Fallen_eagle

All my writing, things related to writing and just about anything else I think acceptable.

[un-rare-deactivated20151106]

let’s stop seeing sex as the biggest thing you can do to show someone you love them

[huntinthedwellin98]

everyone knows that the real way to show someone you love them is to find them a really cool rock. not a diamond. just a neat rock that you think they will enjoy

[anonymoussong]

[elvenkingtranduil-deactivated20]

Not a rock THE  ARKENSTONE 

[glorfy-the-bright-haired-ellon]

Why just one rock Why not three Why not the silmarils

[mondknight]

#i’m pretty sure there’s an entire book on the topic ‘why not silmarils’  (x)

[desidesidesi]

And one on why not the arkenstone

[cakeisnotpie]

You’re right. Just get them a ring.

[bcfurs]

[theepolynesian]

Everyone once in a while this makes an re-appearance on my dash and it’s great

[lotrreactionmemes]

Legendary post

[effervescentdragon]

You know what? Material stuff is completely passé. You should aim for something metaphorical, metaphysical, and everlasting.

You make them an oath.

[naryaflame]

[holywyrm]

A recipe for finding your story's plot:

Ingredients:

2 cups of Things that must be in the story (this can be characters, specific scenes, settings, subplots etc.)

1 cup of Vague plot ideas I may not use

1 tbsp of Central Themes

1 tsp of Ending (either happy, tragic, or bitter-sweet)

1 tsp of Protagonist's Primary Motivation

2 lbs of Brick Wall

Time, as needed

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix Things that must be in the story. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, sift together Vague plot ideas I may not use. Discard the excess and set aside.

Add Themes, Ending, and Motivation to a small jar. Screw lid on tight and shake until mixture becomes Conflict.

Pour Conflict and Vague plot ideas into Things that must be in the story. Blend on medium until Plot Points form.

Taste.

If it is still missing something, smash head against 1 lbs of Brick Wall for one to six hours.

Let marinate for one to 365 days. Add more Things and Vague plot ideas as desired.

Smash head against the rest of the Brick Wall for one to six hours.

Scream.

Repeat steps 5 through 9 as needed.

After sufficient marination, the mixture will form an idea. This will tell you what specific action must happen in order to resolve your story's conflict. Write this down and make appropriate sacrifices to thank whichever deity took pity on you.

Now you have your conflict, climax, and resolution. You just have to figure out how to get there. Good luck with the damn middle section dork!!

[overfalls]

IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST

OR ‘PEAKED’

BUT PIQUED

‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’

THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA

[owlbearcounter]

THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY USEFUL THANK YOU

[ranetree]

ADDITIONALLY:

YOU ARE NOT ‘PHASED’. YOU ARE ‘FAZED.’

IF IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG DAY, YOU ARE ‘WEARY’. IF SOMEONE IS ACTING IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU SUSPICIOUS, YOU ARE ‘WARY’.

ALL IN ‘DUE’ TIME, NOT ‘DO’ TIME

‘PER SE’ NOT ‘PER SAY’

THANK YOU

[tassiekitty]

BREATHE - THE VERB FORM IN PRESENT TENSE

BREATH - THE NOUN FORM

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE

WANDER - TO WALK ABOUT AIMLESSLY

WONDER - TO THINK OF IN A DREAMLIKE AND/OR WISTFUL MANNER

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE (but one’s mind can wander)

[fairywails]

DEFIANT - RESISTANT DEFINITE - CERTAIN

[melancholicmarionette]

WANTON - DELIBERATE AND UNPROVOKED ACTION (ALSO AN ARCHAIC TERM FOR A PROMISCUOUS WOMAN)

WONTON - IT’S A DUMPLING THAT’S ALL IT IS IT’S A FUCKING DUMPLING

[proletariatbitch]

BAWL- TO SOB/CRY

BALL- A FUCKING BALL

YOU CANNOT “BALL” YOUR EYES OUT

[soggywarmpockets]

AND FOR FUCK’S SAKE, IT’S NOT “SIKE”; IT’S “PSYCH”. AS IN “I PSYCHED YOU OUT”; BECAUSE YOU MOMENTARILY MADE SOMEONE BELIEVE SOMETHING THAT WASN’T TRUE.

THANK YOU.

[everylineeverystory]

*slams reblog*

[leonawriter]

IT’S ‘MIGHT AS WELL’. ‘MIND AS WELL’ DOES NOT MAKE GRAMMATICAL SENSE.

[penbrydd]

SLEIGHT - DEXTERITY, ARTIFICE, CRAFT (FROM ‘SLY’) SLIGHT - VERY LITTLE, FRAIL, DELICATE

IT’S ‘SLEIGHT OF HAND’.

[maverlok]

[celynbrum]

DISCRETE - SEPARATE, DISTINCT, PARTED

DISCREET - SUBTLE, STEALTHY, DIPLOMATIC

[othercat2]

BORN= existing as a result of birth

BORNE= carried or transported by

[typesetjez]

LIGHTENING = to make something less dark in color or to lessen its weight

LIGHTNING = bright flash of light during electrical storms

[obervation-subject-753]

{This is quite helpful. Thank you Rebloggers.}

[ask-the-dancingdreamer-archive]

((adm: I just want to add-

Loose- untight

Lose- opposite of winning))

[ask-the-awesome]

((ALSO: A fun trick -  Affect = Action  Effect = End Result ))

[ed-edward-blackbeard]

There = In that place

Their = belonging to them

can’t = a contraction for cannot

cant = a tilt or lean at an angle, usually to accommodate accessibility

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

Me thinking that this is child’s play and that I know it all already:

Me realising there are some things I didn’t already know:

[inthememetime]

TO- GOING ONE PLACE TOWARDS ANOTHER

TWO- 2, A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 3

TOO- A DESCRIPTIVE WORD, THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD, THE SHIRT IS TOO LOOSE.

[the-haiku-bot]

TOO- A DESCRIPTIVE

WORD, THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD,

THE SHIRT IS TOO LOOSE.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[phanboyo]

I’m gonna add

ROGUE: CRIMINAL/REBEL/VAGRANT/ETC

ROUGE: RED MAKEUP

it’s rogues gallery, guys. Not rouge gallery. You’re making me think batman has an extensive lipstick collection.

[broadminded]

If you’re talking about a weapons CACHE, it’s pronounced cash.

If you say cashay, that’s how CACHET is pronounced which means prestige and does not mean a collection of items stored together in a hidden/inaccessible place.

[therobotmonster]

NO ONE IS ‘PREJUDICE"

PEOPLE ARE “PREJUDICED”

[foreignobjecticus]

If he’s not moving, he’s STATIONARY.

If he’s a fucking space pencil, then carry on with STATIONERY.

[dduane]

If it’s wet precipitation falling out of the sky, it’s RAIN

If it’s someone ruling over people, it’s REIGN

If it’s holding back someone from (or getting someone to stop doing) something, that’s to REIN [them] IN (…as if you were using REINS on a horse)

[dduane]

(and oh yeah)

If you’re telling someone they’re going to have to reconsider an opinion or course of action, then they have ANOTHER THINK COMING

(because “another thing coming” makes no damn sense whatsoever unless they’re in some kind of monster movie, ffs)

[petermorwood]

Just adding:

HOARD - (n.) a collection of stuff, (vb) to collect a collection of stuff.

HORDE - (n.) a collection, group, mob or host of people, often unruly or barbaric.

PEEL - (n.) the outside skin of fruit, also (archaic n.) a tower house, sometimes spelled PELE; (vb) to remove the outside skin of fruit; by extension, usually as PEEL OFF, to remove clothing, but also (aviation) to break away, one aircraft at a time, from a larger formation.

PEAL - (n.) the sound of several church bells ringing together or in sequence; (vb.) to ring bells in this manner.

BREACH - (n.) a break or opening, usually in a wall; (vb) to make such an opening, also a whale rising clear of the surface of the sea. (The words BREACH and BREAK are distant relatives.)

BREECH - (n.) the bottom end of a gun-barrel, where it’s loaded; also (BREECH PRESENTATION) a baby being born bottom-foremost; also (n. pl.) BREECHES, a historical style of trousers ending just below the knee and (archaic vb) to BREECH, to dress a boy in breeches (adult clothing) for the first time.

English is…  Complicated.

[neil-gaiman]

And my favourite recent one,

It is “TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES” and not “TO ALL INTENSIVE PURPOSES”.

[fallen-eagle0]

Death's Children

Silence cut through the air like a knife cutting through skin. It’s sharp blade echoing into the smallest of cracks. The thudding of heavy metal boots were the only thing to break it, stepping ever closer to the smallest of bodies. Scuffing of dirt breaks through as the child pushes themselves to stand, to stare at the Knight that stepped ever closer. 

Blood dripped from their nose, landing onto the pale dirt of the desert. It was better it landed there than onto the already bloodstained mess of their clothes. There it would leave a mark, stain the world to show that they had lived here, had been a part of it. Let the world never forget. 

Pale angered eyes stared out of a curtain of thin black hair, glaring at the Knight daring him to step closer. The Knight paused, his hands outstretched as if he was not the threat that had caused the blood in the first place. His smile was patronizing, as if what the child did was nothing more than an amusement for him. If the devil the Followers believed in was real, he was standing not 6 feet away from them.

“Come now Finn, just give in. Then things can go back to the way things were. And you, you’ll have a true family.” His voice was mocking, as if they would ever grant them a normal life. They were just the last of the ‘scum’ to be rid of.

“Back to when you and your Knights destroyed my home you mean? When you killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocents for your own gain? I had a family, you just killed them all.” If the Knights voice had been mocking, Finn's voice was full of hatred and anger. Hatred at the man who stood in front them offering empty promises. Anger at the idea of giving in to the man who had given the order to not only kill everyone but to burn it all down.

“Don’t be so dramatic, child. There were no innocents there, merely groups of sinners. You cannot truly believe they wanted to help you, you aren’t one of them.” Of course he would believe that. Of course he would say that. Finn wasn’t even going to give the thought a second of their time however. 

“I am a Child of Death! And if this is the path you are going to tread, then you have made your bed and I hope you are ready to lie in it. I am Finn, a speaker for the dead. And I am the last of Death’s Children you will ever face. May your god grant you the mercy of an afterlife.” To the Knight who smiled patronizingly once more it seemed as nothing more than empty words being thrown at him from an angry child. But Finn was far more than an angry child; born in the fires of Death’s Valley, with symbols of death laying bare all across their skin. Finn was a true Child of Death, and as blood trickled down his face he was going to show it. 

The air stilled around them. The light from the sun that had just started to rise faded into darkness. Silence once more perpetrated the cracks around them. 

The Knight frowned, losing all patience at the game the child was playing and took a single step forward. It was only a single step for as his boot made contact with the ground it sunk a foot or more deep into the dirt. All he could do was watch in horror as blood ran down Finns face out of the corner of their eyes, their nose and the corners of their mouth. 

“Child-” It wasn’t Finn who interrupted him but the feeling of an unknown hand grasping onto his boot sunk into the dirt and pulling. Moans broke the silence around them, as boned hands tore through the surface of the dirt, making way for the heads of corpses to peer from their graves. He remembered now, the sign at the entrance to this valley, though he hadn’t given it much thought. ‘May they find peace in the afterlife, Tartarus’ Cemetery’, it had read. He’d thought the rumours of Death’s Children capable of practicing necromancy nothing more than rumours. And yet, here he was watching as Finn, consciously or not, brought back hundreds of corpses.

Marks that should have been nothing more than scars lit up with a dull red light. Pale eyes stared off into the distance; unseeing, uncaring. A last breath from the child as corpses of those who had passed finally tore through the earth. For a second they stood still, as if time had frozen. The Knight renewed his attempt to pull his leg free of the graves knowing that this second would only be a second. 

The corpses turned as Finn hit the ground, their legs giving out from under them. Those who were already above the earth staggered, giving the old Knight no chance to scream before he became one of them. And as quickly as the dead had come to life, they fell back into their slumber. 

All but one, for death’s children are not granted the luxury of his warm embrace. Finn, who had been beaten and bruised, scared and traumatized; lay there in the sand. Seconds turned to minutes, and as those minutes turned to a single hour a ragged breath was drawn into the poor child's lungs. Eyes blinked open, met with blood stained sand from both themselves and the corpses. 

Finn moaned, pushing themselves up, rubbing his head ever so slightly. It always hurt waking up after death, they were never sure what hurt more though. The waking up part, or the part where they were still as bruised as before they fell asleep. There wasn’t going to be time to linger and dwell upon it however; shouts could already be heard from just beyond the cemetery entrance. Ser Knight Jaxon had been gone a while and it would do no one good to find a Child of Death standing over his corpse.

They grabbed what they could, off the corpses as well as Ser Jaxon’s body. Finn almost wished it had been anyone else to follow them into the cemetery, but it was better this way. Better to have dealt with this now rather than later. The shouts were getting closer, and more alarmed. A small crevice lay at the back of the cemetery, just barely large enough for them to squeeze through. 

Rough stone scraped against their skin, and just as they passed into a more open section they could hear the shouts of Knight who had found Jaxon’s body. 

There should have been more tears, more grief. But all Finn could feel was relief. Relief at having gotten away, and at not needing to deal with Jaxon ever again. He’d been such a kindly old Knight, always helpful. It had been easy to look past the comments and the hatred directed at those who hadn’t been citizens of the Followers. Looking back, Finn was amazed they’d ever even spoken to the man. But Jaxon had been like a mentor to them, almost like a father.

The caves were dark as they walked through, one hand always on the rough surface of the walls. A few more miles in the caves and they should make it out south of Tartarus. If they were fast enough, maybe Finn could warn them of how Purgatori had gone up in flames. It wasn’t likely that the Knights would even go that far into Death’s Valley though. Too hot for their armour, and they would need many priests from the Followers to permit them to even enter. Superstitious assholes.

It was hours before light blinked at the end of the tunnel. Bright orange, signaling dusk or perhaps dawn, peered into the tunnel. Black hair emerged from the dark tunnels, eyes glancing around before Finn pulled themselves out. Far off in the distance stood small lights that had just started flickering on. There stood Tartarus, alone in the middle of the desert, with nothing but the heat of the sun for company.

The road loomed onwards as Finn sighed. Almost there, and yet they were still so far away.

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr gaiman. How old were you when you started writing stories ? I'm 14 and I try and try but they are all awful. I always give up in the middle and I can never finish what I wanted to write.

I know. I found a pile of papers of mine from my teen years and into my early twenties recently, and there were so many stories begun, so many first pages of novels never written. I’d start them, and then I’d give up because they weren’t as brilliant as Ursula K Le Guin, or Roger Zelazny, or Samuel R Delany, and anyway I wasn’t actually sure what happened next.

I was around 22 when I started finishing things. They weren’t actually very good, and they all sounded like other people, but the finishing was the important bit. I kept going. A dozen stories and a book, and then I sold one (it wasn’t very good, and I had to cut it from 8,000 words to 4,000 to sell it, but I sold it). I probably wrote another half-dozen stories over the next year, and sold three. But now they were starting to sound like me. 

Think of it this way: if you wanted to become a juggler, or a painter, you wouldn’t start jugggling, drop something and give up because you couldn’t juggle broken bottles like Penn Jillette, or start a few paintings then give up because the thing in your head was better than what your hands were getting onto the paper. You carry on. You learn. You drop things. You learn about form and shape and shade and colour and how to draw hands without the fingers looking like noodles. You finish things, learn from what you got right and what you got wrong, and then you do the next thing.

And one day you realise you got good. It takes as long as it takes. So keep writing. And all you need to do right now is try to finish things.

[neil-gaiman]

Lots of questions coming in right now feel like this one, so I thought I’d reblog my answer to it, in the hope that it would help lots of you…

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Mr Gaiman, Does everyone actually have a book in them?

No. Many people just have bones. Or intestines.

[sweet7simple]

The bones in the arches of my feet are written in Bauhaus,

And Robert Frost scribbled the muscles of my thighs.

The long line of my intestine is a trailing sentence.

I climb the shelves of my ribs and sit on the cushion of my diaphragm.

I read the story written on the lines of veins and arteries,

That flow across the surface of my heart,

There between the covers of my scapulae.

Someday, the story will end.

My heart will stop writing.

Today, my heart bleeds another page.

Tomorrow, another.

Tomorrow, another.

[2soulscollide]

Notion template for WRITERS [free!]

GUESS WHAT!? i'm finally sharing my new notion template with you (omg i'm so excited!!)

your new little place is called "writer's café"

homepage:

right there you can manage your word count (synced with your novels dashboard), take a look at the calendar, create a quick to-do, and navigate through the menu.

step by step:

the title is pretty self explanatory - i created a list with all the things you need to do to complete your novel! (please let me know if i should include something else)

goals:

ideas:

your novels:

then, as you open your novel, you find the following template:

resources:

note: i'll keep updating this page, so you might want to check it out sometimes!

socials:

i hope you fin this useful and enjoy it! <3

here's the link: notion template

[girlcodedhamlet]

alright for the millionth time I’m seeing yet another author I admire talk about how they literally can barely afford to live & yet there are people openly admitting to pirating their books so, like

i guess it needs to be said again

pirating books is not the same as pirating your favourite Disney movie or whatever. book piracy kills author’s incomes and can genuinely ruin someone’s career

[daemonmatthias]

Textbooks and other research materials being paywalled by greedy fucking publishing houses who won’t pay any of that money to the authors anyway? Pirate them.

Novel written by an author and published through a regular publishing house? BORROW FROM A LIBRARY or buy outright. Do not pirate. The sales/borrow numbers OUTRIGHT determines pay to the author, whether their next book gets greenlit or cancelled, etc.

[petermorwood]

All of the above.

Terry Pratchett was once claimed to be “the most shop-lifted author in the UK”; here he is on that subject and also talking about copyright theft. (The video is from 2010.)

“Sales Figures” means more than simple “money received”, since that can get blurred by bundle deals, discounts etc. Those may happen at the shop level, but are often an understanding between publisher and sales outlet, treated as publicity to shift more units, raise the author’s profile and attract new readers.

“Sales Figures” also means “number of units sold / library-borrowed”, and publishers use these sales figures of money-in / units-out to determine the popularity of a title, if it’s worthwhile publishing another title from that author, or even continuing to publish works by that author at all.

Stolen books whether print or digital don’t count towards sales figures.

An illegal download site means thieving doesn’t even require the courage to walk into a shop and walk out with a print copy, and once either form of theft is committed, the thief doesn’t need to buy or library-borrow the unit which would show as a “figure”. If they then make copies of the digital file for their friends, that’s another bunch of no-show figures.

A thousand thefts and piratings won’t make much dent in the million-copy print run of a best-selling author. However the same thousand thefts of a first-time author’s ten-thousand-copy print run will reduce its recorded sales figures by ten percent.

That author might not get a contract for their next book because figures showed the previous one didn’t sell as well as hoped; it was a full thousand units short of expectations.

Trying the next book with a different publisher won’t help, because Publisher 2 will want to know why that author isn’t with Publisher 1 any more, and one of the first things checked will be sales figures. So there may never be another book from that author, not even self-pub, because authors are people and people get discouraged.

I’ve seen phrases like “I only read it to see what the fuss was about” or “I hardly ever read the same book twice” and other variants many times.

So go on, use a library for that one-time read, and give its author’s figures a little nudge in the right direction.

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

people on this website be like “it’s actually school’s fault that i don’t know how to read because i wanted to write my essay on the divergent trilogy and that BITCH mrs. clarkson made us study 1984 instead. anyway here’s a 10 tweet thread of easily disproven misinformation about a 3 year old news story and btw, who is toni morrison?”

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

i KNOW most of y’all are lying about being in the gifted program as children because none of you could pass the basic reading comprehension assessment they give third graders today

[themself]

this post is mean and I never read divergent or whatever the fuck but 1984 sucks and is rape apologism so if somebody wanted to write about divergent or whatever good for them

[westenra]

this reply is like literally exactly what op is talking about lol. like firstly ops point isn’t “1984 is good”, ops point is that analysing complex stories teaches you how to form opinions and think for yourself. and like secondly in 1984 you’re supposed to think damn it’s fucked up that he’s thinking that way about her, i wonder if this ties in with the central theme of “a society like this will fuck you in the head”? (this is the thinking for yourself part). like do you think orwell just put that in for fun? do you think that just because winston is the protagonist you’re supposed to agree with everything he does?

[lunaescribe]

You know I feel like this post just gave me an epiphany for what is wrong with how Tumblr Fandom/Internet Fandom responds to media-or not *wrong* but makes it very hard to respond to anything but a morally correct, and heroic protagonist. 

When an English teacher, or reader, taught or picked up 1984, it wasn’t with the intention they were going to love the protagonist. They picked it up with the intention of reading a whole story and trying to grasp the theme or catharsis from the story. If the protagonist was a *shitty* person it played into the the themes or the story, because it wasn’t about morally judging the book or *liking* or feeling attachment to the protagonist. Sometimes and often times, books were just about gaining another perspective. 

No one read Lolita expecting to endear, or like, or be inspired by Humbert. You are supposed to be upset by his behavior, you don’t read Lolita with the intention of being inspired. You read it to learn more about what the fuck is going on inside someone’s head when they behave like that. How children get sucked into abusive situations. Or read “The Great Gatsby” not because they want to fall in love with Gatsby or Nick, but to better understand and analyze the experience of the 1920s or destitution of the American Dream. 

A lot of internet and fandom culture has changed that though. When we say something like “I love the Great Gatsby” it comes with the idea or association that means you must *love* or relate to one of the characters. And maybe you do, but the first assumption is not longer about the quality of the work or themes, or cathartic impact-it’s about character admiration. And with that character admiration, in tumblr stan culture, or kin culture, or exalting characters with fanart/romance/so on you don’t just ‘admire’ or find that character ‘compelling’ it now translates to ‘you LOVE that character’ or you ‘DIRECTLY relate to that character.’ 

You can’t say “I love how Humbert is written, it’s so fascinating and dark”, without it directly translating you somehow relate to a child abuser or condone his actions. Taking in media has become an act of worship and connection. We no longer watch meant to just see the story as a whole, we watch expecting to connect to a character and if we offer them our “worship” as it’s become, as opposed to just attention or interest study as it traditionally was, it means we are condoning the character or saying we directly empathize with all their actions. 

I think that’s why there is often now so much fuss over *toxic* characters or not. Or whether that classical novel is showing good or bad things anymore. We’re treating the characters as people we should love or want to draw or write about. Sometimes a story is just about getting the the theme or catharsis or learning another perspective. We don’t NEED to like the character. Or we don’t HAVE to like a character to be impressed by how they’re written or intrigued by their behavior. 

I think if internet culture could learn to view stories as small insights into other lives or single takes of one perspective instead of purposeful moral inspirations we’d be a lot less worried about how toxic or not toxic they are. 

[icarus-suraki]

Seriously! 

And this is where “unhealthy relationships” in fiction come in too. Well-written, complex stories of bad relationships aren’t supposed to be good and healthy examples. If it’s held up that way (Twilight), then the issue is the writing and the writer. Unhealthy relationships in, say, Anna Karenina are obviously unhealthy but they are, to misquote James Joyce “portals to discovery.” You can know that a fictional relationships is seriously bad and still find it interesting. Psychology! Complexity! 

Also I want to add that some characters (Humbert Humbert is a good one) are written so that if and when you find yourself sympathizing or saying “Yeah, I know that feeling” you’re supposed to stop and consider that. Not in terms of “I am a sick individual and deserve to die.” but more like “is it possible to have compassion for terrible people?” and “what is it in our culture or my upbringing that makes me think like I do?”

I’ve heard way too many people say “I will never read Lolita because of what it encourages” and I just…you’re missing the point? Completely? Like, you’re so missing the point that it’s almost meta? You’re not supposed to like Humbert??? You’re supposed to either be like “wow, gross, dude” or “oh fuck, wait, why do I have even 1 thing in common with this guy?” Nabokov is not going to be straightforward with you! 

It’s like the jokes about being mad at your teacher for asking why the sky is blue in a certain book. Maybe there really is a reason. Did you think of that? For a bunch of people who’ll write thesis-length defenses of your favorite ships and trace down one instance in one minute of one episode of the 15 season show to prove that you’re right, it concerns me that you’re not as willing to look at a lot of other things with any depth. To say nothing of multi-chapter fanfic.

If you surround yourself with only good and pure and wholesome media approved by the purity-culture police, then you just don’t get to do a lot of introspection and I think that’s kind of a shame. I feel like it really limits your view of the world.

I dunno. There’s a weird kind of anti-intellectualism disguised as protection and good intent sometimes. Or it feels like the kind of prudishness that labels some books “dirty” and the people who read them equally disgusting, but just relies on social ostracism to enforce the labels. You know, “Think of the children!!” 

Anyway, I’m going to go read some dirty, dirty literature now. Like 1984.

[lemon-pilled]

Through all of intergalactic space, humans were the only intelligent species that were taught violence as children.

Whether it be through comics, or books, or actual real life experiences, this was something unique to humans, and humans alone.

It was common for those on other planets to only teach violence to those who had matured.

And, perhaps, it was a fortunate thing.

Their ships were easily seen from our atmosphere, and when they had landed, they mercilessly murdered everyone who was considered mature, regardless of who they were as people, because they firmly believed that their culture was shared among the galaxy.

And oh, how wrong they were.

Because while they had done research, they hadn't done enough.

After the mass genocide, the aliens left the planet, their broadcast displayed on radios and news channels, that they would come back in 5 years.

And 5 years was enough time.

Of course, there were those we were grateful that the adults had been massacred. We knew there were horrible people that had existed, and we respected their opinions. They had a right to be happy that their abusers were killed.

But many of us had lost people that we loved.

The oldest of us, all who were 18 and 19 at that time, took charge of the towns and cities we lived in. They cared for the younger children, for those who couldn't do anything without assistance, and taught us essential skills.

For once, perhaps, the remains of the human race was at peace.

And then the preperations began.

We played our games, as usual. Hide and seek, paintball, and the like. All games designed to simulate the hunter and the hunted.

The smartest were in charge of weaponizing our toys. The foam bullets of nerf guns and paintballs were among those, as well as baseballs and tennis balls and whatever could be thrown.

The child prodigies helped design a way for everyone to communicate across the world, helped keep our electricity and internet running. They devised ways for us to keep living the life we had known after the genocide, even with the adults gone.

The most creative of us, the artists and musicians and writers and actors made sure we knew how to work with whatever we had on hand, even if it was just a few rotten tomatoes or a handful of books.

Being children, of course, resources were eventually bound to run out, but after a year of genocide, we saw parachutes falling down from the sky.

Packages from the invaders, filled with seeds and foods and basic needs required for survival. They wern't completely heartless, after all.

We repurposed skyscrapers and buildings, survived through the natural disasters that ravaged the Earth, created ways to travel across continents and waters despite the lack of gas to fuel cars, planes and ships.

And when the aliens came back, we were prepared.

They had come unarmed and defenseless, ready to integrate human children into the universe like we were flocks of mindless sheep. They welcomed us with open arms, like they hadn't been the ones to massacre our parents, our caretakers, our educators. Like they expected us to forget the genocide of the adults of our planet.

But we never forgot.

When they came, we hid in the ruins of skyscrapers, in the natural wildlife.

Humans, after all, are exceedingly brilliant at making their presence unknown. And we were lucky that none of the ambassadors sent could read minds or see thermal energy.

We captured them, took over their ship, and tied them up like the bad guys did to the hero in movies. It didn't take long to figure out the mechanics of their ships, and pretty soon, we had started a broadcast across multiple planets.

Their leaders were pissed, and rightfully so, but they couldn't ignore our demands. Here we were, mere children and teenagers, willingly kidnapping and threatening some of the most important people of their planets.

Naturally, they conceeded. Their leaders agreed to meet on our planet, to negotiate terms.

Needless to say, that was a defining point in intergalactic history that marked humans as one of the strongest races.

[authorkims]

[illisidifan]

This is why she’s my favorite author.

[petermorwood]

Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).

More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.

As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”

A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.

So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.

*****

We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm, a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.

Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.

We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.

You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane​ says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…

For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.

Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:

This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.

And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.

There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.

Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.

And here’s the effect it produces.

Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.

Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.

This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.

But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.

 It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.

Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.

They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.

Here’s Jason Kingsley making one.

[radishnt]

which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?

[mothman-misato]

y- you were putting it in cold water?????

[boimgfrog]

Radish. Answer the question radish.

[radishnt]

yeah??? i thought for like. 5 years that ppl just put it in hot water 2 speed up the tea-ification process didn’t realize there was an actual reason

[boimgfrog]

You dont have the patience to microwave water for 3 minutes???

[catsnraincoats]

[ID: Tags reading “u think i have the patience to boil water wtf ?????” /End ID]

why are you. putting it in the microwave to boil it

[boimgfrog]

Do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove

[catsnraincoats]

Its takes less than a minute

[boimgfrog]

Bestie is ur stovetop powered by the fucking sun

[catsnraincoats]

How long does it take you to boil a cup of water on the stove

[boimgfrog]

Like seven minutes

[catsnraincoats]

Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat n it boils in like two minutes… less than that is u use a saucepan…

[boimgfrog]

Crying you’re putting the whole mug on the stove ???? On medium heat???? Ur stove is enchanted

[pidoop]

Every single person in this post is a fucking lunatic

[silverjirachi]

Yet another post that reads like four shakespeare characters who come out in the middle of the play to talk about something completely unrelated for comic relief

[wizardlyghost]

(Enter RADISHN’T, MOTHMAN MISATO, BOIMG FROG and CATS'N RAINCOATS, stage left. They are having a HEATED DISCUSSION.)

RADISHN’T: Prithee, which one of you had planned to tell

Of diff'rent flavours gained by simple act

Of brewing tea with water hot, not cold?

MOTHMAN: Egad! you poured the water cold? Wherefore?!

FROG: An answer from you, Radish, I must beg.

RADISHN’T: Indeed I did, dear friends - why does this shock?

Without the guide of others I assumed

That heat was merely added for the sake

Of expediting this solution’s brewing!

Half a decade I have spent, or more,

Not questioning this worldview I had made.

In fact, I am myself a bit surprised

That you might think that I, your dearest friend,

Might have a patience of sufficient stock

To wait until a pot of water boils.

FROG: Three minutes overtaxes patience so?

The microwave will beep when it is done!

CATS'N: My friend, this answer vexes me the more!

Can it be true that thou dost boil by nuke?!

FROG: Are you in turn, my friend, so shocked to know

That I have not the patience, like our Root,

To boil upon the stove our favour’d drink?

CATS'N: It takes less than a minute!

FROG: On what plate?

Perhaps your dinner cooks atop the sun?

CATS'N: How long can take your stove to fill the task

Of boiling but a single cup alone?

FROG: In minutes?

CATS'N: Yes!

FROG: I counted seven, once.

CATS'N: Perhaps you ought to have your timepiece checked!

If on a middle heat you place the cup

You soon will have the scalding drink you crave.

Two minutes, in a mug upon the plate

Or even less, if you should have a pot.

FROG: You cause me tears - is this how thou dost live?

You place upon the iron stove a mug?

A mug, ceramic, filled with water cold?

How do these flames, though medium in height,

Not shatter like a glass this fragile thing?

Surely, then, your kitchen is bewitched

With magicks far beyond the mortal ken!

(The FOUR realise they have wandered into the THRONE ROOM. The ROYAL COURT watches with fascination.)

KING: Ev'ry single person in this group must be a fucking lunatic, it seems.

[jenroses]

I fucking adore Tumblr.

[joannechocolat]

On sensitivity readers, weakness, and staying alive.

The other day I was part of a Twitter conversation begun by a fellow-author on the subject of sensitivity readers, in which he said that no serious author would use sensitivity readers, and spoke of work being “sanitized”. The conversation devolved, as it often does on Twitter, but it got me thinking. It must have got someone else thinking too, because a journalist from the Sunday Times got in touch with me the next day, and asked me to share my ideas on the subject. Because I have no control over how my words are used in the Press, or in what context they might appear, here’s more or less what I told her.

I think a lot of people (some of them authors, most of them not) misunderstand the role of a sensitivity reader. That’s probably mostly because they’ve never used one, and are misled by the word “sensitivity”, which, in a world of toxic masculinity, is often mistaken for weakness. To these people, hiring someone to check one’s work for sensitivity purposes implies a surrendering of control, a shift in the balance of power. 

In some ways, I can empathize. Most authors feel a tremendous sense of attachment to their work. Giving it to someone else for comment is often stressful. And yet we do: we hand over our manuscripts to specialists in grammar, spelling or plot construction. We allow them to comment. We take their advice. We call these people editors and copy-editors, and they are a good and necessary part of the process of being an author. Their job is to make an author’s work as accurate and well-polished as possible.

When writing non-fiction, authors sometimes use fact-checkers at the editorial stage, to make sure that no embarrassing factual mistakes make it into print. This, too, is a normal part of the writing process. We owe it to our readers to be as accurate as possible. No-one wants to look as if they don’t know what they’re talking about.

That’s why now, increasingly, when writing about the lives and experiences of others, we sometimes use readers with different specialities. That’s because, however great our imagination, however well-travelled we may be and however many books we have read, there will always be gaps in our knowledge of the way other people live, or feel, or experience the world. Without the input of those with first-hand knowledge, there’s always a danger we will slip up. That’s why crime writers often consult detectives when researching their detective fiction, or someone writing a hospital drama might find it useful to talk to a surgeon, or a nurse, or to someone with the medical condition they are planning to use in their narrative. That’s why someone writing about divorce, or disability, or being adopted, or being trans, or being homeless, or being a sex worker, or being of a different ethnicity, or of a different culture – might find it useful to take the advice of someone with more experience.

There are a number of ways to do this. One of my favourites is The Human Library, which allows subscribers to talk to all kinds of people and ask them questions about their lives  (https://humanlibrary.org/). The other possibility is to hire a sensitivity reader to go through your manuscript and check it. Both can be a valuable resource, and I doubt many authors would believe that their writing is sanitized, or diluted, or diminished by using these resources.

And yet, the concept of the sensitivity readers – which is basically another version of the specialist editor and fact-checker – continues to cause outrage and panic among those who see their use as political correctness gone mad, or unacceptable wokery, or bowdlerization, or censorship. The Press hasn’t helped. Outrage sells copies, and therefore it isn’t in the interest of the national media to point out the truth behind the ire.

Let’s look at the facts.

First, it isn’t obligatory to use a sensitivity reader. It’s a choice. I’ve used several, for many different reasons, just as I’ve always tried to speak to people with experience when writing characters with disabilities, or from different cultures or ethnic groups. I know that my publisher already sends my work to readers of different ages and from different backgrounds, and I always run my writing past my daughter, who often has insights I lack.  

Sensitivity reading is a specialist editorial service. It isn’t a political group, or the woke brigade, or an attempt to overthrow the status quo. It’s simply a writing resource; a means of reaching the widest possible audience by avoiding inaccuracy, clumsiness, or the kind of stereotyping that can alienate or pull the reader out of the story.

Sensitivity readers don’t go around crossing out sections of an author’s work and writing RACIST!!! in the margin. Usually, it’s more on the lines of pointing out details the author might have missed, or failed to consider: avoiding misinformation; adding authentic details that only a representative of a particular group would know.

Authors can always refuse advice. That’s their prerogative. If they do, however, and once their book is published, they receive criticism or ridicule because their book was insufficiently researched, or inauthentic, or was perceived as perpetuating harmful or outdated stereotypes, then they need to face and deal with the consequences. With power comes responsibility. We can’t assume one, and ignore the other,

Being more aware of the experiences of others doesn’t mean we have to stop writing problematic characters. Sensitivity reading isn’t about policing bad behaviour in books. It’s perfectly possible to write a thoroughly unpleasant character without suggesting that you’re condoning their behaviour. Sensitivity is about being more authentic, not less.

People noticed bigotry and racism in the past, too. Some people feel that books published a hundred years ago are somehow more pure, or more free, or more representative of the author’s vision than books published now. You often hear people say things like: “If Dickens were around today, he wouldn’t get published.”

But Dickens is still published. We still get to read Oliver Twist, in spite of its anti-Semitism. And those who believe that Dickens’ anti-Semitism was accepted as normal by his contemporaries probably don’t know that not only was he criticized by his peers for his depiction of Fagin, he actually went back and changed the text, removing over 200 references, after receiving criticism by a Jewish reader. And no, it wasn’t “normal” to be anti-Semitic in those days: Wilkie Collins, whose work was as popular as Dickens’ own, managed to write a range of Jewish characters without relying on harmful and inaccurate stereotypes. 

But it isn’t automatic that a book will survive its author. Books all have shelf lives, just as we do, and Dickens’ work has survived in spite of his anti-Semitism, not because of it. The work of many others has not. Books are for readers, and if an author loses touch with their readers - either by clinging to outdated tropes, or using outdated vocabulary, or having an outdated style – then their books will cease to be published, and they will be forgotten. It happens all the time. What one generation loves and admires may be rejected by the next. And the language is always changing. Nowadays, it’s hard to read some books that were popular 100 years ago. Styles have changed, sometimes too much for the reader to tolerate.

Recently, someone on tumblr asked about my use of the word “gypsy” in Chocolat, and whether I meant to have it changed in later editions. (River-gypsies is the term I use in connection with Roux and the river people, who are portrayed in a positive light, although they are often victims of prejudice.) It was an interesting question, and I gave it a lot of thought. When I wrote the book 24 years ago, the word “gypsy” was widely used by the travelling community, and as far as I knew, wasn’t considered offensive. Nowadays, there’s a tendency to regard it as a slur. That’s why I stopped using it in my later Chocolat books. No-one told me to. It was my choice. I don’t feel as if I’ve lost any of my artistic integrity by taking into account the fact that a word has a different resonance now. On the other hand, I don’t feel that at this stage I need to go back and edit the book I wrote. That’s because Chocolat is a moment in time. It uses the language of the moment. Let it stand for as long as it can. 

But I don’t have to stay in one place. I can move on. I can change. Change is how we show the world that we are still alive. That we are still able to feel, and to  learn, and to be aware of others. That’s what “sensitive” means, after all. And it is nothing like weakness. Living, changing, learning – that’s hard. Playing dead is easy.

[english-history-trip]

(Part 2) (Part 3)

Words from this post by @valarhalla

[english-history-trip]

[english-history-trip]

Words from this post by @valarhalla 

[elodieunderglass]

My dear and valued friend, my colleague and comrade, i want to rip the vambraces lovingly off your arms and pack you away in the attic like an off season holiday decoration

[writingadvice1]

60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers

[referenceforwriters]

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.

Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.

PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.

Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.

Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.

Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.

PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.

Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.

One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.

Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.

Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.

The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.

Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.

Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University can help.

Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.

WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.

Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.

OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.

Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.

All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.

LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.

Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.

Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.

Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.

AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.

Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.

References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.

Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.

Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.

Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.

Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.

Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.

GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.

Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.

Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.

TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.

Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.

Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.

Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.

Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.

InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.

SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.

AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.

BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.

ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.

Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.

Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.

Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.

Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.

OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.

IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.

PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

[bluebxlle-writer]

Writing fight scenes

masterlist. main navigation.

@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram

1. Pacing

A fight scene should be fast-paced and intense. Unless it's a final battle with numerous parties, a fight scene that's too long tends to take away suspense. To speed up your pacing, use active voice to describe movement and don't overdescribe your characters' thoughts. Excessive inner monologue will be unrealistic, as people usually have no room to think during intense combats.

2. Character mannerisms

Here's a point that people often overlook, but is actually super important. Through fight scenes, you should be able to reveal your characters' contrasting mannerisms and personality. A cunning character would play dirty - fighting less and making use of their opponent's weakness more. A violent character would aim to kill. A softer one would only target to disarm their enemies, using weakened attacks. A short-minded character would only rely on force and attack without thinking. This will help readers understand your characters more and decide who to root for.

3. Making use of surroundings

Not only the characters, you also need to consider the setting of your fight scene and use it to your advantage. Is it suitable for fighting, or are there dangerous slopes that make it risky? Are there scattered items that can help your characters fight (e.g. nails, shards of glass, ropes, wooden boards, or cutlery)? Is it a public place where people can easily spot the fight and call the authorities, or is it a private spot where they can fight to the death?

4. Description

The main things that you need to describe in a fight scene are :

• Characters involved in the fight

• How they initiate and dodge attacks

• Fighting styles and any weapons used

• The injuries caused

Be careful to not drag out the description for too long, because it slows down the pace.

5. Raise the stakes

By raising the stakes of the fight, your readers will be more invested in it. Just when they think it's over, introduce another worse conflict that will keep the scene going. Think of your characters' goals and motivations as well. Maybe if the MC didn't win, the world would end! Or maybe, one person in the fight is going all-out, while the other is going easy because they used to be close :"D

6. Injuries

Fights are bound to be dirty and resulting in injuries, so don't let your character walk away unscathed - show the effect of their injuries. For example, someone who had been punched in the jaw has a good chance of passing out, and someone who had been stabbed won't just remove the knife and walk away without any problem. To portray realistic injuries, research well. I have two posts about writing realistic pain and injuries back in my pink theme, check them out if you need any reference!

7. Drive the plot forward

You don't write fight scenes only to make your characters look cool - every fight needs to have a purpose and drive the plot forward. Maybe they have to fight to improve their fighting skills or escape from somewhere alive. Maybe they need to defeat the enemy in order to obtain an object or retrieve someone who had been kidnapped. The point is, every single fight scene should bring the characters one step closer (or further :D) to the climax.

8. Words to use

• Hand to hand combat :

Crush, smash, lunge, beat, punch, leap, slap, scratch, batter, pummel, whack, slam, dodge, clobber, box, shove, bruise, knock, flick, push, choke, charge, impact

• With weapon :

Swing, slice, brandish, stab, shoot, whip, parry, cut, bump, poke, drive, shock, strap, pelt, plunge, impale, lash, bleed, sting, penetrate

[patchworkpoltergeist]

Can confirm, all of these will save your life writing fights.