An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: One Direction (Band)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Characters: Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Post-Apocalypse, Dystopia, Biological Warfare, Death, Blood and Violence, Survival, Strangers to Lovers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Happy Ending, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Smut
Summary:
When the world goes to shit, it's all Louis can do to keep himself alive. That isn't enough, though, when his mother and siblings are back in their hometown, and he has no way of getting in touch with them. He plans to make the journey alone, but a twist of fate brings him Harry, a stranger with a kind smile in a world that's forgotten what kindness means.
Together they set out for Doncaster, and along the way Louis finds out that, with people like Harry around, there might be hope for the world yet.
yesterday the military build up passed on guam which means the closing of sacred land for military purposes including bombs testing, shooting ranges, an influx of foreigners who dont respect the land or the culture and the disturbance of our jungles this includes shutting down ritidian where many of the ancient cave paintings and other historical marks exist our land is sacred and binds is to our past and this is another example of pacific islanders having their cultures desecrated i just want to say that even though pacific islanders are a minority, so much that conversation about pi problems are all but nonexistent, it doesnt mean we can be abused and mistreated or the continuous erasure of our cultures
The Rules of Grammar and You: A Primer by Phil-mod
Writing is 99.8% perspiration, 0.1% inspiration, 0.1% spelling and grammar.
“But I hated grammar in high school! English blows.” Yes, English does blow, but she’s a flexible girl if you know how to work her. She’ll stretch and bend in ways you never thought possible, but that’s only if you know what she likes. She’s the language you’re writing in, so you’d better treat her right, or you’ll come off as uneducated. Good writers can get away with breaking the rules of grammar because they understand them. Bad writers break the rules of grammar either because they don’t know better, or because they think they understand. I’m not going to turn this into a grammar lesson, because I think there’s a character limit on Tumblr posts, and also because I think most of you would fall asleep.
I will, however, touch on a couple of things.
1. Formatting is everything.
This is my opinion on big blocks of text without any kind of formatting whatsoever:
If you don’t space out your paragraphs, my eyes will glaze over and I will stop reading. A single press of your enter key will keep you from wasting everyone’s time. This also applies to dialogue. In a story, every time someone says something, or you switch speakers, you make a new paragraph.
For example:
“Celeste should be the viscount,” said Sebastian as he leaned against the library door.
“Sebastian, this is a conversation the two of you should be having,” said Aveline. She crossed her arms and turned her head away. He sighed. Aveline was not one to keep her opinions to herself, but she would not speak of this, no matter how hard he pressed.
“Perhaps we should.”
See what I did there? If I took out the names, you could still tell that two different people were talking. Also note the punctuation. Sentences being spoken should always have the proper punctuation, which means punctuation marks inside the quotation marks. Dialogue should not be smushed in the middle of a sentence, either. When in doubt, make a new paragraph for the speaker.
2. He said/she said, not he pontificated/she wheezed.
He said/she said should be your staple. There are times when you should drop this for impact, such as when someone is shouting, but in general, stick with he said/she said. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a beginning writer try and change it up because it ‘looks boring’. The words lose their impact, and you’ll out yourself as someone who doesn’t have any confidence that they can convey the mood through dialogue and description. It’s a rookie mistake, and you shouldn’t do it.
3. The Past, Present, and the Future walked into a bar. It was Tense.
Tense is important. Switching tense in your posts is a no-no. If you go into the post using present tense, stick with the present tense. If you switch tenses, you'll make Phil-mod twitch, and she's already quite a bit neurotic as it is.
4. Keep your description simple.
I have a phrase I like to use a lot to describe my bluntness. I ‘call a spade a spade’. You should strive to do the same when you write. The reason my descriptions work so well is because they’re simple and used to convey the world around the characters I see in my mind’s eye. If I started to describe a shovel as a ‘cast iron blade edge used to dislodge earth’, I’d make your eyes glaze over. You guys aren’t stupid. I know you know what a shovel is, so I’m going to call it a shovel.
When I write, I keep the room description to a minimum, enough to give you a general feel of the place. I want you to see it, but I don’t want you to stifle your imagination with my own vision. It’s enough that you see Arrow’s Rest as a castle in the middle of the lake. You don’t need to know if it’s laid out based on standard castles or if I took inspiration from Roman forts, which I did. All I want you to know is that it’s there. If I want to draw attention to something because it’s important to the plot later, I will, but otherwise, I know you’re seeing what I do, at least in general.
5. Don’t confuse your homonyms. That’s a hate crime.
Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. It might not make a lot of difference to you, but it does to a native English speaker. There is a big difference when you mangle the language; they’re going to be thrown out of their reading when they see the mistake you made there. Make sure you know the difference before you use the word, and your proofreader/beta should be looking out for it, too.
Your work will get better if you’re watching for this stuff.
Another thing that doesn’t need its own section: apostrophes. Apostrophes either show possession or indicate a contraction. They will never, ever indicate a plural. I see this shit all the time and it kills me.
Example:
Sharp’s hands grabbed at the edge of the cliff, and he scrabbled for purchase in the hard packed soil.
It’s a good thing its teeth aren’t sharp, otherwise it would have bisected your arm.
(‘Its’ is the possessive form of it. ‘It’s’ is the contraction ‘it is’, to avoid confusion.)
6. Kill Adverbs. No, I’m serious. Kill them dead. Adverbinate.
Adverbs are weak words. They are the beginning writer’s crutch. A liberal sprinkling of adverbs means that you don’t have to stretch your writing muscles by describing what the character is doing. He could just be moving sneakily, instead of creeping down the hallway on bare feet, toes digging into the stone of the floor for purchase. He could be breathing silently, instead of covering his nose and mouth with his hand to that the sound of his breath wouldn’t alert the guard in front of him. And he could stab the guard quietly, instead of muffling the guard’s cry with a hand as he dragged the man backward into a shadowed corner and slit his throat with his dagger.
I will thank you more if you show me what a character is doing instead of telling me.
Adverbs are a curse. You should root them out and destroy them, because more often than not, the sentence works just fine without them. The only exception to this rule that I will make is when a character is speaking. I don’t expect someone to speak with perfect grammar (it gets your ass kicked in high school). You may think it’s the best sentence ever, but please, pleasemurder those adverbs.
7. Grammar is your tool box. Utilize it well.
Think of the story like it's a fossil. You want to get as much of it out of the ground intact as you can, right? You start with a jackhammer - the basic plot. As you get closer to it, you switch to a shovel - character development. Then, a trowel - nuance in language and dialogue. Finally, you're left with tiny brushes and your hands - details and description. How much of the fossil actually comes up depends entirely on how much of each tool you use. You won't get much using the jackhammer the whole time, but digging with your hands will leave you exhausted. Make sense?
Learn to take criticism if it’s constructive, but on the flip side, stop being so hard on yourself.
Every piece is a learning experience, and you should treat it that way. Nothing is ever finished in your eyes as the writer, but there has to be a point where you step back and say, “Okay, that’s enough.” If people are offering you criticism because they’re trying to help, then take it, but remember that as the author, the final decision is yours whether you make changes based on their advice or not. You are the creator, and if you don’t like an aesthetic change, don’t make it.
Don’t be too critical of yourself as a writer. Don’t bash your work or yourself. Constantly telling yourself that your writing is bad and it’s never going to be good enough will make you start believing it. You’ll want to quit. You’ll get out of bed and not feel like doing much of anything, much less write.
