SternHeartStudio

Welcome all to SternHeart, a writing blog for the craft and also where we will discuss our upcoming books and interact with fans!

[writing-prompt-s]

A writer has slipped into a coma. All the characters in their head are fighting to keep them alive

[little-miss-rasputin-pageant]

Goodbye Summer…

Hello Autumn…

[joshuu-nutboi-higashikata-deact]

[neurospicybirb]

Fun fact! Water actually turns "blood red" when it is contaminated by sulfur creating sulfuric acid. And scientists have discovered that around the time of the plagues a volcano went off that disturbed Egypt's environment. So the plagues are scientifically proven. The other parts of the plagues are explained by the sulfuric acid river making the animals leave the river and escaping into the human population.

[vampiregirl2345]

WHY DIDNT ANYONE TELL ME THE PLAGUES WERE PROVEN

[kvothe-kingkiller]

if anyone wants a full list heres how they happened:

basically they all stem from a massive eruption of a volcano on the island of santorini off the coast of greece. the ash then floated over to egypt which kickstarted the plagues

1) blood: the ash carried the mineral cinnabar, which has the capability of turning water red

2) frogs: the ash also had many toxic and acidic substances so naturally, all the frogs are gonna flee the river

3) lice: given what was going on insects would have burrowed into dead animals/peoples skin and laid eggs, which then hatched

4) beasts: everything is getting poisoned from the ash and toxins, causing animals to freak the fuck out/die

5) pestilence: toxins again

6) boils: the ash would have caused storms that carried acid rain which when it fell, would irritate peoples skin causing boils

7) hail: the storm again

8) locusts: again with the insects and the amount of dead bodies and such which attract more insects. a lotta insects basically.

9) darkness: the ash covered the sky, blocking out the sun

10) slaying of the first born: given that children’s bodies were found in higher numbers than others, some archeologists think they may have been sacrificed to stop all the destruction, but they aren’t 100% sure about that. this is just me but I would say another possibility is that babies/kids are a lot more susceptible to toxins and shit, so while an adult may have been fine or gotten a bit sick, it might have been very dangerous/deadly for kids or babies

the volcano would also attest for the parting of the sea weirdly enough. the red sea was in fact the ‘reed’ sea, and was very shallow, probably waist deep or so. given the amount of shit dumped into the ocean from the volcano, this wouldve caused a tsunami to head towards egypt. the water would get sucked out from the reed sea right before the tsunami hit, letting people pass it easily, then the actual tsunami would hit, fuckin up anyone who tried to follow.

another theory is that the red water was caused by algae, which would cause the frogs and stuff to jump out as well. the algae also carried substances toxic to animals so if they ingested any they’d get sick and die, so more insects. in this theory there was a sand storm coincidentally that caused the rest

some sources: X X

[wigmund]

The volcano wasn’t ON Santorini - it WAS Santorini, then called Thera. It completely blew away the Minoan settlements on the island and was one of the largest eruptions in human history. 

The tsunamis from the Theran eruption devastated Crete, weakening the then-powerful Minoan civilization, leaving them open to being invaded by the Mycenaeans.

The volcanic winter it created devastated crops in China leading to the fall of the Xia Dynasty. 

The abrupt and catastrophic loss of the people of Thera may have also inspired the myths about Atlantis.

[gmarenghi]

The main theory of the final plague - the death of the first borns of Egypt involved fungus that may have poisoned the grain supplies. The firstborn sons had preference when they were eating food causing them to eat the top, most contaminated portions of the grain.

[justsomeantifas]

All US public schools should receive the same funding based on the amount of enrolled students

All property taxes that would initially go to the local school district should be nationally divided between all US public schools.

If previously wealthy school districts funding needs aren’t being met, the education budget should be nationally increased, to provide the same public school education for all children in attendance.

[justsomeantifas]

Low test scores should never decrease funding. 

Schools should not receive funding based on the success of their students.

Schools with high rates of failure should receive special attention to bring them back up to par with the rest of the public education system.

[justsomeantifas]

All students should have safe and reliable transportation to their public school if they cannot make the walk to school due to disability or distance.

All students should receive a free lunch and breakfast if they want it while at school. These meals should meet the nutritional needs of the students.

[justsomeantifas]

A public school should never rent out equipment, musical instruments, supplies, etc.

Students should never pay for things the school already owns.

[salty-ironstrange-shipper]

I feel like the usage of the term “crack ship” has changed. When I think “crack ship”, I don’t think ‘these two characters have good chemistry and would be good together, but it’s not going to happen, so it’s crack", I think Loki/Gordon Ramsay

[thebiscuiteternal]

There’s a big difference between rarepair and crackship.

[squeeful]

‘these two characters have good chemistry and would be good together, but it’s not going to happen’ is a non-canon ship (Ron Weasley/Harry Potter) a rarepair is a ship that isn’t popular (Ron Weasley/Dean Thomas) a crackship requires everyone around you ask wtf you were smoking (Ron Weasley/The Whomping Willow)

[viostormcaller]

Lets please put the crack back in crackship

[noobtheloser]

Friends don’t let friends wait tables. Bonus sketch here. More comics here.

[wodneswynn-deactivated-deactiva]

Archaeologists: “Uhhhh, there’s still a lot of debate about how effective leather armor really could have been on a battlefield. Alas, we shall never know.”

Punks: “Hey, fresh cut, the boneheads carry knives sometimes so make sure and lift a good leather jacket. It’ll save your life.”

[equality-is-anarchy]

Layers layers layers! Slashes won’t do shit even to most t shirts but a stab will ignore the shit outa your leathers. Layers will keep the blade from getting as deep as it otherwise would and gives more for it to snag on if it serrated.

Armour has always been about layers.

Example 1200s minor noble: linen shirt, gambeson (layered and quilted linen with wool insulation), chain mail, surcoat, arming cap, helmet, coif, bigger helmet.

Another example Alexander era Macedonian hoplite: linen tunic, greaves, 1" of tightly pressed and laminated linen, helmet (probably with some sort of arming cap/padding inside), big ass shield.

Layers save lives.

[jackironsides]

Yes! Cloth is hard work to cut with a knife. When they were trying to ban (sword) duelling in Europe, they banned people from carrying around shields/bucklers, so your defensive tool was a cloak wrapped around your non-sword fist, with plenty of loose fabric to catch your opponent’s blade. You might get your cloak torn, but you’re less likely to get your skin sliced up, and that’s the important thing.

[jenniferrpovey]

You know what is a surprisingly amazing material for armor?

Silk.

Silk.

The Mongolians used silk vests because silk isn’t broken by an arrow, and you can use the silk to gently pull the arrow back out, even if it’s barbed. They also often used silk as the backing for leather armor.

The first bulletproof vests were made in Japan and Korea. Out of, yup, silk. Silk could stop black powder bullets, but was rendered obsolete by higher powered modern firearms. A combination of silk and metal was experimented with, but dropped because of the expense of silk.

Franz Ferdinand was wearing one such vest when he was assassinated, but it didn’t help because of where he was hit.

The US military is now looking into something called Dragon Silk, which is spider silk made by GMO silkworms, to make body armor that might be more comfortable than the current kevlar vests.

Silk, people.

[deliriumcrow]

You want proof about silk being able to stop an arrow? Try sewing it with the wrong machine needle in place. I have shattered – literally shattered – needles that were too thick. They just will not pass between the tightly woven fibers, even when in a machine that can go through your actual fingers. And that was just a lightweight taffeta, not something woven to be intentionally impenatrable.

It is horrible at stopping slashes, though. Whether by the blade of scissors, roller cutter, or well honed dagger or sword, it just falls to pieces like it never meant to be whole in the first place. This is, again, where your layers come in – a nice heavy leather for slash damage, a dense silk for piercing. You probably want to put something under it though, silk against sweaty skin is unpleasantly sticky. It *clings*. Eww.

[drpathetique]

Useful things elementary school neglected to teach me, exhibit #5839

[samanthajameswriter]

What kind of reader are you? Reblog/Like and let us know if you agree!

[femcassidy]

good news everyone. crows no longer need instructions to build tools and have started building them from memory, as well as passing the knowledge onto future generations of crows. oops!

[femcassidy]

better news everyone. crows have learned to construct these tools from unrelated items! they no longer need to follow the original blueprint they were given and are able to improvise using their surroundings.

[spiroandthelacktones]

Superb you funky little corvids

[thatwritergirlsblog]

Acing pacing in your writing

I’ve read too many books and watched too many shows where pacing has ruined a good story. So, here are some of my tips for getting pacing right:

1. Don’t take too long to get to the inciting incident

Look, showing the ordinary life of your protagonist might be interesting if there’s something strange about their life, but readers want stuff to happen.

At least with genre fiction, you shouldn’t take too long to get to the action - the event that gets the story going.

If you can do it well and have readers invested from the start, you can start with the inciting incident. However, for most works I would recommend having it in the second chapter.

Your readers want to know what the story is about, not what the character thinks of his English teacher

2. Keep it moving, but don’t rush

Action is important. It drives the story and it’s interesting. You should make sure to put enough action in your work. Things should be happening.

BUT a novel is not a play or a movie or a comic. What makes reading a full-length novel so entertaining is the detail. The in-depth characterisation and description. The emotion and thought processes.

So, keep it moving, but don’t sacrifice the juicy details. Don’t skip from one action or dialogue scene to the next without taking your readers deeper into the intricacies of the story and characters.

It’s a delicate balance that can only truly be found by reading a lot and practicing.

3. Avoid a sagging middle

Your beginning is solid. Your end is exciting. But the middle is a chaotic mess that bores the reader. Trust me, it happens more than you might believe.

Sagging middle syndrome is a thing, and the only way to avoid it is to plan.

Look, I like pantsing, but planning the middle of your novel will help your pacing exponentially.

Make a rough outline of what needs to happen to get your characters to the climax. Add a few lighter/character-driven scenes where there are too many action scenes in the sequence. Remove events which are unnecessary. And make sure that everything makes sense!

This counts for second books in series as well. It should be good on its own, not just as a filler.

4. Don’t fast forward to the end

I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones.

If you’ve built up the story and set up everything for the final big bang, you have to deliver.

Keep the pacing somewhat similar to that of the rest of the story. Your readers have gotten used to it. And if they’re still reading at that point, they probably like that pace. Don’t write a relatively slow book and then have the climax be over in three pages.

I know you want the climax to be exciting. So, yes, make it a little more fast-paced than the middle. But not massively different.

5. Trust your characters

As with every aspect of creative writing, character is most important.

Is your character experiencing the scene quickly and choppily? Or are they slowing down and taking in everything?

If you stick with what your characters are feeling, you will get it right.

Look, exams have fried my brain. So, this isn’t the most well-formulated post I’ve made. But I hope that it can be helpful.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own pacing tips. Follow me for similar content.

[neil-gaiman]

Good Omens - Episode 1, Episode 1 - @bbcradio4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04knthd

It's waiting for you..

[alfietimewolf]

For those outside of the UK, there’s a YouTube channel uploading the episodes one by one that you can find here! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5-HMtn4GE

[neil-gaiman]

For those outside the UK, you can also listen to it on the BBC page I linked to. It plays anywhere in the world. And if you listen to it on the BBC site, they will know that people all over the world are listening and that it is successful, and they will put it up again, and put up things like it, like replaying Anansi Boys, or Neverwhere. Which they won’t if people are listening to it on YouTube, where the BBC cannot track any success metrics....

I’m not trying to shame the previous poster, who is trying to be helpful. I’m just trying to remind all of you that the BBC is broadcasting Radio for Free to EVERYWHERE, and that you listening to it on their platform makes a difference.

Here’s a link to the main GOOD OMENS Radio page, with links to the actual episodes along with a lot of bonus content: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04knt4h

[neil-gaiman]

Seeking Writing Advice: this past spring I was rejected from every creative writing MFA for which I applied. I had this idea that I’d be accepted to an amazing program, finally get my own place, and drink iced chais on my balcony surrounded by rough drafts and houseplants. Now I feel lost in the most cliché way. I'm reapplying, but Adulthood is here and whenever I try to write I feel so numb. Have you experienced this? Re: how did you move past it? pls Mr. Gaiman i'm begging for Adult Guidance™

I don’t have an MFA. Most of the working writers I know don’t have MFAs, although a few of them feed themselves by teaching them. Just write. You don’t need anyone’s permission.

[brightfell-deactivated20211019]

definitelygayrpgideas: definitelygayrpgideas: thesallowbeldam: ...

[mitch-turn]

Sweet generalization.

It’s not about whether a character is trans or gay. Gay characters make sense. People have been gay for millennia. Trans however. Not the case. In a high fantasy setting, how in the balls are they going to perform surgery where they change the sex of the character??? It makes no sense at all. They’d have to explain it. And remember, this is high fantasy, Game of Thrones is also in that category. This is a time where they would reach into your body with an object strikingly similar to a salad tossing spoon to yank out a small piece of arrowhead. Pretty sure they hadn’t figured out a surgery as complex as a sex change…

The people complaining that there aren’t enough gay/trans people in stuff like this are just as bad if not moreso than the people who complain about gay/trans people being in stuff like this.

Create your own fantasy world filled with nothing but gay/trans people. Make it so that being heterosexual is the minority. All the power to you. Good luck trying to create it.

[didntfitthenarrative]

You don’t have to have surgery to be transgender. Lots of transgender people don’t. Transgender people, people who identify with the gender not corresponding with their birth sex, have existed before the surgery. And the existence of and recognition of a third sex or dual sex existed in pre-modern times in lots of places are the world. So, for one, your “how in the balls are they going to perform surgery“ question doesn’t actually matter. They don’t need to in order for transgender people to exist. But if they did want to include transgender people who undergo physical changes to reflect their gender/sexual identity, in a HIGH FANTASY world, there’s actually a really easy answer to that:

[pupperoni-pizza-deactivated2020]

*ahem*

[atomic-darth]

“How are you going to make someone trans in a fantasy setting full of magic spells, potions, and artifacts?”

[vaishino]

shout out to the elixir of sex shift for covering more than just a gender binary.

[kirinandvlindertje]

also lets not forget that in ye old days (aka time of the ancient greeks (aka the bc years)) that people drank the urine of pregnant mares to feminize themselves. like, trans people find a way ;)

[theyoungestwhateleydaughter-dea]

…the fucking Sumerians had trans people, brosky.

Sumerians.

They didn’t even have fucking iron, but they had trans women.

[needledreamweaversrpgideas]

dude lemme find you a fucking. girdle of sex change from 1st edition

woah what’s that?? the first edition efreet cover???

OH HEY ITS A FUCKING GIRDLE OF SEX CHANGE AND THERES ALSO A POSSIBILITY IT REMOVES ALL SEX CHARACTERISTICS FROM THE WEARER

it’s on page 145 of the dmg 1st ed. want an easier-to-read screenshot of a pdf??

tldr fuck you

[needledreamweaversrpgideas]

it’s pride month welcome back to “tldr fuck you” anyways dnd says trans & nb rights

[brightfell-deactivated20211019]

from Edward the Booble http://bit.ly/2WOupXz via IFTTT

[naamahdarling]

With a lack of imagination like this, I have no idea how OP even manages to visualize their way into the bathroom every morning.

[kyraneko]

I mean, surgery started somewhere, somewhen … it might not have been good for awhile, but all it ever has to be is better than its absence (and even when it isn’t, there’s other features like prestige and hope attached to it that keeps it going long enough for a few somebodies to make an honest effort at improving it).

And in your self-built world with an entirely different set of historical and cultural values, they might entirely avoid such historical hindrances as the Church’s ban on dissections or the “a gentleman’s hands are [inherently] clean” concept that had rich upperclass doctors going straight from handling cadavers to delivering babies without washing their hands in between.

In fiction, author Jean M. Auel produced a spectacularly-researched, highly realistic prehistoric society with highly advanced medical knowledge developed via the scientific methods of observation and experimentation and passed down from mother to daughter over thousands of years, including advanced bonesetting (such as rebreaking and resetting a bone that’s healed together wrongly), anesthesia, and long-term treatment of a chronic heart condition with digitalis.

In real life, we’ve had a 2300-year-old iron dental implant*, surgery-related laws in the Code of Hammurabi, an Egyptian papyrus including surgical case histories from circa 1600 BCE, cosmetic surgery among other types of surgery in India around 500 BCE, and castration for a number of purposes (including inhibiting the production of testosterone) has of course existed for a very, very long time.

*It has been asserted that the dental implant was done post-mortem due to the “excruciatingly painful” nature of the surgery. However, there are plenty of extant people willing to undergo temporary intense pain for a variety of long-term reasons including for cosmetic, utilitarian, medical, and status purposes, and as such the possibility of it being a true medical procedure done on a living person is not to be discounted.

Surgery is too a realistic possibility, no matter how premodern your fictional society is.

[delotha]

People who can’t imagine trans and/or other queer characters in fantasy settings aren’t actually imaginative.

[sternheartstudio-blog]

LGBTQIA+ Diversity representation in our books

Queer representation and diversity is extremely important to both of us as writers and we make sure to include it in our writing. Direct and VISIBLE LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships that you can expect to find in our PSII Series: Gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, intersex, asexual, aromantic, interracial, functional polyamory. We also write healthy, accurate, and consensual BDSM.

We do NOT believe in subtext, but we DO believe in happily ever afters.

[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.

[promptsforthesoul]

[snreads]

A Writing Cheat Sheet: for linking actions with emotions. 

As always, click for HD.

[yaboywillyshakes]

Here are some scientific facts about blood loss for all you psychopaths writers out there.

[mikkeneko]

This is actually very nice. I like the soda bottles as reference. (I remember when I was writing ‘Wizards of Ceres’ how I had to do a similar soda-bottle conversion to try to work out how much blood Fai could drink from Kurogane without killing him.)

On  the topic of vampires incidentally, this basically means that there is no reason why feeding from someone should necessitate killing them, unless the vamp can chug two soda bottles worth of liquid in one go or carelessly leaves the bottle open when they’re done

[mikkeneko]

@fieldofclover thought this might come in handy for, you know, vampirey things

[fieldofclover]

Ooh, I like this! The bottles as a reference makes it quite easy to picture mentally - especially since, having previously experienced just how much mess a litre-bottle spilt on the floor actually makes, it gives a better idea of volume etc.

Incidentally, as a frequent blood donor myself (thank you, haemochromatosis), and thus being more aware of the volume of blood donated at each session (the average appears to be 450ml, or 0.45 litres per blood bag filled) and needing to know how long it takes red blood cells and plasma to recover after donation–

about 24 hours for plasma, and up to 8 weeks for red blood cells themselves, which is why the average length between donations is 12 weeks, to ensure the body is well recovered by the next donation (which is also why I was so fucking tired after having to donate once a month for the first three months of my treatment)

– I ended up doing a bit of reading re: blood loss, but this really is the best imagery for it I’ve seen without bogging down into too much science stuff.

Other crucially important facts relevant to vampire porn I have learned: 

yes, you can get an erection after donating blood, as the body generally maintains blood pressure equilibrium even if the volume of red blood cells per liquid ml is lower, though if you lose anything more than half a litre you’re probably gonna find it a bit difficult; 

erythropoietin is a funky chemical involved in converting stem cells to red blood cells which your body produces when you need more of ‘em, so if we’re going with the standard ‘vampire saliva is an anticoagulant and narcotic stimulant, and/or induces arousal’ conceit, it probably makes sense that said saliva introduces a similar compound into the human blood stream in the post-feeding stage to encourage their food to recover quickly for a repeat feeding, usually while licking the wounds left behind;

your vamp is probably gonna have a really full belly if they try and drink more than the average 450ml or so in one sitting. Blood is quite a bit thicker than water or soft drink; it’s more like drinking a hearty broth or soup. Can you imagine attempting to chug a litre of pressurised soup as it squirts into your mouth with considerable force? No thanks!

tl;dr the science behind blood loss is fascinating, especially in a vampire context, and the government agencies monitoring my search history probably think I’m a serial killer

[cerusee]

@audreycritter was it you who was looking this up for a fic last week?