Sumitiper @sumitiper - Tumblr Blog

Hey!

The name's Sumitiper and welcome to my blog.

I'm an amateur writer who mostly writes fanfiction in a language that is not my mother tongue. Also a huge Mother Series fan and Mother 1 fan in particular. Other interests may come and go but Mother 1 is my one constant.

On top of that you'll find posts on my blog about media literacy, media consumption, fanfiction and fandom as well as writing (advice, opinions and showcases).

Lover of pixel art, known to enjoy horror content and cyberpunk fiction.

Still figuring out the whole social media thing. Sorry if I'm bad at it.

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#sumitiper

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.

songlin

This was one of my all time most powerful writing lessons! This mindset shift makes you a stronger writer immediately in a way that just keeps getting easier and better for you.

elumish

The take I always have on advice like this is that "John saw that the curtains were open." and "The curtains were open." are sentences that are telling you two different pieces of information.

Some of this, yes, is about POV distance--but some of it is also about the information being conveyed by the sentence. If you are using a sentence like "John saw that the windows were open" it should be because the information you are seeking to convey is that John saw it.

Maybe this matters because the next time John looks back they are closed, and so he's doubting what he saw. Maybe it matters because he later has to recount information about the room he was in, and it's notable that he specifically saw that the windows were open. The fact and method of his observation is part of the point of the sentence, rather than simply the observation itself.

When we are using sense verbs, it should be because part of the point is the sense. Same with "thought", "felt", etc.: "Mary thought that Susan looked a little thin" is telling us a different piece of information than "Susan looked a little thin."

Contrarily, at least in my opinion, simple telling phrasing like "It was rainy" can sometimes bring us more into a character's head than something showing like "The rain howled like an injured animal." I have read books when a relatively plain-spoken/plain-thinking character suddenly starts having elaborate descriptions of things like scenery or weather, and it is abundantly clear that the author wanted to spruce up their writing and avoid "telling." The problem is that it drags me as the reader out of the character's head and shows me where all of the strings are. I'm suddenly thinking about how the author is worried about being yelled at for "telling" instead of just reading the story.

Your writing, down to the sentence structure and word choice level, should be about what you are trying to accomplish. Is the point to tell us that the window was open, or is it to tell us that John saw that the window was open?

#writing

epicsause-official

on sharing one's opinons

orbitingrook

lakemojave

You know that whatever character did those problematic things isn't like. Real, right?

lakemojave

You are aware that a fictional character is just a rhetorical construct designed to fulfill a narrative/thematic purpose right? That their actions are written by an author who wants to use them to explore complex ideas and moral gray areas within the safe confines of fiction right? That they aren't a real person who has killed real people right?

#media literacy

sunderwight

"That pairing would never be canon" and what of it? I'm only supposed to ship what the church tells me to or something?

#fandom

itsoverfeeling

ppl on ao3 should use the "this work was inspired by" option more. so many fics out there that put links to other fics in the a/n but theres a better option.....

☝️ use this!!!!!!

itsoverfeeling

important addition i forgot that not everyone might know. similar to how ao3 bookmarks work, you can also link to non-ao3 fanworks using this format. so, for instance, if theres some fanart on tumblr that inspired you to write the fic? you can link that fanart to your fic!

#AO3

sumitiper

OH MY GOD!

It's here! It's finally here!!!!

MOTHER 1 hack for Earthbound!

God, I remeber watching those development videos of the world of Mother 1 beautifully rendered in Earthbound's artstyle. Now it's here!

😍😍😍 🎮 🌎🌍🌏 🎶🪆🐦🐒🎹🌵🐉🤖🪦🎶

sumitiper

I've just noticed how many people I follow are going crazy over deltarune chapter 5, meanwhile I'm here in my corner going giddy over this rom hack, but I refuse to think of it any less, it's been over a decade, we mother 1/earthbound beginnings fans deserve to be so happy about this. I'll get to deltarune eventually, the newest chapter is probably going to be as good if not even better than what came before.

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #earthbound zero #mother series

tomizawer

it's earthbound beginnings snes romhack release day

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #mother series #mother 1 ninten #ninten

simplewilderness2000

Earthbound Beginnings 16-bit it out now!

Wanted to hype this to hack up for Mother/EB fans who follow me. It technically has two hacks. One that remakes EBB in EB and one that adds some quality of life improvements to EB.

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #mother series

algernoninwonderland

Holy fucking cannoli the “Mother 1” EB romhack is out.

I remember people talking about it on starmen dot net back in the late aughts. It’s still hard to believe it’s finally out.

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #mother series

ssanguinemoon

mother 1 remake rom hack just dropped after 2 decades of being worked on, cancelled, built back from the ground up, quietly cancelled after the creator left the internet for good, rinse, repeat, and it's exactly as good as anything that took 19 years to make should have been

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #mother series

devourerofakron

watching ppl glaze mother 1 is so healing as someone who grew up in the mother fandom in their early teens watching it be shat on and thrown to the side for mother 3

#mother 1 #earthbound beginnings #mother series