The Head hit the Table "thunk. "

[writingwithfolklore]

Writing Resources to use instead of AI

For coming up with character names:

Behind the name (my absolute fav)

Allows you to choose the origin of where you want the name to be from, whether you want a more feminine vs masculine vs androgenous name (as voted by users), random surname generator, and clicking on the name gives you important info like if there are any famous people with the same name, where it’s from, how common it is, and how people tend to see it, etc.

You can also search their name database by letter or meaning or origin, so if you know you want a character who has a name/surname that starts with an A from Ireland, there’s a whole list for you to choose from.

Census sites

Especially useful if you’re looking for a name from a specific place and/or time period. Just search “(country) census (year)” and you’ll find a database of real people who lived in that place at that time. No one can ever call your names unrealistic again.

For coming up with place names:

Fantasy name generator

This site can basically come up with any name for any person, place, or thing you might ever need. There are also specific generators for different fandoms if you’re looking to make an OC in an established world.

For finding that one word on the tip of your tongue:

One Look Thesaurus

This is my go-to. Not only can you find synonyms like a regular thesaurus, but you can also describe words like “unhappy smile” or “quiet laugh” to find the more specific word you’re looking for.

WordHippo

Works as a thesaurus (very similar to One Look) but also includes search options for words that rhyme, words that contain a specific letter or are a specific length, different word forms, sentences with a specific word etc. etc. It's like Thesaurus++

For coming up with ideas:

Word cloud

When I need to inspire a new idea, I write down all the things I’m interested in (hauntings, academia, lesbians, etc.) and put them into a word cloud to shuffle them next to each other. Sometimes seeing a concept in a new context can spark new ideas!

WWF Discord

This is my discord channel (shameless plug) for when you need to brainstorm off other people but don’t have anyone irl to talk to. We’re also happy to read and give feedback on writing, answer writing questions, or just chat!

For visualizing places and characters:

Pinterest

Pinterest can at times be a bit too sterile for my tastes, but if you use the right words, you can find more realistic photos of places. For example, adding “aesthetic” after basically any word will bring up a more broad collection of photos to help you flesh out places.

This is also a great way to find photos of people and fashion to help visualize characters. I’m bad at describing clothes, so I usually collect photos of outfits to help me know what my characters are wearing. Searching up “character inspiration” will collect more interesting photos and drawings of people who might not exactly be of our world.

(However, to make Pinterest not show you AI results, you have to go into your settings and check the “reduce AI” box. Luckily, it does mostly work.)

Death to Stock

Like pinterest but completely AI free (hooray!) Only drawback is that you have to pay a monthly subscription (about $20 CAD).

Cosmos

Very similar to pinterest but slightly more "artsy". I'm not super familiar with this one but I believe all the photos are human and you can save them and create collections with a free account.

Dupe Photos

Royalty-free stock image site with very Pinterest-core photos!

Minecraft

If you haven’t built your entire fictional city in Minecraft instead of writing, why not? It’s fun.

The Sims

This one is dual purpose because you can not only create your characters in Create a Sim, but you can design their houses. If you really want to go for it, you can bulldoze all the lots in your town and build your world from scratch.

Hero Forge

This character creator is intended for making D&D minis, so it has more fantasy-like options over the Sims if your characters are a bit out of this world.

House Plans.com

I was introduced to this resource through the comments on this post and it has quickly become one of my favourite things to use. If you struggle with the layout of buildings, this site lets you choose beds/baths/sq ft etc. and will show you house plans created by designers that most closely match your specs. You can also search by style instead if you're more interested in the aesthetics.

For checking grammar:

Grammar Girl

Easy to follow definitions and examples, and if you learn better by listening, every article comes with a podcast to follow along with instead.

Grammar Monster

This one is my favourite for checking grammar rules because there’s tons of examples in graphics that helps for any situation.

Reedsy

Among other things, reedsy can connect you to professional editors within your budget.

For writing advice:

One Stop for Writers

This one was recommended from my discord channel and has all sorts of tutorials and resources for the writing craft.

My Blog Directory

Another shameless plug, but if you need writing advice on something specific, you can search through my directory to see if it’s there. If it isn’t, you can always send me an ask about it!

For an alternative to Google Docs:

Ellipsus

Think google docs but without AI. Yay!

Scrivener

A more comprehensive writing software created specifically for writers, however there is a one-time payment to use ($80 CAD).

(will update this list with any more suggestions or resources I discover 😊 Thanks to everyone for your recs!)

[writingwithfolklore]

Just updated with some of the recs you've all been sending in! Thanks for your suggestions!

[ms-demeanor]

After attacking Iran, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, shutting off humanitarian aid and escalating the dire humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians.

Gaza is under siege, and the price of staples has climbed tremendously. Community kitchens have been forced to close due to lack of supplies, and have been unable to afford to replenish their stocks.

Gaza Soup Kitchen is a grassroots organization that uses money from global donors to feed thousands of people every day. Their most recent campaign was to provide food parcels for Ramadan, and they are going to struggle to keep people fed in the midst of this new, horrifying war.

If you are able to, consider donating money to Gaza Soup Kitchen through their GoFundMe or GiveButter accounts to help stave off hunger in the midst of this chaos.

[maxofs2d]

Firefox is adding an AI kill switch

Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, CEO of Mozilla, announced that AI will be added to Firefox. Public outcry prompted Enzor-DeMeo, and then Jake Archibald

Additionally, here are some interesting comments from a Mozilla employee who's been working on these features:

[thelegendofsqam]

[wrenchinator-central]

No, you should definitely keep calling it a kill switch. It helps describe my feelings on the matter.

I would also accept ai throttle. Not because I want to use levels of activity between fully on and fully off, but because I want to throttle the ai with my bare hands.

[irishironclad]

okay this makes me feel a lot better

[unconvenchinal-charm-reactivated]

Take notes @ all other companies

[hyperions-fate]

Justifying land ownership and the creation of a militarist, apartheid state in Palestine on the basis of an Iron Age kingdom is so bizarre that it defies belief. It's a similar logic to that used by the Germans to excuse their genocidal colonisation of Eastern Europe ('Germanic tribes were here c. 100 BCE, therefore Slavs deserve to be ethnically cleansed'). To say it's an abuse of history is an understatement. It's a case of the interests of a modern state and its ruling class being engraved onto the past through emotive myths. And like all mythical projections, it by design frees state power from all limit. Every piece of land becomes an object for future conquest and exploitation. Every brutal act of Might is converted into Right against the backdrop of King Solomon, the Temple, Judea and Samaria, and all the other racialised fantasies of colonial killers.

[hyperions-fate]

What seems to elude people is that the evils of apartheid and genocide are not conditional. Apartheid and genocide remain as such, no matter the rationale. Episodes selected from the slaughterbench of history do not magically transform, in some alchemical process, modern systems of subjugation and exile into acts of purity and goodness. The ancient injustices of the Roman empire do not justify the continued militarised brutalisation of an entire people, let alone one, like the Palestinians, that are themselves the descendants of those the Romans colonised. Only a warped mind and a debased heart would seek to find in a mythologised past an excuse for racist tyranny.

[gnossienne]

Mahmoud Darwish, Journal of an Ordinary Grief (يـومـيـات الـحـزن الـعـادي), 1973

[shadeslayer]

its so fucked that not only did they erase our languages and beat and kill our people for using them but they stole the words of important tribes and important people and used them for the military and for trees and for food and for summer camps. average native american name is seen by non ntvs as a joke or something to use or consume, not a human being

[shadeslayer]

i like that ppl r thinking abt town names and things thats very good to be aware of but just to be clear this is actually specifically about other things actually, the things everyone but those looking up their nation forget about

sequoyah was the man who created the tsalagi syllabary before it was ever a tree

if i try to look for apparel or crafts to show off my chickasaw pride, i get results for chickasaw plums which is just a specific species of plum before i get results about human beings

others have mentioned if they google their nations name they get boot companies before their nations website!

theres a tweet that still haunts me that was about a Quirky Quasi American Restaurant in europe or somewhere that was being funny by being cowboy themed and their steaks were named after native american nations. even outside the usa we are nothing but literal dead meat for others consumption

"blackhawk" "apache" - fuck theres a whole wikipedia page for the way weve had our names used for weapons used to colonize and kill us and others!

yes talk about town and location names but you need to look farther than that. it gets so much worse, i promise

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistic imperialism post

[manbiteshog]

thanksgiving is a holiday based on a falsified narrative full of white guilt and the erasure of history so what are some good native organizations to donate to this coming thursday

[manbiteshog]

organizations recommended by @loneghostkid 

native american rights fund

heyday berkely roundhouse

news from native california magazine

national indian child welfare association

california indian legal services

the national indigenous women’s resource center

[meshkwahkihaki]

please also consider looking into funding native/tribal food sovereignty projects if you have food to donate or money to spare. friends, please add more if you know of them and have links to provide:

native american food sovereignty alliance

meskwaki food sovereignty initiative

friends of pine ridge reservation

first nations development institute

you can also buy food/gifts from indigenous sellers or donate to gofundme fundraisers made by indigenous people who need help getting groceries, paying medical bills, or paying rent. do something to help us and our communities.

[britomartis]

try water projects too, like the navajo water project: https://www.navajowaterproject.org/

Navajo Water Project

Help DigDeep bring clean, running water to hundreds of American families. Nearly 40% of Navajo don't have a tap or toilet at home. We can fi

a lot of reservations are fucked over on water by illegal oil drilling, pipelines, or other breaches, like in the navajo rez’s case: contaminated by illegal uranium mining.

[mango-habanero-autism-deactivat]

I would like to put my endorsement to the Sovereign Bodies Institute, home of the database of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The database is trans-inclusive, the data protocols follow the desires of the families of MMIW, and this holiday season, they are collecting donations to buy gifts for the families, especially the children, of missing and murdered women. 

[qaigulik-deactivated20251021]

I’d like to add Feeding Nunavut, the cost of living in the isolated north for Inuit is up to and sometimes over 5x the prices the rest of Canada is used to.

[hyperions-fate]

Claims like this are fascinating because they use nice, inoffensive language to mask deeply racist assumptions. The indigeneity and rights of Palestinians are diminished, while Zionism is purified of all historical meaning and content. It's treated as though it were simply the uncontestable idea of Jewish self-determination. In reality, Zionism is a supremacist ideology that has been conceptualised from the very beginning - from Herzl onwards - as an explicitly racial and Western colonial project, one which demanded the exclusion and oppression of the Palestinian people. The above is akin to arguing that European white nationalism is an innocent movement for asserting 'indigenous' European sovereignty, ignoring its racial-supremacist core.

The only way you can see Zionism - the ideology of the Deir Yassin massacre, of brutal occupation, of militarist ethno-supremacy - as emancipatory is if you believe its victims are not human. No amount of misappropriated anticolonial terminology will cover what is essentially Churchillian race-politics. Unfortunately, the inability to interrogate such colonial thinking is often a symptom of the devastating illness of Being British.

[everymournfulbreath]

October 13th, 2025

[guldaastan]

they're torturing greta thunberg in prison

[guldaastan]

greta, whose biggest crime was to attempt to deliver baby formula to starving and malnourished kids is being held in prison and is being tortured by war criminals. death to israel and america.

[sporesgalaxy]

The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) is getting nearer to Gaza despite reports of Israeli warships harrassing and circling the flotilla. Per a BBC article from today (Oct. 1, 2025):

"As of 14:43 GMT (15:43 BST) on Wednesday afternoon, the GSF said its boats were less than 90 nautical miles from Gaza."

Spain and Italy both deployed naval vessels to sail alongside the GSF after a drone attack last week, but the BBC article explains that those vessels have withdrawn now that the GSF is closer to Gaza's shore.

Despite attempts from Israeli officials to tell the flotilla to change course, the GSF has stated it will not heed them: "The humanitarian demand to break the blockade cannot be walked back to port."

Please, check out the GSF's official website. It's easy to navigate and it has a lot of good information that's worth knowing. You can also support them directly through the site.

[segamascott]

[segamascott]

both countries withdrew to avoid an "international incident" ie israel would have attacked them and they would be forced to actually materially do something instead of making statements

[adropofhumanity]

[gael-garcia]

The Palestinian (1977)

[holdharmonysacred]

I've been thinking I really want to do something to try and help folks over in Palestine, so while I can't donate I want to at least help link to some of the general charities for folks there:

Here's arab.org's daily clicks for Palestine!

Here's eSims for Gaza!

Here's the Gaza Soup Kitchen!

Here's the linktree for the Sameer project!

Here's Crips for eSims for Gaza!

Please donate and helps spread the word if you can! If you're like me and can't donate, there's at least the daily clicks site you can bookmark and do!!!

[ouroborosmoons]

[drdarine]

CNN : As Israel begins offensive on Gaza City, an exhausted military may face a manpower problem

CNN : Famine confirmed in Gaza City, UN-backed initiative says

Exhausted Army? Or Exhausted Gaza?

CNN reports that the Israeli military is “exhausted” and facing a manpower problem as it pushes deeper into Gaza City. But what about the people of Gaza, 2 million civilians trapped under bombs, displacement, and famine?

To read these headlines feels like a cruel joke,the world is being asked to pity an army, while mothers are collapsing from hunger, fathers are breaking under the weight of trying to keep their families alive, and children are wasting away with no food, no medicine, and no safe place to rest.

The famine in Gaza is no longer a warning it’s confirmed. We line up for hours with empty pots, hoping for scraps of food that rarely arrive. The healthcare system has collapsed. Every day survival is a battle against hunger, thirst, and fear.

Please don’t look away share, speak, donate. Every act of kindness is a lifeline in the face of famine and destruction.

Donate to Support DrDarine and Her Family's New Beginning, organized by ENASE ZAGOOT

New update 27th of July 2025 (This is what famine looks like. We are st… ENASE ZAGOOT needs your support for Support DrDarine and Her Fami

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[gazavetters]

Scrolling past won’t change anything, but you can.

One click, one share, and one donation can fight famine, fear, and devastation. Be the change they need. Act now. 🙏

[gazavetters]

Please reblog and donate 🙏