Rhymer Novak

All the things I like in one easy to find scrolling blog

[gael-garcia]

Lupita Nyong'o as Cesario in Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night (2025)

[narliee]

OVER THE GARDEN WALL (2014) Chapter 7: The Ringing of the Bell

[mlleclaudine]

from pbsgreatperformances' Instagram

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Oh so this is why people are gaga over Peter Dinklage

[little-tornad0]

Oh this is what people mean by preserving the dick jokes in Shakespeare adaptations!

[chexala]

The full production is streaming for free on the PBS website until December 31, 2025! https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/twelfth-night-about/17254/

[st-hood]

[victoria-pedretti]

MISS CONGENIALITY 2000 — dir. Donald Petrie

[rhymernovak]

It’s the perfect date today

[allthingshalloweenn]

🎃🍂

[nope-not-in-my-homestead]

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[missroserose]

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

[heck-in-a-handbasket]

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

[ineedthesons]

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

[tarysande]

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

[the-haiku-bot]

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

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

[gifs-of-puppets]

Celebrating 70 Years of The Muppets

Week Ten: The Muppet Ghosts

[daily-spooky]

[writing-nothing-but-spilled-ink]

Thanks op you made me laugh myself into an asthma attack 😂

[leirelatent]

“Cats Instructed By an Owl in the Art of Mouse-Catching” (1700)

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Nancy by Cat Kaczmarek

[thebelchers]

[televandalist]

[climbingthefloors]

moo deng vs the world

[nicostiel]

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

[simkaye]

Shaking and trembling, we made it to another coffee and pumpkin season 🎃☕️ Prints available!

[mactiir]

obsessed with mass market paperbacks. their pleasing rectangular proportions. how they fit badly in a hoodie pocket so you can drag them around everywhere with you like a temporary little buddy. the way they fit in your hand because they're MADE for human hands and not as bookshelf decoration. the way the pages feel when you riffle them gently with your thumb. How pristine and crisp they look when you get them and how creased and folded they look when you're done, even if you try to be nice to them. how that wear is okay, how that's correct actually, because they're made with the philosophy that books aren't meant to be PRETTY, they're meant to be read. that little ripple new ones get on the left side from where you hold them when you're reading, the way the ripple only goes as far as you've read, because u change stories by reading as they are changing you. how you can find thousands of these creased and folded and loved little dudes in every thrift store and used book shop and neighborhood library and you can instantly see the ones that someone carried around in a backpack for weeks or read to pieces or gave up on halfway through because they wear being read like fresh snow wears footprints. I love these poorly made, subpar little rectangles so much. truly the people's books.