Joaquín Espina

A writer of speculative fiction. Also a nonbinary queer Latine with massive ADHD.

[xiaq]

One of the best things about being a writer is thinking of something small you can add to your work that’s just. Devastating. Like you’re sitting there going. Oh. That would be diabolical. People would get really riled up about that. Exquisite. Let’s do it.

[luna-azzurra]

Something nobody prepares you for is that the better you get at writing the harder it becomes. beginners write freely because they don't know enough to know what's wrong. then you learn. and suddenly you can see every single flaw in real time as you're making it and you have to write anyway while your own brain is in the corner going "that's a weak verb. that transition is lazy. you've used that word three times." getting good at this is mostly just getting better at ignoring yourself.

[theprofessional-amateur]

Well played Merriam-Webster.

“There is artificial intelligence, and there is actual intelligence” 🎤🫳

[theprofessional-amateur]

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

[thewitchwives]

Some people really need to learn the lesson that the fact that being touched feels good (for most people) is not equivalent to sexual orientation. Like, this is coming from someone who is very pro assuming queer as default. But like, the number of breakdowns I've heard over sexual identity because someone got off *once* to a person of a gender identity other than the one(s) they expect to get off to OR the number of times I've heard about people pressuring others to change their sexual identity because of such incidents is ABSURD. Especially in very kinky situations where the one doing the touching is kinda just... being utilized, for lack of better phrasing?

Like, I'm not talking "I went on a date and we had a very nice time that ended in sex and this has changed my orientation" or "I made out for like an hour with someone at a party and now I can't stop thinking about them, I think my sexual identity has changed". I'm talking "I was doing naughty things in a group setting, and one of those touches came from a [gender] person, does that make me [gay/straight/whatever]?"

Are you sexually attracted to dildos after one gets you off? No? Okay, well, maybe allowing a same-gender person to get you off doesn't make you gay; it just makes you not homophobic enough to get in the way of your own pleasure. (Same goes for "Am I straight now?" ppl)

Let shit feel good. It doesn't have to be that deep.

Also stop freaking out about labels if things DO change. Labels are there for communication and finding like-minded people. It is not a sin to be a lesbian with an exception or to go from gay to bi or what the fuck ever. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fuckwit.

[thewitchwives]

Actually, on that note. A lot of the same people (but it is not a 1:1 overlap, some people know one thing and not the other) also need to learn that good sex is not the sole basis for a longterm relationship. If all you know is their name, number, and how good they do the deed, maybe consider finding out a bit more, having a date with talking in it, before moving in together or getting their name tattooed on your ass.

If you "catch feelings" after having sex with very little getting-to-know-you, then you have caught feelings for a made up person in your head. It's the hormones talking, okay, and they will tell you ANYTHING to get you laid again. Don't listen. Use your logic and reason. Talk to the person about some real shit.

[duckprintspress]

Ten Quick Tips to Help Writers Edit Their Own Work

Learning to edit your own writing effectively and thoroughly is a difficult skill to learn. It can be especially hard to spot small errors when you, as the author, know what you meant to say - your eye will often gloss over what your document actually says. To learn to edit your work well requires practice and careful reading of work you admire and want to emulate - we could give advice on how to do that level, certainly, but no amount of advice will negate the need to work at it until you get the hang of it and experiment with different strategies until you find one that works for you. However, spotting small errors that are easy to overlook in your own work is a much more solvable problem. Here’s some suggestions to help you look at familiar words with fresh eyes!

Write a first draft in a font you’re comfortable with (most of us here at Duck Prints Press use either Times New Roman or Arial), and then when it’s time to edit, switch to a radically different font - like Comic Sans, or, if you struggle with sans serif fonts, Courier. (Yes, they're obnoxious fonts. The obnoxiousness is the point.)

Change the background color of your document. Do you usually write in day mode? Try editing in night mode! Do you usually write with a colored background to reduce eye strain? Try a different color, or white!

Change the font color in your document. If you default to writing in black, try red, or, if doing this in tandem with a background color change, try switching the font color to one that looks just awful with your chosen background color.

Change the font size in your document. This can be especially helpful because it’ll radically change where in any given line your words fall - it’s often harder to spot issues at the very end of lines, because our brain fills in the end when we move to the next line, so adjusting where things fall on the page can help.

Switch what medium you’re working in - if you typed your first draft, print it out or re-write it by hand. If you hand wrote your first draft, edit it as you type it up!

Read it out loud. Yes, the whole thing. Yes, every single word. This will help spot typos, missing words, weird commas, etc., and can also help identify sentences that are off, repetitive, or otherwise wonky.

Alternatively, find someone else to read it outloud to you! You can take notes and make changes as you listen to them.

If you use an outline, go back and compare your draft to the outline. This can help make sure you didn’t miss anything, and also doing a side-by-side reading can help find small things.

Change the characters names using a simple find-and-replace, it can help it feel like you’re reading something different.

Put it aside for a few weeks and work on other things, then come back and read it through straight, making no changes - read it like you’re a reader, rather than reading it like you’re the author, and try to spot what you may have left out or been unclear about.

Getting a story “clean” from a SPAG (spelling and grammar) point of view is hard, and even for an experienced copyeditor, it usually takes multiple read-throughs. If you’ve found it’s something you struggle with, one of the perks of the above suggestions is that nearly all can be tried with minimal effort - you’ll quickly be able to tell whether, for example, changing the font helps you or not. If it does help - great, you’ve found a new tool to help you edit! If it doesn’t help - there’s plenty more things on the list for you to try!

Do y’all have any different tricks you use to help you edit? Let us know, we’d love to expand our list!

@licieoic and @nottesilhouette contributed ideas to this list!

*

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[podcastwizard]

affirmations for writers: i know how to write. i have seen sentences before, and i know how to make one. i can identify up to several words and their meanings. i am not afraid of semicolons.

[primulaceas]

Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home (translated by Megan McDowell)

[primulaceas]

Natalie Diaz, “Snake-Light.” Postcolonial Love Poem

[lesseromens]

blood on the glass. is the sky going dark. thorn

[voughtwifeannie]

Zoom In, Don’t Glaze Over: How to Describe Appearance Without Losing the Plot

You’ve met her before. The girl with “flowing ebony hair,” “emerald eyes,” and “lips like rose petals.” Or him, with “chiseled jawlines,” “stormy gray eyes,” and “shoulders like a Greek statue.”

We don’t know them.

We’ve just met their tropes.

Describing physical appearance is one of the trickiest — and most overdone — parts of character writing. It’s tempting to reach for shorthand: hair color, eye color, maybe a quick body scan. But if we want a reader to see someone — to feel the charge in the air when they enter a room — we need to stop writing mannequins and start writing people.

So let’s get granular. Here’s how to write physical appearance in a way that’s textured, meaningful, and deeply character-driven.

1. Hair: It’s About Story, Texture, and Care

Hair says a lot — not just about genetics, but about choices. Does your character tame it? Let it run wild? Is it dyed, greying, braided, buzzed, or piled on top of her head in a hurry?

Good hair description considers:

Texture (fine, coiled, wiry, limp, soft)

Context (windblown, sweat-damp, scorched by bleach)

Emotion (does she twist it when nervous? Is he ashamed of losing it?)

Flat: “Her long brown hair framed her face.”

Better: “Her ponytail was too tight, the kind that whispered of control issues and caffeine-fueled 4 a.m. library shifts.”

You don’t need to romanticise it. You need to make it feel real.

2. Eyes: Less Color, More Connection

We get it: her eyes are violet. Cool. But that doesn’t tell us much.

Instead of focusing solely on eye color, think about:

What the eyes do (do they dart, linger, harden?)

What others feel under them (seen, judged, safe?)

The surrounding features (dark circles, crow’s feet, smudged mascara)

Flat: “His piercing blue eyes locked on hers.”

Better: “His gaze was the kind that looked through you — like it had already weighed your worth and moved on.”

You’re not describing a passport photo. You’re describing what it feels like to be seen by them.

3. Facial Features: Use Contrast and Texture

Faces are not symmetrical ovals with random features. They’re full of tension, softness, age, emotion, and life.

Things to look for:

Asymmetry and character (a crooked nose, a scar)

Expression patterns (smiling without the eyes, habitual frowns)

Evidence of lifestyle (laugh lines, sun spots, stress acne)

Flat: “She had a delicate face.”

Better: “There was something unfinished about her face — as if her cheekbones hadn’t quite agreed on where to settle, and her mouth always seemed on the verge of disagreement.”

Let the face be a map of experience.

4. Bodies: Movement > Measurement

Forget dress sizes and six packs. Think about how bodies occupy space. How do they move? What are they hiding or showing? How do they wear their clothes — or how do the clothes wear them?

Ask:

What do others notice first? (a presence, a posture, a sound?)

How does their body express emotion? (do they go rigid, fold inwards, puff up?)

Flat: “He was tall and muscular.”

Better: “He had the kind of height that made ceilings nervous — but he moved like he was trying not to take up too much space.”

Describing someone’s body isn’t about cataloguing. It’s about showing how they exist in the world.

5. Let Emotion Tint the Lens

Who’s doing the describing? A lover? An enemy? A tired narrator? The emotional lens will shape what’s noticed and how it’s described.

In love: The chipped tooth becomes charming.

In rivalry: The smirk becomes smug.

In mourning: The face becomes blurred with memory.

Same person. Different lens. Different description.

6. Specificity is Your Superpower

Generic description = generic character. One well-chosen detail creates intimacy. Let us feel the scratch of their scarf, the clink of her earrings, the smudge of ink on their fingertips.

Examples:

“He had a habit of adjusting his collar when he lied — always clockwise, always twice.”

“Her nail polish was always chipped, but never accidentally.”

Make the reader feel like they’re the only one close enough to notice.

Describing appearance isn’t just about what your character looks like. It’s about what their appearance says — about how they move through the world, how others see them, and how they see themselves.

Zoom in on the details that matter. Skip the clichés. Let each description carry weight, story, and emotion. Because you’re not building paper dolls. You’re building people.

[unravelingwhy]

my fave writing reminder

honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.

[weaselishmcdiesel]

this is about procrastinating. or executive dysfunction. i think

[i-will-write]

[automatuck9]

[ekjohnston]

Tolkien: I suspected the weirdest dude of all time, but literally nothing else.

Me: ...feels right

[avi-why]

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

[quarter0master]

May I add something, because I will never shut up about this book (Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark):

[jackironsides]

Finally, some good fucking advice

[amyamychan]

[Image Description]

Two highlighted selections from the referenced book. They read:

To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: “She smiled happily” and She smiled sadly". Which one works best? The first seems weak because “smiled” contains the meaning of “happily”. On the other hand, “sadly” changes the meaning.

Remember the song “Killing Me Softly”? Good adverb. How about “Killing Me Fiercely”? Bad adverb.

Look also for weak verb-adverb combinations that you can revise with stronger verbs: “She went quickly down the stairs” can become “she dashed down the stairs.” “He listened surreptitiously” can become “He eavesdropped.” Give yourself a choice.

[End ID]

[dduane]

I like writing a lot…..

But when does it stop being soul sucking????

How can both be true??

(sigh) Easily. All the arts are full of apparent contradictions like this.

Re: writing, specifically: This work is a very particular kind of magic. And like all real magics, the use of it inevitably has a price.

"Soul-sucking" strikes me as a slightly harsh idiom for the payment of the Writing Price. But that's okay, because the idiom itself points at the remedy. And it's really simple! Just this:

Every time you sit down to write, you have to consciously work to do it well enough so that you grow some more soul.

(I mean, you don't think that souls run out when you use them, surely? Or can't regenerate over time? They can be surprisingly resilient... assuming you don't buy into the idea that they're limited to what you feel like you started out with, or what you've got at the moment.)

Repeatedly pouring your soul into your work is very much like bodybuilding. At first it hurts like hell. Then the body starts to adjust to the increased demands you're putting on it. After a while you look back and find you've blown way past the boundaries that you earlier thought were impassible.

When you start getting that soul-sucked feeling, it's just a sign that the workouts are having an effect. It's the equivalent of the lactic-acid ache after a session at the gym. But you still need to keep working at it to improve your results. If you find you need to take more rest time between writing bouts to replenish your reserves, fine: work out what your best refractory period seems to be, and adjust your workload to suit that as best you can. But at all costs, keep writing, at whatever interval works best. Over time, it does get easier.

Does it ever stop "sucking" / demanding that price?

Nope. Sorry! But you can learn over time to grow into those inevitable demands on your time, energy and commitment. Just keep reminding yourself: Nothing truly worth doing ever comes without a price tag. And the more you work at your craft, over time, the bigger the price tags you'll find you can afford without flinching.

...So get back in the gym. (And I hope this helps!)

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

being a writer is constantly google the definitions of words you already know the meanings of because your brain's always paranoid and telling you maybe you've been using them wrong your entire life

I can excuse misusing words in my daily life but my mlm slow-burn enemies to lovers smut has to be perfect

[francoyovich]

“Huddled together, furtive and vulnerable. Rats in a maze.” God, I love this game, but it can also be soul crushing at times. This is what this illustration was supposed to depict. This is one of my two Darkest Dungeon inspired pieces, it will be presented at the Power Up expo at the Nexus bar in Montreal. If you want to pass by and take a look, go check the Facebook event, all the details are there. https://www.facebook.com/events/1684487011814373/

[zizicat]

[laterovaries-deactivated2017022]

This will always be my favorite gifset. Ever.

[onceuponamirror]

im morally obligated to reblog this every time i see it

[holylulusworld]

It’s back on my dash. 😂

[tuttle-did-it]

Obligatory reblog every time this crosses my dash.