male-dominated BUT several of the disciplines (nails, pins, chains) were almost exclusively women! Women owned blacksmith shops, took apprentices, worked the forge - all of the things that mark them as ârealâ blacksmiths. One of my favorite anecdotes is from William Huttonâs History of Birmingham; he encountered a nailerâs shop in which he noted âone or more females, stripped of their upper garments, and not overcharged with the lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex.â
Come yell at me about blacksmithing! I want to learn what you know and Iâd love to answer any of your questions! I have a lot of prepared lecture snippets on a variety of smithing details:
Technological setbacks due to loss of historic metallurgical discoveries.
Why âdamascusâ swords are supposed to be the best.
Cultural and historical reasons for large, slow, strokes with a heavy hammer (like you see in video games) vs. small, quick strokes with a smaller hammer (like you see on YouTube).
Blacksmithing terms in modern English. (âKeep your temperâ being the most common.)
How settling America changed the Western picture to males-only generalized blacksmithing
Economic comparisons of the cost to hire a blacksmith
Apprentice vs. Journeyman vs. Master
More about female blacksmiths
What to wear in the forge (modern or historical reenactment)
How-to on a variety of subjects
Blacksmithing in movies
Why Forged in Fire doesnât give you an accurate picture of blacksmithing or the skills of the contestants
Metallurgy (the science of metals)
Eastern vs. Western blacksmithing (Surprise! Japan and Europe are wildly different!)
What kitchen knives do you need? And how do you keep them sharp?
Did I mention I love to talk about it and get real excited?
Warning for blood, gore, dismemberment, references to torture, electrocution, disassociation, and murder.Â
Helmet tilts his head and stands very still, observing him from a reasonably safe distance away. Derek ignores him and stays sitting on the floor, back pressed tight to the wall as his ribs slowly start to shift and snap. Â
The most unpleasant part of healing misplaced bones is definitely how his skin rolls and shifts with them.Â
 Plus the pain. Â
Yeah, that's crap too.
"You gonna be alright?" The voice is mechanical enough that he's tempted to sniff the air again but his eyes catch on the puddle Derek's sitting in. Â
It's admittedly a lot of blood so he just jerks his head in a sharp nod, barely feeling the fresh gush of blood from his chopped up larynx.
"You got anyone you can call? Friends? Work?" Â
Derek shakes his head.
âWant me to call the cops?â
He gurgles angrily and shakes his head hard enough to spit up more blood.
âRight.â Helmet relaxes, shifts his torso like he's stretching and then starts checking the bodies scattered about the dingy apartment.Â
Derek flexes his jaw, eyes glued to where Helmet is systematically rifling through wallets, taking photos of everything inside and pressing phones to a thick tablet-looking thing. It's fast and efficient as hell.
His jaw creaks when it fuses in place, face no longer looking like a dented can. Nerves along the cheekbone start reminding him to press the hanging flap of skin back up to knit together faster.
Finished with the bodies and quickly sticking a few more holes into someone playing possum, Helmet straightens and stares at him again. Â
He absently thinks it would be unsettling if he bothered to give a shit anymore.
"Change before you leave, you look like a murder victim."Â
Derek's eyebrows climb up as he pointedly sweeps a glare over the destruction.
"Huh. Yeah okay, maybe don't take clothes from an actual murder victim." The man makes a buzzing noise that Derek interprets as a hum and then there's a sudden crackle of victory.
"This jacket's good, yeah? Uh. Yeah, just snapped his neck. Hope it's dark enough outside no one'll notice your pants." Helmet says conversationally as he strips it off the guy and stuffs an enormous wad of stolen cash into the pockets. Â
This is probably one of the best rescues Derek's ever had and not just because of the considerate donation of money. Hemet waves, presents the jacket and drapes it near the door, not even trying to approach him. Minutes later, there's a collection of household cleaners that Helmet is liberally mixing and splashing around, concentrating on areas where Derek's been. It's reassuring that the guy doesn't gas them out with the chemicals.
It's all so professional and solicitous that Derek lets himself relax a bit, focuses on his repairing body to make sure it heals properly.
Then again, -he flexes freshly grown fingers- he's got to find the box. Â
He tries to be discreet, surreptitiously eyeing the chaos for it before he gives up. Helmet probably wouldn't want to leave the box behind either.
Derek makes to speak but the sound is harsh, choked and painful, gristle barely stitched together.  Â
Helmet pauses where he's kicking liquid over cracked linoleum. "Christ, you're a regular Judy Garland."
"Box." Derek shakily mimes out the size of it and swallows down a clump of blood. "Can't leave it."Â
"Ooh, a box." Helmet shifts debris about, eventually digs out a duffel and crams three laptops inside. "Missing anything else?"
Derek checks to find his wallet is still there before he remembers what happened to his phone and keys.
"Sewer."Â
"Shitty." There's a loud buzz like maybe he coughed or snorted.  âWhatâd you do to get them this pissed?â
He points to his healing face. âExisted.â
"Riiight. This Wolverine shit is kinda creepy.â His speaker crackles a little more, like itâs having a hard time picking up his voice. âYou got anyone who can pick you up?"
Derek closes his eyes at a tangle of crushing emotions and shakes his head. Â
"Okay." The man's body language seems less aggressive, a little more careful to move. "You got anyone who's lookin for you? Anywhere you can go?"
Derek opens his eyes and stares at his dirty feet and clean toes, thinking about the little town in California and the arguments before he left. Â
"Not anymore."
Helmet sighs expansively as he wanders deeper into the apartment. "Right. I'll find a place. Just, ah, keep on with that healing thing. You're doin great."
The man is still searching for the box when Derek's spine pops back into place. He can't stop a yelp from the shock of it or the agonized groan when the nerves to his legs link up. Â
He almost forgot they drilled screws into that bone.
Shit.
Shitshitshitshitshitshit
He pushes against the wall like it's the only thing holding him together, blinding pain burning through like acid until his nerves finish healing.
"Hey." His rescuer is suddenly there and looms a little closer than before. "You gonna be alright?â Â
Derek takes a ragged breath, eyes him warily, and⊠decides getting the metal out with help is more productive than not. Â
He tilts his leg a little to let the heads of the screws in a neat row down his shin catch the light against the dark of his jeans.
"Gotta get âem out."
The helmet is silent but Derek can still hear the faintest murmur inside. "Jumpin JehoshaphatâŠ"
Derek silently agrees and motions to the duffel bag now resting by the door.
"The drill there?"Â Â
Hemet's hands start clenching and relaxing at his sides, mechanical voice buzzing with a jerky negative exhale.
"I'll find it too." His fists shake. "We'll have to take em out somewhere else though."
There's a protest building in his chest but it slowly dies, pressed down by the pains in his body as the smaller hurts start closing up.
Derek grunts in acceptance, the bone would be weak and take a little longer to fill in anyway.
They're silent for a moment before the man starts his search again.
"So. What's in the box?" He probably means to distract him with a chat but the box isâŠÂ
Derek looks at his hand and the clean pink skin on the new growths. Â
The room wobbles a bit.
"Me."
A stretch of silence.
"Well, okay then." The man flicks a switch on the helmet and Derek realizes the microphone is shut off, which would only make sense if the guy didn't know about Derekâs enhanced senses. He hardly has to strain to hear that there's a series of clicks before another mechanized voice rasps out a greeting.
"O, imma need a room. I've got a witness I need to stick to and I don't wanna spook him." The man's actual voice is raspy, almost gruff, and seems surprisingly young. âSo Iâd appreciate it if everyone would leave me the hell alone for a while.â
Whatever the response is, the mechanical tone is so strange Derek can't understand it so he just sags against the wall and rests. Â
Helmet guy is going to let him stick around and he's warning others away. Â
That's pretty great.
A small part of himself is soothed, comforted even, that this man who ripped through eight men like wet paper, has taken an interest in Derekâs wellbeing.
He slips down the wall a little and just⊠zones out for a while.Â
The big hurts have righted themselves so there's just a mild ache in a few spots. If he weren't so tired, Derek would be standing, anxious to leave, but Helmet doesn't seem rushed in the least and that confidence bleeds into him too.
Heâs still worried though. "Cops don't investigate shootouts around here?"
"Wow, that's an entire sentence. You must be feeling better." Helmet is somewhere in one of the bedrooms still tossing things around. "People would have to call the cops first but, this is Crime Alley so, you know, they don't."
He feels a burble of puzzlement rise through the haze of fading pain.
"I've never heard of Crime Alley in New York."Â That's a ridiculous name for a place, but New York was filled with them.Â
"Yeah? Well, that's because you're in New Jersey. Welcome to Gotham, man.â More creepy laughter. âI'd say this is an unusual way to end up here but I'd be lying. You're lucky they came into my turf, anywhere else in the city and no one might've noticed."
"Your turf?â Derek echoes the term curiously. It gives the impression of a gangster or the mob. It seems reasonable because the guy has pistols strapped to his legs and another pair under his jacket. Also the professionalism reinforces the theory.Â
There's a pause in the sounds then a heavy scrape over carpet.Â
"It's just a little slice of this shit hole, but it's mine."Â There's more rustling, then a familiar clatter, like beads.Â
Derek registers the sound and waits. Hears the scrape of the lid.
"You." More sounds, louder and faster than before. "Hoo boy, can you take some damage."
Derek doesn't respond until Helmet stomps back into the kitchen, stained orange shoe box tucked under one arm, drill clenched in the other.
"Still hurts."
"I bet it does." He shakes the box enough to rattle. "There's more teeth in here than can fit in one mouth."
The atmosphere is tense now and Derek wishes the room didn't smell like death so he could better gauge Hemet's mood.
âIâve been here a few days.â He shrugs minutely.  âElectricity doesnât really stop the healing, just makes it really slow.â
âSo all of this... is from you.â
"Probably."Â He says, hoping that's the end of it, doesnât feel like heâs calm enough to talk about the various bits of him in the box.
The man taps with the drill, a muffled beat against his leg like he's thinking it over.
âPolice wonât like any of this.âÂ
Derek shakes his head. Â
âYou donât have a place to crash here.â Â
Another shake. Â
âYou got money though. You could get a hotel room, get a ticket out tomorrow.â Â
Derek lowers his eyes to Helmetâs shoes.Â
âI can do that.â He agrees quietly.
âYou donât want to though. Why?â
He lets his eyes flick back to the batteries. âDoesnât matter where I go. They always find me.â He stares at a red terminal, almost feeling the current again. âThem or something like them.â
"Right. You're staying with me until you got somewhere to go and we know these fucks wonât come for you again. In the meantime, I need to replace my accountant. Thanks for volunteering."
"Am I being kidnapped again?" It comes out sardonically enough that the guy laughs.
âThis sort of thing happen aâŠâ Derekâs already nodding in response. Looks over at the car batteries before his eyes skitter away.
"Okay. Sure. No one lookin out for you means you're mine for now." He pauses at Derek's shudder. "Just for now, understand?â He waits for Derek to nod before he goes on. âMy territory reaches down to the docks North East of here. Don't go outside of it. Anyone gives you shit, tell âem Red Hood's watching you. Not watching out, just âwatchingâ.  You see any moreâa this crew and you let me know, they ainât leaving this city with a heartbeat.â
Derek barely stops himself from looking away, from tilting his head to expose his throat.
He nods instead. A little more secure that this beast of a human has offered protection.Â
"Do I call you Boss now?"Â He means it as a joke but says it quieter than intended.
"You workin for me? Got a head for numbers?"
Derek nods again. âBachelorâs degree says so.â  Even the mob appreciates degrees, right?
"Oh yeah? Bonus. Then sure. Now get the jacket and find some shoes. We gotta go, someone's gonna come looking for these guys eventually." Red Hood snags a few more bags and goes to drop them at the door.
It takes him a minute to get his bearings, heâs pretty sure heâs got some sort of repressed emotional response that Derekâs just gonna⊠yeah, heâs just going to leave it alone and maybe never think about it again.
The puddle heâs sitting in is dark and tacky enough now that he isnât afraid of slipping but itâs still unpleasantly damp along his back and the seat of his pants. Makes a sticky slurp as he stands and he tunes his hearing to Red Hoodâs heartbeat instead. Â
âReady?â The speaker suddenly sounds like the intro to some techno song and he inanely wonders if the guy sings in the helmet. Derek smiles a bit at the thought because the guy is taller than he expected and stacked like a tank. He probably would sing.
âYeah. Found my own boots too.â He says for absolutely no reason. It feels momentous though that he didnât lose all of his belongings. Â
âThatâs great man. Never know what kinda fungus strangers got.â Red Hood hefts a few bags and hands over another. âIâm gonna drop you off first and bring back some Chinese. You like egg rolls?â
Derek gives another barely-there smile and very firmly doesnât think of his blood soaked clothes or whoâs got the bag with the box.
He wonders instead if Red Hood will judge him for the mountain of food heâs about to order.
How to stop researching (or worldbuilding) and start writing
This is actually advice my mentoring professor gave me when I was writing my first thesis.
He said: Accept that you are never done. There is always more to know, more to research, more questions raised than answered. At some point, you just got to start writing.
Now, âeasier said than done, this acceptingâ, I thought.
I started writing because my thesis deadline was looming. But what if youâre writing a novel and you have no deadline? How do you know when itâs okay to stop researching? When is it okay to stop worldbuilding? (Which is just like doing research, but in your own head instead of in reality.)
My advice to you is: start writing, and youâll run into the gaps you still need to fill. Then you know what to research before starting your second draft. Let your story tell you what it needs.
For example:
Just fill your margins with a to-research-list for your future self.
That way, itâs also managable: âI finished my first draft, and I have a list of 317 things I need to decide on.â Instead of: âI saw on tumblr that you canât build a world without knowing everything about the sewage system! And gosh, I havenât invented three languages yet!â
Advantages:
You get things done.
Itâs not overwhelming.
You donât spend your time inventing things youâll like so much that you want to infodump them into your story.
You mainly research things that are relevant to your story.
Well, knowing you, you already researched enough irrelevant stuff too.
You get things done.
I hope this was helpful. Donât hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!
Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing advice here. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.
Tag list below the cut, a few people I like and admire and of course, you can be too. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.
Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right-handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each stepâs size while attackers tripped over them. Source Source 2 Source 3
Not really the best illustration since it totally negates the effect by having a wide open space for those ascending. Castle tower staircases tended to look like this:
Extremely tight quarters, with a central supporting pillar that is very, very thoroughly in the way of your right arm.
Wider, less steep designs tend to come later once castles moved away from being fortresses to simply noble family homes with the advent of gunpowder.
Oh! Pre-gunpowder military tactics are my jam! I donât know why, but this is one of my favorite little details about defensive fortifications, because the majority handedness of attackers isnât usually something you think about when studying historical wars. But strategically-placed walls were used basically worldwide as a strategy to secure gates and passages against advancing attackers, because most of the worldâs population is right-handed (and has been since the Stone Age).
Pre-Columbian towns near the Mississippi and on the East coast did this too. They usually surrounded their towns with palisades, and they would build the entrance to the palisade wall in a zigzag â always with the wall to the right as you entered, to hinder attackers and give an advantage to the defender. Hereâs some gates with some examples of what Iâm talking about:
Notice that, with the exception of the last four (which are instead designed to congregate the attackers in a space so they can be picked off by archers, either in bastions or on the walls themselves) and the screened gate (which, in addition to being baffled, also forces the attackers to defend their flank) all of these gates are designed with central architectural idea that itâs really hard to kill someone with a wall in your way.
In every culture in the world, someone thought to themselves, âHey itâs hard to swing a weapon with a wall on your right-hand side,â and then specifically built fortifications so that the attackers would always have the wall on their right. And I think thatâs really neat.
Ooh, ooh, also: Bodiam Castle in Sussex used to have a right-angled bridge so any attacking forces would be exposed to archery fire from the north-west tower on their right side (ie: sword in the right hand, shield on the useless left side):
These tactics worked so well for so long because until quite recently lefties got short shrift and had it trained (if they were lucky) or beaten out of them.
Use of sword and shield is a classic demonstration of how right-handedness predominated. Thereâs historical mention of left-handed swordsmen (gladiators and Vikings), and what a problem they were for their opponents, but that only applies to single combat.
A left-handed hoplite or housecarl simply couldnât fight as part of a phalanx or shield wall, since the shields were a mutual defence (the right side of the shield covered its ownerâs left side, its left side covered the right side of his neighbour to the left, and so on down the line) and wearing one on the wrong arm threw the whole tactic out of whack.
Jousting, whether with or without an Italian-style tilt barrier, was run shield-side to shield-side with the lance at a slant (except for the Scharfrennen, a highly specialised style thatâs AFAIK unique.) Consequently left-handed knights were physically unable to joust.
The construction of plate armour, whether specialised tournament kit or less elaborate battle gear, is noticeably âright-handedâ - so even if a wealthy knight had his built âleft-handedâ it would be a waste of time and money; he would still be a square peg in a world of round holes and none of the other kids would play with him.
Even after shields and full armour were no longer an essential part of military equipment, right-hand use was still enforced until quite recently, and to important people as well as ordinary ones - it happened to George VI, father of the present Queen of England. Most swords with complex hilts, such as swept-hilt rapiers and some styles of basket-hilt broadsword, are assymetrical and constructed for right handers. Hereâs my schiavonaâŠ
It can be held left-handed, but using it with the proper thumb-ring grip, and getting maximum protection from the basket, is right-handed only. (More here.) Some historical examples of left-hand hilts do exist, but theyâre rare, and fencing masters had the same âlearn to use your right handâ bias as tourney organisers, teachers and almost everyone else. Right-handers were dextrous, but left-handers were sinister, etc., etc.
However, several predominantly left-handed families did turn their handedness into advantage, among them the Kerrs / Carrs, a notorious Reiver family along the England-Scotland Borders, by building their fortress staircases with a spiral the other way to the OP image.
This would seem to be a bad idea, since the attackers (coming upstairs) no longer have their right arms cramped against the centre pillar - however it worked in the Kerrsâ favour because they were used to this mirror-image of reality while nobody else was, and the defender retreating up the spiral had that pillar guarding his right side, while the attacker had to reach out around itâŠ
For the most part Reiver swords werenât elaborate swept-hilt rapiers but workmanlike basket-hilts. Some from Continental Europe have the handedness of my schiavona with thumb-rings and assymmetrical baskets, but the native âBritish Baskethiltâ is a variant of the Highland claymore* and like it seems completely symmetrical, without even a thumb-ring, which gives equal protection to whichever hand is using it.
*Iâm aware there are those who insist âclaymoreâ refers only to two-handers, however the Gaelic term claidheamh-mĂČr - âbig swordâ - just refers to size, not to a specific type of sword in the way âschiavonaâ or âkarabelaâ or even âkatanaâ does.
While the two-hander was the biggest sword in common use it was the claidheamh-mĂČr; after it dropped out of fashion and the basket-hilt became the biggest sword in common use, that became the claidheamh-mĂČr.
When Highlanders in the 1745 Rebellion referred to their basket-hilts as claymores, they obviously gave no thought to the confusion they would create for later compilers of cataloguesâŠ
Also, muskets had their whole âFlint and steel and gunpowderâ thing on the right side so if you tried firing it lefty youâd get a face full of fire. More recently, rifles eject their spent shell casings to the right, so if youâre a lefty you get some hot metal in your eye.
Contemporary example: I was in a fencing club at university one year, and the left handed fencers had a huge advantage since they were attacking from an unfamiliar side. They, however, always practiced against right handers and had no such disadvantage.
Until we had one match between two left handed fencers, and it was very satisfying to watch.
Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters
Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.
As such, Iâve compiled the resources Iâve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.
Deaf Characters:
Deaf characters masterpost
Deaf dialogue thread
Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)
A deaf authorâs advice on deaf characters
Dialogue between deaf characters
Mute Characters
Life as a Mute
My Silent Summer: Â Life as a Mute
What Itâs Like Being Mute
21 People Reveal What Itâs Really Like To Be Mute
I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!
Blind Characters:
The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.
@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.
The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.
An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.
And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.
Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye
4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye
Learning to Live With One Eye
Adapting to the Loss of an Eye
Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision
Monocular Depth Perception
Deaf-Blind Characters
What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?
Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights
Deaf and Blind by 30
Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)
Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)
A Day of a Deaf Blind Person
Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind
How the Deaf-Blind Communicate
Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
Raising a DeafBlind Baby
If you have any more resources to add, let me know! Iâll be adding to this post as I find more resources.
 Hey, to you sci-fi/fantasy writers out there (and maybe some others, but this is mainly for things that canât really be researched irl), if you want to write a character who is a driven, passionate expert on something, donât write about them rambling indifferently about some boring, mundane part of it. Give them a deep, intense hatred of some oddly specific wow-I-did-not-even-know-that-was-a-thing-and-it-would-have-never-occurred-to-me-that-itâs-a-bad-thing thing theyâll gladly rant about.
 Write a dragon rider who really fucking hates it when a dragon is trained to bow while being reined. A space ship engineer who is pissed off when perfectly good antimatter ship has been adapted to run on neutral matter. A historian who is still not over the massive failures of a general who lost a specific battle 300 years before she was born.
 The guy currently giving us a series of lectures on the restoration of historical buildings really, really hates polymer paint. At the artisan school our stained glass teacher really hated this one specific Belgian artist - we never really figured out what did that guy even do, but heâs been dead for over 200 years and our teacher was glad that at least heâs dead.
 Experts donât just know things youâve never thought about. Theyâve got strong opinions about it.
from last yearâs workshop: Cool Writing Hacks that ripped my heart out but made my work better anyway.
-not every line of dialog needs an action attached to it. somebody doesnât need to shrug or scratch their arm or glance at other people every two seconds of a conversation unless the motion means something. youâre not writing stage directions and you can trim this stuff down to make your dialog snappier. (this one in particular felt like a callout of me specifically, goddammit)
-if you want the audience to remember somethingâespecially something that will be important in a climactic momentâyou have to show/tell them at least twice beforehand. preferably three times. otherwise they will not remember! they simply will not!!
-the room layout isnât usually all that important BUT if thereâs going to be a fight scene you BETTER fucking figure out a way to convey that entire layout early in the scene or no one will know what the fuck is going on
-on that note, get somebody to read your fight scenes even if you are ABSOLUTELY SURE they make sense on the page. on the first pass they probably donât. (unless you have a gift i would kill for. some do!)
-eyes cannot talk. eyes canât talk! itâs easy to say that someone has ârage in their eyesâ or âtheir eyes were telling me to runâ but thatâs all shorthand for other body language we notice subconsciously! try digging in and describing that body language instead. you will likely get something richer that way
say youâre in Natashaâs POV. you can either say:
âNatasha sat on her porch with a glass of lemonade, watching the movers unload. She saw one of them stumble with what looked like a pained wince. She noticed that the other men kept their distance.â
OR:
âNatasha sat on her porch with a glass of lemonade, watching the movers unload. One of them stumbled with a pained wince. The other men kept their distance.â
we are already in Natashaâs POV, and we established in the first sentence that she was watching the movers. so we donât need constant reminders that weâre behind Natashaâs eyesâwe can just see what she sees! this puts us closer âbehind her eyes,â so to speak, and lessens the distance between the reader and the scene.
Iâm posting the links here because the link keeps on a loop with adfly
IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN
Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try GIMP
Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PAINT.DOT.NET
Instead of ILLUSTRATOR, try INKSCAPE
Instead of INDESIGN, try CANVA or SCRIBUS
IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE
Instead of PREMIERE, try DAVINCI RESOLVE
Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try OPENTOONZ or BLENDER
Instead of AFTER EFFECTS, try WAX, BLENDER or FUSION
IF YOU BUILD WEBSITES OR SOFTWARE
Instead of DREAMWAVER, SPARK or XD, try WIX, WEEBLY, or WORDPRESS.COM or WORDPRESS.ORG
IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS
Instead of AUDITION, try AUDACITY
Instead of ACROBAT PRO, try FOXIT READER or PDF ESCAPE
Instead of INCOPY, try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS???)
IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS
Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try PEXELS, UNSPLASH, or PIXABAY
Instead of ADOBE PHONTS, try GOOGLE FONTS or DAFONT
BONUS: If you need FREE MUSIC OR SOUND EFFECTS, try YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY or SOUNDBIBLE
My bonuses:
IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN
Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try FIREALPACA , SAI , SKETCHBOOKÂ or KRITAÂ (these latter two are great!)
Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PHOTOSCAPE
IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE
Instead of PREMIERE, try SHOTCUT
Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try PENCIL2D ANIMATION, LIVE2D, OR E-MOTE
IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS
Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try MORGUEFILE.COM
Do you have any tips on how to make sure your character stays consistent throughout the book? (especially for a newbie)
Get to know your characters really well before you even start the first draft. Itâs a time commitment, but itâs well worth it. If you write the story with an already solid knowledge of who your character is, how they present themselves, what their motivations are, and how they change over the course of the plot, youâll have a much easier time keeping the character portrayal consistent, as well as interesting.Â
I have a couple articles that will help with your character development in the planning/outlining stages of your story:
Ways To Fit Character Development Into your Story
When To Stop Planning
Character Trait Form
Tips On Introducing Characters
Tip On Giving Characters Flaws
As well as some master posts of resources:
Resources For Creating Characters
Resources For Describing Characters
Questions Iâve answered:
Having Trouble Connecting To Your Characters?
Giving Characters Bad Traits
On Making Scenes/Characters Unpredictable
Showing Vs. Telling And Characters
Keeping Characters From Sounding Identical
And finally, some prompt lists to inspire you:
31 Days Of Character Development: Wordsnstuff May Writing Challenge