Musings @thebestmollygrue - Tumblr Blog

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ao3commentoftheday

I love you!!!

halorvic

GROW BETTER

handsomejackass

horse people are weird

railroadsoftware

what does this mean

evnw-deactivated20230112

horses can see demons

volfish

@betterbemeta are you able to translate this? Is it true horses can see netherbeings?? Will we ever know the extent of their powers???

betterbemeta

I think I have reblogged this before but I’ll answer it again bc its a fascinating answer I feel and i was more funny than informational last time.

The truth is that horses see what they think are nether beings, I guess. They have a perfect storm of sensory perception that, useful for prey beings, marks false positives on mortal danger all the time. Which is advantageous to a flight-based prey species: running from danger when you’re super fast is much ‘cheaper’ than fighting, so you waste almost nothing from running from a threat that’s not there. Versus, you blow everything if you don’t see a threat that is there.

Horses also have their eyes positioned on the sides of their heads, which gives them an incredible range of peripheral vision almost around their entire body with only a few blind spots you can sneak up on them in. But this comes at the cost of binocular vision; they can only judge distance for things straight ahead of them. Super useful for preventing predators sneaking up from the sides or behind, but useless for recognizing familiar shapes with the precision we can.

Basically we now have a walking couch with anxiety its going to get attacked at any second, that can see almost everything, but mostly only out of the corner of its eye. It has a few blind spots and anything that suddenly appears out of them is terrifying to it. Combine that with that it actually has far superior low-light vision than us, and that its ears can swivel in any directions like radar dishes, and you’ve basically given a nervous wreck a highly accurate but imprecise danger-dar.

To be concise: all horses, even the most chill horses, on some level believe they are living in a survival horror.

This means that you could approach it in a flapping poncho and if it can’t recognize your shape as human, they mistake you for SATAN… or you could pass this one broken down tractor you’ve passed 100 times on a trail ride, but today is the day it will ATTACK… or your horse could feel a horsefly bite from its blind spot and MAMA, I’VE BEEN HIT!!!… or you could both approach a fallen log in the woods but in the low light your horse is going to see the tree rings as THE EYE OF MORDOR.

However, they actually have kind of a cool compensation for this– they are social animals, and instinctively look towards leadership. In the wild or out at pasture, this is their most willful, pushy, decisive leader horse who decides where to go and where it’s safe. But humans often take this role both as riders and on the ground. They are always watching and feeling for human reactions to things. This is why moving in a calm, decisive way and always giving clear commands is key to working with this kind of animal. Confusing commands, screaming, panic, visible distress, and chaos will signal to a horse that you, brave leader are freaked out… so it should freak out too!

On one hand, you’ll get horses that will decide that they are the leader and you are not, so getting them to listen to you can be tough– requiring patience and skill more than force. On the other hand, a good enough rider and a well-trained horse (or a horse with specialized training) can venture into dangerous situations, loud and scary environments, etc. calmly and confidently.

The joke in OP though is that many horses that are bred to be very fast, like thoroughbreds, are also bred and encouraged to be high-energy and highstrung. Making them more anxious and prone to seeing those ‘demons.’ All horses in a sense are going to be your anxious friend, but racehorses and polo ponies and other sport horses can sometimes be your anxious friend that thinks they live in Silent Hill.

inquisitorhierarch

Reblogging some horse knowledge for certain people who write fantasy books but know nothing about horses *cough cough*

esendoran

reblogging for the line “Basically we now have a walking couch with anxiety”.

when-it-rains-it-snows

Also: horses have very limited depth perception. You know that thing where you out your finger on the bridge of your nose and it disappears because it’s behind your field of vision? Now imagine your nose is as long as a horse’s. The blind spot in front of a horse’s nose is huge, four to six feet or so. When a horse jumps, it can’t see the fence, it has to be trained / remember to look for it and remember where it is and how high. They cannot tell if that is a spot of oil or a black hole in the road. It’s probably a black hole. Better avoid it.

Horses can’t see your hand, they smell the treat (and use very sensitive skin/whiskers to feel.) Some horses are garbage at doing this gently, just absolutely awful, but remember - they can’t see what they’re doing.

Horses also have partial color vision - they see horse relevant colors. Blue, yellow and therefore green. No red derived colors. If you want to see an anxious couch have a bad trip, ride it in an arena with alternating sections of purple and yellow seating. Grey grey YELLOW YELLOW HOLY SHIIIIIIIT. Every single horse would walk past the purple seats and go OH MY FUCK at the yellow ones. This is why the bright red (grey) bucket isn’t a problem, but oH my FfffffffffSHIttTTTT do they notice a stray yellow plastic grocery bag.

Last statement here is, instinct tells a horse that anything clinging to your back is going to eat you. That we spend so much effort convincing them otherwise is amazing and in general a testament to the human race’s commitment to Bad Ideas.

mythirdeyeisgoogly

Thank u horse science side of tumblr

old-songs

If you want to see an anxious couch have a bad trip is by far my most fav sentence

anomaly00-archive

Happy Storyteller Saturday from @Inky-Duchess and a Very Happy Pride💜 Rant about anything you like. About a character, a storytelling element, worldbuilding fact or anything.

Thanks for the ask @inky-duchess and oh boy do I want to just ramble on about my favorite minor character that makes one singular appearance as a corpse--that’s right, I’m talking about Titania.

Ok, so Titania is basically the catalyst of WCTD. It’s her death that causes Fenice to travel to the capital for her funeral which gives her an excuse to stay (because Dantalion over here suddenly feels really guilty at being an absentee parent to the child of the love of his life, but I digress) at the capital which, well, political stuff, intrigue, yadda yadda. Whenever I referenced Titania in earlier concepts of the story, she was always portrayed as this perfect, untouchable, beautiful being by those who loved her. Which kinda makes sense with the whole ‘don’t speak ill of the dead,’ but just taken up a few notches with Dantalion and Fenice considering Titania as their pillar of strength.

But is she really that perfect?

Titania is considered one of the best warriors of her time, even by Iskaavar standards. The Iskaavar are a group that places much emphasis on strength (any kind of strength, so physical, mental, arcane, etc.), currently led by the absolute monster of a badass, Eliskander. His skill in strategic warfare expanded the Iskaavar’s territory to triple what it used to be and cemented their uncontested control over the Valurian paths which made them unimaginably rich. And Titania is considered to be even better than that guy (like father like daughter, huh?). Hell, it’s basically historical fact at this point that Titania is the main reason why Dantalion won against his siblings’ bid for the throne. Titania helped kill every other rival.

But as a mother? Titania barely passes. I got inspired by one of my favorite literary characters Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind. One of the other characters often insults Scarlett by saying that a cat is more motherly than her because of her disinterest in her children. But then again she was barely more than a child herself when she was pregnant and had to survive a war and really anyone would look like a bad mother when compared to Melanie Wilkes. Titania is a bit similar. She’s the kind of mother that will provide you everything you need to live a good, healthy life, all the while maintaining socially distant. She’s been independent for as long as she could remember (it’s hard not to be when you have so many siblings trying to impress your father and one of the first lessons you remember ever being taught is how to properly hold a bow), so she pretty much forgot that children need things other than food, water, and a place to sleep.

Anyway I could go way longer on Titania, but I think I’ll leave it at that for now.

#not mine #other people's writing #when comes the dawn #anomaly00 #original character

letswritesomenovels

Writing the Perfect Query Letter

The point of a query letter is to sell your story.

Writing your query letter, your goal is to make the reader want to pick up the book. That is the entire purpose. We’ve all recommended books to friends before. It’s exactly that, except now that book is yours and the stakes are high. A query letter is, above all, persuasive. While writing your query letter, make sure you draw your reader into your story with every word.

A query letter is not a creative letter; it’s a business proposition.

Writing a query letter, don’t think of yourself as a writer, especially not of this particular story. You’ll need that degree of separation from your work for a good query. An agent/author relationship is foremost a business relationship. You’re pitching a product to someone whose job it is to sell your product (the agent) to someone whose job it is to sell your product (the editor) to someone you want to buy your product (the reader). This means that by querying your manuscript, you’re requesting a place in an industry. As such, you should follow some industry standards:

Use business letter formatting. 12 point font. Single spaced. Left alignment. No indentations. A space between paragraphs.

Don’t be familiar. This is a business letter. A formal letter. Unless you already have some sort of a relationship with the person you’re querying–if you’ve met at an event or corresponded in some other regard–write like you’re writing to a potential business associate.

Write the letter as yourself. Don’t write as your character. Don’t write as your narrator. Don’t write as the historian who discovered your story 1,000 years into the future. It’s a risk that rarely pays off. On that point…

Don’t be creative with the form of your query. Save the creativity for your manuscript. Don’t quote a section in your opening lines. Don’t include a box of chocolates with it when you mail it off. Don’t be gimmicky. If you resort to a gimmick, the agent is going to wonder if it’s because you don’t know how this works or your story isn’t strong enough to stand on it’s own. Play by the rules. Trust your story.

Keep it short. 250-400 words. Remember your goal: to get the agent to pick up the first chapter. Agents can receive hundreds of queries in a week. They don’t have time for wasted words. They won’t wait for you to get to your point. Say what you have to say as quickly as possible.

Writing Your Query:

You don’t have long to tell your story. Just a page. This means you can’t include much more than the information that is absolutely vital to your story and the querying process. I’ve outlined the information, and separated it into paragraphs. You don’t have to divide it the way I’ve set out here, but these are the general lumps of Query Stuff.

Each point I’ve bulleted should only be a sentence or two long. If your reader wants to know more, they’ll read the first chapters and request the manuscript.

The Opening Lines: The Formalities

Address the agent. As this is a business letter, start with something akin to “Dear Mr./Ms. [First Name, Last Name] or [Last Name]:” Ex. Dear Mr. Tolkien:

State your intent. In my research I’ve found this unnecessary, but if you choose to do so you can say something along the lines of: “I’m submitting for your consideration my completed novel, [TITLE].”

The First Paragraph: The Introduction

Introduce your story as cleanly as possible. It should be minimal, yet evocative. Specific to your story, but skimming the surface of it. The more set-up you give, the more complicated you’ll make things for yourself.

The set up. What was life like for the character when the story began? Where does the story take place?

The inciting incident. The “but when…” What set the ball rolling? This can be in the same sentence as the setup.

The combination of the set up and inciting incident should work as a sort of tagline.

Protagonist motivation. What does your protagonist want? What is it about the inciting incident that motivates the protagonist to action?

The Second Paragraph: The Conflict

I’ve made this a separate paragraph because shorter paragraphs make a page more inviting for a reader, but it’s your call. In this paragraph, you don’t want to summarise the entire book; you want to show your ability to weave a compelling story. It should have energy. It should tell the reader just enough to get them excited.

The rising action. What are a few key events that raise the stakes in your manuscript? Take a few sentences to lay out the most important events leading to the climax of your story.

The central conflict. What is the main obstacle your protagonist will face to achieve their goal? Lay out exactly what your protagonist’s biggest problem is.

The hook. The line or question that will make your reader want to read more. If you’d like, you can make it it’s own paragraph.

The Third Paragraph: The Details

Some people make this their first paragraph, but I’ve decided to put this after the introduction to the story. These are the formal details of your story, where it gets very Industry.

The title. You might have said it earlier, but it won’t hurt to say it again here.

The word count, genre, & age range. All necessary industry information. Round your word count to the nearest 1,000.

Comp titles. What books might this person have read that are similar to your own, either in tone/setting/story? This can give your reader a sense of the potential audience for your story. You only want to include two.

If you really want, you can choose to personalise the submission here and say why you’ve queried this particular agent. If you only want to show that you’ve done your research, you should have already gotten this point across clearly with the summary, age range, and genre. But, if you really love this agent, if you follow their blog or twitter or love some of their authors, it won’t hurt to say so.

The Fourth Paragraph: The Author

The last paragraph is usually set aside for a few short lines about yourself. This should only include information relevant to writing this manuscript. Examples of biographical details you might want to include:

Awards

Degrees

Writing conferences/workshops attended

Expertise related to the content of the book

Where you lived/have lived (if it matters)

You should be able to summarise this paragraph with: here is why you should trust me to tell this story.

You can also include a line about what you: are currently writing, enjoy writing, or have written. Let the agent get to know you as a writer and reader outside of this one story. (Especially if you don’t have many manuscript-related accolades/experience.)

The Closing Line: The Niceties

Thank the agent for taking the time to read your query. A small but important consideration.

Tips

Highlight your writing ability with narrative voice. If your story is funny, make sure your query reflects that. If the writing is lyrical, your query should be too. You don’t want to drown the agent in your writing style, but you should splash them a bit.

DON’T INCLUDE THEMES. Don’t say this is a story about “friendship and the power or love,” or “children will relate to this story of bullying.” A query letter isn’t a literature class. Don’t analyse your manuscript for your reader. Let the story speak for itself.

Use active language. Don’t use phrases like “this story is about” or “the main character is.” Again, let the plot and the character’s actions speak for themselves.

Only name a few characters and locations outright. If you’re querying Harry Potter, you’ll want to use Harry’s name in the query, but Aunt Petunia and Uncle Dursley can be “his cruel relatives.” Hermione and Ron can be “his friends.” Even Hogwarts can be a “school for people with magical abilities.” Refer to things by their function in the manuscript and keep your query simple and easy to follow. The more names, locations, and special terms in your query, the more confusing it will be.

Don’t sing your own praises. Don’t say that your mom loves your book, or that your little cousins devoured it. Don’t compare it to Harry Potter or any other best-seller. Don’t say you think the book will sell well. The agent won’t believe you.

It’s okay if it takes you days and days to write your query. It should take days to write. Whether or not the agent even looks at your first chapter will depend entirely on this single page. You can write the novel of the century, but no one will look at it unless your query sells it.

Have someone else look over your query before you send it out. Share it with the smartest person you know. Share it with your old English teacher. Share it on a writing website, like r/writers. Have them judge it on clarity and quality. Ask them where it can be trimmed. Ask them what they think the strongest sentence is. Ask what the weakest sentence is. Have them check for typos.

Triple-check you’ve spelt the agent’s name correctly. Agents are trying to get through their inbox. If they find one good reason to move past your query, they will. Don’t give it to them in the first line.

Triple-check the agent’s submission requirements. Getting these wrong is another way to get your query moved directly to the reject pile.

Let them know if there’s a potential for sequels. If you’re writing a trilogy, don’t try to sell all three books at once. Use this query letter to sell the first book of the series only. Then, let the agent know that “[Your Title] has the potential for two sequels continuing [Your Protagonist]’s story.” An agent wants you to have more than one book in your arsenal, but this is a short letter. There’s only room for the one book in it.

And one last tip? Your query doesn’t have to be perfect. Following this advice will help you draw the essential story out of a manuscript and make it look like you know what you’re doing, but many queries break these “rules” and still get full manuscript requests. As long as there’s something in the pitch that is enough to make the agent want to take a look at the manuscript itself, the query is doing its job.

Remember: you’re recommending a book. That’s all. It just happens to be your book.

Sources.

Writing a Six Sentence Synopsis

23 Successful Query Letters

How to Write a Query Letter

How to Write the Perfect Query- Agent Advice

The Anatomy of a Query Letter (Podcast episode: 1hr)

The Narrative Breakdown (Podcast episode: 35min)

Query Generator

Using the research I did for this post (plus a whole bunch more), I created a website to help you identify important aspects of your story and gather them into a standard query structure. Check it out at: https://www.querylettergenerator.com/

whump-whump-baby

So your Fictional Universe has Horses in it

Alternatively: People Ride Horses in Your Fic, and you’re Not Sure What to Do About It

horse rider/owner and baby writer here, throwing you an infodump that will maybe help with the whole ‘There’s a Horse in the Background here but I Don’t Know What to Do With it’ thing I sometimes see in writing!

Inside this infodump: Horse riding, horse care, horse tack (equipment), falling off a horse (and what usually gets injured), horse lingo, and behaviour.

Keep reading

betterloved

HELLO, FRIENDS, I HAVE RETURNED!

I used to be @/marie-writess and after a pretty lengthy hiatus (school + pandemic will do it to ya) I have returned and I wanted a fresh start! And so new url + re-introduction it is.

— so, without further ado, a little about me:

name’s still marie, still just an eighteen year old black girl with some good old mental illness and very strong opinions (for flavor)

i don’t really have a preferred genre, i’ll read anything as long as it has tropes or character dynamics i like

i like to think i’m pretty friendly so don’t ever be afraid to slide into my inbox or my ask box with whatever

i am always looking for new projects to check out so if you just want to come and tell me about your stuff, i will gladly listen

— a little about my projects

unfortunately, after spending lots of time away from them, i’m not really into my older projects. my apologies if you were really excited about any of them :(

but! i do have some new stuff! some content fresh off the press that will available soon in wip intro form!

among the dead ; look at me trying my hand at a zombie wip once more. pretty much, a teenager finds a little girl and the two of them try and survive the apocalypse. very character driven, probably going to have lots of content warnings + tears will be shed

there’s a couple other ideas floating around in my head but they’ll need a little more polishing before they’re ready for your consumption

( tagging some of my mutuals who’s content i have missed dearly: @emdrabbles, @evilkids, @dogwrites, @semblanche + @inheriting )

thebestmollygrue

lotrreactionmemes

Frodo: Do you ever walk into a room and immediately forget why you went there in the first place?

Sam: Mister Frodo please throw the Ring into the fire

alex-kotoulas-deactivated202101

A Writeblr Intro

Hello :)

I’m Alex, I’m 19, and unlike Jared, I learned how to read. I make jokes of questionable quality, enjoy memes, and pet dogs in my free time.

I read mostly fantasy, mystery, and some contemporary stuff. I’ll read almost anything else if it catches my eye or it’s recommended to me. I almost exclusively write fantasy, though most of what I do is technically day dreaming.

Now that school’s over and quarantine is still a thing, I’m writing daily tiny stories in response to prompts I find on the internet (with credit, of course). I have a ton of ideas for larger projects, but right now I’m focused on one of them. It’s going to be a fantasy short story and I’ll make a post about it soon.

I’m very excited to (hopefully) make some friends and meet new people! Please interact with this post so I know to follow you and check out your writing :)

thebestmollygrue

Welcome! :)

inky-duchess

Worldbuilding Guide: Currency

Currency is one of the staples in fantasy worlds. Whether it's a silver stag from Westeros, a knut from Gringotts or some unnamed gold coin, every world and culture has some sort of currency to buy items with. For many it is the driving force of their actions and the plot.

Coins and Notes

As in our world, currency takes different forms. Some are of metal, some of paper. The currency does not have to be in monetary form. Barter van also be used, a service in exchange for a service, an item in exchange for another item.

Worth

When you create a currency, you must choose which value each coin is worth. In Game of Thrones there are three kinds of coin: the golden dragon, the silver stag and the copper star. The gold is the most valuable of the three. In Harry Potter, we get a more in depth look at the currency's worth and how everything matches up: 17 Sickles in a Galleon, and 29 Knuts in a Sickle, 493 Knuts to a Galleon. Of course, we can base currency on our real world: 100 lesser coins to 1 major one. Ex. 100 cents to a Euro.

Composition

In most fantasy works, we hear about golden coins and we imagine solid chips of gold. However in history, the gold and silver of the coins are mixed with lesser metals. The worth of the coin against another kingdom's currency relied upon the percentage of the precious metal. If Kingdom X's gold coin is 30% pure and Kingdom Y's is 60% pure, for every coin paid by kingdom Y, X must pay 2.

Design

Every kind of coin has a different value as does every note and often they are shaped different. Most coins are smaller as their value decreases. Using different shapes can be interesting and add a more original feel to our currency. Most historical coins bear the visage of a monarch or mythical being or deity. An inscription can also be inscribed on the parchment or coin. Coinage can be used as propaganda as all the commons will see them.

For @marvelmojito

mapsontheweb

20 ways of saying “swing” in Norway,

stcrlghts

latin phrases worth knowing:

(in case you wanted to know because i fucking love this language)

ad astra per aspera - to the stars through difficulties

alis volat propriis - he flies by his own wings

amantium irae amoris integratio est - the quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love

ars longa, vita brevis - art is long, life is short

aut insanity homo, aut versus facit - the fellow is either mad or he is composing verses

dum spiro spero - while I breathe, I hope

ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem - with the sword, she seeks peace under liberty

exigo a me non ut optimus par sim sed ut malis melior - I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better than the bad

experiential docet - experience teaches

helluo librorum - a glutton for books (bookworm)

in libras libertas - in books, freedom

littera scripta manet - the written letter lasts

mens regnum bona possidet - an honest heart is a kingdom in itself

mirabile dictu - wonderful to say

nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit - there is no book so bad that it is not profitable in some part

omnia iam fient quae posse negabam - everything which I used to say could not happen, will happen now

poeta nascitur, non fit - the poet is born, not made

qui dedit benificium taceat; narrat qui accepit - let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it tell it

saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit - often, it is not advantageous to know what will be

sedit qui timuit ne non succederet - he who feared he would not succeed sat still

si vis pacem, para bellum - if you want peace, prepare for war

struit insidias lacrimis cum feminia plorat - when a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears

sub rosa - under the rose

trahimir omnes laudis studio - we are led on by our eagerness for praise

urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit - he found the city a city of bricks; he left it a city of marble

ut incepit fidelis sic permanet - as loyal as she began, so she remains

ampervadasz

Morzsi

angryschnauzer

I once stayed at a B&B in Scotland that had 3 of these beasts. On the booking form it said “must like dogs”. What it didnt tell you was “you will open the door to your room in the morning and the dog will be looking eye to eye with you”

ourladybinxthings

I really need these dogs in my life today

ceebee-eebee

Took my cats to the vet once and one of these dudes was in the waiting room. It was like a 6 foot tall man had decided to lay on the floor and sprawl out his limbs.

yconic

The best writing tip I could give in regards to writing a believable redemption for a villain or anti-hero: Don't center it around the romance. It's heartwarming seeing a person determined to change their ways for the person they love.

However, I believe making them want to be better for themselves too is so much more meaningful. Show that THEY want to be better just for the sake of being better. Having them suddenly shift their whole moral compass and character for their love interest is a bit... Forced. As in, they have to do it because this person won't give them what they want unless this process of development is done with, and I can't say I ever appreciated that trope.

Goodness is a responsibility, not a chore.

inspire-me-to-breathe-deactivat

What being drunk is like, for fic writers who have never been drunk before

Nothing wrong with never being drunk (in fact, it’s probs a good thing) but it can be hard to write convincingly about alcohol if you’re not familiar with it, and I’ve read enough fics where 5 secs into reading I’m already cringing sooooo

1. It takes more than 1 beer to get drunk

Personally, it takes me (a small female occasional-drinker) either around 3 shots of any spirit, 2 large glasses of wine or 2.5 beer-like drinks within a short space of time to get over tipsy into drunk territory, and to be really drunk-drunk, a bottle of wine (3 or 4 glasses), or 5 shots should do it. BUT IT VARIES FROM PERSON TO PERSON

2. Lime and salt is literally only for tequila

and I know like less than 3 people who actually enjoy the taste of any alcohol

3. Your vision isn’t “blurry” or “foggy”

Alcohol affects your balance not your eyes, so the room defo can seem like it’s spinning but you’ll still have your 20/20. Sometimes it’s hard to focus, but it’s not constant - just every so often your eyes miss their mark.

4. Speech is less “slurred”, more in the wrong order

A great thread on writing drunk dialogue here: https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-write-dialogue-for-a-drunk-character

5. Not everyone gets hyper-sexual when drunk

It’s less a state of horniness and more a state of lowered inhibitions and social pressure

6. Coffee doesn’t sober you up like magic

Alcohol dissipates from the body at a rate of about .015% of BAC per hour, and drinking coffee doesn’t alter that rate

7. Alcohol rarely sends you into a deep and heavy sleep

You’re more likely to sleep fitfully and keep waking (sometimes to be sick, more likely to piss/drink water - sometimes just bcos being drunk is uncomfortable), unless you’re an alcoholic who depends on drink for sleep

8. You don’t *hic* in the middle of every sentence!!

If the drink is carbonated, then maybe, but you’re way more likely to have a problem with bloating etc with alcohol

9. You don’t go straight to black-out, speech-slurring drunk

It takes a lot of units and likely a couple of hours to work up to this stage - for different kinds of drunk this webpage is good: http://krisnoel.com/post/40871345058/my-character-is-drunk

10. Having drunk sex is difficult, awkward and rarely sexy

And you’re more likely to make-out with your friends than any strangers at a club, just because

11. Hangovers are rarely pounding, light-aversion torture

The younger/more tolerant you are, the better. Generally, for a night of heavy but not black-out drinking, you’ll be thirsty, probs nauseous and tired. The room may still be spinning but in an annoying, not painful way, and this’ll go away after a couple of hours and eating something, getting fresh air or having a shower (whatever works for you)

12. People talk nonsense when drunk

You are less likely to get a love confession and more likely to hear about all the rules for a complicated game they just invented, right that second

13. Everyone is different

Don’t make all your characters hyper, or depressive, or angry. For most of the night they won’t get to that stage anyway. Also, remember this whole list is based on my experiences, so feel free to ignore it all and do your own thing.

Happy drunk writing!

saltoftheao3

14. If we’re talking about an entire party/night out, your character’s alcohol level is probably going to fluctuate quite a bit as they eat, move and do other things that lower the alcohol level again. It’ not merely a linear increase. In my experience, a typical party often works that way: a. The tipsy stage: people chatting a bit more loudly and excitedly than usual, everyone is quite fit and active at that point, the conversation is stil very normal and coherent (1-2 hours), you wouldn’t yet embarrass yourself in front of your old relatives. b. The active stage: now people are in various stages of drunkenness depending on how much they tolerate and drank. It’s the typical “let’s do silly things” phase, speech less rational and coherent, security concerns disappear, people want to climb trees and go get burgers. Everyone is usually still in an active mood. Memory of that stage will maybe be a bit jumbled, but all in all there. This is when a lot of the funnier events happens. C. The downward stage: with their stomachs now full of midnight burgers and a bit tired from all that tree climbing, the drunkenness level of most party attendees has receded. A more calm party stage begins. Some stop drinking, chill a bit, fall asleep or go home. Others want to go on, which brings us to … D. The escalation stage! Whether in the club or at a house party, the remaining party guests want to get wa-a-AAAAAsted. Sometimes this stage involves other party drugs. Now is when most of blackout, vomiting, violence etc happens. Memory will be fragmentary. Voilà!