Let Us Dance Under the Silver Moon

Female, sometimes writer, sometimes reader.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

MID SERIES SHAKEUPS - Terrible Writing Advice

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WRITER SELF CARE - Terrible Writing Advice

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

The Rules for Rulers

The four rules of power

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Honest Trailers | Dune

[inky-duchess]

Writer's Guide: Writing about Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails

Or how to write believable bar and nightclub scenes. I often find myself helping friends with their WIPs and often it as a bartender, I find myself having to correct them on bar and mixology terminology. So here's my quick guide to keeping your lingo on the straight and narrow.

Terminology

DASH/SPLASH: a drop of a mixer such as juice or flavouring.

MIXER: non alcholic beveraged served with the measure of alcohol in the same glass.

NEAT: Plain, without any addition of ice or a mixture. Just the alcohol.

ON THE ROCKS: Served over Ice.

STRAIGHT UP: The cocktail is chilled with ice and strained into a glass with no ice

DIRTY – if somebody asks for a dirty martini, you add olive juice, the more juice the dirtier it is

DRY- A dry martini includes a drop of vermouth and an extra dry martini contains a drop of scotch swirled in the glass and drained before adding the gin

BACK – a ‘back’ is a drink that accompanies an alcholic beverage such as water or Coke, but isn't mixed.

GARNISH – something added to a drink such as a lime or lemon or orange.

TWIST - a twist is literally a twist of fruit skin in the drink.

BITTERS – a herbal alcoholic blend added to cocktails.

RIMMED - the glass is coated in salt or sugar to enhance the taste.

VIRGIN- non alcoholic

MOCKTAIL- a virgin cocktail

DOUBLE - Two measures of the same alcohol in the same glass. A bartender can only legally serve a double in the same glass. They cannot serve you a triple.

Equipment

COCKTAIL SHAKER - it is a metal cup that fits into a glass, used to shake the components of your drink together with ice to chill it.

STRAINER- used to seperate ice in the shaker from the liquid within as you pour it into the glass.

MEASURES- these are little metal cylinders meant to measure out the pours of the alcohol. You pour the alcohol from the bottle into the measure and then put it into the glass. It's imperative that the right measure goes into the glass or the drink will taste of shit.

BAR SPOON – a long spoon meant to mix the drink.

OPTIC- it is a mechanism that attaches a bottle to an automatic pourer. The bartender usually fits the glass under the spout and pushes up to release the amount which cuts off at the single measure.

SHOT GLASS- a shot glass is a small glass to contain one measure

PINT GLASS- a glass used for serving pints of lager or ale

HALF PINT GLASS - a tulip shaped glass half the measure of a pint glass

SPEEDWELL/TAPS/DRAFT: are the taps used to pour beer from kegs stored under the bar floor.

SLIM JIM/HIGH BALL GLASS- It is a tall straight holding 8 to 12 ounces and used for cocktails served on the rocks such as a Gin and Tonic.

ROCKS GLASS - or an old fashioned glass, it is short and round. These glasses are used for drinks such as Old Fashioneds or Sazerac

COUPE GLASS- Are broad round stemmed glasses used for cocktails that are chill and served without ice such as a Manhattan, Boulevardier or a Gimlet

MARTINI GLASS - a martini glass is that classic stemmed "v" shaped glass, used to serve drinks without mixers such as Martini and Cosmopolitans

MARGARITA GLASS - is a large, round bowl like glass with a broad and a tall stem used for Margaritas and Daiquiris

HURRICANE GLASS- a tall tulip-like shaped glass with a flared rim and short stem. It holds 20 ounces which means it is the perfect glass to serve iced cocktails in such as Pina Colada, Singapore Sling, Hurricane

Alcoholic Drinks

Vodka- Vodka is made from potatoes or fermented cereal grains. It has a strong taste and scent. It is usually consumed neat with a mixer such as Coke or Orange juice or cranberry juice or in cocktails like Martini, Bloody Mary and Cosmopolitan.

Whisky/Whiskey- Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage, made from fermented grain mash such as barley, corn, rye, and wheat. It gets its flavour form being fermented in casks for long period of time. When serving a whiskey, one asks whether they want ice or a mixer. Everyone has their own preference. I prefer mine like myself, strong and Irish. Scotch is Scottish Brewed whisky.

Rum- Rum is made by fermenting and distilling sugarcane molasses/juice. It is aged in oak barrels. It has a sweet taste.

Beer: is made out of cereal grains and served chilled in bottles or pulled from taps/speedwells.

Ale: Ale in the middle ages referred to beer brewed without hops (a kind of flowering plant that gives beer its bitter taste). It is sweeter and would typically have a fruity aftertaste.

Stout- is a darker beer sometimes brewed from roasted malt, coming in a sweet version and dry version, the most famous stout being Guinness.

Poitín- (pronounced as pot-cheen) is made from cereals, grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses and potatoes. It is a Dangerous Drink (honestly i still don't know how I ended up in that field with a traffic cone and a Shetland pony) and technically illegal. Country folk in Ireland used to brew it in secrets in stills hidden on their land.

Vermouth: Is made from infused with roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, spices, brandy but vermouth is classed aromatized wine. It comes sweet or dry

Gin- is made from juniper, coriander, citrus peel, cinnamon, almond or liquorice and grain alcohol. Gin has a strong scent and taste and is usually served in a martini or a tonic water.

Schnapps- refers to any strong, clear alcoholic beverage. It is considered one of the best types of spirits because of its pure and delicate aroma. Lesson: never drink peach schnapps.

Cocktails and Drinks

Irish Coffee: an Irish coffee is adding whiskey to coffee and sugar and topping it with cream. As a bartender, I would honestly rather cut my arm off than make one of these.

Baby Guinness: Is a shot made by pouting Tia Maria or Kaluah into a shot glass and spreading Baileys on the top so it looks like a small pint of Guinness.

Silver Bullet: a shot of mixed tequila and sambuca.

Long Island Iced Tea:  The Long Island contains vodka, gin, tequila, light rum, lemon juice, triple sec and cola. It has a real kick.

Mai Tai: is made with light and dark rum, lime juice, orange curacao, orgeat syrup and rock candy syrup and served with a mint garnish.

Manhattan: The Manhattan is made with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters.

Margarita: The margarita is made with tequila, cointreau and lime juice.

Mojito: a mojito is made with muddled mint, white rum, lime juice, simple syrup and soda.

Martini: a martini is made of gin, dry vermouth and garnished with a lemon twist or olives.

Mimosa: a mimosa is a made with sparkling wine and orange juice.

Mint Julep: Made with Kentucky bourbon, simple syrup, mint leaves and crushed ice

Pina Colada: is made with white rum, dark rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream

Screwdriver: Vodka and Orange juice

Tequila Sunrise: tequila, orange juice and grenadine

Tom Collins: made with spiked lemonade, sparkling water, lemon juice, simple syrup and gin

Whiskey Sour: is made with powdered sugar, seltzer, lemon juice and whiskey.

White Russian: made with vodka, coffee liqueur and cream.

Black Russian: made with two parts coffee liqueur and five parts vodka.

Gin and Tonic: gin served with tonic water

Bloody Mary: made with vodka and tomato juice mixed with lemon juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, fresh herbs, brown sugar and cracked black pepper.

Brandy Alexander: served straight up and made with brandy, cognac, creme de cacao and cream

Cosmopolitan: Made with citrus vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and fresh lime juice

Daiquiri: made with rum, lime juice and sugar.

Gimlet: gin and lime juice

My Top 10 Bartending Rules and Responsibilities

Overpouring is never an option. You can seriously hurt somebody by overpouring, not to mention spoil the drink and ruin your sales. You only serve people what they ask and never more.

When somebody has had enough, you stop serving them. After a while, you know when to cut somebody off.

Never leave bottles on the counter or in reach of customers. Your expensive spirits should never be in reach of anybody but you.

If you tell somebody your selling them premium and top shelf alcohol, you cannot substitute with cheaper licqor. It's illegal.

As a bartender, your eyes always have to be scanning a crowd. You can't leave people hanging.

The golden rule - if you see somebody messing with someone's drink, you chuck it if you can or warn the person. And you get that son of a bitch out of your pub.

50% of the job is cleaning. You have to clean your tools constantly. You cannot reuse measures and spouts, you have to wash everything. Beer traps are clean out every night, rubber mats are washed and anything you have used has to be clean.

You have to hand dry your glasses. You never polish a pint glass as it fucks up the pint. You polish your cocktail glasses, shot glasses and straight glasses.

If someone seems down or on their own, you try make conversation. Often you'll hear some disturbing stuff but always try lend an ear or make everyone feel included.

If you break a glass in the ice bucket, you got to get rid of the ice.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

URBAN FANTASY RELOADED - Terrible Writing Advice

Well...I’ve been called out.

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Ranking Fast Food Mac and Cheese | Bless Your Rank

I have been craving mac and cheese lately, so this came out at a great time

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The Battle of SHARKS!

Sharks!

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Trope Talk: Detective

My current favorite detective shows are Death in Paradise (miss you Ben!) and Father Brown.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Can I say, the US approach to mental health sucks, so so much. I’ve been going through crap, maybe for awhile now, and getting help is so much awful. No one actually wants to help, they just to medicate and send me on my way.

And the one who wants to drug me up--didn’t even bother to look in my file. She complained for forty minutes that I was late to the meeting (I was, that was on me) and then complained even more because she thought I didn’t fill out this one form. I had. She hadn’t bothered to check. But I’m supposed to take medication from this person? You can’t be bothered to look in my file, you can’t be bothered to listen to some of my issues, but somehow feel confident you know my medication needs?

And then my therapist...I tell her how I feel, how anxious and frustrated I am about certain things. Her response? “Well, it sounds like you’re frustrated. Let’s send you right back into the situation that caused all the problems in the first place.”

There’s a reason we’re all crazy. Because even one asks for help, it is never given. It’s all take this pill and go away.

I am so sick of everything.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

REBELS - Terrible Writing Advice

Need to write a rebellion? Don’t want to bother with nuance or logic or character growth and depth? Well, have I got the video for you...

[crowandmoonwriting]

Worldbuilding Tips: FOOD

Food! The greatest part of being alive!

I find that developing a culture’s cuisine can be incredibly helpful for several reasons. For one, you are elaborating on the physical experiences of your world  and culture. Like all sensory descriptions, this can immerse you and your reader. For another, you can learn a lot about a culture by what they eat, including geography, economics, social status, even religious laws. And lastly, because it’s a lot of fun!

1. Geography: one of the greatest contributors to food culture. If your people dwell in the desert, it’s unlikely they’ll have seaweed salad on the menu. Start researching foods from similar geographical landscapes from our world. For example, following a desert theme, look into food from Saharan tribes, or, depending on the kind of desert, foods from the tribes of the American southwest. Consider farming and agriculture in your particular landscape. What can be grown and raised there?

2. Trading: does your culture have extensive trade with a nearby culture? Say your desert culture has a lengthy trade route that extends far into the jungles, and they can trade for exotic dried spices they can’t grow at home. 

3. Social Status: what can your people afford? What is the difference between what a beggar, a middle class merchant, and a noble or royal would eat? Can they afford more imported goods? Can they afford more spices? Are vegetable and grain dishes more common, as in Ancient Rome, among lower classes, and meat more common among upper classes?

4. Religious and social laws: what foods are off-limits? Why are they off-limits? Is anyone of a particular social or religious class allowed to partake, and laymen are never allowed? 

5. Drinks!: don’t forget, many cultures’ drinks are as important in regional cuisine as the food itself. What is the treatment for alcohol? Does one have to be a certain age to drink? Is alcohol illegal, or heavily monitored? Are there drinking rituals or games common to this culture? 

6. Special cuisine: are there some traditional foods eaten only on special occasions? In the West, many have cakes for their weddings, and in the United States, on Thanksgiving, many eat turkey. What festivals, holidays, and other miscellaneous special occasions are there? For example, if there is a public feast day, what can be adequately served to large amounts of people and be prepared beforehand? If there are foods or spices that are especially expensive, do people splurge on these for special occasions? 

7. Cooking techniques: are there any food preparation methods not seen in other cultures? Are these techniques integral to the culture’s cuisine? For example, say a race of gremlins chooses to cook their food not with fire, but with fumes from acid? What would these techniques do to flavour, texture? Can other cultures stomach food prepare with these techniques?

8. Dessert: the best part, in my opinion. What are some guilty pleasure foods? Remember, dessert does NOT have to be sweet. Desserts can just be palate-cleansers or small snacks served at the end of the main meal. Are desserts only for the wealthy, or for everyone?

9. Street food: what are the most common staples in the culture? Is there a tradition of serving these staples in unique ways? Are there restaurants, pubs, inns, etc.? 

10. Why is Food Important?: food, like any other worldbuilding detail, must be interpreted with its effects on characters and plot. Plot points can be created out of food-related issues. For example:

Prohibition: a once widely-loved drink or food has been outlawed. How does the populace respond? Does a black market form? Is the Prohibition a success, or a big mistake?

Supremacy: is a food, drink, or spice extremely expensive, and several groups are fighting for control of trade? 

Famine: are food or clean water incredibly scarce? How do the people survive?

Extinction: a valuable plant or animal, after being overfarmed or overhunted, is going extinct. If this valuable plant or animal is central to the cultural economy, how does the culture respond?

Those are just a few questions you can ask yourself while creating food culture for your worlds! Personally, I’ve always enjoyed exploring food culture. I like to try to make my fantasy recipes in the real world too, and through research and experimentation, you might come up with something totally unique. 

Hope this helps, and hope you have fun! 

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Re-blogging this to use as reference

[howtofightwrite]

Q&A: Reaction to Punching

I know this may sound stupid but, how do you write what happens after the punch hits to person? Like, when the punch hit “Their head flung/snapped sideways” Is there a word/words to describe that moment?

itshighnowon

This isn’t a stupid question. After all, if you’ve never punched anything before or spent a lot of time around martial artists or practiced martial arts then you’re not going to be familiar with the after effects.

You can use many different words to describe a punch hitting someone, so there aren’t specific words you need to use. Some descriptions are better than others. You generally want to follow the rules of physics and force projection. The head is a decent example for big motion, outside the rest of the body, because the only structural support is the neck. When struck with a single hand instead of in dual motion (like say boxing the ears), the head will generally move in the same direction the force was applied.

Forward = back

Struck from right = swings toward left side (follow the force)

Struck from left = swings toward right side (follow the force)

Behind = forward

Under = Up

If you hit them hard enough they might be knocked off their central axis, at which point they will step in the appropriate direction to counter the incoming force. If enough force is applied to knock them off balance, they may stumble. Keep in mind stumbling is unlikely on the punch, especially against someone who knows how to set their balance, because upper body strikes aren’t as powerful as they’re presented on television.

So, if you strike someone in the face with a jab then their head might “snap backwards” or be “knocked backwards” depending on how hard they’re hit. The question is the image you want to present, verb “snap” implies a quick jerk where the reader might assume “knocked” affected more than just the head and led to a step backwards to regain balance. So, you might apply “snap” to a quick strike off the leading hand and “knocked” to strikes off the secondary power hand. I won’t say “left” or “right” because the hand positioning relies on which side of the brain is dominant. If you’re right handed then the right is most likely your dominant hand and your power hand, while the left is the front/light/fast hand. Vice versa for the lefthanded side.

This is just the head. If you were to punch someone in the stomach, their whole body would curl inwards to protect the injury and because all their air got knocked from their lungs. They might step backwards, they might fall to their knees.

Like with all writing, you want to think in depth about the verbs you’re choosing for your action sequences. Action verbs are not interchangeable. The question of “what is the physical response to someone being punched?” is reliant on the type of punch and where the punch lands. In a broad sense, you need to consider the point of impact and how far that impact is off center. You can consider center as the center line running up the middle of your body, strikes to that center, particularly in the upper body, are more likely to knock an opponent off balance. Not every punch will destabilize an opponent, not every punch will move them in an obvious way. Strikes to the shoulder, to the arm, to the legs, will cause responses in those single targets. The lack of an immediate, obvious reaction in those areas doesn’t mean the strikes are worthless. Punching someone in the shoulder can make it more difficult for them to lift their arm, which hinders both attack and defense.

Samantha knocked Joe’s arm away. With her right hand, she punched him in the shoulder. She didn’t wait for him to flinch, backhanding him across the temple. Joe’s head snapped sideways, and he stumbled. Seizing Joe’s loose wrist, Samantha drove a roundhouse into his stomach.

“Knocked” gives the impression of something going flying. Samantha “punches” him in the shoulder, which is a straightforward straight punch. Then, because she’s close, she “backhands” him with the same hand. Due to the force coming sideways, his head moves in the direction of the force inflicted, and, because it’s off center and he wasn’t expecting it, he stumbles. Then, Samantha grabs the arm he left free and kicks him. This is an age old tactic that works better with a sidekick, but the general idea is that you hold onto your opponent while delivering a powerful blow so the force cannot be mitigated by them moving backwards. They have to stand there and take it.

In hand to hand combat, some measure of force delivered will be mitigated by movement and some will be absorbed by you on the moment of impact. This is why you lock your joints and muscles in the moment before the strike, and why you can injure yourself when hitting someone else. While these are technical details which will slow down your scene with experienced combatants, they become an important point with inexperienced ones. Inexperienced fighters will tense up too early or too late on strikes, resulting in them being slower and failing to put all the force they’ve generated by their momentum into their opponent. They will also stop their strike before or at their opponent’s body instead of striking through them. This limits their force projection and, again, halves what they put into an opponent. In context, this is what martial artists mean when they say beginners don’t hit very hard.

What you need to do is practice visualizing the scene you want, then finding the words to describe it. When writing fight sequences, familiarize yourself with much imagery regarding the subject as you can. I recommend searching YouTube for How To videos on various martial arts and paying close attention to what happens when these various martial artists strike pads. Even when you’re not looking at someone fighting another human being, seeing how the impact affects the pads can be instructive for describing different situations.

The answer to finding the right words is trying out different verbs and different descriptions until you find ones that evoke the imagery or feeling you want for your scene. Unfortunately, this latter half is part of being a writer. There’s no right way to do it. The authenticity of the sequence will come from how well you portray your physics on the page. Almost nothing you write will come out perfect off the cuff. Ultimately, in this case, practice makes perfect.

-Michi

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Q&A: Reaction to Punching was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Re-blogging because I want to keep this for reference

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Trope Talk: All A Dream

A good Trope Talk, but one of my least favorite tropes. Enjoy!

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

so you want to build a nuke

Here’s some existential dread to brighten up your week!

[heywriters]

Any advice for someone writing a period piece? Say early 1800s?

Do plenty of research. Or do no research and call it fantasy. Other period pieces by contemporary authors aren't good resources because if they got it wrong then you will too. If you're sticking to a specific region, make sure to research life in that region at that time. Most research resources will be very general, so maybe write a list of subjects you want to research: fashion, economics, daily life, politics, religion, science/medicine, etc.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Thank you. As a (want-to-be) historical writer, this was a hard lesson to learn, and to do. Books have never failed me before, until I started to research. And then I slowly began to realize what is left out--life. Actual daily life Clothing, furniture, food, hygiene, weapons . You get a brief mention of cheese (i.e. the Assyrians ate cheese) and nothing else. And then, out of sheer curiosity, you read up on cheese just to learn there are thousands of varieties and many animals that provide the milk. And they all taste different, look different, and are eaten in different ways. 

And that’s just the cheese.

It doesn’t have to be be these detailed (I too frequently go down the rabbit hole) but be aware of details. Be aware of too much hand-waving (they ate breakfast and went to work, constructing the pyramids of Egypt). Get a basic understanding of the period you are writing about (timeline of technology, timeline of food, timeline of rulers, etc). Keep notes. There will be a lot to keep track of, a lot more than you think. There will be a lot of minute details, don’t assume you’ll just remember. Don’t assume facts. Don’t assume culture.

Also, don’t count out podcasts. I have a more than healthy obsession with the history of food. A podcast called Gastropod has helped immensely. They highlight a certain food topic, and bring on speakers, including authors of books on the history of food.

[letusdanceunderthesilvermoon]

Welcome to the Internet - Bo Burnham (from "INSIDE")

Hee hee hee...