May Move To New Sideblog

[horseboy-extraordinaire]

caleb wittebane gets vored

[sparrowsocks]

Hello gamers, local disabled cane user is gonna teach you how to design a cane.

Tl:dr: design a cane based on comfortability and the disability of the character

First things first, you need to know why you’re character needs a cane. Do they have chronic pain? Unhealed injury? Muscle or joint issues? Do they have poor blood circulation which makes them dizzy? Do they need the cane all the time or does their disability fluctuate? Do they use a wheelchair or a walker sometimes?

There’s a lot you should know about a characters ability/disability in order to find what type of mobility aid they should be using.

There are a bunch of different kinds of canes/crutches. The 4 on the left are crutches. The difference between canes and crutches are, crutches are meant to keep weight off your legs as much as possible, and generally you use a crutch on each arm. Canes are used for stability and you usually only use one. Folding canes are great for people who only use their cane sometimes

Great! You’ve picked either a cane or crutches for your character. I’m done right? WRONG. Cane handles.

This is probably the most important part of canes because if you have the wrong handle your wrist will die.

I gently kiss all the canes on the left, they are all very good for grip and wrist, although the middle left is designed for left or right hand so you cannot switch hands with it.

The ones on the right are also pretty good, they wouldn’t be my first choice but they are still great. The top one is also very good as it has a wristband so you can’t drop it as easily. (Trust me when I say I DROP MY CANE SO MUCH)

Sigh. The middle cane handles… the bottom one I have never actually seen but it looks like it would kill my wrist. The top one is uncomfortable for long period uses, but it is good for if you’re a shepherd. And the pimp cane… the knob cane… it’s awful. Just no. It’s hard to grip, it is unstable it’s bad it’s awful I throw it into a fire. Please don’t give your character, they don’t deserve that pain

Now you know the basic ergonomic things, there are different shafts for canes and crutches

You can really get creative with this type of thing, just as long as it looks stable enough.

Here are some good examples of pretty canes that are ergonomic and good to use! (featuring victor arcane who i adore)

Add some cute details to the cane if you want! You can add stickers, colours, grip support. And while I love the concept of cane swords those are very unstable, if you want a cane weapon you can make it lead weighted, put knives in it. A poison vile in the shaft. Be creative.

Just some of these components are important to consider with a disabled character. There’s a lot more to consider with wheelchairs and walkers which I don’t have the experience with.

If you do have any questions my asks are always open to questions about this stuff! I’d love to help if you’re making a disabled character.

[sparrowsocks]

They’re much more stable and can stand on their own, but they’re slower to use because you need all 4 corners to touch the ground to give you that stability.

[what-things-that-matter-deactiv]

Writing Wednesday: This is the last post about Google Docs add-ons. Everyone needs a thesaurus now and again. I believe that Microsoft Word has one built in, but Google Docs does not. It doesn’t matter, though, because there is this super cool add-on that is, of course, free.

OneLook Thesaurus. To me, nothing is more obvious than the overuse of a thesaurus. I only use it when I notice that I have used a word too many times. For example, today I was writing and I suddenly realized I’d used “muttered” twice. I used command/F to find the word, and discovered I’d actually used it three times. So, I used the thesaurus and changed one to an appropriate alternative. Then I made a point of not using it again. With this add-on, I could also find quotes that use the word, other forms of the word, words that rhyme with the word, and so on. For my writing style, I don’t need those features. I’ve played with them for fun, and they are fine.

[letteredlettered]

Panlexicon is a unique thesaurus that provides a quick and intuitive process for finding the words you want.

I cannot recommend this writing resource enough.

Roget’s Thesaurus is organized by categories, rather than being alphabetical like a dictionary. If you haven’t used it before, you look up the closest word you can think of in an alphabetical index, which then takes you to a page that has a cluster of words. The words are not synonymous necessarily; they’re just related, and the cluster is close to other clusters that are somewhat related.

I far preferred this to other thesauruses, which don’t take you very far from the word you looked up. Sometimes the only word I can think to look up is quite far from what I’m thinking of, or I actually want a bunch of words that create a similar feeling, but aren’t synonymous. Roget’s gives you that.

So does panlexicon. Instead of only synonyms, it gives you a lot of words that are somewhat related. For instance, if you look up “soft”, you get “tender,” but also “weak” and “low,” which are other aspects of the word soft, but not direct synonyms. But let’s say I really was trying to come up with how to describe someone who is easy to get something from, because they’re softhearted. I can then click on “tender,” so now I’m searching for words that are related to both soft AND tender. Then I get “gentle,” “mild,” and “lenient”. Lenient still isn’t QUITE what I mean, but if I search “gentle”, “mild”, and “lenient,” I get “complacent,” “indulgent,” and “tolerant.” By then, I’ve got what I want.

It’s literally the best and it’s the only thesaurus I use these days.

[mikkeneko]

concept: a death god that is actually surprisingly supportive and on the side of the good guys, supporting actions and promoting policies that will lead to the kingdom growing and thriving instead of being destroyed, because the more the kingdom grows, the more people there are, and the more people there are the more people will eventually  die, and when you’re an immortal god of death, you know there’s no need to rush. you’ll get them all in the end

[mikkeneko]

i like how the responses on this post are cleanly split between “hey this is a great story idea i love it” and “this is absolutely terrifying”

[honourablejester]

Yes. A Death that is kind, and patient, and inevitable.

A Death that need not fight against you, that will often fight for you, because why not? It will gather you home eventually. Why not enjoy you first?

A Death that treasures those who fight it most ardently. That loves healers and defenders and survivalists and necromancers and mad scientists and immortal gods. That lets them pour everything they are into fighting it, denying it, adoring every desperate scrap of strength and will and brilliance and raw determination poured out against it. That catches you when your strength is done and all your will and brilliance run out, that gathers you close beneath a warm, dark cloak, and whispers well done, oh child, you were magnificent, well done.

A Death who will not seek to hasten an inevitable end, who will chastise those who seek to hasten it for others in Death’s stead, who will slowly and patiently plot and sow and siphon away from the great monsters of the world. Because who are they to hasten Death’s domain, who are they to deny Death its time and its place, who are they to cut short these vital glories that illuminate it so? Who are they to presume upon its will, that is so much larger and so much longer than theirs?

Who are they to call, and presume that Death, of all beings, should obey?

A Death that is not a hunter but a gatherer, who is always and eternal, who loves you, and can afford to wait. A Death who will fight for you and defend you, who will place its hand upon those who would speed you to its embrace, who has no need to rush you, only to greet you when you call.

A Death who is kind.

And patient.

And, before all and above all,

inevitable.

[the-haiku-bot]

Who are they to call,

and presume that Death, of all

beings, should obey?

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[daisywords]

Conlanging for cheaters

quick tips for creating fantasy language(s) that look believable if you squint

Pick a few rules about what letter/sound combinations can and cannot exist (or are common/uncommon). For example, in English, "sp" or "st" can begin a word, but in Spanish they can't. The "ng" sound (or the voiced velar nasal if you want to get technical), can't appear at the beginning of a syllable in English, but it can in at least of third of languages around the world. English allows for consonant clusters (more than one consonant together without a vowel), but some languages, such as Hawaiian, don't. Picking a few distinctive rules that are different from English or the language you are writing in, and sticking to them, will yield a lot better results than just keysmashing.

Assign meaning to a few suffixes, prefixes, or roots. A simple and useful example of this is making up a particle that means -land or -city or -town, and tacking it onto your appropriate place names. You could also have a particle with a similar meaning to the "er/or one we have in English, such as in "baker," "singer," or "operator," and then incorporate it in your fantasy titles or professions. It's like an Easter egg for careful readers to figure out, and it will make your language/world feel more cohesive.

Focus on places and names. You usually don't need to write full sentences/paragraphs in your conlang. What you might want to do with it is name things. The flavor of your language will seep in from the background, with the added benefit of giving readers some hints on background lore. For example, you could have a conlang that corresponds to a certain group of people, and a character with a corresponding name could then be coded as being from that group without having to specify. A human-inhabited city with an elven-sounding name might imply that it was previously inhabited by elves.

You don't have to know what everything means. Unless you are Linguistics Georg R. R. Tolkien, you probably don't want to (and shouldn't!) actually make up a whole language. So stick some letters together (following your linguistic rules, of course) and save fretting over grammar and definitions for the important stuff.

(Bonus) This isn't technically conlanging, but it can be fun to make up an idiom or two for your fantasy culture (just in English or whatevs) and sprinkle that in a few times. The right made-up idiom can allude to much larger cultural elements without you having to actually explain it.

Congrats! You now have a conlang you can dust over your wip like an appropriate amount of glitter. Conlangs can be intimidating, just because there's so much you can do, but that doesn't mean you have to do it all. So yeah anyway here's what I would recommend; hope y'all have fun :D

[weirdfact]

USA Cultural Regions Map

[theoneandonlyredrobin]

This is super cool

[fabulesque]

For non-Americans: this is actually accurate and reflects how Americans understand ourselves and regional identities. These aren’t official labels, but they’re not totally made up either.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

"I'm sorry..."

Apology Starters

"I'm sorry that it had to come to this."

"I'm sorry for not believing you."

"I'm sorry for being too late."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore."

"I'm sorry for making you feel like this."

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"I'm sorry for not realizing it sooner."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there."

"I'm sorry for hurting you."

"I'm sorry that you feel like this."

"I'm sorry for believing what they told me."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"I'm sorry that you think that."

"I'm sorry for not seeing it sooner."

"I'm sorry that I made you cry."

"I'm sorry for leaving you behind."

"I'm sorry for not responding."

"I'm sorry for not talking to you."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm sorry I made you worry."

"I'm sorry that we fought."

"I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner."

"I'm sorry that I have to say goodbye."

"I'm sorry that you had to go through this."

"I'm sorry for not being there for you."

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[headspace-hotel]

people bitching about the usage of "too modern" words in fantasy or historical fiction is sometimes justified, but ultimately I think it's a waste of time because

all words exist within a specific time frame and it's pointless to avoid the fact that you're writing with the language of your own time

which words are actually "newer" than other words is sometimes wildly unintuitive

according to the dates given in the Oxford English Dictionary, if you wrote a book set in 1897, you could have your characters say "fuckable," (1889) "sexy" (1896) "uncomfy" (1868) "hellacious" (1847) "dude" (1877) "all righty" (1877) and "heck" (1887), but not "wiggly" (1932) "moronic" (1910) "uptight" (1934) "lowbrow" (1901) "fifty-fifty" (1913) "burp" (1932) "bagel" (1898) or use the word "rewrite" as a noun (1901)

[headspace-hotel]

Some more words where the date of their first known usage just Doesn't Sound Right:

hangry, as in the portmanteau of 'hungry' and 'angry' (1912)

dildo (1590)

yucky (1970)

grungy (1965)

freebie (1925)

shitty (1768)

boost (1815)

boss (1856)

TGIF, as in Thank God It's Friday (1941)

yay (1963)

Fucked up (1863) is much older than fuck you (1943) but older still is the now-obscure fucked out (1862) which means what it sounds like—exhausted from too much sex.

[thedurvin]

Our first documentation of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917

And making faces out of punctuation goes back to at least Puck Magazine, 1881:

[redcap3]

The names "Tiffany" and "Kimberly" have been documented in Western records as far back as the 1300s. Language is almost always older than we think.

[thesaltysagittarious]

So what I'm hearing is I can use dude and dildo in my quick and the dead fic, sweet

[the-darkish-side-of-specs]

Oh sweet mother that’s useful

Here’s just the template

[marlynnofmany]

Writer challenge: think of a way to hint at magic/superpowers that isn’t overdone. We’ve all seen eyes that glow or change color, teeth that grow sharp, ears that get pointy.

I want to see a character’s eyebrows ripple into tiny scales when they’re concentrating on their powers. Or someone’s nose disappears when they cast a spell.

What hasn’t been done yet? 

[teamugdraws]

I’m thinking senses. Or rather, revealing that you have sensory abilities that you really shouldn’t.

Like, flinching at an explosion that should be too far away to hear, squinting in the presence of a powerful magical artifact, Talking Too Loud To Be Heard Over These Goddamn Ghosts that oh wait nobody else can hear.

Mark enters the room, sniffs a few times, and asks - “Dale? when was the last time you checked your blood sugar?” Dale checks and it turns out that, yeah, he was getting a little hypoglycemic. And that’s the first hint that Mark is actually a vampire.

And/or doing little things unconsciously that reveal you have slightly off-from-normal expectations about the world.

Imagine a disguised harpy that over-spices her meals, because birds don’t suffer from capsacin. A mage that recklessly clambers the girders of an under-construction skyscraper because he knows Feather Fall. Peter Parker never checking his mirrors when driving, because his spider-sense would warn him if he was going to hit someone.

I read a book once (Needle, by Hal Clement) where the heroes detect the presence of an alien symbiote/parasite by noticing that [SPOILER] the symbiote’s host had taken unconsciously to doing dangerous things - like groping around blindly in a knife drawer - because he had become accustomed to the minor healings it provided. [/SPOILER]

[marlynnofmany]

Y’know, I was thinking of how to show when they’re actively using their powers, but this is cool too.

I love the idea of the vampire knowing someone’s blood sugar levels. It makes perfect sense, and there’s also the fact that the other characters might reasonably wonder if they’re a werewolf instead. (“Some people have those dogs that can smell when you need insulin, right? Totally a werewolf!”)

Either way, some fun story potential!

[draconicsplendor]

You guys I’m so close to finishing the first draft and suddenly it’s so much more REAL and I’m NOT READY

[mythicmoss]

FUCK IT IM SO EMOTIONAL THAT I POSTED TO MY MAIN BUT IM NOT ABT TO RETYPE ALL THOSE TAGS

[princeanxious]

I found this incorrect prompts generator bc i was looking for comic ideas with more slightly out of character takes for the sides and some of my favorites are:

[popsicleofdeath]

I'm trying to prove a point to my brain: Reblog if you think fanfiction does not need sex to be good.

There is a trend I’ve noticed that smut fics tend to be much more popular than anything else and honestly I just want to have something to look at to remind myself and that writing doesn’t have to have sex to be worth putting out into the community.

[littlebirdofprey]

ive always hated when a vampire story is trying to distance itself from traditional lore or common perception and the vampire turns up their nose and says "and no. I don't turn into a bat" like they're so offended that you'd even suggest that they could do something so cool. well congratulations you're uncool and boring goodbye

[largishcat]

“Can you turn into a bat?”

“God, no, I wish,” sighed the vampire. “That’d be fucking badass.”

[what-even-is-thiss]

“Can you turn into a bat?”

“Yeah but I prefer not to. I can’t fly very well and I’ve gotta leave clothes in various places so I don’t get arrested for public nudity when I turn back. It’s too much of a pain in the neck, honestly.”

[porcellune]

TO THOSE MAKING NATIVE OCS

I see this a lot, no one has actual names, or any reference for names, that are legit Native American, varying among the tribes, for their characters.

Babynames.com and shit like that will give you names made up by white people.

However, I’ve got your solution.

Native-Languages  is a good website to turn to for knowledge on a lot of native things, including native names. If you’re unsure about the names you’ve picked, they even have a list of made up names here!

Please don’t trust names like babynames.com for native names, they’re made up and often quite offensive to the cultures themselves.

[theangrycomet]

THANK YOU! 

[atelierwriting]

subplot ideas to float your boat (or sink it)

the good old fetch quest. when your characters realize that they need to get this one thing in order to move on, but also they are doing something else to further the main plot. fetch quest subplots are hard to put in without things feeling like they’re just traveling from point a to point b–take advantage of the space in between to explore your characters, the world, etc.

there’s some tension between character a and character b. it doesn’t need to be super obvious at first. maybe it’s been kind of growing at the edge of your mind this entire time, and it just explodes. regardless of what kind of tension it is, your story will have to pause to address it. 

character a actually wants to stab character b. well, that’s a problem.

figure from a character’s past returns (and turns into a major plot point instead oops). a la jesper fahey and colm fahey. they just appear, and they bring a whole lot of baggage with them for the character to resolve before they can even think about moving on. perhaps they also help the main plot, or perhaps they’re just there to help develop your characters. either way, it’s a good way to get more insight on who your character is, how they are perceived by the people around them, and perhaps even a glimpse into a different part of the world.

put in a new pov for a side character, accidentally flesh them out and make them a main character with their own personal problems and motivations to further your main plot. yeah. sometimes it happens.

other notes about subplots

subplots should tie into the larger story–or be interwoven enough that when it gets resolved, it doesn’t feel as though there was no consequence to the bigger picture.

they don’t actually have to be that big of a deal! you can have smaller subplots littered throughout your story. maybe there’s this minor rivalry between two of your characters that always appears at certain moments. maybe there’s some development to that rivalry that the main characters notice (occasionally) but don’t comment on because that’s…just their thing. it seems like there’s no consequence to it, but it does serve to further flesh out what might have been minor, flat characters beforehand.

but if you do want to make them a big deal, integrate them well. drop some foreshadowing about the subplot to ensure that it doesn’t seem like it’s coming out of nowhere. how you want to do this is up to you.