This is a personal blog for me to keep track of interesting writing tips or prompts that I find. May also include art references. Feel free to follow if you want.
like I mean this very seriously as writing advice. the character should experience events and make decisions that make them different at the end of the story. they should be changed. they do not have to be improved.
they can get worse. they can make decisions of an increasingly terrible nature. they can stop taking risks on kindness. they can discover how much they can get away with. they can find religion, or abandon it, with negative effects on their moral creed. the character has to develop. the character does not have to grow.
i understand wanting to coddle your guy after the horrors or whatever but. there is something sooooo compelling about strangers and even friends flinching away from the Character in the aftermath. something’s not the same as it was, and maybe no one can put their finger on it—what draws their focus that never did before, the intensity of their attention, the way they set their jaw, now, and never quite fully relax their body. but it’s unsettling. even if you can’t name it, there’s the suspicion that something in them broke into a sharp edge, and people can sense the threat.
Your dialogue is stiff because everyone is being too honest
Great dialogue can come from radical emotional honesty. But in most real conversations, people
dodge questions
answer indirectly
lie (badly)
change the subject
crack jokes to avoid serious answers
lie (convincingly)
say half of what they mean
tell the truth but get so anxious/angry/defensive others now think they're lying
If your dialogue feels unnatural, it might be because everyone is saying exactly what they think, or articulating their thoughts too well. Try letting characters hide things instead.
I once had a plan to read at least one classic novel from (almost) every country, I keep forgetting about it but I really should do it, I usually end up enjoying them
This was getting a bit out of hand with people sending asks instead of commenting, so I compiled everything that was sent to me under the cut. The rest of the recommendations are in the comments as usual. Thank you all for the recs!
shabby-alonso asked:
for classic novels, i would recommend Dream of Red Chamber, i think it might align with your tastes well!
Anonymous asked:
have you read notes of a crocodile by qiu miaojin? its a taiwanese classic
shmuel-ben-sarah-kcd2 asked:
Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by I. B. Singer
More queer Yiddish literature, I do love the movie too but the movie doesn’t fully convey the utter transness of Anshel.
Anonymous asked:
For Argentinian classics I'd recommend Jorge Luis Borges! I recently finished one of his most well known collection "Ficciones" and enjoyed it :)
Anonymous asked:
have you gotten to read brazilian classic lit yet? The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis is one that defined our literature. i recommend The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa as well.
jarenka asked:
I recommend My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola for Nigerian lit. Utterly bizarre prose, 12/10.
kotitontunmanaaja asked:
Sonewhat western book rec depending on your definition, but 'My Cat Yugoslavia' is definitely a modern Finnish classic by Finnish Kosovan author Pajtim Statovci - queer themes, some nice surreal imagery with and a nice layered structure of dual timelines in one family, questions about belonging, intergenerational trauma and refugee life and such. One of the books that got me reading again after a long time!
fatalwa asked:
For book recs - I will double the author and the name in the original Ukrainian so you would have better chances of finding them:
• The Yellow Prince (Жовтий князь) by Vasyl Barka (Василь Барка)
• Do oxen low when mangers are full? (Чи ревуть воли як ясла повні?) by Ivan Bilyk and Panas Myrnyi (Іван Білик, Панас Мирний)
• Clouds (Хмари) by Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi (Іван Нечуй-Левицький)
• Я (Романтика) / I (Romantic) by Mykola Khvylovyi (Микола Хвильовий)
• Enchanted Desna (Зачарована Десна) by Oleksandr Dovzhenko (Олександр Довженко)
I don't really know what kind of literature you prefer so I decided to give 5 different recommendations for you to choose from.
Anonymous asked:
Since you like Hesse, I'd definitely recommend Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Hungarian classic)
Anonymous asked:
Since someone already mentioned Machado de Assis, i'll recommend then Os Sertões by Euclides da Cunha, i have never read it fully but it is sure considered a brazilian classic
inferubim asked:
Check out "Blindness", by Portuguese author José Saramago!
Anonymous asked:
Brazilian here! About reading a classic from every country, I'd heavily recommend Alexandre e Outros Heróis by Graciliano Ramos!
It's one of his lesser known books but it is excellent. He is one of the best writers in the history of my country. It's also, in my opinion, his best book!
the devils by dostoesvky — INSANE characters with homoerotic subtext and crazy plot;
the idiot (also by him) — the gentlest character in the entirety of russian lit, the book kinda reads as "what if i put christ in modern world and made him fall for a tortured fantastic woman" (and she's one of the most fascinating female characters in RL) + you might be more interested in it because there's very strong visual imagery (eg dostoesvky was obsessed with the "dead christ" by holbein and it manifests in the text);
judas iscariot by leonid andreev — ALSO homoerotic subtext + such an interesting and fresh portrayal of jesus; god it's so good!!
the portrait by gogol — kinda wilde's the picture of dorian gray before dorian gray. genuinely reads as if gogol PAINTS the text (he was also a painter himself). the story of an artist, insanity and art. a fascinating read!
(via @hellamorte)
Ok, inspired by @toadlett, I started compiling these in a google doc
WORLD LITERATURE LIST Asia Afghanistan: Armenia: Azerbaijan: Bahrain: Bangladesh: Bhutan: Brunei: Cambodia: China: Dream of Red Cha
And I saw that there are many lists online of a similar kind, but as I'm mostly interested in classical literature rather than modern, and also as I'd like to prioritize the books that have been recommended to me rather than ones I find online, I'll continue to curate this list. Thank you again! ☺️
At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields
technically you can, if you don't care about degrees.
Free Harvard courses.
Free Courses from Stanford.
Free Courses from MIT.
Free courses from Yale.
Free courses from Princeton.
Free courses on Coursera.
Free Courses on EDx
Free Courses on Alison
For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.
When searching, the phrases you're looking for are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), or you can do a general search of say, "free online college courses."
Oh, and so you don't get surprised like I did, have an avoid: Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian site and not a valid MOOC place. Sign up with them and you will get things like THIS IS WHY THE LEFT IS TURNING YOUR KIDS TRANS AND GAY in your inbox.
Heya, love your artwork! Can't help but be absolutely obsessed with the way you shade & colour. Do you happen to have some tips or a showcase of your process? Would love to see and learn from it 🙏
Hello there! Here is my proccess of coloring from one of my previous art :3 Hope you find it useful!
When Baldur's Gate 3 Companions Fall in Love...(Baldur's Gate 3 Request)
Pairings: Astarion x Reader, Wyll Ravengard x Reader, Gale Dekarios x Reader, Shadowheart x Reader, Karlach x Reader
Author's Note: It's been a while! I haven't posted in a while but I've got some time at the moment and I'm just finishing a first playthrough of BG3 so wanted to write some headcanons for our charming companions. Consider me open for any BG3 request too, let me know if you want to see more pieces like this :)
Astarion:
- Travelling with you makes Astarion feel grateful he's had hundreds of years to perfect his flirting technique. He knows exactly how to let you know what he's thinking without ever giving away too much of himself, how to flash his smile without ever lowering his guard. He thinks once again he knows exactly how to capture your attention, and possibly your body, without losing an ounce of control. That is until you say something that catches him completely off guard...
- "I'm really sorry to hear that." You should have laughed at his expense, his self-deprecating humour and haunted tales from his past worn like the toughest armour over silky open shirts. But you hadn't laughed, or scoffed, or replied with some equivalently sarcastic tone. Instead you'd offered empathy, a warm look and an extended hand that somehow didn't feel like pity to Astarion either.
"Well that's enough self-pity for tonight my dear." He quickly excused himself from the campfire, turning his back as he entered his tent to hide any visible blush his cheeks may muster from the way you said good night. Of course his blood didn't circulate that way any more, but he was almost sure he could feel his heart rising in his chest as it had when he was still a mortal man. No, this didn't feel right at all.
- It would be easy for Astarion to pretend he was only interested in a night of carnal pleasures with you because of all the beauty you possess, and he'll let everyone else think him a shallow man just the same. But when he lets his mind wander freely it's your kindness he finds himself dwelling on, or your firm but fair moral code that seems to carry you through these intrepid lands without doubt or tribulation. He almost wishes he had met you sooner, so sure that his life (and after-life) could have turned out quite different with you by his side at those strange early steps.
- Suddenly all his effortless flirting feels a lot more challenging and he can't decide if he should risk a small amount of sincerity to let you know how we feels, or just to double down on letting you know one night with him would ruin you for any other lover. Luckily both approaches are met with the affection he craves, and slowly but surely Astarion starts to feel like he might be able to have something real for once.
Wyll:
- Ever the hopeless romantic, Wyll was already a firm believer in love at first sight by the time he ran into you and experienced it firsthand. He fears he cannot be too bold, his staunch commitment to his duties governing his life in a way that does not leave much room for any other kind of commitment. He tries to let his feelings settle at the back of his mind, in the hopes that in time they will become nothing but a dull ache he can learn to live with.
- That could not be less of the case for poor Wyll though, your face filling his every nightly dream and your voice echoing through his mind in every moment of silence. His heart grows heavier and heavier with each passing day you travel together and soon it feels almost inevitable that he will be yours, even if he can't quite bring himself to admit it yet. Once he has accepted that thought he must wrestle with the possibility that you might not feel the same and you will be added to his list of those he cares for most that have rejected him with scorn.
- Still he lets the lighter thoughts carry him through the toughest of times; what it might be like to hear you offer your own feelings back, how it would feel to see you smile only for him, what kind of life the two of you might be able to build in a simpler times, what he could finally do if you agreed to a wedding night together. He lets himself ruminate on that more often that he'd like to admit, all gentlemanly efforts banished from his mind when he sees you walk around his camp.
- While he builds up the courage to make his feelings known, you might catch him practicing the steps of an intricate dance one night when he thinks everyone is fast asleep.
Gale:
- Gale has known love and loss before, the intensity of his past life making him consider keeping his heart closed off from others forevermore. But the gods have a funny way of keeping Gale on his toes, and introducing him to you certainly did that.
- At first you are just the warmest of friends to him: an ever-willing audience for his lifetime of tales and knowledge, a reliable companion for the throes of battle, a selfless treasure seeker who helps him fend off hunger. But over time he finds himself desperately scanning his mind for more and more facts that it would be worth waking you up to share, more tales to capture your attention, anything the two of you might do together to keep your focus on him and no one else.
- It's about when he wonders if the two of you might just camp in one tent together, that he realises he no longer views you as simply his closest friend. No, you have long passed that threshold into an entirely new realm of love. It feels so different to anything he has felt before, like your company is the warmest summer breeze after decades of stormy lightning in his heart. It feels safe and easy to be with you, like he could be content with almost nothing as long as you were by his side, looking at him with your near endless appreciation. Gale can't be sure exactly what to do about it, but he hopes the next time you draw back the opening on your tent and usher him in for another night of exchanging tales, that you might permit him to never leave.
Shadowheart:
- It's hard to know love when you barely know yourself. That's what Shadowheart tells herself when she finds her mind wandering back to you after your memorable first impression. She has so much to learn about herself, and while she's grateful for the reliable company and kind sounding-board you provide, there's simply no room in her life for anything more.
- And yet the more she uncovers about herself, the more important it seems to have you by her side. It's like she cannot exist in this new fully realised version of herself if she doesn't know you. If she doesn't get to see herself through your eyes, to hear what you think, to have your presence beside her as he continues to take more and more steps forward down this path home.
- Without ever trying you have become the other half of Shadowheart, and by the time she realises it, she knows you must have the same awareness. There could be no way that you aren't as in tune to the depth of your bond as she is, leaving her only one question. Not if to address it. But when.
Karlach:
- Though Karlach may not have a traditional heart anymore, she is more than capable of falling for the travelling companion that seems to bring out the best in her at every step. After years spent working for the devil and his underlings, having someone in her life that strives to make the world better and put her strength to good use is like the first sip of water after countless nights in the arid desert of the hells.
- Karlach knows she's as strong as they come, so she finds her eyes frantically searching you out in battle, pushing herself on and raging forwards to always keep you safe, to get you behind her, to make sure you go on to keep her company another day.
- Her time in this plane of existence may be more limited than some of the other characters, but that only means Karlach knows how important it is to truly 'live.' While the other companions may bide their time and carefully deliberate how best to inform you of their inconvenient feelings, when Karlach knows your heart is true, she's going to let you know she is all yours at the earliest, and steamiest, opportunity.
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