I'm a nerd who occasionally writes stuff @jade-knows-how-to-read - Tumblr Blog

Just did the githyanki creche and oof, having some feelings about Lae'zel almost dying, feeling her entire worldview split at the seams, and in response doubling down on denial and fanatical dedication to Vlaakith. You don't realize the full depth of githyanki indoctrination until you see it entirely override her self-preservation and any common sense.

jade-knows-how-to-read

This is Lae’zel’s lowest point. Stick with her, her story is worth seeing for yourself.

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #lae’zel

daphrona

On vacation and I brought my steam deck, and upon level up, both Shadowheart and Gale got white hair

jade-knows-how-to-read

People are going grey earlier and earlier these days 😔

#bg3 #:/#baldur's gate iii #baldur's gate 3

crazy-hazy-sims

I just found out we canbe poly in baldur's gate 3 this is huge news excuse me while i create the biggest polycule ever to rival that one 100+ polycule thst exsists in one of the us states i dont remember which one

Edit: sadly not every companion is poly like i originally thought my plans have been foiled

jade-knows-how-to-read

Honestly, I really like that some of the companions want monogamous relationships. It adds a layer of depth to the npcs by showing that they have different romantic needs.

cyber-corp

Having your own personal blog is honestly quite a nice change of pace compared to Reddit. I could put a funny GIF of George Bush getting hit by a shoe on here and the worse case scenario is that no one even notices.

You put that on a big subreddit and you get your eyes gouged out and a heap of political discourse underneath your post.

Oh my gosh. I greatly underestimated how hard it would be to draw fabric. I do like how Ariel’s hat came out though. Oh, also, if you think Ariel seems nice do yourself a favor and don’t look up what happens to her in the lore.

#Gishki #Gishki Ariel #duel terminal #fan art #yu!gi!oh!#yugioh #drawing #my art

Day two of forcing myself to draw- Gem-Knight Crystal. I kinda messed up the perspective on his body but he’s not awful. Just wait. Eventually I’ll get him looking sufficiently surly.

#yugioh #Yu!Gi!Oh!#gem knight #gem-knight #gem-knight crystal #gem knight Crystal #fan art #duel terminal #yugioh duel terminal #don’t you dare look at his hands

I’m not much of an artist but I really like Duel Terminal lore so I figured I’d start here. I think I’ll draw Crystal next.

#yugioh #Yu!Gi!Oh!#fan art #Lazuli #Gem-Knight #Gem-Knight Lazuli #Duel Terminal

authorshen

Tips on Pacing

We, as creators, seek that hook that gets the readers invested and keeps them that way. Nothing does that better than tension. There are all kinds, but it often occurs between characters. The "do they like me" of romance, the interruptions of erotica, the intense adversary from an unknown opponent, or the whodunits of mystery; Tension comes in all shapes and sizes, but it boils down to one thing, leaving the readers holding their breath in anticipation of the next page.

A large part of the creative process is figuring out how to create that tension without leaving the readers wanting to quit out of frustration or confusion. I would like to say there is a correct way to pace things, but it depends entirely on the story and situation.

Action scenes, for example, move very quickly, whereas a scene with a lot of dialogue will move at a snail’s pace. A spicy scene will emulate real life, moving slowly at first and increase its pace. A dramatic scene can be either fast or slow, depending on what it contains.

There are the peaceful scenes that do not move the same as any other kind of scene, showing the contentment of characters, the sun setting, or moving from one place to another. In writing or showing these scenes in a comic, it will go very quickly but the reader will perceive them as slow.

Showing a car ride, or a cooking scene allows characters to reflect on what has been happening and offers character development, but it does not have that tension at all. Still, adding those scenes is like adding bread to your butter. Now, everyone has their own tastes, but I would find it very odd to find someone who would consume just butter, especially if it was unsalted. Adding those peaceful scenes makes the ones that aren’t, all the more impactful, to both your readers and your characters.

The calm before the storm does wonders in storytelling, but the one thing you want to avoid is spending too much time in that calm. An example of this would be The Hobbit. Now, I love The Hobbit. It’s a classic hero’s journey, with a deep world build and rich characters, but parts of it are unnecessarily wordy. There is a page that describes the moss on the trees in such detail that you can taste it, which shows Tolkien’s skills as a wordsmith, but it was ultimately padding.

waits for the rage. Padding; words that don’t move your plot forward and only add to your word/panel count. Padding or filler should not be confused with peaceful scenes. Peaceful scenes will add to your story, padding will not. The literary world has changed a lot since Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, and we can see that evident in modern literature by the fact that there would hardly be a mention of trees at all, let alone the moss that grows upon them.

The next subject of pacing is sentence variation and flow. Now, flow is a tricky subject, and is not often resolved during the initial draft. When I am editing, things will sometimes be in the wrong order and disrupt flow. When flow is off, tension wanes, and when tension wanes, readers will lose interest. There may be entire scenes that I think don’t work where they are, but rather than delete those scenes, I find a place where they fit better. Perhaps that place is earlier, perhaps it is later. If you thought that scene was necessary when you wrote it, perhaps there is a proper place for it.

In A Galactic Star, the episode titled Repercussions, was supposed to happen right before the climax. I moved it up to allow the reader to understand Chrome’s hesitations between him and Neon.

Even in comics, you aren’t going to necessarily catch things after you just completed them. Many indie creators will recommend a space between writing the initial draft and editing it. The amount of time varies per person, but it is suggested to at least give it a day. The reason is because of the completion high; You just created this thing and in your mind it is amazing and awesome, not seeing the mistakes that are there. I feel as though editing is like polishing a stone; Every stone, no matter how grey or plain in appearance, can be polished into a stunning masterpiece if given enough time.

The editing process has multiple phases, the first is checking for spelling and grammar mistakes, and the second is checking the sentence structure for flow. Example: The loud dog barked. Vs. The dog barked loudly. The first is grammatically correct but makes you pause to process, whereas the second will allow you to move on to the next sentence without that stop.

Flow is a key component in pacing, which is a key component in tension, which keeps your readers engaged. As a potential reader of your story, I hope this will help you to bring it to life.

I really appreciate how differently Santa Claus is portrayed in various Christmas Carols. If you listen to a Christmas playlist you’ll run the full gambit of, “Santa Claus is a jolly old man,” to “Santa Claus is plowing my mom,” to “Santa Claus committed vehicular manslaughter and fled the scene.”

Name one other character with that kind of range, I’ll wait.

#christmas #christmas carol #santa claus #Santa #grandma got run over by a reindeer #I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus

My bad habit as an aspiring writer is coming up with an idea I really like, fleshing it out until I can fully understand what I’m going for, then realizing, “oh no, this is NOT the first book in a series.”

I could come up with about a dozen sequels for whatever but starting something from the beginning is inexplicably hard for me. Why can’t the first book in my series just spawn from the aether for me?

#writeblr #writerscorner #writers on tumblr #I should probably just focus on fan fiction right now tbh #writing

nyamafriend

nothing weve posted are even firecrackers compared to this fucking atomic bomb of a post

jade-knows-how-to-read

Oh god I actually got most of those…

#tumblr #staff #twitter #inside joke #cringe #I need to get out of here

Being a writer is weird.

So I'm thinking about taking another whack at writing after about a year of passionate procrastination. To get the old creative juices flowing I decided to read up some of my old non-starters.

Let me tell you, I was not prepared for the moment a poorly visualized super hero fight turned into a teenage girl trying to hide from her abusive father. Like, holy fuck past me, calm down! That tonal whiplash almost knocked my teeth out.

#writing #writerscorner #writers on tumblr #writeblr #you’re stuck with me now #wtf am i doing