Addicted to Not Writing @imnotwriting - Tumblr Blog

26 Lettered Earths, an alternate (and partial) D&D cosmography

A Brief Summary of an Explored Portion of the Orrery of Worlds (Earth edition, Keyed to the Dominant Late-Period Anglic Script, Translation Courtesy 3rd Gearth Expedition Force), or, 26 Lettered Earths:

Aerth - fantasy alt-historical Earth: the fun parts. pre-gunpowder (doesn't work, never will) but other than that all your favorite historical eras squished up against one another. Earth-Xena, Warrior Princess, if you will.

Bearth - Earth but populated by evolved bears and other ursines

Cearth - Celtic catgirl/catboy earth. the sidhe and unsidhe clowders alternate being "ruled over" by Tom Tildrum or Tim Toldrum. see also, the Taìn.

Dearth - not a lot here, kinda miserable and gloomy, scarcity reigns except for gunpowder, gasoline, and greed

Earth - our Earth. most portals or other means of transit are laden with "enter at own risk"-type signifiers

Fearth - horror Earth. gloomy and foreboding. all the little horror subgenres of the past two-odd centuries get their little Ravenloft-style demesnes but honestly i was thinking, like, 1970s-80s horror paperbacks

Gearth - clockwork, #steampunk, alt-Victorians, extremely tiresome except for the modrons! i love those little guys. and gnomes, of course.

Hearth - halflings came from here, it's pretty cozy

Iearth - crystals, psionics, high magicks, home of the IOUN stones

Jearth - something about the light casts everything in shades of blue

Kearth - possibly Korean Earth, a never-divided Korean Empire as a major world power and cultural force.

Learth - high Shakespearean drama! low Shakespearean comedy! Elizabethan swashbuckling! Enochian occultism!

Mearth - Wodehouse's world. quite droll for some folks, deeply off-putting to others.

Nearth - *almost* our Earth, but slightly off-brand. like the Canada of Earths.

Oerth - home of the Flanaess, the Circle of Eight, Vecna, the City of Greyhawk, etc. sports a deceptively stuffy and tedious surface over an amoral and murderous core. Oerth wasn't placed at the center of creation as its denizens claim, but they *are* awfully close to it.

Pearth - an odd, bottom-heavy planet, sparse population concentrated largely in the southern hemisphere, a strongly independent people who speak a deeply drifted dialect. everything also has a real juicy donk for some reason.

Quearth - gay, gay, gay

Rearth - Re-Earth. we started the whole thing over to observe it from the beginning, it's a thousand years behind and everything's gone totally off the rails, no supernatural shit but alternate history breakpoints ahoy

Searth - Sea Earth. more Momoa than Costner

Tearth - soap opera earth, everyone's always angry or overjoyed or crying for some other damn reason

Uearth - reverse map Earth. the lands are oceans, and all the sea is dry, dry land

Vearth - Vampire Earth? some iteration of the World of Darkness, maybe Monte Cook's WoD, that doesn't get enough love

Wearth - it's like the opposite of Yearth. the New Wave of science fiction, it's eternally 1979, the aftermath of the 1970s Logan's Run plastic disco cocaine utopia, everything's run down and they can't keep the lights on. the calendar year resets on January 1st,everybody knows, nobody cares

Xearth - fuck it, it's Gamma World, a superhero civil war blew everything up and now it's Gamma World

Yearth - it's the golden age of science fiction, all the major problems are solved and it's always 1965, the calendar year resets on January 1st and nobody seems to notice

Zearth - muppets. muppets on a on inexplicably donut-shaped torus planet of nerf and lego. whimsy level: virulent

#dnd #rpg #multiverse

maxkirin

You have to surrender to your mediocrity, and just write. Because it’s hard, really hard, to write even a crappy book. But it’s better to write a book that kind of sucks rather than no book at all, as you wait around to magically become Faulkner. No one is going to write your book for you and you can’t write anybody’s book but your own.

Cheryl Strayed (via maxkirin)

While Jannavi Poor yawned away her twenties in the Merchant Marine, drudging round and round the Spinward Marches on a millennia-old trade circuit, her mother had died of explosive decompression. Nandini had often groused that she hated how confining space was, and how she'd make that One Big Score and buy a farm on verdant Efate, never again to lift. On an otherwise uneventful jump, Nandini had developed a terminal case of cabin fever, blowing herself out an airlock. On mustering out, Jannavi had nothing but her pension, a forty year ship's mortgage, and a mother-shaped hole in the universe.

#drabble #traveller #rpg

serymn

A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.

from Zen Shin Talks

crimsoneyedfairy-deactivated201

Writing Advice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. (…) For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.

(via 1000wordseveryday)

enjolrastic

To new/discouraged writers:

You don’t have to have 100+ notes on everything you write to have quality writing. Keep writing.

You don’t need to have reviews praising the ground you walk on—you don’t even need readers at all. Keep writing.

You don’t need to come up with the most unheard-of plot lines and most accepted head canons to have quality writing. Keep writing.

And most importantly, you don’t have to have quality writing right now and that’s okay. Keep writing.

We all start somewhere. It takes a lot of courage to post something for complete strangers to read, but keep writing. Keep posting. Keep asking for feedback. Look for people to help you grow. And many years later, you might roll your eyes and feel secondhand embarrassment over your past self’s word choices and character development. But I really hope that when that happens, you then go and pick up a pen or open up a blank document and you keep writing, knowing how far you’ve come and how far you can go.

the-healing-nest

Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try it: “I’m not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.” “I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.” If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.

Unknown (via alecxander-j)

harkaway

do you have any writing tips?

1. Write. Not just what you know but what you are. You don’t know the life of a Novosibirsk shoe-fetishist hitman, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t write it if you gave him your own heart.

2. Keep writing. You’ll have to go back and rework from time to time - in fact, it’ll give you more momentum as things fall into line - but if you rewrite chapter one thirty times it’s still chapter one. The same amount of writing in a straight line gets you a finished draft.

3. Write unrestrainedly. Narrative discipline can be imposed; excitement is much harder to add to a lumpen structure. Use the shapes and words you want. Be profligate, then cut. Don’t let anyone tell you to avoid Latinisms, adverbs, or semi-colons. They exist. They belong to you. If you don’t like them, cut them, but they are no one else’s to forbid.

4. Write now. Don’t wait. You can get useful work done in a ten minute window. Five. Three. On the other hand, learn to bank the urgency, let it out when you can. Life will not always afford you five minutes, and that too is part of the gig. Part of your job is to be in the world. Someone who can’t ditch their desk for half an hour to hug a friend who’s had a bad breakup may or may not be a good writer, but they’re definitely an asshole. Contrary to what you may have heard, that’s not a requirement.

5. Write again. Write, cut, rework, reshape, up-end, restructure. A storyteller can begin the narrative anywhere and make it grip. Now again, and again until you feel wrung out. And again until it stops getting better. It’s never finished, you just come to the end if yourself - or your publisher’s schedule. It’s a stamina game.

6. Let it go. Show it. Accept exposure, admiration, misunderstanding, praise and contempt. Accept also that the book everyone is talking about, enthusiastically or not, is not the book you care about, because you’ve been in love with the new one since somewhere in the middle of stage 5.

7. Repeat. Learn. Improve.

theremina

I <3 Harkaway.

writingquotes-deactivated201509

We’re slammed at work and busy at home. Throw in an occasional outing with friends or significant others, and we’re ready for bed at 10:00 PM every night. Really ready for bed. There’s barely enough time in a day to cover all our mandatory obligations, so optional activities like novel writing, journaling, painting or playing music—things that feel great but no one will ever take us to task for shirking—are invariably left for another day. Which is how most of us become ‘one day’ novelists. As in, ‘One day, I’d really like to write a novel.’ The problem is that that day never seems to come, and so we’re stuck.

Chris Baty (via thewritingrealm)

This is why I have editors and studio interns. They DO take me to task about the unfinished second book, the languishing short stories, the partially painted canvases… Morris and Finnigan even aren’t afraid to *fucking yell at* me when I’m being a slack ass douchebag.

I recommend having people like that in your life if you are serious about creating.

(via dammitkoi)

kadrey-deactivated20181203

Let Idris be your conscience.

brianmichaelbendis

Hello, How important do you think it is to be well read in the medium that you are writing, directing, producing, casting, ETC in? Many of my fellow film major friends can't be bothered to see a fucking Orson Welles movie, so how can they be good directors?

Well then they are idiots. you have to live and breathe this stuff.

what ever you really want to do for a living or for your art has to be in your blood.

it is not an accident that our greatest film historian is also our greatest filmmaker.

can you imagine someone so egotistical that they think that they have nothing to learn from Orson Welles?

traversefamilypicnic

sometimes i just forget to write. its not that im blocked i just forget that thats a thing i do/can do

3liza

I know it's not original or interesting but I hate myself. It's gotten better as I've gotten older but it will never be acceptance. Only tolerance.

[IN SPITE OF SELF]

3liza

i really like this one and i identify with it a lot. just like ignoring your auto-discouragement and going forward anyway. fuck you, me. you’re not my dad

3liza

Desperately afraid of the day all my loved ones realize I'm a lazy worthless leech on the system. (And yes, I know that idea is a fucking lie.)

[TRUST THAT THE HARVEST COMES]

3liza

I'm afraid that I'm not a good writer and no matter what I do nothing I make will ever be inherently original or unique in any way, shape or form.

[FORM FROM VOID REGARDLESS]

thedevouringseason

write regardless not

because

3liza

i get so anxious about the quality of my work that i can't focus on doing my work and thereby self-sabotage until it's as bad as i expected/feared it would be

[DISARM SELF / TRUST MUSE]