Grammarlandia

Advice on writing, grammar, and punctuation. Plus weird Victorian slang, 'cause that's my jam.

[grammarlandia]

Inclusive Language: Gender and Sexual Orientation

There’s a lot to cover here, from avoiding sexism to gender identity to the LGBTQ rainbow. So let’s get to work! Sexism in Language Most...

[cogesque-deactivated20210410]

the thing is your writing session might not be fun or easy or fruitful, but it is always successful. every time you write, you are making progress. you’re thinking about your story, you’re thinking about your writing, and most importantly: you’re writing. just remember that, even if you don’t reach your goals, your writing session will be a success.

[qualamity-deactivated20190308]

[kaylapocalypse-deactivated20201]

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.

[aquariusgaluxy]

Something else that makes a character pop, for me, is attaching an emotion to them when we first meet them. Are they angry? Tired? Scared? 

They become less forgettable, because then we feel what the character is feeling. Especially important for side characters, I think.

[zagreus]

“if it’s not plot relevant, cut it!!” is such awful writing advice

if JRR Tolkien had cut every bit of Lord of the Rings that wasn’t directly related to the central plot, it would have been just one book long, COLOURLESS and DULL AS DIRT. 

all the little worldbuilding/character details are what draw you in and give the central plot weight, FOOL

[veryrarelystable-deactivated201]

The plot is not the same thing as the story.  The plot is the mechanics of how one thing causes another.

Some classic stories have no plot to speak of – the characters just wander from one situation to the next.  Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are examples.

Some stories have partial plots, where some things in the story cause other things, but other things come out of the blue and pass away without consequence.  This category includes classics too: Huckleberry Finn, The Wind in the Willows.

Even in stories with a strong plot, sometimes the most iconic moments fall outside that plot.  Think of the No-Man’s-Land scene in Wonder Woman or the dying dinosaur in Jurassic World II.

Ah, but those aren’t classics, I hear someone say.  Well, I disagree in the case of Wonder Woman (although time will tell), but let’s go right to the top of the English canon, Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

What’s the most iconic scene, if you had to pick one to illustrate for the front cover or the playbill poster?  Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s the Yorick skull scene.  What does that have to do with the plot?  Precious little.  It’s just a way to keep Hamlet busy until Ophelia’s funeral arrives.  And even there it’s not very well fit for purpose, because it doesn’t explain why Hamlet is hanging around in a graveyard anyway.

That’s because, tight though the plot of Hamlet is, the story of Hamlet is not reducible to its plot.  Hamlet is a three-hour exploration of death and skulls and murder and corpses and funerals and ghosts and “what dreams may come”.  The plot is just there to drive you around between the features of that mental landscape.

So the question isn’t “Does this serve the plot?”  The question is “Does this help explore the idea that the story is about?”

(Why yes, I have written all this somewhere before.)

[allofthefeelings]

One really helpful thing I learned- and I can’t remember if it was from a writing class or a lit class, so I don’t even who to thank for it- is that each scene should move at least two or three aspects of what you’re writing forward.

That can be plot. It can be story. It can be worldbuilding. It can be theme. It can be character. It can be relationships. It can be any number of things, but it needs to be more than one.

If a scene does nothing but move plot forward, it’s not accomplishing enough to earn its real estate on the page, any more than a scene that just builds character does.

When I look at it not as prioritizing plot, but as not prioritizing any one aspect of the story above all others, it makes it easier for me to figure out what strengthens my writing and what doesn’t, or,at the very least, how to make a scene that’s important to me more useful to the story as a whole.

[grammarlandia]

How to Use Acronyms

Anyone who’s exchanged a text or perused social media has probably seen an acronym —a word made out of the first letters of each word in a p...

[theticklishpear]

It’s Okay to Start Over

An open letter to myself and others:

Listen, I know you’ve put a lot of work into this thing, that it’s become more than just a project and the characters are more than words on a page to you by now.

Sometimes we work on something so long we lose sight of our goal,

or our goals actively change in the telling,

or we step away for a while (by choice or by circumstances) and we’re not the same when we come back,

or our style changes,

or we grow as writers and readers and humans even as we’re writing it until we are no longer the person we were when we started a thing.

There’s any number of other things that leave us with part of a story and it’s hard to keep writing on it because it doesn’t feel right anymore. It’s disjointed; we’ve lost our way; it’s no longer the angle we want to tell this story from.

It’s okay to start over.

That work was not waste.

Think of it instead as an exploration. It’s practice, experience, trial and error, one timeline that could have happened. You know things now that you didn’t before. You have a better background in who these people are, where they live, how they live, and all the experiences that inform their decisions that you didn’t know before. You’ve learned. You’ve grown. You’ve become more.

It is not failure to start again.

Make a list of things you liked about what you had before, be it the writing itself, the idea or concept, characters, and/or setting.

Write a brief sentence or two about what you want to do with the story.

Write a quick bullet-list outline with three major plot points–where you want it to go.

These are all things you can come back to when you’re struggling with the story again. It’ll happen, and that’s okay; here are some reminders.

Doodle a character, prop, or setting detail from the story for five minutes. 

Even if you’re not a great artist, thinking this way about the story will help boost your visual imagination to reinvigorate your words for description and storytelling.

Brew yourself a cup of your favorite drink and set yourself up in your favorite writing place/position.

Can’t write if you’re not comfy.

Repeat out loud: “I am not lost. This is my story and it will be told. It deserves to be told. I am not lost.”

Whatever your mantra is, it will help boost your self-confidence over time if you continue to use it.

Forget the previous draft. You’re not trying to recreate it. That’s not the point. This is a new, fresh story that might touch on moments from the previous draft, but don’t think of it as a retelling.

Revel in the voice your writing has now, without worrying that it’s not the same as it was.

Try new things! Try new syntax and new words, new ways to describe things, new parts of the story, new character moments, new.

Thinking of it as its own separate entity will help keep you from getting bogged down in the feeling you’ve already done this before. Try to keep thinking of this as a fresh, new thing. New is fun! Embrace it!

Refer back to the things you like and the brief description; remember the fun things this story can be and do.

Start fresh, and feel the story in the same way you feel any new story.

[grammarlandia]

The Convoluted Rules of Canadian Spelling

Suspended between the influences of the UK and the US, Canada has a unique approach to spelling English. A Canadian would never write tyre ...

How to Spell Like a Canadian

[grammarlandia]

Good Bad Language: a post about swearing

Warning: This is about profanity. Stop now if you don’t like swearing, because there will be a lot, and I am not going to use asterisks except once, in the next sentence. There is liberal use…

A brilliant post about how to use swearing well in your stories, by one of my favourite writers, KJ Charles.

[breannacarroll-blog]

Publishing for Fun and Profit

So there was a list going around tumblr for a while that made it to my dash of literary journals that accept open submissions (and will pay!), but upon inspection about half of them were closed indefinitely, and I found quite a few other places that looked interesting through further research, so I wanted to post my own list. 

I tried to focus on things that paid professional grade (at least 6 cents per word), were friendly to speculative fiction, and specifically encouraged diversity and writing about marginalized groups.

(Please note that as of right now I have never submitted or been published with any of these, so if anyone has experience with them, good or bad, please feel free to message or reblog this with your experiences.)

Speculative Fiction

Strange Horizons — Speculative fiction (broadly defined) with an emphasis on diversity, unusual styles, and stories that address politics in nuanced ways. 8c per word. Up to 10,000 words, under 5,000 preferred. Responds within 40 days. LGBT+ positive.

Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine — Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc. 7-12c per word. Up to 25,000 words. No response times listed.

Asimov’s Science Fiction — Primarily sci-fi but accepts fantasy and surreal fiction, but no high fantasy/sword and sorcery. Prefers writing that is character driven. 8-10c per word. 1,000-20,000 words. Responds in about five weeks.

Evil Girlfriend Media — Horror and urban fantasy centered on female empowerment and defying gender stereotypes. $100 flat payment. 4,000-7,000 words. No response times given. LGBT+ friendly.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies — Fantasy with a focus on secondary worlds and characters. 6c per word. Up to 10,000 words. Average response time 2-4 weeks.

Fantastic Stories — Speculative fiction with an emphasis on diversity and literary style. 15c per word. Up to 3,000 words. Responds within two weeks. LGBT+ positive.

Fiction Vortex — Serialized fantasy and speculative fiction. $300 for featured stories, $50 otherwise. 3,500 words or less. No response times given.

Shimmer — Speculative fiction with an emphasis on diversity, strong plots, vivid characters, and beautiful writing. 5c per word. 7,500 words or less (will consider longer words with query letter). Usually responds within two weeks. LGBT+ positive.

Clarkesworld Magazine — Sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction. 10c per word up to 5,000 words, 8c per word after. 1,000-16,000 words. Responds within days usually, gives a tracking number.

Apex Magazine — Speculative fiction of all kinds. 6c per word, +1c per word for podcast stories. Up to 7,500 words, all submissions over will be auto-rejected. Responds within 30 days.

Heliotrope Magazine — Speculative fiction of all kinds. 10c per word. Up to 5,000 words. Responds within 30 days.

Lightspeed Magazine — Speculative fiction of all kinds, with creativity and originality in terms of style and format encouraged. 8c per word. 1,500-10,000 words, under 5,000 preferred. LGBT+ positive. Submissions temporarily closed for their main magazine but is accepting for their People of Color Destroy Science Fiction special.

General Fiction

The Sun Magazine — General fiction, likes personal writing or writing of a cultural/political significance. $300-$1500 flat payment  and a one year subscription to the magazine for fiction (also accepts essays and poetry). No minimum or maximum lengths but over 7,000 words discouraged. Responds in 3-6 months. Physical submissions only.

One Story — Any and all varieties of fiction, “unique and interesting” stories encouraged. $500 payment plus 25 contributor copies. 3,000-8,000 words. Usually responds in 2-3 months.

Camera Obscura — General fiction. $1000 for featured story, $50 for “Bridge the Gap” award, no payment for other contributors. 250-8,000 words. Response time vary, running just over two months as of now.

Flash Fiction 

Daily Science Fiction — Speculative flash fiction (including sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream, etc.). 8c per word. Up to 1,500 words, but shorter stories given priority. Response times not listed.

Vestral Review — General flash fiction. 3-10c per word depending on length to a max of $25. Up to 500 words. Response within four months.

Flash Fiction Online — General flash fiction. $60 flat payment. 500-1,000 words. Response times not listed.

Novels/Novella

Riptide Publishing — Any LGBTQ manuscripts between 15,000 and 150,000 words. Currently especially interested in lesbian romances, trans stories, asexual/aromantic stories, romances with a happy ending, and genre fiction such as urban fantasy. Also has a YA branch.  LGBT+ positive.

Crimson Romance — Romance stories of all kinds, currently seeking LGBT+ stories with a focus on emotional connections and relationships, especially m/m romance. Novel (55,000-90,000 words) or novella (20,000-50,000 words) length.  LGBT+ positive.

Kindle Direct Publishing 

Kindle Direct Publishing — Allows you to set your own prices, create your own cover art, and make royalties off of each sell. Any and all genres are welcome and if you’re prolific and smart about how you’re publishing you can make pretty good money.

General Guide to Kindle Publishing — Gives a good rundown of the publishing process on Kindle.

101 Guide to Kindle Erotica — Great guide with lots of resources about how to make money publishing erotica on Kindle.   

Publishing Comics/Graphic Novels

Here is a list of potential comic companies and what kind of open submissions they accept.  

Here is a list of literary agents who accept graphic novels. 

[grammarlandia]

That and Which

The choice between that and which can be confounding, especially if you include British usage (spoiler: the Brits use which in places ...

[grammarlandia]

Commas After the Beginning of a Sentence

If you start a sentence with an introductory clause like this one, do you need to follow it with a comma? In formal writing can you ever use...

[grammarlandia]

Ornamental Quotations

Those short quotations you see at the beginning of a chapter (or a book, or a section) are called epigraphs . Below I’ll talk about how to f...

[writingwithcolor]

When writing fantasy in which the real world also exists (like Harry Potter) what's some advice on treading the line between “Escapist fantasy in which characters in marginalized groups can focus on defeating magical evil without having to deal with everyday bigotry” and “Erasing real-world struggles because black characters weren’t wary when the police showed up/The nonbinary character never had to answer questions about their genitals/Mexican characters don’t worry about deportation/etc.” ?

Balancing Escapism with Real Life Issues

I suggest you leave the oppressive aspects of an escapist novel to the small issues. Microaggressions, conversations that allude to the harder topics in passing (without glossing over too much). If you don’t go big with the social issues, but show a smaller daily struggle here or there, then you could keep the escapist fantasy at the forefront instead of making the novel about Struggle.

Focus instead of your fantasy. Incorporate culture and clear indicators and celebration of race, gender, etc. and make those unmistakably more prominent than the tough stuff.

A Latino Warlocks Throughout History Course that the Mexican student takes. A pride parade for magical beings and humans alike. Cultural clothing, language, physical markers. Clearly describing the characters as Japanese, Non-binary, etc. Representation is about showing us that this is a X character, and allowing them to be themselves.

There should be no slurs and hate crimes. But maybe a Black witch with afro hair tries a potion clearly meant for straight-haired wizards that goes horribly south, which annoys her to no end (though it might make a witnessing friend laugh). Or a Black Witches Union where they get together to vent on social issues, network, and simply socialize.

You can allude to there still being progress to be made in passing, too. A newspaper headline. A sardonic comment regarding a grievance that is sympathized with before moving back to the action.

When inserting these moments, ask yourself how long and how much of an impact it will have on the mood of the story. Is it part of one short scene, and only revisited when necessary once or twice, or does it carry out throughout several chapters?

Put yourself in the shoes of the affected person(s) when you do this. From the example, the hair potion gone wrong thing would leave my mind relatively quickly, and would not put much damper on my spirits as a reader. An incident of police brutality affecting the MC’s would not be taken so lightly. I’d be frustrated by it, and settle in for the novel to deal with it (and thus exiting my escape as well).

~Mod Colette

[mysharona1987]

[diversireads]

 So You Want to Name a Sino: A Guide to Not Making a Fucking Fool of Yourself

Note: this will be long and very, very extensive because god I am so sick of this shit 2k16 I just want absolution and I don’t think that’s too much to ask, and even if it is I’m asking it, I’m not asking it emptyhanded I’m asking it with a WHOLE GUIDE FOR YOUR PERUSAL, because I’ve found that Wiki’s great if you want to know why and how we use names and not really great for when you actually want a name.

A theme of this blog seems to be my long suffering, and I want it known, recorded, carved in stone that as of almost 1:00AM on Thursday, December 22nd, 2016, I am officially Fed Up with the way Sino characters are named in fiction.

Let us be clear: this is first and foremost An Attack™* on all the white authors whose imaginations can only extend so far to provide us with a glut of Lings and Linglings and Ailings (not that those aren’t beautiful names) and Peonies and Pearls and, god forbid they start getting creative with their Sachas and their Wai-maes, but this is also for the Sino authors who can’t seem to do it either. And like, I get it. It’s not easy. Sinos are a disparate bunch with varying degrees of fluency in varying dialects of Chinese. Romanisation and naming customs are weird.

But also can we leave the idea of the inscrutable mysterious unknowable East in the 20th century please? There are resources. This is one of them. Let’s start before I steep for too long in my own bitterness and annoyance.

Keep reading

[grammarlandia]

Subjunctive Moodiness

When you write wish you were here , you’re using the subjunctive mood , as opposed to the indicative mood ( you are here ). The subjunctive...

May or might? Would or would have? This Grammarlandia post dives into the thorny subjunctive mood and comes out smelling of hypothetical roses.