Old Blog *moved*

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[pens-swords-stuff]

[longsightmyth]

It is distressingly clear while reading a lot of fantasy that people don’t look into what’s actually involved in running a monarchy. Even books I like sometimes go ‘…letters?’ and while letters serve an important diplomatic function if you want me to believe someone is a good monarch and we’re in their PoV or that of someone close to them you’d better show said monarchs working with their secretaries and advisors to write the diplomatic letters. On horseback. While travelling between different nobles and dignitaries’ residences. Sometimes while getting updates on a border squabble where nobody actually wants to start a war so everyone is trying to figure out how to brush the whole thing off without losing face or having their citizens demand revenge.

Unless there’s a super centralized and acknowledged place Where Governing Gets Done (not historically the case in feudal governments, but go ahead and do it for ease) in which case all of this is happening at garden parties that the reigning monarch has to duck out of sometimes for minutes at a time.

[pinguicha]

THIS I highly recommend that fellow authors read non-fiction books about how society worked during a given era because A WHOLE LOT went into governning countries, and GOOD monarchs were often busy af. Everyone went to them to complain, and to effectively run a country meant travelling across the land, Court in tow, listen to grievances, and trying to solve them in a way that wouldn’t lead to your gentry calling for your blood. Still, I find that a lot of royalty books, especially in YA, gloss over the whole governing part and the responsibilities it entails. It’s not just a case of “YOU, MY UNDERLING! DO THIS WHILE I SIP MY TEA!” Ruling, and preparing to be a (good) ruler is a very involved process, and it is constant, tiring, and headache-inducing. 

[phoenixdown-and-fairydust]

Yeah, unless the point is that your nobility is corrupt and lazy, they should be damn busy if we’re to believe that they’re good rulers, or at least competent ambitious villains.

[natalie-ina-art]

Painting "The Spirit" is my first experiment with silvering. It is a built-up silhouette made of silver, which reflects the light that falls on it.

This artwork is about striving for inner light, through dust and darkness, through barriers and the rustle of words, through a host of dreams and sorrows...

"The Spirit".⠀

Oil, silver potal on canvas board.

35×30 cm.

Natalie Ina 2020.

Original work available for purchase in my Etsy store.

See more of my artwork on Instagram.

[pens-swords-stuff]

Writeblr Glossary

A list of words commonly used in the Writeblr community and their meaning!

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what some things mean, so I thought it was time to compile a list of meanings.

Writeblr — A community of writers on tumblr; A blog that posts primarily about writing. See here for a more in-depth explanation. (Also written as Writblr on occasion)

WIP  — Stands for Work in Progress. Primarily, it’s a piece of fictional work that is still in the writing process and is unfinished. (Also see: WIP page)

OC  — Stands for Original Character. This is a character entirely of your own creation.

Tag list  — A tag list is a list of users who will be tagged in every post that a Writeblr makes about a certain WIP. It is often included at the bottom of a post, and people are free to ask to be included, or removed from it.

WIP Page  — A page or a post on a Writeblr that describes a WIP. Commonly includes a synopsis, setting, characters, etc. See here for what goes in a WIP page and how to make one.

Tag games — Tumblr games where people will do something (often answer questions, a snippet of their WIP, etc) and ask other users to participate by using the @ function in that post.

Ask games  — A tumblr game where a user will request people to send them things with the ask function. Often times will include a list of questions they wish to be asked.

Writing Sprints — An activity done by writers, where they write as much as they possibly can for a set amount of time (often 10-15 minutes). Can be done with multiple people, and is a common activity for a group of writeblrs to partake in.

Fanfiction  — Fiction written by a fan about an existing TV show, movie, book, etc. Often features the characters, the setting, etc. of that piece of media.

AU  — Stands for Alternate Universe. AUs typically feature the same cast of characters of a WIP or an existing piece of fiction with a major change or two. (For example, a Fantasy AU would involve placing the characters in a fantasy setting. There also may be an AU of what might happen if a certain character didn’t die in their story).

Canon  — Material or information that is accepted as an official part of a story. (i.e., the creator confirms it and includes it in their story).

Headcanons  — Ideas and interpretations of a fictional work that is accepted by a fan, but isn’t necessarily supported by canon.

Moodboard  — A collection of images meant to evoke a certain feeling or emotion. Often used by Writeblrs for their WIPs and OCs.

Ships — The concept of a fictional couple. Can be either canonical or not. If you ‘ship’ someone with another character, you like the idea of them being involved with each other, often romantically.

OTP — Stands for One True Pairing. This is often used to describe someone’s all time favorite ship.

BrOTP — Someone’s favorite platonic ship. A portmanteau of ‘bro’ and ‘OTP’.

Beta Reader — A person who reads through a draft before publication to give suggestions and feedback to the author to improve it. Can be paid or unpaid, depends on the author.

Sensitivity Reader — A person who reads through a draft to check for issues of representation, cultural inaccuracy, insensitive language, etc. For example, if you are a white author who has black characters in your story, you should have a sensitivity reader who is black, so they can let you know if you are accidentally being offensive, or misrepresenting them in any way. Many writers will have multiple sensitivity readers to give them feedback, so they can make the proper changes to be more inclusive and culturally sensitive. Can be paid or unpaid, depends on the author. 

TW — Stands for trigger warning. Often followed up with the trigger (i.e., tw: self-harm). This is to warn people that there is sensitive content in a post or a WIP, and that if they do not want to see it, they should not proceed any further. Used in tags and the top of the actual post for visibility, and often accompanied by a “Read more” cutoff.

OP — Stands for Original Poster. It refers to the person who originally made the post. If someone says ‘thanks op’ on a post, they are addressing the person who created the post in the first place, not the people who have reblogged or added things to it.

Have a word you’d like to see included? Let me know and I’ll add it!

Have a question on what a writeblr term means? Feel free to ask me!

[librarysilverfish]

I wonder if I so rarely see it said because it’s taboo or something, but there’s something I really think everyone needs to know about writeblr:

Original content gets a fraction as many notes as Relatable Content. And by a fraction, I mean my biggest Relatable post is over 10k and my biggest original content post is about 12 notes. Guess which one I put hours into.

The thing is, I’m not out here complaining about this fact. I consume about 25x more Relatable Content than I do others’ original content, and I’m actually trying to read stuff. Relatable Content is easy to read and odds are very high that if others vibe with it you’ll vibe with it, so you feel justified in thinking the effort you put in will have a high return as a consumer.

And tumblr is a sucky format for creative writing! If you’re not a poet, it’s honestly so bad! Getting invested in a new set of characters for a snippet that’s only going to be about 500 or so words is work. It’s not easy. Would you rather work for your own writing or for someone else’s?

Maybe it’s a different conversation with visual art, but with writing on long projects your wip can’t just blow up. Blowing up doesn’t happen on wips. You have to develop a following over time by making friends who are interested in your work, updating in a consistent manner, getting people hooked in. A post with 20 notes on it is a very successful post! A blogger who consistently gets 20 notes is a very successful blogger!

And of course the writing of a writeblr whose writing gets lots of notes is going to be at least a little good, but getting read is a very similar game on writeblr to what it is elsewhere. Popular writers are good at marketing. The difference within a community is that you simply be an active part of the community to market, but even then, you have to get the formatting right to make it as easy as possible for people to get invested. Because, again, getting invested is hard.

What I’m saying is, as a writeblr, you’ve got to separate your expectations for regular content and original writing. Only ever compare your writing to its self. Never compare to your other content.

Peace out and good luck.

[lsseymiyake]

Black women being Ethereal beings

[whump-tr0pes]

Symptoms of writer’s block:

Inability to focus

Brain fog

Sleep disturbances

Feeling of hopelessness

Lack of enjoyment of things (writing) you used to enjoy

Lack of creativity

Unpleasant feelings of stress or frustration

Symptoms of depression:

Inability to focus

Brain fog

Sleep disturbances

Feeling of hopelessness

Lack of enjoyment of things you used to enjoy

Lack of creativity

Unpleasant feelings of stress or frustration

Be kind to yourself

[naturcs]

by one_becky_blue

[90377]

Forest, Sakura, Fog by Simon Watt

[prokopetz]

Writing tip: if you need to provide a lot of worldbuilding information at once, but don’t want a bunch of characters explaining things to each other that they already know, have somebody do something terrible that’s related to the thing you want to explain, then have them morally justify themselves in a way that requires them to explain the thing.

Recognised variants:

The “it’s not what it looks like” explanation

The “I know this looks bad, but let me provide context” runaround

The “outlining the extenuating circumstances” ramble

The “really this is as much your fault as it is mine” reproach

The “it was a hard decision and you should pity me” appeal

The “here’s why I had no choice but to do what I did“ rationalisation

The “I was justified because fuck you“ rant

[road-rhythm]

Fiction doesn’t exist to provide us with comprehensive instructions to navigate life. It exists to provide us with the perspective, questions, critical consideration, exploration, beauty, and escape we need to figure it out for ourselves.

[minuty]

[sagebetweenthepages]

[yoannlossel]

🌟 I’m pleased to  unveil my latest piece, Les Jardins de Nuit (Night’s Gardens). This piece is part of a series I started with « The Rise ». When I met Psyche, we wrote a short story called Night and Dawn. Les Jardins de Nuit is an allegory of the gardens in the mind of Psyche (Night). I like to imagine that each of us could be represented by an enigmatic landscape. An entire universe as a mirror of our lives, with its trees, its diaphanous temple, its flowers, its ruins, its skies and its path to the stars⭐️.

This piece will be part of the exhibition Midnight Garden, in the Modern Eden Gallery. An international Group Exhibition curated by Beautiful Bizarre Magazine. 

 We will be releasing a  fine art print enhanced with gold leaf in the coming weeks. 

 For those of you who participated in my kickstarter campaign, “Les Jardins de Nuit” will be included in all the editions of my artbook Forgotten Gods, and gilded with golden stamping in the Lustratio and Celestial Editions. 

 Model : Psyché Ophiuchus 

[falling-through-autumn]

[write-on-world]

There is no sound like the sound of rain on a roof… on a window… it brings a kind of peace that I’ve never found any phenomenon to match. I’ve seen the rain in San Francisco, in Seattle, Florida, New York… strange - even ridiculous - as it may seem, rain is the binding tie of the world, I think. Water connects us all. It hits from the side, falls straight down, it falls as thin as a mist or hits in sheets. But the sound of the falling rain remains the same.

[mrgankingston-blog]

Plot This: Structure Guide

Alright so if you’re a writer then you’ve probably familiarized yourself with plot…and the structure it provides to a novel. There are countless articles online on “how to plot a novel” or the like. Which is fantastic for you writers because it’s at a fingers reach from us. Not so great when there’s about…a billion ways one can go about plotting a novel. It can seem daunting and overwhelming and more important confusing! 

I want to break down this massive task bit by bit. Starting with the very bare bones and working into more detailed parts. Making it more manageable.

 Now, I know some of you might roll your eyes and say I know all there is to know about plot. I was you. I went into every workshop and craft class thinking the same thing. And yet, when I started plotting my recent WIP ( The Cost of Defeat ) I realized I didn’t know jack. I thought every story I ever wrote would adhere to my system of structure because of sheer will and blunt force. Yeah wrong.

It wasn’t until just recently I started diving into the structure ( because I like pretty diagrams and being organized way more than I should) that I discovered there are a lot of different Plot Structures out there. No one bothered to ever teach me let alone discuss these things. My mind was blown. 

Some worked better for me than others. Some mesh better together than others. It’s all about experimenting and figuring out what works for you. And I’m hoping that this will also help others, or at least give a jumping off point. Now it’s not a whole list ( there’s a lot of elements that I could probably talk about by themselves) but it’s a good overview of the popular ones that reoccur a lot.

1) Freytag’s Pyramid

Freytag’s pyramid is the most basic plot structure I know. It’s the one we’ve all seen in school when we start learning about story structure and analysis.

This bad boy is the simplest plot structure used to dissect and understand Greek and Shakespearean Plays. 

Pros     x Simplistic. Makes it easy to understand      x Great for those just starting ( or those who want to understand film and literature analysis.     x Great for AP Literature/Comp papers

Cons     x It creates simple stories     x Not super awesome for modern novels or anything longer than about 25K words

Uses     x Children’s Literature. Picture books mostly. Children are still learning to understand things like conflict effect on characters and having such a long falling action allows for that.     x Short Stories. Since short stories are compact for punch, this structure allows you to get the most done without boring the reader in 25K words or less.   x Analysis. This structure is the easiest and most common to apply to plays, film, tv and even in classic literature. It’s a great way to dissect plot and events in order to better understand the pieces working parts 

Examples: Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet                    Sophocles’s  Antigone                    Henrik Ibsen  A Doll House

2) Three-Act Structure

The Three-Act Structure is probably the most known. We all know this intuitively as storytellers. Everything needs a beginning middle and end, after all.

This structure is very similar to Freytag’s Pyramid but adds elements that beef up and create points of interest. Obstacles, for example, add conflict and build up suspense for the climax. It’s also important to note that the falling action and resolution is much more compact.

Pros    x  basic building block for all good stories    x  Roadmap-like so you can be systematic about things    x  Good “big-picture” visual

Cons    x  Pacing is super important for this    x  Bit rigid and formulaic

Uses     x  Literally anything. Because it’s versatile it works on  a plethera of stuff, let your imagineation run wild.     x Film analysis. This struccture is like the holy grail in almost any film class ( sometimes they call it the four act structure)

Examples:  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes                    Alfred Hitchcock’s  Vertigo                    Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice

3) The Fichtean Curve

The Fichten Curve Is really unique in that it starts right with the rising action. There ain’t no time to build up or nice slow introductions, you’re dumping the readers right where it hurts. But you make up that lost time with the small bits of exposition

This is one of the most popular plot structures for modern novels.

Pros     x  A lot of opportunities to ramp up the stakes, bit after bit     x Good for pacing     x  Great for Overcoming Monster & Quest stories     x Translate over almost any genre

Cons     x Not a lot of time to slow down, breathe     x Not suited for Voyage and Return, Comedy or Rebirth stories

Uses    x Thrillers/Mystery novels. You need something to keep readers in the story, chomping at the bit. here’s the plot structure for you.    

Examples: Max Brooks’s World War Z                  

4) Plot Embryo/Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is also super common in the literature (namely western literature) With this plot the protagonist ( the hero of hero’s journey) undergoes a literal or figurative death-like transformation that changes him. 

The protagonist must venture from one state into another. To take it a step further there’s a variation called the Ploy Embyro. Dan Harmon takes the hero’s journey a bit deeper and modernizes. [ here’a great video on it by youtuber Rachel Stephen x] 

As you can see, the Hero’s Journey and Ploy Embyro are both cyclical. This baby comes full circle in both plot and character. They have similar plot points. But if I were to gush about this the post would be waaay longer than it already is. This is one of my preferred methods because it just makes sense for me and allows me to have some freedom and wiggle room while still adhering to the 3 acts.

Pros     x Character development holla, cause this is where it’s at.     x Visually appealing     x  Simple 8 point outline ( for those who might not enjoy long-winded outlines)     x  Works alongside A beat sheet ( if you use that sort of thing)     x  The holy grail for myths.

Cons     x Overdone ( but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing)     x Not suited for those who really detailed outlines

Uses     x Adventure Stories. It is all about the adventure and journey with this     x Myth Retellings. I mean it’s based on the myth structure of the Odyssey and the like so it makes sense

Examples: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird                    Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief                   J. R R. Tolktien’s The Hobbit

5) In Media Res

A literal translation to “In the Middle”. This plot structure dumps you right in the middle of the story.  Think if you were to open a story on the second of third crisis/pinch point. there’s still a lot of upward trajectory to go before the climax.

Don’t confuse this with simply opening a story mid fight/action. Media Res starts well deep into the story itself, close to the climax but with enough room you can still build up to it.

Pros     x High Actions     x Simple and fun to play with     x A good use for flashbacks     x Hell of a hook for readers

Cons     x  Can be confusing for reader’s if not done right     x  No build up     x takes some finessing to get just right

Uses      x Mysteries. This is a great plot if you want to start a story perhaps where the killer has already committed the murder.    x Epic Poems. Maybe you wanna write the next epic poem, this is great for that.       Examples  John Milton’s Paradise Lost                    Homer’s Illiad                    George Lucas’s  Star Wars 

Now I could go on and on but this monster of a post has carried on long enough. If there’s a certain structure you’d like me to go into more detail about feel free to leave a comment on this post and I’ll be sure to add it to my line up!! As always happy writing/creating!

        XO Morgan

[pixelcoder-deactivated20211223]

“I already thought on that first evening of our meeting how glorious it would be to spend one’s whole life regarded by those beautiful, candid eyes, and how it would then be impossible ever to think or do ill.” ― Hermann Hesse - German Woodlands - October 2k20