Imagination Gone Wild

Rediscovering My Wild Side. Langblr, Writeblr, Witchblr

[imaginationgonewylde]

November 15, 2021

Things have calmed down in my life. Lost a family member to cancer and had a bunch of renovations to catch up to. My body and mind was a bit beat lately. But I'm trying to get back on track with my posting schedule. Soon I'll be able to continue posting about my journey to learning Korean and German. I recently discovered Anki which was surprisingly helpful.

[imaginationgonewylde]

October 26, 2021

Not inactive, just have a lot of unexpected stuff happening in life.

[wordsnstuff]

Showing vs. Telling

– At long last, it is finally here; The long awaited guide to showing instead of telling. This is obviously a very divisive subject in the writing community, so if there’s something you disagree with, that’s totally fine. These are simply my tips based on my own experience and you can take or leave whatever is useful to you. I hope this is helpful. Happy writing!

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Don’t Be Ambiguous

It is important to note that showing is mainly about conveying exactly what you mean to your reader. Telling is so dangerous in writing because it’s very easy for readers to interpret information that is told to them in a way that throws off any one of the elements of your scene. The best way to catch these instances of telling is to identify moments in which a reader could ask “what do they mean?”

Take those moments, for instance, if you were to write, “the woman was pretty”, and clarify what pretty is in the context of your story, or your perspective as the author. People have different definitions and associations to words, and your job, when it comes to showing, is to make your definitions and associations as clear as possible.

Use Strong Verbs

Showing does not mean telling in a more roundabout way. It means taking a bland description without any imagery and rewriting it in a way that paints a picture in your reader’s mind. You do this by using strong verbs and powerful words. For instance, instead of saying “hit, looked, walked”, you’d say “struck, peered, trudged”. See what I mean?

Balance

As a writer, you need to understand that there are no hard rules. There must be balance to everything, and despite how universal this “rule” may seem, you should know that it’s not that black and white. Here are two tips to help you keep balance between showing and telling.

Don’t overwhelm your reader with information that is unnecessary. If your reader can continue without knowing a detail, don’t include it, and don’t justify keeping it to yourself because you want to bulk up the word count or sound fancy.

When you’re telling, be brief about it and make sure that the inclusion of the detail is imperative to your reader advancing in the story.

Showing Through Dialogue

Dialogue is a really great way to show a reader character traits that showing through description never could. The way a person speaks, the words they choose, the manner in which they respond to things, are all great ways to give your reader information about that character. Use this to your advantage so that you don’t have to spend extra time describing it later.

When You Should “Tell”

When the number of words it would take to show instead of tell a piece of information isn’t worth your reader’s time

When you’re essentially repeating information the reader already knows. In this case, you’d say “so-and-so explained what she had said” instead of reiterating what she said and reaching a point where your writing is redundant.

When you want the reader to form their own emotions around the events in a scene, rather than planting them in their mind. Telling allows for the reader to have some emotional freedom, but this should come in little bits. Approach this excuse to tell with caution.

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FAQ //monthly writing challenges // Masterlist

MY CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS (Check it out, it’s pretty cool. At least I think it is.)

[wordsnstuff]

Resources For Worldbuilding

Culture & Society

Creating Fictional Holidays

Music For Your Fantasy World

Creating Religions & Belief Systems

How to Design Your Diabolical Cult

Historically Accurate Sexism in Fantasy: Let’s Unpack That

Debate with the Squirrels: Sexism in Fantasy

Feudalism

Using Politics In Fantasy Fiction

Mythic Justice – Crime and Punishment in Your Fantasy World

Government Worldbuilding

Realistic Political Strife

A Politics Of Worldbuilding

Language

Creating a Language

The Language Construction Kit

The International Phonetic Alphabet – Audio Illustrations

Fantasy Name Generator

Geographic Names

Medieval Names Archive 

Squid Name Generator 

Model Languages

Xenolinguistics 

History

Prehistory

Mythos

History

Today

Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Encyclopedia Mythica

The Ancient History Encyclopedia

Using History as Inspiration for Fantasy

Victorian Era Family Day Life in England

Peasant Life in the Middle Ages

Everyday Life in the Middle Ages

English Monarchs

Feudal Japan

The Story and Structure of the Iroquois Confederacy

Science + Geography

Dimensions

Solar Bodies

Climatology

Planetary Geography

Water Geography

Cartography, Maps, Star Charts, and Writing

Fundamentals of Physical Geography

Dating of Middle-earth events, using Precession of the Equinoxes and Tidal Friction

Orbital Operations in Science Fiction

Planet Designer

Artificial gravity calculator

Natural gravity calculator

Selden’s Catalogs of Objects for Celestia

Medieval Technology

Defining the Source, Effects, and Cost of Magic

How to Create a Rational Magic System

Miscellaneous

/r/worldbuilding

Fantasy World Generator

SciFi World Generator

Focused Ambiguity: Using Metaphor in Fantasy Writing

Space Engine

Terragen

The Five foundations of Worldbuilding

Setting the Fantastic in the Everyday World

Support Wordsnstuff!

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee.

Request Resources, Tips, Playlists, or Prompt Lists

Instagram // Twitter //Facebook //#wordsnstuff

FAQ //monthly writing challenges // Masterlist

[guerrillatech]

[wordsnstuff]

Resources for Writing Injuries

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

Head Injuries

General Information | More

Hematoma

Hemorrhage

Concussion

Edema

Skull Fracture

Diffuse Axonal Injury

Neck

General Information

Neck sprain

Herniated Disk

Pinched Nerve

Cervical Fracture

Broken Neck

Chest (Thoracic)

General Information

Aortic disruption

Blunt cardiac injury

Cardiac tamponade

Flail chest

Hemothorax

Pneumothorax (traumatic pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax)

Pulmonary contusion

Broken Ribs

Broken Collarbone

Keep reading

[imaginationgonewylde]

August 17, 2021

Dear Wildling,

Lots of things have been happening lately which isn't doing my mental health any good. But we'll get there.

I should trust my witchy intuition more and not let my anxiety take over. The worn-out and broken ring was a sign and I ignored it. Let's not fall in love too quickly next time...

Hm, maybe I should try a cleansing ritual or something. Like a witchy reset button and refocus on old goals, and new ones. :)

Good Night, Wildling.

[imaginationgonewylde]

August 6, 2021

Hello Wildling,

There's some stuff happening in the family that's causing a lot of stress. So it's causing my motivation to study to disappear, ugh.

To make up for it I'm refreshing my memory with my korean notebook by rereading it and rewatching Go Billy's videos. The ones I've learned so far. As for my German language learning, I didn't start a notebook for it. I just kept a google docs reference list of all the vocabulary I learned. So I guess I can give that a glance too. And maybe try to find more youtube channels in German.

On a different note, my writing project is coming along nicely. But I am taking a little break from it to prevent myself from getting overwhelmed. Which reminds me, I need to dive back into forum roleplaying. It'll help me improve my writing as I'm a bit rusty x-x

I guess that's it for now.

Goodnight wildling!

[imaginationgonewylde]

Korean: describing verbs

[imaginationgonewylde]

German: Wollen (want to)

[imaginationgonewylde]

German: Modal verbs (can, must, want, etc...)

[imaginationgonewylde]

German: the months

Hausaufgabe:

Wann hast du Geburtstag? (When is your birthday?)

Ich habe im Juli Geburtstag. (Mine is in Juli.)

[imaginationgonewylde]

July 15th, 2021

Hello wildling,

I'm getting behind on my languages but it's not because I'm having a block. Life just got more busy so I have to shift priorities around.

good night, wildling!

[imaginationgonewylde]

Korean: Using things

A continuation of the (으)로 particle.

[imaginationgonewylde]

German: The days of the week

Still not feeling well. I'm behind on my lessons :/

[imaginationgonewylde]

Korean: Toward

I'm not feeling well today so I'll just post billy's video.

[imaginationgonewylde]

German: I am hungry.

no homework!