There's this whole story unfolding on TikTok right now about this account that got popular — a woman in the US who calls up churches & pretends to have a starving newborn that hasn't eaten since last evening & asks them if they could help her out with a can of formula. Unsurprisingly, none of the ridiculous megachurches actually ever say yes, and the churches & other religious institutions that did say yes are getting lots of support from people.
But I just saw a video of a TT user explaining that they decided to do their own little social experiment — by walking up to drug dealers on the street, telling them there's a young woman with a baby who needs help with formula, and literally all of them immediately reached into their pockets. In this story, the OP did have a real neighbor with a baby who ended up getting some much needed baby supplies. Thanks to the charity of local drug dealers.
A lot of Americans are learning that their rich white Christian churches are less willing to help their communities than black churches, mosques, buddhist temples, the satanic temple & apparently also crack dealers.
This website is still here and some of the asks are heartbreaking. Like “Jamie wants a new pair of jeans because he’s never had new clothes before”. Or “Kayla wants a bag with her name on it for when she moves foster homes again.”
A lot of these kids ask for brand name clothing and it sounds pretentious but having one nice new fashionable piece of clothing means a lot when all your previous clothes have come out of black trash bags from charities.
Btw, you can filter wishes based on gender, age, price, etc to help you find the perfect wish for you. This charity is LGBTQ-affirming (unlike a lot of religion-based charities that are unfortunately homophobic), so you can even look for nonbinary kids to donate to.
Also, I would really encourage people to be open to granting wishes made by older foster kids (14+) or young adults who aged out of the system and still lack family support. They’re so often forgotten.
If you don’t have a lot of money but still want to help give a kid a nice Christmas, there are lots of wishes that are $24 for stocking stuffers as well, or $15 for a sqishmallow!
I just want to add that right now, there are so many pending wishes for food. Kids are asking for food from the universe (and yeah, “kids” includes young adults just entering the work force–eighteen and hungry is just as morally wrong as eight and hungry).
I reblogged this without saying anything earlier, but damn it’s so refreshing to see a celebrity that doesn’t feel the need to appeal to literal fascists.
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
Some helpful, basic guidelines for developing a consistent or thematic approach to naming villages or towns or cities in fiction.
And never forget, you can change it later … in fact, one can almost guarantee that the more village, town, or city names you come up with during the worldbuilding phase, the more likely you’ll change one (or all) of them in due time.
this is me trying by taylor swift // black swan by darren aronofsky // the bear by christopher storer // i, tonya by craig gillespie // normal people by lenny abrahamson and hettie macdonald // untitled by me // this is me trying by taylor swift // fleabag by phoebe waller-bridge // euphoria by sam levinson // eternal sunshine of the spotless mind by michel gondry // vicky cristina barcelona by woody allen // pearl by ti west // not strong enough by boygenuis // the Painter and the pianist ny lionello balestrieri // crying girl on the sofa by peder knudsen // dead poets society by peter weir // the prophecy by taylor swift // brutal by olivia rodrigo // lady bird by greta gerwig // gilmore girls by amy sherman-palladino // dreams of mickey mantle by bleachers // untitled by me // la la land by damien chazelle // little women by greta gerwig // right where you left me by taylor swift // reality bites by ben stiller // friends from college by francesca delbanco and nicholas stoller // the edge of seventeen by kelly fremon craig // i’m trying (not friends) by maisie peters // hoax by taylor swift
yeah reblogging especially for my transmasc fellows who (like me) might be real uncomfortable with their chests and not know what to watch out for because we try to avoid this kind of thing (just me? okay)
Trans women on HRT have breast cancer risk about equivalent to cis women! Make sure you know this! Keep in mind that this might be difficult to monitor early on HRT, since your breasts will be changing size, shape, and texture rapidly, but be aware of these signs and ask your doctor if you’re unsure!
Impulsiveness : Acts on instinct without careful planning.
Perfectionism : Sets unrealistically high standards, leading to self-criticism.
Indecisiveness : Struggles to commit to decisions or choose a path.
Arrogance : Overestimates one’s abilities and dismisses others.
Pessimism : Habitually expects negative outcomes in most situations.
Cynicism : Distrusts the motives and sincerity of others.
Overconfidence : Places excessive faith in one’s skills, often underestimating risks.
Stubbornness : Resists change and refuses to adapt to new ideas.
Jealousy : Feels envious of others' success or possessions.
Insecurity : Experiences frequent self-doubt and a lack of confidence.
Procrastination : Tends to delay tasks, often leading to missed opportunities.
Passivity : Avoids taking initiative and relies on others to act.
Aggressiveness : Responds with hostility or force rather than reason.
Selfishness : Prioritizes personal gain over the welfare of others.
Fragility : Is overly sensitive to criticism and easily discouraged.
Egotism : Constantly focuses on oneself and one’s own importance.
Defensiveness : Quickly rejects or rationalizes away critique or new information.
Manipulativeness : Exploits others to fulfill personal needs or desires.
Recklessness : Shows a careless disregard for potential risks or consequences.
Resentfulness : Holds lingering bitterness and grudges over perceived wrongs.
Distractibility : Finds it hard to maintain focus amid competing interests.
Impatience : Lacks the willingness to wait, often spoiling opportunities to learn.
Perfunctory : Performs actions in a mechanical, uninspired manner.
Self-Doubt : Consistently questions personal abilities and decisions.
Arbitraryness : Makes decisions based on whim rather than reason or evidence.
Rigidity : Is inflexible and unwilling to consider alternative viewpoints.
Gullibility : Trusts too easily, often leading to being misled or deceived.
Obsession : Becomes excessively fixated on particular ideas or details.
Aloofness : Maintains emotional distance, appearing detached or indifferent.
Intolerance : Refuses to accept differing perspectives or lifestyles.
Writing Advice for Brainstorming
Mix genres and time periods: Experiment by combining elements from different eras or genres to create unique settings and narratives.
Use "what if" scenarios: Pose unexpected questions (e.g., What if time travel operated on emotions rather than mechanics?) to spark novel ideas.
Draw from diverse mediums: Engage with art, music, or even scientific papers to inspire unexpected plot twists.
Embrace absurdity: Let illogical or surreal ideas guide you; sometimes the wildest thoughts lead to compelling stories.
Reverse clichés: Identify common tropes in your favorite genres and deliberately invert them to create fresh perspectives.
Incorporate personal anomalies: Transform your idiosyncrasies and personal struggles into rich, multi-dimensional characters.
Use mind-mapping: Visually plot your ideas in a freeform way to uncover hidden connections between disparate elements.
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.
How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)
Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page
Basic character profile
OC masterpost
Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)
D&D Character Building Tool
Character Design Ideas:
How clothing affects a character’s personality
Character Design Inspiration blog
Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by
Character design references and inspiration
Sources for POC character design ideas and models
Create your own character model using HeroForge
For horned characters
Body and hair types guide
Random outfit generator
Naming Help:
Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources
General advice on avoiding naming appropriation
Hispanic Surnames
Gothic Victorian names
Huge master list for character things in general
Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more
Another name masterlist
How to pick a character name guide
Yet another names masterlist
Creating Background/backstory:
Character Sheet/Development Sheet
Another character development list
In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet
320 talents and passions for characters
On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous
Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary
Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes
Random backstory generator
Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid
Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:
Comparing character height/height references
Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science
Describing what different voices sound like
Describing skin tones
Writing friendship interactions that are platonic
Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea
Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing
Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)
How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters
How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero
On platonic OC and canon character relationships
How to avoid Godmodding in RPs
When it’s cheap to kill off a character
Writing dialogue
Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters
Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs
Slang resources
Dialogue tips
Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships
some tips for writing blogs, especially those who are just starting out. these are some things that works for me and may or may not work for others.
how to add a read more link on mobile
type :readmore: on a free space, then hit the enter or return button
personally i think they’re very helpful because it lessens the space you take up in your dash, and might encourage more people to rb
+ you can also add this on a spot where it gives a sort of cliffhanger, essentially making people want to ‘read more’
headers, banners, and dividers
though not necessary, it’s good to have a title for your work. make sure it’s bold and doesn’t blend in with your notes (aka pairing, warnings, etc.). this also helps when someone wants to look up one of your works in your search bar
i don’t really make banners or covers for my works. but some good apps that i know of would be picsart and canva. if you’re looking for ideas, i definitely recommend going into canva
wondering how to make those really small, thin dividers? you can make them using picsart! to make a divider hit tools > free crop > brush > size (adjust it to your preference > then draw a line along the edge of your photo > save
using the divider you just saved, go back to picsart and edit it again > draw option > hit rainbow square at the bottom left corner > hit suction/droplet symbol right below the check mark > color in the white spots bc for some reason picsart glitches and makes dividers look white-ish
new blog? just opened an account?
this is gonna sound really frustrating. but... tumblr needs to check if you’re a bot or not. what does this mean? it’s likely that your first few posts won’t show up on the search bar. you may not even get to edit your header/pfp yet ://
this happened to me and there was no visibility on my account at ALL. what helped me get ‘verified’ is that i followed a LOT of accounts, liked a bunch of posts, made some posts here and there. now that lets tumblr know you’re not a bot
visibility
the tumblr tagging system usually only allows the first 5 tags in your post to show up. so, what can do you about this? only use FIVE or less tags in your post. wait about 15 minutes or more until you can add some more tags in your post, and they usually all show up like that
another important thing about using tags is not to generalize! especially if you’re using a popular tag. but also don’t specify it too much where barely anyone looks it up. for example, if you’re writing a gn piece about oikawa, i recommend you use the tags such as: oikawa x reader, haikyuu x reader, oikawa x gn!reader, haikyuu headcanons, etc
a good rule of thumb is to use character x reader tags first, then leave the full name or fandom tag last
FOR NSFW: tumblr doesn’t let any tags with nsfw show up. so, give your nsfw works another tag. maybe #namegetspicy idk, you figure it out
FOR WARNINGS: especially if you’re a dark content creator, i highly encourage you to add tw:xyz tags. if you already have a warning note at the top then that’s great. but even better for readers who prefer to actually block these tags that way they never get to see it
another important thing to note is that people have different timezones. it helps if you rb your work at a different time of the day, in case people missed it! (icymi) i’ve noticed that reblogging helps to make your post show up in the tags
interaction + feedback
first and foremost, you are not obligated to write for your followers, and neither are your followers obligated to interact with you. remember that everyone has their own individual lives, and they have their own things to do— so do you, too.
make friends! become mutuals with other writers, visit their ask box. i know it can be daunting having to initiate these things, but you might just turn out to have fun! you can’t expect people to interact with you if you’re not interacting (back). it’s... kind of a two way thing yk? no need to be afraid to interact with other writers. oh, and rb other writers works!
pspsps join tag games or do ask games. it’s fun and very interactive
it never hurts to ask for feedback. i usually do this in a more subtle way because i don’t really expect a full on analysis on my works. maybe a little, is this okay? or feedback appreciated. sometimes it takes a little bit of coaxing for the silent readers
formatting your posts and blog
i generally put in the title at the top in big, bold letters
then comes the header/divider. helps to make the post more... visually appealing ig?
it’s important to add warnings (if any) and the pairing. the audience is not all female, and it might be a little frustrating for male readers having to find out its an x fem reader piece like halfway through your fic
if you have multiple works posted, it’s really really helpful to have a navigation page!
you can organize the posts you make with tags! for example, if you’re shitposting, you can use a specific tag for that. if you have a nsfw related post (ESPECIALLY when your blog is open to the general audience) please make a tag for it
themes + colors
if you have a color in mind but don’t know which direction to go from there, i recommend looking up color + aesthetic
looking to use the same color? download a name color app that’ll give you a hex code for any color you want to use. then, you can type in that hex code for when you’re choosing a color for your tumblr bio
wondering how to make your header image small like mine? just choose a photo for your header and turn off the stretch image option
want to use a different text color that tumblr doesn’t offer? it’s not as complicated as you think. you’ll have to go on a desktop to do this and do some html (but trust me, it’s not very difficult). look up “HTML noob but trying my best - how to use colored text on desktop”
^^ i don’t have the link for the color text tutorial so you can try looking it up
how to make an aesthetic navi and masterlist
step 1: decide a theme! if you’re stuck, think about a character + color/season/mood or look up “[insert] aesthetic” to find some inspiration. or you can try looking at other blogs too
step 2: find a color scheme! it’s easier if you choose fewer colors. if you want to use the same color for both divider and text, download a color name app in order to get the hex code of that color.
step 3: add categories to your navi! most navigation pages include a link to masterlist, about/byi, and rules. your navi should have a title that indicates that it’s... a navigation page. you can add thin colored dividers with the same color to make it easier for followers to navigate
step 4: you can choose to create a ‘cover’ or a picture for your navigation and masterlist! again, i recommend you use the canva app as a starting point
extra: search up emoticon symbols to spice up your titles!
reminder for you as a writer
you’re not obligated to do any of these things. i’ve noticed that we tend to build pressure on ourselves when it comes to content and interaction. remember, this !! is !! for !! fun !! when you realize that it’s no longer fun, then know that it’s time to take a break. and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self care.
^^ c/p from this post lol
at the end of the day, follower count and interaction doesn’t define you. again for the love of beings, you’re here on your own accord.
it exists to divide the working class. All labour is skilled labour. Yes including that one. Yes, including that one too.
Do you know what's unskilled labour? Owning capital. There's no labour involved, thus requires no skill. And you can tell because people can be born into owning capital.
