Sin

https://isabellearimes.weebly.com

[em-iliart]

how this week has felt

[occasionallysubtle]

i've kept adding to my fantastical national parks series ~ comment which i should add next :)

[eventhorizon0556]

okay, yes, the doctor and rose are very orpheus and eurydice. yes, in both stories the love was not enough to stop the tragedy. yes, what ultimately mattered was the love and not the tragedy. yes, both get their eventual happy endings through a death and rebirth

BUT i feel like people get it mixed up. the doctor isn't orpheus. rose is. rose is always the one fighting through hell and high water for them, the one who has, multiple times, faced impossible odds to get the doctor out of proverbial hell. the doctor's position as eurydice is acceptance of his fate. that he deserves his place. but he sees orpheus fight for him and even though that doesn't change things, he knows he is loved.

the game station? bad wolf? orpheus and eurycide, but orpheus succeeds. krop tor? the satan pit? how much more obvious can you get? orpheus and eurycide but eurycide climbs out of the underworld.

but see, then you get doomsday. then you get the tragedy, and although it seems like rose is eurydice dragged to hades, you just have to ask: who fights to get back? who gets their "wait for me" in the form of missing stars and dimension cannon jumps? rose. she's orpheus, jumping universes with her own song of love leading her back to eurydice. and the doctor does turn around on the street (very orpheus, i know. the comparison writes itself) BUT then he dies! he gets shot! back to the underworld!

the metacrisis regeneration is, as mentioned before, the final death of orpheus and the reunion of lovers in the underworld. because everyone seems to forget that part is possible, if not thinly implied in ovid's "metamorphoses".

and maybe that does make the doctor orpheus. maybe they're interchangeable. i just love finishing the story of orpheus and eurydice with "but the love was there. but looking back wasn't the end. but there can still be hope after tragedy" because that's ultimately what it's all about.

[teaboot]

I’m not Christian, I don’t go to church anymore, and my pastor died, but when he was alive I’d sometimes go to his sermons and I remember one time he said “it feels good to hate, but we know that it isn’t allowed, so when we’re told that we’re allowed to hate someone we get so excited that we forget we’re supposed to love”, and if my humble atheist ass might borrow some church talk I’d like to perhaps submit that

[teaboot]

Anyhow sometimes on the day to day I feel disgust or revulsion and I have to ask myself “is this a danger to anyone at all or am I just looking for something I’m allowed to hate” and a solid 98/100 times it’s the latter so once again thank you pastor D

[a-queer-writer]

Writing Masterlist

I'll keep updating this as I post more writing content!

Character Building - Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Character - How to Get to Know Your Character - Get to Know Your Main Character - Aesthetics For Your Characters - How to Write Queerness in Characters Before They Know - Make a Blog For Your Characters - Know Your Characters - Family Trees For Your Characters

Romance - Romance Dynamics to Try - Dramatic Confessions - Arguments

General Tips - Create a Writer's Notebook - Don't Edit Too Much - Have a Physical Presence of Your Writing - Stop Scrolling and Go Write

[promptcalender]

Types of female characters we need more of

older women allowed to have a story outside of the fairy godmother trope or being a mere caretaking accessory to another character

girlfail characters

women who stand on business and dump the pathetic loser bf

non-traditionally feminine women who bond with traditionally feminine women instead of putting them down (and the other way around)

women who take charge of their destiny

women whose happy end doesnt involve romance and whose romantic life is not centered much

strong but warm and empathetic women

queer women with a story beyond exploring their queerness

soft black women

female mentors who dont fall into the caretaker role but also aren’t unnecessarily cruel

grumpy, taciturn women

fun, flirty, seductive women whose personality is not treated as a promiscuous flaw to be fixed

weird and off putting women

tall, feminine women who are not othered or treated as less feminine for their height

short, serious women who are not infantilised and taken seriously

women in stem

female antagonists whose antagonistic behavior is not sexualised or motivated by being wronged first. just an evil, brutal person

women of color who are neither the ‘subservient damsel in distress who needs to be freed by the white man’ nor the ‘oriental, tempting beauty who seduces the white man with a dagger, a smirk, and a cocky one liner’

[Prompt Calender: March 8th, International Women's Day]

[tanoraqui]

basically I think that if your protagonist doesn’t want to fuck someone so bad it makes them look stupid, then there probably isn’t enough energy in your story. “Fuck someone” isn’t literal btw—they can want to uncover the secrets of their parent’s death, they can want to prove their worth, they can want a donut from one particular bakery—it can be anything so long as they want it so bad that they’ll make decisions that make any sane person go “are you a moron??”, with little to no forethought, or even tons of forethought and this is still the option they chose. Because they want to fuck that thing so bad.

[bigfan1811]

wait isn’t that just giving your characters a motivation???

[tanoraqui]

You’d be surprised at how many people fail to give their characters motivation, and so write a story that’s less good than it could be.

It’s surprisingly easy to come up with an incredibly cool plot and characters without giving the characters enough motivation to make it actually compelling enough to read or even write. If you have a cool af idea that you somehow just can’t bring yourself to write, ask yourself what the main character wants, and how is that driving their decisions?

They need to want it so bad that it makes them look stupid. They need to impulse-buy a half-broken spaceship by mortgaging radioactive land, because they’re just that desperate to prove themselves more than a discarded scrap of a far greater history. They need to want their home and their people safe so much that they’ll risk their own soul to march across hundreds of miles of unknown and terrible danger to throw a cursed ring into a volcano. They need to love someone so much, and need them to know it, that they’ll blurt it out in the middle of a press conference or royal ball, or surrounded by enemies with a garrote at their throat or about to be frozen in carbonite or in the middle of a storm-tossed sea battle between pirates, British Navy, and the undead—or, they need to love someone so much that they’ll swear fealty to an evil emperor and kill a bunch of friends and children for the power to save them. They need to be so balls-to-the-wall insane in at least one regard that the plot isn’t just happening to them, they are in some way causing the plot.

Also keep in mind! When it comes to character development, “WANT” is NOT the same as “NEED”! Sometimes a character knows what’s good for them, what will truly often make them happy, but more often they don’t. They want the acclaim and adoration of the crowds, but really they need the recognition, acceptance or love of one particular person—and maybe that person is their own self. They want to avenge the loss of their loved one, but really they need to accept the loss and move on. A refusal to accept what they need is usually going to get in the way of what they want—and sometimes they figure it out just in time to go forward and climactically achieve their goal, or maybe they double down on their character flaws in a classic display of Greek tragedy!

[thecollectibles]

Bougie Cat & Ghost by Lane Brown

[tossawary]

I think that if a story ever pulls a line like "You could have destroyed your magic with a stunt like that!" or "Pushing ahead with your magic too quickly can have dangerous consequences!" then the story should be obligated at some point to show me these magically disabled people.

All stories should have more disabled people, honestly, because disability is a basic part of being alive! What am I supposed to think of any given fictional community if I never see any elderly people, any retired people, any injured people, or any disabled people?

But seriously, a lot more fantasy stories specifically could really stand to show people who have been burned by magic to various degrees and are now living with the consequences. I'm too used to the protagonists fainting and sleeping extreme recklessness off without issue.

[tendingtenderpaws]

Magical healing and comfort, but not just healing magic

A character with fire/heat powers massaging a knotted muscle with hot hands, being able to dig in nice and deep as the warmth relaxes the area

A character with ice/cold powers carding their fingers through someone's hair, soothing a headache

A character with hypnotic powers lulling someone into a trance and clearing their mind, easing their anxieties so they can hopefully get some sleep

A character with plant magic keeping a bouquet fresh and vibrant by their friend's bedside, knowing the colors will at the very least cheer them up and give them something beautiful to look at

A character with water magic combining it with a soft cloth washing away tears, sweat, or blood from another character's face

A character with electricity magic frantically grabbing someone near-death and shocking them, refusing to move until they hear their heart leap back to life and pulse under their hands

[ijustwannawritepls]

Scenes to Write When Your Draft Feels Flat

Not epic or climactic. Just... alive.

• A character almost admits they were wrong and then pivots • Two people sitting in a car after an argument, engine off, neither leaving • Someone practicing a speech in the mirror and hating how it sounds • A character lying for someone they resent • An inside joke that no longer feels funny • A public setting where private tension is simmering • Someone seeing their ex unexpectedly and performing indifference • A character giving advice they absolutely do not follow • A confession interrupted by something mundane • A person rereading old messages they shouldn’t • A gift that misses the mark completely • A character realizing they’ve outgrown someone mid-conversation • Someone saying “It’s fine” and meaning “I will remember this forever” • A moment where a character notices they are no longer the favorite • Two people who used to be close struggling to find a topic

If your story feels stuck, it likely needs friction. Not explosions. Just a little pressure.

[fullyunsourced]

The simplest cannon possible: A hole in the ground

The hard part of making a cannon (aside from all of the other hard parts) is the barrel: It needs to be a strong and thick enough material to withstand an explosion sending forward the projectile.

There have been some infamous examples where people tried to bypass this, such as wooden cannons with iron or rope straps around the barrel. They usually exploded and not in a helpful way.

Nonetheless, wooden mortars were even used in the later days of World War I by Germany when it became difficult to produce sufficient numbers of real mortars.

If you can't afford that, how about a fake cannon instead? The American Revolution saw the use of "Quaker guns" which were just wooden logs, painted black. Dubbed "Quaker" because they were rather incapable of warlike action, Colonel William Washington (second cousin of George) put them to good use in sieges.

He'd wheel the fake cannons into place around an enemy position, and demand surrender or they'd open fire. The Loyalists opted for surrender. The Confederacy often used Quaker guns to add to the number of visible cannons on a fort, sometimes with dummy soldiers manning them.

Okay, so you need an actual fire-capable cannon, and no decent wood either. For some reason. What do you do? Construct a fougasse! I believe the word stems from Latin for a hearth or oven.

The fougasse is the ultimate improvised mortar, though pretty bad if you need to actually aim it or anything. It's literally a hole dug into rock, using the rock as the barrel. Before industrialization, many wars of the 16th to 18th centuries featured the fougasse. Malta, for example, had a series of them dug around the island by the Knights of St John for pre-aimed defenses against ships.

They're not particularly convenient. Obviously there's no aiming, and I doubt you have much fine control with the direction the hole points! Basic ones are lit using a match and a tube of powder leading to the hole, followed by running away as fast as possible.

In other news, there's also a bread called 'fougasse', and I don't think there's any relation, though it seems linked to focaccia. Traditionally you'd put it as a thin layer of dough in a wood-fired oven, and watch how long it takes to cook to judge how hot the oven is for further breadmaking operations. Neat!

[ruchi-writes]

A plotter’s guide to writing scenes

If you’re anything like me, you know where you need your story to go, and you’ve planned out every beat. You’re so big and smart, you’ve figured the whole thing out. 

But when you sit down to actually write the scenes, it feels like smashing dolls together and hoping for the best. 

Outlining has sucked the dopamine right out of the story.

Congratulations, you’ve played yourself.

But all hope is not lost.

I, too, was in your shoes, until I realised that what I really needed was to stop looking at the big picture and focus on the scene. 

First, think of your scene in terms of start, middle, and end. Just picturing it in this way instead of “stuff happens” is going to help. 

Now, before you write, answer these questions:

Describe the scene in one sentence. What’s going on? Make it as simple as possible. What does the POV character want in this scene? What stands in their way? What changes by the end of this scene?Now, put it all together: “In this scene, ___ tries to ___, but ___, and by the end ___.”

What emotion do they feel at the start? At the midpoint? At the end? What triggers the shift? And most importantly, what is the hidden emotion or thought that they won’t admit/say out loud? 

What does the character believe about themselves or the world at this point? How does that belief (false or otherwise) shape their behaviours and thoughts? Does anything in this scene change that belief? 

Tension and power dynamics are often the spine of a juicy, well written scene. So think about this next. Who is in a position of power at the start of the scene? (this can be anything - information, magic, status, love, fear). What leverage do they have? Who thinks they are in power? Does that power shift? 

Now, make sure you sprinkle in some sensory detail. Focus on specificity. Write down visual, sound, texture, smell, even physical sensations that are filtered through your character’s experiences. 

And finally, why can’t the character just leave the scene? What’s keeping them there? If the answer is nothing, then you might want to rethink the stakes in this scene

[fullest-circlest]

If you're writing 18th century dialogue, this website lets you search words and phrases to double-check whether they were in use & meant what you intend. It doesn't include every period-accurate use of a word/phrase, but it certainly helped me separate genuine 18th century grammar from the vague tangle of 💬old-fashioned fancy-speak💬 I've internalized from TV and video games.

[my-deer-friend]

Other websites that let you do this:

Johnson's Dictionary Online (thanks @yellowbelliedtoad!) – 1755 and 1773

Green's Dictionary of Slang – 1300s to today

A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – 1788

Feraud's Dictionaire critique de la langue française – 1778

[zisurru]

A dictionary of the English and Italian languages by Giuseppe Baretti is a bilingual dictionary from 1790!

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage. 

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

like, i didnt know about twitter pitch parties!! i didnt know about literary agents and publishers tweeting their manuscript wishlist, in hopes that some poor soul out there has written the book they really want to read and publish!! this isnt some shit you learn about in school! you really need to know the ins and outs of the writing community to be successful! 

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

for anyone interested, here’s what i’ve learned so far in my quest for more writing knowledge:

1. Writer’s Market 2019 is a great place to start– it gives you a list of magazines and journals that you can send your work to depending on the genre as well as lists a shit ton of literary agents that specify what genres they represent, how you can get in contact with them and how they accept query letters. this is a book that updates every year and tbh i only bought it this year so i dont know how critical it is to have an updated version  

2. do your research. mostly on literary agents because if you listed on your site that you like to represent fluffy YA novels and some asshole sends you a 80k manuscript about like…gritty viking culture, you will be severely pissed off. always go in finding someone who you know will actually like your work because they’re the ones who will try to advocate for you in getting published.

3. learn how to write a query letter. there are slightly varying formulas to how you can write an effective query letter. you’re also going to want to get feedback on your query letter because its the first thing the literary agent will read and based on how well you do it, it could be the difference between them rejecting you outright and giving your manuscript a quick read

4. unfortunately, you’re gonna want to get a twitter. Twitter is where a lot of literary agents are nowadays, and they host things like twitter pitch parties, where you pitch your manuscript in a few sentences and hashtag it with #Pitmad #Pitdark, some version of pit. a lot of literary agents and publishers will ALSO post their manuscript wishlists, which is just the kind of books they’d like to represent/publish, and they hashtag this with #MSWL (it is NOT for writers to use, only for agents/publishers)

5. connect with other writers, literary agents, publishers at book events. you will absolutely need the connections if you want to get ahead as a writer. thats just kind of the state of the world.

[cloakedpress]

how to write characters that feel like real people and not NPCs in your brain

You ever read a book and think “this character would survive maybe five minutes in a real conversation”? Yeah. Let’s avoid that. Here’s how to make your fictional friends feel real:

everyone wants something

Even if it’s small. Even if it’s stupid. Every character—from your MC to the one-line barista—should want something. A promotion. Revenge. A nap. World domination. That want shapes how they act.

give them contradictions

Humans are messy. Let your characters be brave and terrified, kind but petty, loyal but deeply in denial. That tension? That’s where the magic lives.

let them make bad choices

If your character is right all the time, they’re either boring or a liar. People mess up. Let your character mess up in ways that feel true to them, not just to move the plot.

interior life > cool dialogue

Quippy one-liners are fun, but what’s going on underneath? What are they afraid to say out loud? What thoughts would they take to the grave? That’s what makes a character feel alive.

how do they show emotion?

Not everyone cries when sad. Some get mean. Some go quiet. Some rearrange their bookshelves obsessively. Find their emotional language.

backstory = spice, not soup

You don’t need a 12-page trauma dump to make a character real. Drip in bits of their past when it matters. Let it shape them quietly.

voice matters

Everyone shouldn’t sound like you. Think about how your character talks. What words do they overuse? Do they ramble? Are they blunt? What don’t they say?

tl;dr: believable characters aren’t perfect—they’re specific. They’ve got fears, flaws, favorite snacks, weird opinions, and conflicting goals. Make them messy. Make them human.

[fellshish]

The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol

[rebornofstars-deactivated202510]

you're falling in the trap!! it will be read by many people, many times, and it will live on in their memories. and maybe no single other human will match you in time spent dedicated to your story, but as a collective we will outlast you. acts of creation only grow when they are shared

[galadriel1010]

This. Writing is not like dinner. It can be consumed many times