The tumblr of me, the One with the Q

[kayydawn]

[ifoundthisandthoughtitwasfunny]

White People Almost Kissing, a book by Nicholas Sparks

[theonewiththeq]

White People Almost Kissing But Instead Just Holding Each Other’s Faces.

[ba-in-bs]

Click through to awesome photo array at: http://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/quotes-about-writing

[writingmastery]

20 things I want more of in fiction: strong female characters

To quote TheMarySue.com, strong female characters are rarely strong and rarely characters. Strong Female Characters™ are leather-clad, emotionless, “independent,” defined by their relationships to men, and often have a tragic backstory (often involving abuse at the hands of men). More often than not, they are portrayed to be just as powerful or even more so than male protagonists, but in the end are relegated to fighting the secondary villain(ess). 

So here is my list of 20 things I want to see in strong female characters. 

Strong female characters who are girly: Not “feminine,” girly. They don’t wear tight leather bodysuits, they wear pink dresses and curl their hair and are excited when Sephora comes out with a new blush product. 

Strong female characters who are funny: I mean, come on. I can count on one hand the number of strong female characters who could be comedians. 

Strong female characters who support other women: Don’t make them hate the girls who have sex or wear makeup. Don’t support the idea that femininity is weak. 

Strong female characters who are not traditionally attractive: Make them fat. Give them acne. Maybe they have bushy eyebrows. Who knows? 

Strong female characters who fall in love and remain strong: If she can lift a truck at the beginning of the story, getting the man will not change that. Being strong is not undesirable. 

Strong female characters who are not physically strong: Why do they need to lift a car to be strong? Women can be mentally and emotionally strong too. Example: A WWII nurse who has to deal with recent amputees and vets with PTSD. Do you know how much strength that would require? 

Strong female characters who are tomboys/manly: Be cautious with this one. There is a whole list of harmful tropes surrounding this idea. For more information, see TV Tropes’ Tomboy page.

Strong female characters who don’t use long-range weapons: Let them be the smasher for once. I want to see them throw punches. 

Strong female characters who become stronger on their own accord: Have them want to do more, and train to become better or strive to learn more. BUT (and this is a big but) don’t make them do it because they were abused. Don’t. 

Strong female characters who are LGBT*QIA: Enough said. 

Strong female characters who are POC: See above. 

Strong female characters who are older and not hardened by war: give me an prankster grandma or a general who is known as “mom.”  

Strong female characters who have feelings: Please stop making them emotionless or merely snarky/sarcastic. I mean, have you ever met anyone who was only sarcastic and nothing else? People like that don’t exist. 

Strong female characters who are strong because of women: Maybe their moms taught them how to fight. Maybe they were inspired by a warrior queen. Stop giving them five older brothers. Seriously. 

Strong female characters who aren’t lone warriors: Give them a badass crew (bonus points if they’re all women) whom she considers her friends. Real people have friends. 

Strong female characters who have a family: They need at least one family member that they love and want to protect. Stop making them estranged from their parents or orphans. 

Strong female characters who cry: Please, let them have feelings. 

Strong female characters who aren’t defined by men: Don’t give them emotion only when they fall for the male protag. Don’t make their backstory all about when they were abused by a man. Don’t give them mentors who are all men. Don’t attribute her abilities to men. 

Strong female characters who don’t define men: Stop having her strength be the measure that the male protagonist must surpass. Stop having her death give motivation to the male characters. This must end. 

Strong female characters who weren’t abused: Having rape/abuse as a motivation is a disgusting cliche. Stop it. Just don’t. 

Read more about strong female characters:

Geekfeminism

The Mary Sue

TV Tropes

Huffington Post

[thingsfandomshavetaughtme]

why do people make shit arguments against queer representation by saying things like “the percentage of lgbt people in the population isn’t that high” well neither is the percentage of vampires but we see plenty of them in our media dont we

[flamingmuse]

I think this is my new favorite thing ever.

[tio-trile]

Happy Little Translation Error?

So I lent my friend my mainland Chinese copy of Good Omens, and she’s been commenting on various stuff in the book to me as she read along. One day she messaged, “Crowley’s so cute, chasing after the hedgehogs like that.”

And I said, “……………..what?????!?”

So she told me where in the book it was, and it was the part after Cr&Az realized that Warlock isn’t the kid, talked to the nun, and got out of the hospital. It did say that Crowley was “trying to hit a hedgehog and missing”, but I soon realized that the “second line” she told me that’s about the hedgehog is, “The angel stared out at the rushing hedgerows.” Apparently the Chinese translator read “hedgerows” and thought it was “hedgehogs” again. Obviously it didn’t make a huge change to the plot line, but basically, in the Chinese version of Good Omens, Crowley chased a hedgehog while convincing Aziraphale, “drove in silence for a while”, and then chatted with Aziraphale some more. Meanwhile Aziraphale saw everything but decided to let Crowley do his thing.

So…yeah.

[neil-gaiman]

You know, between life and what’s happening in politics and work and too much travel and missing my baby son (he and Amanda are at a conference in Canada and I am hiding to try and make a deadline) it’s been a rotten week.

This, for the record, suddenly made everything really good. It may be my favourite ever Tumblr post.

[awaari]

Headcannon that Dorian antagonizes the egg no matter what. He does it in his free time when Galathan isn't around.

What a nice friendship they have there(Referring from this)

[theonewiththeq]

OMG THERE’S MORE

[bisexualpiratequeen]

Warning to writers

While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.

When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here - there are too many.

Being published badly is worse than being never published.

It can destroy your career and your dreams.

The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.

But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.

Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks

Preditors and editors

Writer Beware

and the WRITER BEWARE blog

Keep yourself and your work safe.

This is really important, so if you are a writer or have writer friends, or you are a writing blog, please reblog it.

[rosey-buddy]

Just to let you know, PublishAmerica changed their name to America Star Books.

[lunamax1214]

HEAD’S UP, WRITER TYPES: THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PSA!

[oldmanyellsatcloud]

Also applies to many so-called freelance sites that are just content mills, and may not pay unless your work is used, even if the contract seems designed otherwise.

[konekat]

Listen, reading these is like legit reading horror stories.  When it comes to publishing your writing, always, always, ALWAYS do your research.  Not only will it help you avoid scams, but it will also be likely to help you land a much better fit for an agent/publisher/whatever.  Knowing more is never going to hurt.

[maxgrayarchived]

Friendly Reminder to the Artsy People

Use the bathroom!

You might have made a cup of coffee or tea a while ago and left it to cool. You should check on it real quick :3

How long has it been since you’ve eaten?

Hydrate, please. 

How long have you been working? Do you need a break? 

Did someone message you a while ago? You may want to make sure you haven’t forgotten about any notifications or messages. 

For the teens out there, your parents may have asked you to do something. You probably said you’d do it in a minute so you can finish your paragraph, or the chapter/character your outlining. Don’t forget about it! :3

[buzzfeednews]

And they shared the whole story. 

[diseonfire]

A whole year and a half. A whole year and a half.

[awaari]

CONTINUE HERE:

_( :⁍ 」 )_ 

[awaari]

WAIT THERE’S EVEN MORE

[theonewiththeq]

I apologize. But I had to. Just for the last panel. 

[tastefullyoffensive]

Plane Safety Cards: Explained by The Poke

[feelsmoor]

[Wondermark] this is the coolest thing.

[nineprotons]

I used to have a t-shirt from The Nature Company (I think it was) that just had a block of text, titled “Multitudes”, that had all kinds of groups of animals and the names of the group– like the list above but not in separate lines, and of actual animals.

I want a t-shirt like that again but with all of these on it instead of animals.

[bw2gold]

Dragon hunters

[theonewiththeq]

Dis my go-to party :D

[argonauticae]

Last year, I went to a writing conference in Boston. One of the first panel discussions was about how a writer claims authority, how it is that a writer asserts that he or she possesses the expertise to write about a topic, and how concomitantly the editor reading through the submission slush pile can determine whether the writer is someone who can claim authority as a writer. One of the panelists, an editor, offered that the first thing he looked for when skimming through the cover letter was whether the writer possessed an MFA. He did this, he hastened to qualify, not because it guaranteed that the submitter would be a better writer, but because taking a year or two off out of one’s life to dedicate oneself to writing proved that one was serious as a writer. I came off my chair in anger—how could he assert such a thing? My friend pulled me back down, but I continued to fume. Who has more dedication: the person who has the financial wherewithal to spend time in a writing program, or the writer who writes despite having to work full-time, early in the morning, with absolutely no one but themselves for motivation? As another panel member offered their method for detecting “dedication,” I flashed back to sitting with Fred Busch as he recounted stories from his early days of working all day and spending time with his wife and son in the early evening and then taking the typewriter into the bathroom, so as not to wake his sleeping family, and writing as much as he could before fatigue demanded he go to bed. How much more dedication did one need to prove beyond that? But that’s not exactly something you can put on a resume. That panelist’s misguided assumption, that an MFA necessarily connotes greater dedication to writing, reveals an all too common blindness to the easy privilege of those with financial security.

LITHUB | “How The Literary Class System is Impoverishing Literature: On The Systemic Economic Barriers to Being A Writer”, Lorraine Berry (via argonauticae)

[jackthebard]

Just remember. There is no such thing as a fake geek girl. There are only fake geek boys. Science fiction was invented by a woman.

[sourcedumal]

[shuttersmiley]

Specifically a teenage girl. You know, someone who would be a part of the demographic that some of these boys are violently rejecting.

[foxsan-deactivated20140515]

Isaac Asimov.

[sim0nbaz-deactivated20170205]

yo mary shelley wrote frankenstein in 1818 and isaac asimov was born in 1920 so you kinda get my point

[fancyeliza-deactivated20200804]

If you want to push it back even further Margaret Cavendish, the duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) wrote The Blazing World in 1666, about a young woman who discovers a Utopian world that can only be accessed via the North Pole - oft credited as one of the first scifi novels

Women have always been at the forefront of literature, the first novel (what we would consider a novel in modern terms) was written by a woman (Lady Muraskai’s the Tale of Genji in the early 1000s) take your snide “Isaac Asimov” reblogs and stick it

even in terms of male scifi authors, asimov was predated by Jules Verne, HG Wells, George Orwell, you could have even cited Poe or Jonathan Swift has a case but Asimov?

PbbBFFTTBBBTBTTBBTBTTT so desperate to discredit the idea of Mary Shelly as the mother of modern science fiction you didn’t even do a frickin google search For Shame

[cryptovalid]

And if you want to go back even further, the first named, identified author in history was Enheduanna of Akkad, a Sumerian high priestess.

[gunthatshootsennui]

Kinda funny, considering this Isaac Asimov quote on the subject:

Mary Shelley was the first to make use of a new finding of science which she advanced further to a logical extreme, and it is that which makes Frankenstein the first true science fiction story.

[deathcomes4u]

Even Isaac Asimov ain’t having none of your shit, not even posthumously.

[velocigrey-deactivated20160825]

You know what else was invented by women? Masked vigilantes, the precursor to the modern superhero. Baroness Emma Orczy wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1905. The character would later inspire better known masked vigilantes such as Zorro and Batman.

[geekinlibrariansclothing]

Got that?

[bettieleetwo]

Stick that in your international pipe and smoke it

[la-knight]

I have literally been telling people this for over a year.

[athenadark]

the first extended prose piece - ie a novel, was not, as many male scholars will shout, Don Quixote (1605) but The Tale of Genji (1008) written by a woman

[thepsychicclam]

The first autobiography ever written in English is also attributed to a woman, The Book of Margery Kempe (1430s).

[ladynorbert]

The day may come when I find this post and do not reblog it, but it is not this day.

[theonewiththeq]

^

[theonewiththeq]

Me: *buys a new book* OH MY GOD I CANT WAIT TO GO HOME AND READ IT, IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS TO COME OUR FOR YEARS!!

Me: *takes 2 years to pick the book up*

[kaylapocalypse-deactivated20201]

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.