I'm just tryna vibe

[1000storyideas]

Ambient sounds for writers

Find the right place to write your novel… 

Nature

Arctic ocean

Blizzard in village

Blizzard in pine forest

Blizzard from cave

Blizzard in road

Beach

Cave

Ocean storm

Ocean rocks with rain

River campfire

Forest in the morning

Forest at night

Forest creek

Rainforest creek

Rain on roof window

Rain on tarp tent

Rain on metal roof

Rain on window

Rain on pool

Rain on car at night

Seaside storm

Swamp at night

Sandstorm

Thunderstorm

Underwater

Wasteland

Winter creek

Winter wind

Winter wind in forest

Howling wind

Places

Barn with rain

Coffee shop

Restaurant with costumers

Restaurant with few costumers

Factory

Highway

Garden

Garden with pond and waterfall

Fireplace in log living room

Office 

Call center

Street market

Study room from victorian house with rain

Trailer with rain

Tent with rain

Jacuzzi with rain

Temple

Temple in afternoon

Server room

Fishing dock

Windmill

War

Fictional places

Chloe’s room (Life is Strange)

Blackwell dorm (Life is Strange)

Two Whales Diner (Life is Strange)

Star Wars apartment (Star Wars)

Star Wars penthouse (Star Wars)

Tatooine (Star Wars)

Coruscant with rain (Star Wars)

Yoda’s hut with rain ( Star Wars)

Luke’s home (Star Wars)

Death Star hangar (Star wars)

Blade Runner city (Blade Runner)

Askaban prison (Harry Potter)

Hogwarts library with rain (Harry Potter)

Ravenclaw tower (Harry Potter)

Hufflepuff common room (Harry Potter)

Slytherin common room (Harry Potter)

Gryffindor common room (Harry Potter)

Hagrid’s hut (Harry Potter)

Hobbit-hole house (The Hobbit)

Diamond City (Fallout 4)

Cloud City beach (Bioshock)

Founding Fathers Garden (Bioshock)

Things

Dishwasher

Washing machine

Fireplace

Transportation

Boat engine room

Cruising boat

Train ride

Train ride in the rain

Train station

Plane trip

Private jet cabin

Airplane cabin

Airport lobby

First class jet

Sailboat

Submarine

Historical

Fireplace in medieval tavern

Medieval town

Medieval docks

Medieval city

Pirate ship in tropical port

Ship on rough sea

Ship cabin

Ship sleeping quarter

Titanic first class dining room

Old west saloon

Sci-fi

Spaceship bedroom

Space station

Cyberpunk tearoom

Cyberpunk street with rain

Futuristic server room

Futuristic apartment with typing

Futuristic rooftop garden 

Steampunk balcony rain

Post-apocalyptic

Harbor with rain

City with rain

City ruins turned swamp

Rusty sewers

Train station

Lighthouse

Horror

Haunted mansion

Haunted road to tavern

Halloween

Stormy night

Asylum

Creepy forest

Cornfield

World

New York

Paris

Paris bistro

Tokyo street

Chinese hotel lobby

Asian street at nightfall

Asian night market

Cantonese restaurant

Coffee shop in Japan

Coffee shop in Paris

Coffee shop in Korea

British library

Trips, rides and walkings

Trondheim - Bodø

Amsterdam - Brussels

Glasgow - Edinburgh

Oxford - Marylebone

Seoul - Busan

Gangneung - Yeongju

Hiroshima

Tokyo metro

Osaka - Kyoto

Osaka - Kobe

London

São Paulo

Seoul

Tokyo

Bangkok

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Alps

New York

Hong Kong

Taipei

[guysimbeingfollowed]

Beautiful

[queerenbian-deactivated20190515]

@icanneverbesatisfied @maybe-mikala I HAVE FOUND THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE

[icanneverbesatisfied]

I LOVE YOU FOR THIS

[queerenbian-deactivated20190515]

HONESTLY I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW

[sketchbookthingz-deactivated201]

omg @luvmesumsherlock

[iwearapentagrambtch]

This helps if you’re drawing too!

[kaijutegu]

Reblogging for reference!

[heywriters]

For some of these the videos have been taken down or are unavailable, but many still work fine.

[luna-azzurra]

Quick tips for writing Sleep Deprivation 

☽ Memory becomes absolute garbage. Like “why am I in the kitchen?” garbage. “What was I saying?” garbage. Their brain is running on buffering screens and regret.

☽ Fine motor skills? Ha. They’re dropping everything. Pens. Phones. Entire moral compass. They’re basically a malfunctioning claw machine.

☽ Hallucinations creep in. That jacket on the chair? Suddenly a person. That noise? Definitely doom. Everything becomes mildly haunted.

☽ Time gets weird. Five minutes feel like a year. A full hour disappears and they swear they blinked wrong.

☽ Irritation skyrockets. They get mad at chairs. At air. At gravity. At the audacity of other humans continuing to exist.

☽ Their voice sounds weird. Slow, scratchy, like they swallowed sand.

☽ They walk like a drunk baby giraffe. Walls suddenly jump closer. Floors rise unexpectedly. Coordination said: “I’m out.”

☽ Zoning out becomes a hobby. They stare at random objects like they’re trying to understand quantum mechanics.

☽ Vision blurs in and out. Like someone smeared Vaseline over their eyeballs out of spite.

☽ Their body just hurts. Not a dramatic pain, just the “why does my skeleton feel like it’s buzzing?” pain.

☽ Food cravings go feral. They’d fight someone for a stale cookie.

☽ Terrible choices. They will absolutely say “I’m fine” while making decisions that end in disaster.

☽ Random emotional implosions. Crying because their sock feels wrong? Yes.

☽ Cold hands. Cold feet. Cold heart. (Okay maybe not the last one, but it feels like it.)

[frownyalfred]

Words/phrases I often see from British/Australian writers while writing American characters (and some American alternatives because I know it’s tricky!):

Bugger (American: fuck/fucker)

Flat (American: apartment, “my place”)

Bloke (American: guy, asshole, dude)

Queue (American: line, checkout line)

Cuppa (American: cup of tea, hot tea)

Shite (American: bullshit, shit, crap)

Some of these are regional, like all of the various American words for the British “trolley” (American: shopping cart, buggy, cart, etc) but most of the above words are pretty ubiquitous.

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

Dropping the article from nouns (American: the/a hospital, the/a university)

Bin (maybe sommme Americans use it? But mostly trashcan, garbage)

Lift (American: elevator)

Arse (American: ass)

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

We have once again reached the lowered reading comprehension section of the replies. Friends! Please reread the above. There were no value judgements made above. You can continue to use inaccurate terminology for your characters if you choose.

What this is flagging is that the words you are using—in dialogue or narration from an American POV—don’t fit what we use here. and if that’s something that concerns you, or if you want your readers not to get hung up on (to steal an example from the comments) “Why is Midwesterner Dean Winchester talking about a torch??”, these are the words we actually use.

We know what you mean when you use your terminology. We’re saying your American characters would not use those words, so here are the alternatives should you choose to care.

[thatsastepladder]

The weird thing is that American English keeps that convention for some other location nouns. e.g., "I was at school" or "I went to college".

And while we're on the topic of "college" it should be noted that American English treats "college" and "university" as nearly synonymous, with "college" being by far the preferred term in everyday parlance.

Rarely, you'll see "college" used to refer to a 2-year school, otherwise referred to as "junior college" or "community college", while "university" is used to refer to a 4-year institution. But that distinction isn't common.

American English will generally use "college" where British English uses "university", although "university" is still a fairly common word in the language and you're not wrong for using it in place of "college".

You'll just sound super British in doing so.

[librarylexicon]

Or Australian, in my case, since we also say university (uni) like Brits. Good to know!

On a related note, I looked at one of my drafts and I saw that I wrote that a character scraped the soggy remains of his cereal into the (kitchen) 'bin', so I changed it to 'trash'. Just wondering, is there a difference between 'trash' and 'trashcan' in this context, or are they exactly interchangeable? And could you say 'garbage' (or 'garbage can') too?

[maychorian]

I would say that trash, trash can, garbage, and garbage can are all equally common and essentially mean the same thing.

[librarylexicon]

Neat, thanks! I had a moment of wondering if adding 'can' meant it had to be one of those robust outside bins instead of a dinky one under the sink. Lol

[maychorian]

Nope, you're good! I grew up in the Midwest, and people generally say garbage or garbage can to mean the big ones that go out to the curb, but we also use those for little ones inside. I generally only hear trash and trash cans for the little ones inside, though. I've never even thought about that distinction, lol. You could probably use trash or trash can to mean the big ones outside as well and I don't think anyone would blink.

Garbage bin generally means a dumpster, though, I think.

[heywriters]

I really like the use of "mate" in UK/AU dialect because it always sounds so friendly and approachable. In American English however, it cannot fully be separated from the sexual meaning. Loving (gender neutral) epithets for friends in the US are widely varied—pal, bud, bro, dude, man, girl, homie, coz, my guy, etc.—but "mate" is probably best used by an American to their UK/AU friend only.

The other use of "mate" as a way to talk down to a stranger who you may be about to fight is best replaced with "buddy" in the US.

"Watch it, buddy!" or "You sure about that, bud?"

I know people irl who are immediately offended by even passive use of "bud/buddy." Regionally or generationally, dude, bro, and pal may also be used to start a fight. In this same context I hear "man" used most often to diffuse situations. "Look, man, I'm sorry, okay?" and "Hey, man, calm down."

(Quick note for Americans: dude, bro(ther), my man, guy, and a few other terms were common among the boomer generation, so some older folks continue to use them happily).

[ghosthorse-tracks]

Lesser-known steps of the writing process:

Finding all the paragraphs where you used some hyper-specific word more than once

Rearranging paragraphs that you swear you wrote in the right order but turned out to be totally backwards

Going for a walk, coming up with the perfect line, and forgetting it as soon as you get home and open your laptop

Creating a separate document where you can dump all of those nice sentences that no longer fit in anywhere

Waking up in a cold sweat because so-and-so was supposed to be barefoot but never actually took his shoes off

[sartorialadventure]

[livingfictionsystem]

A lot of pop psychology gets thrown around and since I already have a headache, here's preventing you lot from making it worse.

Love-bombing: A manipulation tactic of increasing affection and grand gestures before or after doing something abusive, specifically to weasel one's way out of consequences.

What it is not: A streak of affection and generosity towards friends/loved ones.

Trauma-bonding: Knowingly traumatizing someone to take advantage of their vulnerable state, to then act like the "hero" or the one who cheers them up.

What it is not: Bonding over similar traumas.

Gaslighting: *Knowingly* convincing someone they cannot trust their own perception of a situation in pursuit of one's own narrative.

What it is not: Misaligned perception of events.

Narcissist: Someone afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a traumagenic cluster B disorder, that struggles with self-obsession, paranoia, craving validity from the public, delusions of grandeur, and social disconnection.

It is not: Your rubbish ex that cheated on you.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

-Xanthe

[isuggestlandback]

If you ever wondered why they call tattoos and piercings "unprofessional" and "unsophisticated"

Source: Lainey Molnar

[project-catgirlpiller]

[tiny-space-whale]

Reblog if you are a human rights extremist who believes that all humans are equal and has no sense of loyalty to nation states.

[victusinveritas]

This op-ed explains how to start an ICE Watch neighborhood program in your community. Click the link for the step-by-step guide.

---

There was a time when Teen Vogue was just another teen magazine. That time has passed.

[victusinveritas]

Future archivists are going to have a field day puzzling out our present culture.

[deceasedcardinal]

[blupeeblep]

Like to charge, reblog to cast

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Injuries

✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.

✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.

✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.

✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.

✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.

✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.

✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.

✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.

✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.

✧ Scars tell stories. Some fade, some don’t. Some stay sensitive forever. Don’t forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character.

[iphysalian]

Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:

A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin

A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans

A clock that isn’t 24-hours

More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know

Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain

Multiple moons/no moon

Planetary rings

A northern lights effect, but near the equator

Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks

Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals

Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands

The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage

No concept of virginity or bastardry

More than 2 genders/no concept of gender

Monotheism, but not creationism

Gods that don’t look like people

Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats

Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot

Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom

“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls

A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language

A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

[isworldbuildingphilosophiphical]

One Of The Issues With People Trying To Do World Building Can Be Seen Here Because, The Concept Of Marriage Can Be Excluded Entirely, In Place You Could Do Something Like, A Society Without Romantic Relationships Entirely It Could Be Utopian Or Dystopian As In A Society Where Everybody Is Able To Have Relations With Anyone Else Provided Consent, Or It Could Be Where Parents Are Chosen By Maybe The Government Or Maybe The Gods/God To Make Perfect Stronger Children

[luna-azzurra]

FACIAL MICRO EXPRESSIONS FOR WRITERS <3

[transmutetheblankpage]

GUIDE: NAMING A TOWN OR CITY

This post was originally from a FAQ, but since the original link is now defunct, I am re-posting it here.

There are many things to keep in mind when naming the town or city in your novel:

1) Genre/Theme/Tone

It’s very important to consider the genre and theme of your story when choosing a town name. Take these names for example, each of which indicates the genre or theme of the story: King’s Landing (sounds fantastical) Cloud City (sounds futuristic) Silent Hill (sounds scary) Sweet Valley (sounds happy and upbeat) Bikini Bottom (sounds funny) Radiator Springs (sounds car-related) Halloween Town (sounds Halloween-related) Storybrooke (sounds fairytale-related) 2) Time/Place It’s also important to consider the time and place where your story takes place. For example, you wouldn’t use “Vista Gulch” as a name for a town in Victorian England. You probably wouldn’t use it for a town in modern day North Carolina, either. Vista is a Spanish word and would normally be found in places where Spanish names are common, like Spain, Central and South America, the southwest United States (including southern California), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Florida. 3) Size/Settlement Type An isolated town of 300 people probably won’t be Valley City, but a sprawling metropolis of 30 million could be called Windyville, because it could have started out as a small town and grew into a large city. 4) Geography Words like gulch, butte,and bayou tend to be regional terms. You probably wouldn’t find Berle’s Bayou in Idaho, or Windy Butte in Rhode Island. Words like mount, cape, and valley are dependent upon terrain. Most of the time, you won’t have a town named “mount” something unless there are hills or mountains nearby. You wouldn’t use “cape” unless the town was on a cape, which requires a large body of water. 5) History Is there a historical person or event that your town might be named after? The Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield is ironically named after its founder, Jebediah Springfield. Chattanooga, Tennessee is named after the Cherokee town that was there first. Nargothrond, in The Lord of the Rings, is an Elvish town with an Elvish name. 6) Combination of Words

person name + geographical term = Smithfield, Smith Creek

group name + geographical term = Pioneer Valley, Settlers’ Ridge

descriptive word + geographical term = Mystic Falls, Smoky Hill

person name + settlement type = Smithton, Claraville

landmark + settlement type = Bridgton, Beaconville

Word Lists

Types of Settlements

Geographical Features

Place Words

Common Suffixes

Other Descriptors

[sageandred]

*(These aren't for me.) I was bored and made 1 of my own of these (:

(made specifically for all who reblog) >>>

OTP + CHARACTER ASK

Send a ship + a number and get an answer.

1. Who is the better cook?

2. Who gets up to cook at 2am?

3. Are they into PDA? Who initiates most?

4. Their favorite show to watch together?

5. Who is the cheesier one of the two?

6. Who is always, always running late?

7. Who's clumsier?

8. Who is a morning person? Who is a night owl?

9. Who travels lighter?

10. Who is always reminding the other not to forget important documents/general things before leaving out the door?

11. Who leaves notes in the other one's lunch? (Bonus: what do they say?)

12. Who prefers calling to texting (& vice versa)? Bonus: Who is so bad at texting it made the other think they weren't interested when they first started hanging out? [This could be hypothetical as much as real].

13. Stay home/go-out? What are their date nights like?

14. Who falls asleep during a movie?

15. Who's the first to cry during movies that don't seem sad?

16. Who hogs the covers?

17. Who is more competitive?

18. What are they like when they're drunk? How do they act together? & when 1 is drunk, while the other one's sober?

19. What do they fight about most often? (Alternative: what was their biggest fight?)

20. Who randomly brings home a stray puppy/kitten to adopt?

21. Any routines one has that the other had to get used to (ex. morning, nighttime, sleeping habits)?

22. Love languages? How do they get around differences, if any?

23. Who initiates cuddling more?

24. Sleeping/cuddling positions? (Big spoon, little spoon, etc.)?

25. (a lil sappy, but..) What do they like about each other?

26. Who is prone to road rage?

27. Craziest place they had sex?

28. Who always steals the other's food? How does their partner react to it?

29. First date? (Give as much or little detail)

30. Pet names? Yes or no?

31. How do they spend their anniversary?

32. Who's so affectionate they can't stop touching the other?

33. What is their wedding day like?

34. How do they cheer the other one up during sad times?

35. What are their tastes in music?

36. Who is more protective?

37. Who wanted to see Oppenheimer; who Barbie? Did they switch opinions after?

38. If/when they have kids, what is their parenting style (or pets-who does what)?

39. Do they get along with the other's family? If not, how do they deal with the other's family?

40. Who is the skilled shopper for holidays? Who always waits 'til the last minute to get all of their gifts? (Which one gets stressed out easily)?

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Writing Believable Politics

In most fantasy settings, politics is a large part of worldbuilding and a chunk of the plot, as how the world and culture runs from top down, will effect your characters, certain events and often effect the run of your story. In writing politics, you are shaping both the opportunities and limits, the impacts of morality and power on your world which will always come back to bite your characters on the ass.

What is Politics?

Lasswell defined politics as the who gets what, where, when and how. It is the string of protocols and events that dictate the rules and structures of society, framing the values and core ideals of the nation - or at least, the values of the ruling class. Poltics is not the government, politics is the process of argument, discussion, choice and question of how the government is run. Think of government like a football player and politics as the ball and the goal and the field.

Political Factions

It would be foolish to think that poltics is an agreed, unilateral process. No government can exist on one idea, one thought process. Even in a totalitarian regime, there will be those that disagree or lobby for change, even in a totalitarian”utopia”, there will be those that disagree. It is human nature to argue. Left, right or central political factions exist because there is no system on any earth where any decision is made without pushback. And it would be a mistake to think that only the ruling class can effect politics, other and even marginalised classes have a pull on politics especially if they are in the majority. Poltics is often deterimined or at least influenced by popular opinion even in dictatorships, playing to the crowd either by distraction in the form or reward and entertainment or giving into some of their needs. Even powerful parties must work to convince factions from the workers who can be with or without vote - even voteless masses can influence politics, through violence or threat or strike action -or even the head of state who makes final decisions, it is all one performance to win popular opinion to their side and way of thinking. The use of political factions in your story can allow you to frame the what is and what could be in your world or limit the opportunities of characters creating more conflicts or barriers for characters to butt against. Political figures themselves will either be lauded or despised in turnk with the media and the people weighing in.

What Politicians, Heads of State and the Common Man/Woman could discuss when talking about Politics

Enter any bar, restaurant, family home, school or any sphere of conversation, politics is a common subject. Even if heavy topics aren’t tackled, most people operate on a “no politics at the dinner table” way of thinking, politics related topics will arise. There aren’t enough job opportunities, some items are hard to find or expensive, the healthcare and education system is lacking and too general, that politician broke their word, that head of state can’t seem to control the government, the government did this, said that and can you believe that? Politics effects life: healthcare, education, housing, freedom, the economy, justice and ways of thinking about foreign relations and the nation’s sense of pride. Politicans would run on platforms dedicated to change how one of these things or protect them, they would debate these things in government either successfully or unsuccessfully. They would discuss it with one another even in private, for example if they back a stance with all they got, would the other faction or their ally make it worth their while. A head of state would be counselled on the matters of housing, food, healthcare etc by the government and would often instruct the government to focus on a certain point causing potential breaking points with the population and would cause greater issues. There will also be those that struggle against the status quo and current politics due to ideas that the current politics either ignores them or backs them into a corner, protests, demonstrations and strikes would be apart of even the most peaceful of places. It is human nature to struggle and insist to be heard. Even amongst families and friendgroups will squabble or disagree over politics or how things are run or the success of the government.

No One Else Was in The Room Where it Happened

Not all politics is discussed in the grand halls of government, deals and agreements are made in the houses of the powerful, or in restaurants or even seedy nightclubs and bars. It is all about exchange of support for one thing for another favour another day, the head of state might ask the government to focus on one issue due to strain on one issue over other pressing issues. A law might be passed that protects the hands that grease the wheels of government, a wealthy tycoon is more likely to get off a tax charge than the man on the street. A politician might agree to support a political rival if they back a policy they are planning to implement. Politics is underhanded, because there are so many cogs working behind the scenes and it is doubtful that even the government fully knows what was going on which can lead to the public seeing their government and its politics as shady figures.

How your Head of State would handle state affairs

I’m often asked how kings/queens/ruling figures handle politics. Depending on what system your monarch has to work within, either absolute or bound by a constitution, they will either have the right to make choices without government or be advised, informed by the head of government and have an advisory role rather than an active one but at the end of the day it is in the monarch’s power to sign a law or an order or bill into effect. The head of state has to be informed of all situations and decisions, underhanded politics may not be mentioned but the outcomes certainly will be. A head of state might attend government sittings or they may have private condensed discussions with a council made of politicians or nobles assigned to cover certain issues. The head of state may get involved in the nitty gritty of politics or they may chose to act as an adviser or referee but they have to be informed of what is going on at all times. This means they will often get dispatches of state papers to read and then sign off on, such as proposals, transcripts and minutes of meetings, letters from ambassadors and reports from the borders, or abroad or within the cities or countryside or literally everything that happens in the country at any given time. No monarch will take kindly to being left out of decision making or discussions as it is a challenge to their power or an attempt a coup.

[boilingheart-archive]