Iveldi Writes

Welcome to my writeblr! WIP Page Currently writing: St Elvington's Academy, Book Two of the Unfocussed Trilogy. This is a secondary blog, so I follow back on black-widoh.

[fawnvelveteen]

Nina Leen for Life magazine, 1949

[kayespivey]

I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read thoroughly through the terms of any publication before you send your writing to them. It is mandatory that you know and understand what rights you’re giving away when you’re trying to get published.

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

Protect your writing. It’s not just your intellectual property, it’s also your baby. You worked hard on it. You need to do the extra research to protect yourself so that a scammer (or even a well meaning start up) doesn’t steal you work right from under you nose and make money off of it.

[the960writers]

Exclusive publishing rights have to have a set time frame! Do not agree to anything that doesn’t clearly state “up to five years from signature” or something like that. 

What if the publisher goes defunct? What if they get bought by another publisher who doesn’t care to promote or publish your work? You still can’t to anything with it, you don’t own it anymore!

For a thorough overview of what you should be aware of regarding your intellectual property and publishing rights, please read through this collection of post [https://kriswrites.com/business-musings/contracts-and-dealbreakers/] by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

Protect your IP. Do not give away your stories.

[ellidfics]

Every writer needs to read this before signing that contract:

Writer Beware!

[jxsminewrites]

reasons to not quit writing:

your writing is a skill, not an inborn talent (unless, yeah, maybe it is). not everyone can do what you do and love

everyone says they want to write a book. everyone has what it takes to write a book. not everyone does it anyway. you be the small percentage of success you read about

your writing will always seem brickshit horrible because you wrote and read it a million times

you love this writing thingy. quitting it will be like cutting off your fingers one by one.

someone out there will want to read what you wrote.

someone out there wants to know what is on your mind. 

someone out there appreciates your art. they will share it with their friends. they will share it with their loved ones. they will share it with their future self because maybe what you wrote saved them.

if you give up now, you know you will just come back to it again, whether it’s years from now, months, or next week. you love writing, that’s why you planted the seed of thought that you are going to write this book, and whether you come back to it or not, your unwritten stories will come back to you.

[wrex-writes]

Drafting: The Theory of Shitty First Drafts

Writing books often exhort you to “write a shitty first draft,” but I always resisted this advice. After all,

I was already writing shitty drafts, even when I tried to write good ones. Why go out of my way to make them shittier?

A shitty first draft just kicks the can down the road, doesn’t it? Sooner or later, I’d have to write a good draft—why put it off?

If I wrote without judging what I wrote, how would I make any creative choices at all?

That first draft inevitably obscured my original vision, so I wanted it to be at least slightly good.

Writing something shitty meant I was shitty.

So for years, I kept writing careful, cramped, painstaking first drafts—when I managed to write at all. At last, writing became so joyless, so draining, so agonizing for me that I got desperate: I either needed to quit writing altogether or give the shitty-first-draft thing a try.

Turns out everything I believed about drafting was wrong.

For the last six months, I’ve written all my first drafts in full-on don’t-give-a-fuck mode. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

“Shitty first draft” is a misnomer

A rough draft isn’t just a shitty story, any more than a painter’s preparatory sketch is just a shitty painting. Like a sketch, a draft is its own kind of thing: not a lesser version of the finished story, but a guide for making the finished story.

Once I started thinking of my rough drafts as preparatory sketches, I stopped fretting over how “bad” they were. Is a sketch “bad”? And actually, a rough draft can be beautiful the same way a sketch is beautiful: it has its own messy energy.

Don’t try to do everything at once

People who make complex things need to solve one kind of problem before they can solve others. A painter might need to work out where the big shapes go before they can paint the details. A writer might need to decide what two people are saying to each other before they can describe the light in the room or what those people are doing with their hands.

I’d always embraced this principle up to a point. In the early stages, I’d speculate and daydream and make messy notes. But that freedom would end as soon as I started drafting. When you write a scene, I thought, you have to start with the first word and write the rest in order. Then it dawned on me: nobody would ever see this! I could write the dialogue first and the action later; or the action first and the dialogue later; or some dialogue and action first and then interior monologue later; or I could write the whole thing like I was explaining the plot to my friend over the phone. The draft was just one very long, very detailed note to myself. Not a story, but a preparatory sketch for a story. Why not do it in whatever weird order made sense to me?

Get all your thoughts onto the page

Here’s how I used to write: I’d sit there staring at the screen and I’d think of something—then judge it, reject it, and reach for something else, which I’d most likely reject as well—all without ever fully knowing what those things were. And once you start rejecting thoughts, it’s hard to stop. If you don’t write down the first one, or the second, or the third, eventually your thought-generating mechanism jams up. You become convinced you have no thoughts at all.

When I compare my old drafts with my new ones, the old ones look coherent enough. They’re presentable as stories. But they suck as drafts, because I can’t see myself thinking in them. I have no idea what I wanted that story to be. These drafts are opaque and airless, inscrutable even to me, because a good 90% of what I was thinking while I wrote them never made it onto the page.

These days, most of my thoughts go onto the page, in one form or another. I don’t waste time figuring out how to say something, I just ask, “what are you trying to say here?” and write that down. Because this isn’t a story, it’s a plan for a story, so I just need the words to be clear, not beautiful. The drafts I write now are full of placeholders and weird meta notes, but when I read them, I can see where my mind is going. I can see what I’m trying to do. Consequently, I no longer feel like my drafts obscure my original vision. In fact, their whole purpose is to describe that vision.

Drafts are memos to future-you

To draft effectively, you need a personal drafting style or “language” to communicate with your future self (who is, of course, the author of your second draft). This language needs to record your ideas quickly so it can keep up with the pace of your imagination, but it needs to do so in a form that will make sense to you later. That’s why everyone’s drafts look different: your drafting style has to fit the way your mind works.

I’m still working mine out. Honestly, it might take a while. But recently, I started writing in fragments. That’s just how my mind works: I get pieces of sentences before I understand how to fit them together. Wrestling with syntax was slowing me down, so now I just generate the pieces and save their logical relationships for later. Drafting effectively means learning these things about yourself. And to do that, you can’t get all judgmental. You can’t fret over how you should be writing, you just gotta get it done.

Messy drafts are easier to revise

I find that drafting quickly and messily keeps the story from prematurely “hardening” into a mute, opaque object I’m afraid to change. I no longer do that thing, for instance, where I endlessly polish the first few paragraphs of a draft without moving on. Because how do you polish a bunch of fragments taped together with dashes? A draft that looks patently “unfinished” stays malleable, makes me want to dig my hands in and move stuff around.

You already have ideas

Sitting down to write a story, I used to feel this awful responsibility to create something good. Now I treat drafting simply as documenting ideas I already have—not as creation at all, but as observation and description. I don’t wait around for good words or good ideas. I just skim off whatever’s floating on the surface and write it down. It’s that which allows other, potentially better ideas to surface.

As a younger writer, my misery and frustration perpetuated themselves: suppressing so many thoughts made my writing cramped and inhibited, which convinced me I had no ideas, which made me even more afraid to write lest I discover how empty inside I really was. That was my fear, I guess: if I looked squarely at my innocent, unvetted, unvarnished ideas, I’d see how bad they truly were, and then I’d have to—what, pack up and go home? Never write again? I don’t know. But when I stopped rejecting ideas and started dumping them onto the page, the worst didn’t happen. In fact, it was a huge relief.

Next post: the practice of shitty first drafts

Ask me a question or send me feedback!

[prettyarb]

Here’s how I used to write: I’d sit there staring at the screen and I’d think of something—then judge it, reject it, and reach for something else, which I’d most likely reject as well—all without ever fully knowing what those things were. And once you start rejecting thoughts, it’s hard to stop. If you don’t write down the first one, or the second, or the third, eventually your thought-generating mechanism jams up. You become convinced you have no thoughts at all.

This is exactly what I caught myself doing and finally realized I need to change my approach to writing.  What’s the point if I’m killing off all my own ideas before I even finish having them?

[ivyblossom]

Bingo!

[elysian1997]

[thewritershandbook]

World Building: Mountain Settings

Dome Mountains

Volcanic Mountains

Fault-Block Mountains

Folded Mountains

[veridium]

If you’re reading this: this is your sign that your WIP is worth writing, is worth the effort, and that you are doing great. Keep going, take breaks, reflect. But do not lose sight of how far you’ve come on this project! You can do it!

[typeswriters]

yall ever start writing and something so much darker than what u planned to write comes out and ur like ‘u ok in there’ to urself

[otorohanga]

a guide to exploring abandoned farms

essential supplies include: plenty of food and water, a change of socks, a hat, rope, bandaids, a knife, gloves, an acorn in your pocket, and an offering

there are always odd noises on the farm. half of them come from the animals

try to forget what the lake looks like between the hours of three and four AM

never ever find yourself alone in the milking shed in the south end of the farm. time passes differently there

if you happen to hurt yourself in your exploration, make sure you do not bleed onto the dirt

bring plenty of water, you do not want to drink from there

the cows will watch you, this is normal

close every gate you open, even if the fields are empty. don’t ever leave one open behind you, just trust me

beware unstable rocks, the cracks tend to be filled with insect nests

bring a weapon with you, but no guns

if you see someone else while exploring, never tell them your name. you can never be sure if they are real or not, and further out you go, the less real they will seem. the patupaiarehe have evolved in cruel and unusual ways

do not go inside the empty share-milkers cottages, whatever you do, do not go inside. something else lives there now

a tree with the undersides of its leaves showing mean that a storm is coming. a tree with no leaves means the storm has already come

sometimes the hills look like they’re moving. be aware of this, because some things don’t like to be disturbed

do not sleep under the full moon, in fact, just don’t sleep on the farm

finding skulls is normal, only become worried when you start finding ribs

if you find yourself lost in a forest, continue walking in a straight line until you are free again. the trees may make it look as though you are going in circles, but i promise you’re not. ignore the soft music you can hear

your phone won’t work out here

the ghosts from the land wars won’t harm you, but be sure to show them respect

don’t take anything from the farm with you when you leave. just be grateful you have made it out alive

[kittleimp]

This is labeled as New Zealand Gothic so there are a few things specific to NZ here, but I live in Michigan and let me tell you. This isn’t a joke, not is it region specific. There is a farm my father has visited since childhood that never felt right. He once saw a black mass that they don’t like to talk about. A few years ago a swarm of flies attacked his tent one morning while he was camping with a friend. That same day, he became suddenly and violently ill. He brought whatever attached itself to him back home and it didn’t leave until we did a full cleansing ritual.

Do not fuck around on farm land. Especially if you don’t know what was on that land before it.

[flyingpurplepizzaeater]

@aprilwitching

[carmot-arch-deactivated20240621]

I actually need to add to this because there’s some stuff the locals out in Missouri told me.

around dawn/dusk/twilight if you feel something behind you, don’t turn around.  Even if you are in an open field

you hear a woman crying in the woods, hope that its probably a cougar.  dont go looking for it

avoid the woods around these farmlands if you can

dont cross streams

try not to be there around the evening time.  whatever you’re feeling will get worse and might follow

if you’re religious, don’t bring any artifacts of such if you can.  crosses etc.  it can upset whatever is there.  

I dont care how pretty the rock is, don’t pick it up

avoid going in most buildings.  not just the ones listed above.  especially barns.  look in, look around, don’t physically walk in there. not only is it structurally unsafe, you don’t know whats hiding in there.  corporeal or not.

lastly, before you leave.  check your belongings and pockets and anywhere anything you can stash stuff in. chances are you will be missing something, that’s normal.  if you had something there you didn’t before.  sometimes they just happen to be there even with no recollection.  get rid of it on that land, not off of it!

[mindfulwrath]

A Simplified Guide To Exploring Abandoned Farms, by MindfulWrath

Don’t

[gravedice]

@floweryfallacies

[thornedprincett]

Don’t forget that if you start singing and something joins in, do not look for it.

No matter what you do, do NOT attempt to communicate with spirits. They are many, they are ancient, and they are powerful.

Those flowers are beautiful but do not take one for yourself, you’re proposing a trade with the land and you will not like what it decides to take in return.

If you feel like you’re being followed, don’t turn around but walk over the cow grates half buried in the ground. This will make them stop.

And the last thing I’ve learned, whatever you do or don’t believe, these lands abide by different rules and they abhor having these rules broken.

[ohfortheloveofgaming]

As someone who lived on a farm in Nebraska, I can absolutely reassure you this is true and should absolutely believe it.

The farm areas work a little differently in my area, and I’m not sure if anyone has a similar area, but I’ll add to this just in case.

• Avoid the train tracks. Something is always waiting there. Whether it wants to hurt you or just wants to watch depends on its mood.

• Don’t follow the strange lights. Avoid them at all costs.

• Do NOT follow the dirt road at sunset or nighttime. The ones who wait there do not like you and are willing to do anything to get you out, including hurt you.

• If you are in a car and feel as though you are being followed, DO NOT look in the back seat. There will ABSOLUTELY be something there, and sometimes these things do not want to leave after being seen. They feed off your attention.

• If you’re being followed, get out of that area and go a but further. Maybe a lot further. They like to ensure you won’t come back. (I never learn)

• DO NOT speed to get away from something that’s following you, especially near the train tracks or on the dirt road. They will match your speed, no matter what it is. They’re trying to spook you. They’re trying to get you out of their territory. Speeding on these roads only heightens your chance of a crash.

• Try not to listen to the growling or howling. Don’t yell at it. It’s not always your dog(s). Yelling attracts it to you.

• AVOID THE FREAKING BARN. AVOID THE AREA SURROUNDING THE BARN. DO NOT MESS WITH THE BARN.

• IF YOU OPEN A GATE, S H U T . I T .

• You WILL see things. Do NOT investigate the black, hunkering figure in the distance. It disappears when you get close. It might be trying to lead you away. I don’t know enough about it yet, and I don’t want to.

• If you’re in pain for seemingly no reason, get out of that area fast. Something’s trying to hurt you.

• Don’t challenge them. They WILL win.

[marzipanandminutiae]

People who think these kind of posts are fiction (unless explicitly stated) or overreacting must have had such boring childhoods

[jaimistoryteller]

Some shit I remember from growing up on a farm in South Carolina:

If there are animals and they are suddenly quiet: LEAVE

If you do have to cross a stream, tell it thank you

That patch of sky that is not the same as the rest? Don’t go to the area beneath it

Seriously, stay away from the barn, particularly if INVITED but you don’t see by who

That dog in the distance? Not a dog. Do Not Approach!

You hear laughter? Do not follow it

Corn fields, particularly ones that have gone wild are fae places, respect them, avoiding them is good too

If there is a farm next door, that is always maintained yet no one is there, AVOID AT ALL COSTS

[crazy4dragons]

When I was in college, one of my professors said, “We write because we don’t feel like we belong in this world, and want to create a place for ourselves on paper” and honestly I’ve never heard something so relatable since I took that class

[shakespork]

Writing a character who becomes severely malnourished/dehydrated/sleep-deprived?

Here’s what you’ll need to know! Learn all about the wonders of the human body and add scientifically-accurate drama to your stories.

MALNOURISHMENT

DEATH: average - 21 days (3 weeks), max ever recorded - 70 days (2.3 months)

6 HOURS: grouchiness and hunger due to lack of glucose.

24 HOURS - 48 HOURS: hunger very apparent; pains in stomach; body has entered ketosis and is using fatty acids as energy.

72 HOURS+: muscles begin to get broken down for energy.

You will become: increasingly depressed, irritable, hysteric apathetic; decline in concentration, comprehension and judgement; social isolation and withdrawal; possible self-harm.

If your character doesn’t eat for 5 consecutive days, they are at risk of Refeeding Syndrome. This is extremely dangerous and can be fatal.

recommended reading:

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Psychology of starvation based on the above experiment.

DEHYDRATION

DEATH: average 3 days; some live 8 - 10 days

for the calculations: TWV = total water volume in body; average adult loses 2.5 litres of water per day.

Assuming that your character does not eat, drink or absorb any moisture.

9 HOURS/2% TWV: thirst, discomfort, dry skin, loss of appetite; 50% loss of performance for athletes; elevated body temperature, rapid heartbeat, fatigue, dizziness when standing, decreased fluid secretion (sweat, urination, tears, etc).

24 HOURS/6% TWV: sleepiness, severe headaches, nausea, tingling in limbs.

36 - 72 HOURS/ 6 - 15% TWV: no urination, seizures, muscle spasms, shriveled skin, fainting, vision dimming, delirium.

72 HOURS+/15% TWV+: Organ failure.

recommended reading:

dehydration on the psychology wiki.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

DEATH: not known, but can stay awake for 11 days; max chronic sleep deprivation ever recorded (until death) - 6 months.

NOTE: This does not mean you can stay awake for 6 months. It means you can survive that long with chronic sleep deprivation - going days without sleep and then sleeping once or twice.

24 HOURS: mental ability impairment of someone who has blood-alcohol content of 0.10%; everything is worse - emotional control, memory, attention, decision-making, hand-eye coordination.

36 HOURS: hormonal spikes everywhere; losing time; lack of motivation; head buzzing like you’re dehydrated.

48 HOURS: microsleep, regardless of what you’re doing (you fall asleep for 1-30 seconds and then become disorientated);

72 HOURS+: say goodbye to higher mental processes like decision-making and planning. Also, say good bye to saying goodbye because even simple conversations are hard.

80 HOURS+: … and hello, hallucinations!

recommended reading:

this article of a soldier’s experience with sleep deprivation.

Eleven Days Awake; The Experiment.

[justawritingaid]

I have countless ideas in my head that I want to write but I have such a hard time because they play out as movies in my head, like with the right angles, music and such. How can I over come this and be able to put these visual ideas from my head into words on a word doc? (Sorry if that isn't the correct grammar, I'm not a native English speaker)

**Note: This question has an answer on the blog, but due to it being in the “General” tag with no indication of its presence and broken up into many posts, I’m not counting it as a repeat and the answer will be copying some info from the older asks.

First you need to come to terms with that fact that imagining a scene with perfect angles and music is not something that directly translates to writing. The mind loves to make stuff up but it doesn’t mimic writing– it mimics something more like a movie and what works in movies doesn’t always work with the written word. Imagination can put a haze of glory over ideas/scenes and it creates the same issues that trying to too heavily use movie or song inspiration does (link embedded). It’s not that you can’t use those things or can’t be inspired by them– just remember that they’re pieces of media that don’t fully line up with the written word and they should not be considered to have equal transfer of ideas.

Nobody ever truly gets the exact everything that a vividly imagined scene has on paper. General ideas, definitely, and many of the specific ones can work too, but there’s a big difference between a writer using the “movie” in their head as a draft to and a writer trying to mimic exactly what they imagine. (Some writers who have the head-to-paper translation skill may say things like “I see a movie and I write it”, but that’s only because their “head movies” have over time become tailored to work with the written word.)

Imagination is a good tool, but it doesn’t write anything for you. You shouldn’t write to directly mimic what’s in your mind– you should write to create a story on paper. Here are some ways to get better at doing that:

Start writing down ideas and concepts.

It doesn’t matter if they aren’t complete or perfectly logical. By getting your hand to the paper (or fingers to the keys) you’re taking the first step in bridging a story from your head to the written medium. Usually a physical journal works well because it’s portable and doesn’t need a computer to access, but these days most of us have phones that can be used in place. Some people use both: phone for quick ideas that they take home and “sketch out” in the journal with idea webs or other graphics.  

And this can be more than just ideas, include pieces of dialogue, a cool line you thought of, a specific visual that you want to get out of your head to save for later. You can use the idea journal for anything writing related.  

Read, read, read a lot.

By reading regularly you exercise the part of your mind that creates scenes from the words on paper specifically in the way that the written media allows for. Reading provides examples of grammar, concepts, plot structure— everything about writing you can arguably learn by reading a variety of books from a variety of authors in a variety of genres. For more reading, I recommend traditionally published fiction because it goes through an editor. Traditionally published fiction isn’t necessarily better than other forms of writing, but anyone looking to improve (especially non-native speakers of a language they want to write in) should use examples that they can genuinely trust to teach.  

You can only critique at a similar level that you can write, so while you can certainly read fanfiction or self-published stuff, keep in mind that you may not be able to pick out the issues that tend to be more rampant than in traditionally published fiction and you don’t want to end up copying them without realizing it.  

Recognize that every media choice has strengths and weaknesses that make certain story choices better or worse in execution.

Media is interesting. Many creative people turn to writing because they have a story to tell and it’s more accessible as a craft than movie-making, yet majority of what we consume in daily life is closer to movie media. This can create a disconnect as we tend to imagine things like movies but we can’t write that way or it’s not nearly as engaging or successful.  

Some common things that movies use that don’t work as well (or at all) in writing are:

Violence as a spectacle – In movie fight scenes, you’re not actually enjoying the violence, you’re enjoying the art of choreography and music with what’s usually little reality to how a fight would actually unfold. The fights don’t need meaning to be entertaining. In writing, you have no music, you have no fancy actors, all you have are words. Violence in writing requires much more reason and tension to be entertaining than in visual media and it doesn’t have the ease of spectacle to just throw it in to make things “interesting”.  

Specific sound and music – Movies thrive on music. The right soundtrack can make anything epic, sad, funny, scary; it’s a unique and effective way to enhance a mood that writing completely lacks. There’s nothing wrong with imagining scenes to a song or with ambient sounds, but you cannot replicate that exact everything that sound gives to a scene in writing.

Exact pictures – The audience can see visual media without the camera having to draw attention to things. Fancy outfits can be shown off without being overwhelming, backgrounds can stand out, the protagonist doesn’t have to draw attention to anything for the audience to see it. In writing, trying to write like you need the reader to see 100% of the detail is ridiculous and would never leave any room for a story. The goal of description is to give the reader an impression or concrete idea, not to note literally every detail.

All that said, the written word has access to an entire plane of thinking that movies don’t:

The wonders of language control and word choice – I have an entire tag dedicated to this for a reason. You may not be able to give readers a 100% clear picture, but you know what you can give: a word with a clear meaning. Now that may not sound amazing, but think of it this way: In a movie, a character can look away in disgust at something they don’t like. The audience can read the disgust on the character’s face, but they can’t really read that character like they could in a novel. In writing, you can give an exact word for a feeling. You can describe it beyond a facial expression using connotation to shift definitions, connect ideas more easily, allow the character to think instead of just physically react.

Narration and point of view – Yes, movies can have narration, but not nearly at the level that writing allows for (and movie narration more easily comes off as cheesy or an exposition dump). Point of view, in particular, thrives in the written narrative that guides the reader through a story in place of the character. In writing, you have access to the inside of a character. You have their thoughts as opposed to just their actions, all five senses, inner workings; there’s a direct line from the narrator to the reader that visual media cannot perfectly replicate.

Literary techniques – No, they aren’t just for school. Lit techniques can be applicable to visual media but their strength of use comes from writing and what they can bring to a story.

A narrator tells the story to the reader: Learn to narrate.

Part of the barrier between imagination and paper is what I keep mentioning: the imagination does not mimic writing a story, which can be intimidating to those not used to it.

You may imagine an entire scene with a backdrop, creative angles, slow motion, etc., but if you’re using 3rd limited or 1st person narration, then that entire scene doesn’t matter. The writing should mimic what the narrating character experiences and what matters to the plot, not the entire scene you may see in your head. If you use an omniscient narrator, then you’re getting closer to the “movie” visualization, but that narrator still has a focus and the focus isn’t describing every single detail of the scene. You also can’t re-create the exact effect of music in a book, so that’s a pretty big issue for a lot of writers who rely too heavily on sound for inspiration or scene enhancement.

It doesn’t matter that the writing doesn’t focus on everything you see in your head because that would make the entire story full of unnecessary detail. Detail and Description in Writing: The Law of Conservation of Detail (link embedded) mentions “if you give the average reader 200 things to notice in a scene, they are going to get stressed and everything will blur together to the point of where you may as well have said nothing at all”. Good scene writing is not about getting all the details from your imagination onto the paper, it’s about tailoring ideas to work on paper.

Try some writing exercises and practice without consequences.

I’m working on getting out some more concrete ones in my tag, but you’d probably need to just let go of that anxiety and try something. It’ll probably suck, for a while too, but if you don’t let yourself be bad then you’ll never get better. Just write. Find prompts, try stream of consciousness, rewrite famous scenes with your own twist, there are many, many ideas for writing out there and any one of them is a good place to start.

The thing is, at the core of your question you’re just asking me how to write a story in general– it’s just shrouded by that disconnect of the mind and paper. There are a lot of resources on this blog that help with actual writing as opposed to just concepts or ideas, so I suggest you spend some time really looking around.

Don’t overthink it. Don’t imagine so hard that you get it “perfect” and then get disappointed when the writing can’t 100% convey it. It’s often much better work the specifics of a story out while writing rather than trying to force such a rigid idea from the mind. Imagination and the reality of writing never perfectly align, and that’s okay. The more you write, the better you’ll get!

(Oh and seriously– READ BOOKS. That point got overshadowed but it’s arguably the most important bit of advice specific to your question. It teaches you through example!)

Good luck with everything!

Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked. Also taking donations via Venmo Username: JustAWritingAid

[brynwrites]

What not to write in fantasy.

I’ve seen some posts going around on what not to write in fantasy, many of which amount to:

Don’t write evil kings.

Don’t write people who are evil for the sake of evil.

Don’t write bullies.

Don’t write villains at all actually.

Don’t write mentors.

Don’t let your characters learn how to do hard things on their own though.

Don’t write people on adventures.

Don’t write people fighting evil governments.

Don’t write any fantasy species ever written before.

Don’t write any fantasy trope ever written before.

Don’t write any fantasy plot ever written before. 

Just… don’t fucking write fantasy I guess??

And this is such utter bullshit, my friends.

We do need more originality and diversity in fantasy, but we don’t need to remove everything that fantasy is and has been in the process.

(Especially, especially, when diversity is being included in traditionally cishet white male protagonist fantasy stories.)

Maybe the chosen one with special magic powers and a royal bloodline going on a quest with a group of friends to defeat the evil king has been done before with a white cis man a thousand times over, but how many times has a black trans woman got to go on that adventure? 

Maybe elves and orcs have been written into the dust, but they still make great templates on which to tell stories with original twists, and there’s nothing about them that stops a good, emotional story from hitting you straight in the heart.

Maybe dragons have been done by every writer ever to write fantasy, but you know what? Dragons are fucking awesome, my dudes. Many readers are always gonna love them.

Maybe we have told the same fantasy stories over and over again, but every step you take away from the known template is a step you have to spend more and more exposition on before the reader will understand your original creation.

So don’t let anyone make you feel like that your (inclusive) fantasy story is too ‘traditional’ to be good. As long as you produce a well written story you’ve put your heart into, it’ll be a story many readers will love. 

[we-are-rogue]

Roles on a Pirate Ship

[by Mark Cookman / Tribality 1, 2, 3]  @we-are-pirate, @we-are-scarlet-corsair

Officer Roles on a Pirate Ship 

If you are running a game with pirates in it, then you should know what the job entails. It’s not all boarding ships, counting booty, and drinking rum like you might think. A great deal of hard work is required to run a sailing ship with a law-abiding crew, let alone one populated by pirates. In this essay we are going to examine the five principle officers on board a pirate ship, their duties, and their responsibilities. This is part one of a three part lesson. In the next lesson we will examine the duties and responsibilities of other officers and crew members with special duties. In the final lesson, we will look at one very special group of crew members that are almost always overlooked. Read on to learn what pirates expected of their primary officers.

The principal officers of a pirate ship were the captain, the quartermaster, the pilot, the boatswain, and the master gunner. On some ships these positions were all elected by an equal vote of the crew and on others the captain picked the crew members he wanted to serve in the positions. The captain on a pirate vessel was almost always elected by an equal vote of the crew. On a privateer vessel this was not very often the case. Privateer captains were often the owners of the ship or were given commission by their monarch to take a vessel to sea. So it follows with the other officers. If the captain was elected, then generally all of the officers were elected. If the captain was appointed or held his position by means of ownership, then generally he picked the officers. In either case, an officer on a pirate ship served at the whim of the crew. Even a man picked by the captain would be booted down to a simple crewman if he could not do his job. For the most part though, a person elevated to serve as one of the principle officers did so for life. The title of this article refers to the fact that most often the authorities that captured, tried, and hung pirates concentrated on the five principle officers of the ship. These officers were generally the most intelligent and skilled crewmen on board the pirate vessel. They were people that everyone else on board the ship admired for their ability to do their job. Diligent action is the mother of respect on board a ship.

Captain

The captain, however he came to his position, was chosen for his leadership, bravery, and cunning. The captain was responsible for the ship and everything aboard her; every item and every man. He was responsible for the overall decisions affecting the ship and her crew. The captain decided where to sail and what to attack. He was the voice of his crew to all beyond the ship. He often led his crew in battle. In terms of daily duties, the captain kept a log of the voyage, managed the affairs of the ship through the officers, and generally served a four to six hour shift at the helm. The captain stayed in power by being successful. As long as there are prizes to plunder, rum to drink, and food to eat, the captain will not be voted out or mutinied against. It is when things get lean that the captain must worry about crew voting him unfit for command.

Quartermaster

The quartermaster (or first mate on a privateer vessel) was the number two man on the ship. He was responsible for enforcing the ship’s articles and administering punishment when necessary. The quartermaster was the trustee of the ship and her crew. He directly represented the crew to the captain. It was his responsibility to serve as a counterbalance to the captain in decisions that might be hazardous to the ship or the crew. A wise captain made no decisions that his first mate didn’t support. The quartermaster took responsibility for prize vessels and picked the treasure that the crew would take from a prize. He was also responsible for counting the booty and splitting the shares. Each day would find him working with his subordinate officers the boatswain, the master gunner, and the master at arms to effectively run the ship. The first mate also served a turn at the helm, generally a four to six hour shift.

Pilot

The pilot was the number three man on the ship and often the most educated. He served as the ship’s navigator and was generally the best all around sailor aboard the ship. He was responsible for plotting the ship’s course and maintaining that course. The pilot maintained all of the ship’s charts and maps as well as the tools of navigation. He was charged with keeping a daily log of every event relating to the sailing of the ship. He recorded the depth, the currents, the wind patterns, the ship’s location, the locations of reefs and sandbars, and the state of the rigging. He reported directly to the captain. The pilot oversaw the work of the sail-master and almost always had at least one assistant (a pilot’s mate) to help him with his duties. The pilot and his mate both served separate shifts at the helm in addition to taking readings from the moon and stars to plot and maintain the course.

Boatswain

The boatswain was the number four man on the ship and often the most feared by the crew. He was in charge of the provisions for the ship. He maintained the stores of food, water, rum, gunpowder, shot, sails, rope, wood, and tar required to keep the ship and crew fit for action. The boatswain also directed the loading of cargo into the hold to maintain the proper ballast to ensure level sailing. He was in charge of keeping the watches on the ship and maintaining discipline among the deck crew. He was responsible for the ship’s longboats and for picking a crew to man the sweeps when the longboats were used. The boatswain was charged with maintaining the ship’s seaworthy status. He oversaw the duties of both the carpenter and the cook. The boatswain generally had a mate to help him with his responsibilities. In general, his duties were to make certain that all the work of running the ship was done. He reported to the quartermaster. The Boatswain was often the most feared man on the ship because his obligations often made him uncompromising. It was his responsibility to keep everything “ship-shape”. Leniency was something the quartermaster might give to the crew, but it was not something the boatswain was in the position to give. Day and night, the boatswain would drive the crew to do whatever work was required. He maintained the watch log and reported any problems to the quartermaster.

Master Gunner

The master gunner was the number five man on the ship. He was responsible for the care and cleaning of all firearms, culverin (deck guns), and cannons on board the ship. He was also responsible for training the crew in the use of both firearms and ship’s weaponry. The master gunner picked and ran the gunnery crew. He reported to the quartermaster, but was responsible to the entire ship to make certain that the cannons hit the declared target. He was also responsible for maintaining the inventory of powder and shot for all of the guns on the ship. The master gunner was the only crew member besides the captain and the quartermaster entrusted to carry a key to the ship’s powder magazine. Additionally, the master gunner often led or picked hunting parties when they were called for. His day to day duties mainly consisted of drilling the gunnery crew and maintaining the guns.

The Next in Line to Hang – More Roles on a Pirate Ship

In this second part of a three part lesson dealing with the crew positions aboard a pirate vessel, we are going to look at the responsibilities of the Sail-master, the Carpenter, the Cook, the Surgeon, and the Master at Arms. These were all lower officer positions and were either voted upon or assigned by the captain as discussed in the first part of this lesson. The sailors who served in these positions were skilled laborers and, as such, their skills were always very much in demand on a ship. They were almost always offered a greater share of the treasure because of their skills. These were definitely crew members that a pirate ship could not function without.

Sail-master

The Sail-master was the most experienced crewman in the rigging and usually one of the best sailors on the ship. He was responsible for maintaining the sails and the rigging. The Sail-master knew every knot, line, rope, block and tackle in the rigging as well as how to repair them all. He was also responsible for training and running the sail crew as well as overseeing the making and patching of sails. The Sail-master took orders from and reported to the pilot.

Carpenter

The Carpenter was a skilled wood worker, often with some shipwright experience, who did all of the woodworking required by the crew. He was primarily responsible for repairing damage to the wooden portions of the ship and for plugging leaks that got too bad. (Ye should understand right now, before ye go to sea, that all ships leak, mates. It’s just when they really leak badly that you have to worry about it.) The Carpenter was also responsible for the construction of barrels and crates, as needed, to store cargo, as well as maintaining the tools of his trade. He took orders from and reported to the Boatswain.

Cook

The Cook was one of the most important of the lower officers. He was in charge of all matters relating to food on the ship. He made certain there was enough food, water, and rum on board for the planned cruise. He cooked the meals and suggested rationing when it was necessary. The Cook butchered the meat brought back by hunting parties and was the only man trusted to light a fire below decks. He maintained the necessary tools for both cooking and butchering. The Cook took orders from and reported to the Boatswain.

Surgeon

The Surgeon was likely one of the toughest men on the ship. He served as the barber/doctor/emergency surgeon for the entire crew. He was equally capable of shaving your beard and cutting off your damaged leg. The Surgeon dealt with not only the sick and the wounded, but also the dead. He, like the other lower officers, was responsible for maintaining the necessary tools of his trade. The Surgeon took his orders from and reported to the Quartermaster. It was rare for a ship to have a real doctor and it was common for the carpenter or the cook to fill this role as needed.

Master at Arms

The Master at Arms was often the most skilled warrior on the crew. He was responsible for training the crew in hand to hand combat. He also led the ship’s boarding parties and hunting parties when they were necessary. The Master at Arms position was not a separate position on every vessel and often these responsibilities fell to the Quartermaster. When the Master at Arms position was filled on a ship, he took orders from and reported to the Quartermaster.

These 5 core positions represent the Non-Commissioned Officers of a pirate or privateer ship. These men all commanded other men on work details and so their words carried great sway with the crew. It was often from among these men that the next captain was chosen when a captain lost his position through a vote of no confidence. Thus, these were the men that the captain had to keep loyal to him to stay in command of the ship.

And Hang the Musikers, Too – Even More Roles on a Pirate Ship 

In this article, we will be looking at the makeup of the crew itself. Remember that the only rule with pirates is that there are no rules; no two crews of any two pirate ships were exactly the same. Even so, we can narrow down some roles common to pirate/privateer crews based upon the jobs that must be done aboard ship. Most simply put, pirate crews are a mixture of brutes, gunners, swabbies, and musikers. Let’s examine each category in turn.

Brutes

A great deal of hard work and heavy hauling is involved in just sailing a tall-masted ship. In strong winds the canvas sails must be man-handled by a deck crew that is stronger. Loading and unloading supplies, most especially cannons or chests of gold, requires a number of strong backs. This is why every ship has its share of brutes – big, strong men capable of handling themselves no matter the work or the fight. In addition to the tasks already mentioned, brutes would be key men in hunting parties, ship boarding, and raiding groups as well. Keep in mind that not all brutes need to be hulking bruisers. A wiry-tough and dexterous hunter, skilled with both blades and long rifle, could be a brute as well. Brutes, no matter their size, do not shrink from a hard task. Men of this sort make up perhaps as much as ½ of a pirate crew, but they will be mixed among the gunners and swabbies, not a stand alone corp. Most of the men on a pirate or privateer ship were probably gunners.

Gunners

Depending upon the size of their shot, each cannon required a crew of either 3 or 4 men to load and fire it. So a sloop carrying 4 small guns per side would require a minimum of 24 men to fully maintain them and that does not include the officers directing the cannon fire. On a large ship, like Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, a full gun crew would be 160 men dedicated only to firing the cannons. (It is important to note here that Blackbeard had a total crew compliment of 125 on board the Queen Anne’s Revenge.) These crewmen would have to be available 24/7 to do their job whenever required, but otherwise might have no duties on the ship. There was double-duty in most crews though. Most pirate ships didn’t keep a full compliment of gunners like warships of the time did because fewer crew members meant fewer shares and that meant more money for everyone when the treasure was split. Gunners could make up between 1/3 to 2/3 of a crew.

Swabbies

Swabbies, or actual trained sailors, are the crew members responsible for handling the rigging and the sails to keep the ship moving. These are the guys and gals who climb the ratlines into the rigging and walk the spars that jut from the masts. Swabbies sometimes fight from the highest position that they can get to on their own ship and then leap into the rigging of the enemy vessel when boarding. Often dexterous fighters, swabbies are known for leaping into the fray, but sometimes they hide in the rigging as deadly snipers. It might be surprising to discover that skilled sailors usually comprised less than 1/3 of the total crew compliment of the ship.

Musikers

It is difficult to prove that “musikers”, or musicians as we call them, were ever a stand-alone part of a pirate crew. However, two excellent examples from the pirate period demonstrate that they have been a common part of most ships of war, pirate and privateer ships included. The first example is from the early Seventeenth century. In Captain John Smith’s advice concerning how to conduct a one-on-one naval engagement he remarks when preparing to board one should, “… sound Drums and Trumpets, and Saint George for England.” The second example comes from the early Eighteenth century. In the articles of Captain Bartholomew Roberts it is stated: “The Musikers to have Rest on the Sabbath Day, but the other six Days and Nights, none without special Favour.” When thinking about the musicians on board a ship in the 16th to 18th centuries, one must not think of a band. That would be far too organized a concept. There is no way to know how many crew members may have been musicians, but one assumes that the number is not large.

It is likely that ships of this period had crew members who owned musical instruments as varied as brass horns, mouth harps, fiddles, bag pipes and accordions. Furthermore, sailors could gather numerous instruments from the various ports of call their ship made. Examples here are numerous: cowhide and goatskin drums from Africa, dried gourd maracas from Cuba, bamboo drums and flutes from Hispaniola, and even tambourines from Morocco. Pause a moment and consider the combined sounds of all of the instruments mentioned here. Now you know why a band is not the idea you want to have. The musicians were popular with the crew, as they were entertainment as well as a valuable battle element. The musicians played during meal times and during work breaks allowing the crew some entertainment to break the monotony of long hours of tiring work. This boost in moral was welcome at anytime, but was perhaps the most effective when used in battle.

From stories of Bartholomew Roberts crew and others, we know that when a ship with musicians approached another ship with the intention to fight, the effects of the music could be terrifying to the enemy. The musicians would play marches and other martial music. There were drum rolls, trumpet and bugle calls, and perhaps even a piper given the nationality of the crew. Add to this the noise of the ship’s cook beating upon his pots and pans and the crew stamping their feet or beating their weapons against the ship. Finally top this off with the sounds of shouting, screaming, and shooting, both pistols and rifles as well as cannons and deck guns. Your imagination can supply you with the details of the scene. The intended result is achieved: the morale aboard the pirate vessel is raised to a fevered pitch while the morale of their intended prize is shaken. So do not forget that pirates and privateers know the value of bardic inspiration when you run those encounters.

[we-are-pirate]

Thanks for the tag!

[heroineimages]

Useful resource!

[viskafrer]

“Nothing can compare to books and writing while it’s raining.”

— C.S. Lewis (via wordsnquotes)

[rogueity]

@ the people who reblog my posts, tell me about their wips, comment on my writing, send me memes, ask about my ocs, or literally just like one of my moodboards:

[wordsnstuff]