inspiration scrolling @stillkeepsinging - Tumblr Blog

it’s a shame more vampire media doesn’t pull from vampire bat behavior because they’re such sweeties. they can only survive their incredibly specialized diet because bats will share blood with colony members that didn’t find a meal! there’s evidence that suggests the donors sometimes initiate this behavior themselves by approaching hungry bats! the colonies are mostly harems of females with a few males but they’ve been observed letting unrelated males in when it gets cold so they can all stay warm! cute little social critters!

xenosaurus

@yupekosi your tags have created such a beautiful world

#insp ish

havingapoemwithyou

Goatsong by Leila Chatti

#yes. i'm a difficult person to endure.#hm!#poetry

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.

defilerwyrm

The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.

That means that when you read a line like

John saw that the curtains were open.

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

The curtains were open.

Simple as that.

#writing advice

gyrovagi

care and tenderness as violating and coercive acts. being forced into vulnerability for your own good by someone who does not actually see you as a person but as a symbol or a figure too valuable to let die. you have power over so much but not your own body. you have lost the right to risk. everybody cheered

#tropes #YEUP

retquits

new alignment chart tag ur blorbo(s) 🫵

pathos-logical

[ID copied from alt: A x and y axis alignment chart. On the y-axis, "all bark" is on one end and "no bark" is on the other. On the x-axis, "all bite" is on one end and "no bite" is on the other. End ID]

#the wip

swordtit

the best thing you can do to a character make them averse to touch and absolutely starved for it

#right. a character #character tropes

definitelynotshouting

do you guys ever think of "dehumanization as an act of love" or am i just uniquely deranged

definitelynotshouting

to elaborate:

imagine if u will someone you care about very greatly but who has self esteem in the lowest pits of hell, actually, and they get transformed into a manifestation of how they see themself: a small, skittering, terrified little creature with too many eyes and limbs and claws like brambles and no mouth at all, no mouth to scream, and nothing coherent or cohesive to its design. And behind all of that, trapped inside this cluster of sludge and blackened flesh, is this tiny, shivering little Thing that beats like a heart, as fragile as a newborn lamb, trembling and frail without eyes or ears. Just this little mass of quivering flesh that could fit neatly in the palm of your very hand. And you look at this Thing™, and you realize that this is the core of the person who you care for so deeply-- that everything else was just a shell, and this is the heart, the true thing lingering at the center of the labyrinth-- and you think oh. its so small. and you cup it in your palms and you are petting it so, so gently, and in this moment this is not a person, but a Thing that needs gentleness so so badly. And you see, this is love in its rawest form

wait i just found out you can be nice to people and be their friend i thought we had to kill them all cause i was raised in a lab to be a living weapon

#character tropes

thetrial

Visit Original Link

couldn’t stop thinking about this post

ramblingsarah

gotta lie down every time I remember this recording and the post about it

anarcho-weirdism

babe are you okay i saw you were reblogging “No Children (live at the bottom of the hill)” again?

#music

wosp-reactivated

(1 non-alcoholic beer in) "wield me as your blade"

writing-is-a-martial-art

The divine right of kings but it's a curse

writing-is-a-martial-art

You will wear the crown, you have no choice, the spikes growing on your head have a metal sheen to them and coalesce into a mock halo. You will command, for your voice is a terrible thing, you are a terrible thing. You will be just, and you will be fair, for any grievances you cause to your people scar your body and leave lasting pain and false promises sizzle on your tongue like hot oil. Your god is watching and it won't forget what your ancestor did and it won't let you go