This Dark Mirror

Joshua/24/he,him/purging neuroticism with art one day at a time

[apocalypse-polakiewicz]

tozozozo

[thisdarkmirror]

On the wheel and you can’t get off

[careful-silent-still]

I’m constantly tapping this sign every time I see discourse about morality in fiction

An artist’s job is not to teach you a lesson, it’s to make you think for yourself. So use your goddamn heads and prepare for death. Use what you’ve experienced in the safe violence of fiction to become good.

[theplottery]

Terms every writer should know

Here’s a quick cheat-sheet to some common terms you may run into during your writing career!

Alpha reader: A person that reads the manuscript with the knowledge it is unfinished and provides content feedback & support (like a coach, mentor or friend).

Beta reader: A person that reads the manuscript for the purpose of finding plot holes, sensitivity issues, and provide feedback, pre-publication.

Back matter or End matter: Additional content at the end of a book, such as acknowledgements, author bio, afterword, etc.

Front matter: Content preceeding the beginning of a book, such as publication information, dedication, title page, table of contents etc.

House: A publishing house.

Developmental editing: Editing that helps develop the content of a book, point out logic, inconsistencies, and focus the idea.

Line editing: Editing that helps the consistency and concision of the author’s style, finds redundancies, and fixes grammar.

Copy editing: Editing that focuses on grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.

Passive voice: In passive voice, the subject is the person or thing being acted upon.

Active voice: In active voice, the person or thing performing the action serves as the subject of the sentence.

Flash fiction: Extremely short stories, usually of up to 1,000 words.

In medias res: Starting the narrative from the middle of the story.

Deus ex machina: Term for a common trope where all issues are resolved by a god-like force, typically when one writes themselves into a corner and cannot resolve the conflict in any other way.

Head hopping: A common error in narrative perspective, where the writer gives access to internal thoughts of two or more characters within a scene.

Dialogue tags: Sentences that frame dialogue to let the reader know who’s speaking.

Story beat: A structural element of narrative that signals a shift in tone, plot, or character. Can be used for chapters, scenes, and outlines.

Pacing: The rate at which a story progresses.

Pinch point: An event in the plot that adds pressure to the characters.

Plot point: A major turning point in a story structure.

Logline: The story summary in one single sentence, much like a premise or an elevator pitch.

Synopsis: A detailed description of a story’s plot, for the purpose of sharing with literary agents.

R&R: Revise & resend: A changed or revised manuscript requested by agents or editors.

Manuscript: The main body of an unpublished book.

Shelf time: The time during which you set aside your project to come back to it with a fresh perspective.

Zero draft or vomit draft: A draft written by the author solely for themselves, used to get the story out on the page without external pressure.

Exposition: Where background explanation about the story, world, or characters is provided.

Subtext: The meaning behind the text, the dialogue, the plot, or the characters.

MC: Main character.

Motif: An image, phrase, or symbol repeated throughout the book for thematic significance.

Theme: The moral statement, argument, or question at the heart of a story.

Trope: A cliched story element, particular to certain genres.

Save the post so you can find them easily 😊

[sleepyowlwrites]

This except that a trope is literally just a recognizable story element. It's a tool. A cliché is when the trope is overused and/or done badly. All stories have tropes i.e. friends to lovers, found family, a wizard did it, spooky small town, etc.

[sh00k0]

デート

[thisdarkmirror]

Please forgive me

[thisdarkmirror]

In my hands

your hands

were flowers.

In your hands

my head was a cracked bell.

When you leaned in,

the bell rang, and its pealing

roused the starlings in the branches.

What starlings dream of—

me, here, writing, up too late.

I struggle to not think of you.

I, too, am waiting for a sign, a sound,

so I can wake and lift my wings.

[florentina-anacleto]

[capistrania]

[stoicmike]

I think that I am a serious thinker, but that might be just another of my fantasies. – Michael Lipsey

[teachingliteracy]

“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”

— Native Son, Richard Wright (b. 4 September 1908)

[micdotcom]

Watch: Hilarious Party Over Here sketch gets at the dark truth behind “mansplaining.”

[thisdarkmirror]

Drunk me is the most empathic version of me that exists, maybe.

I saw some clouds today which helped me believe in synchonicity, in value, in order which exists within beauty.

God what a pretentious prick.

I just, I miss being able to see beautiful things and recognize them as beautiful. I’m so caught up in how people or things relate to ME that I can’t parse how they are, without focus.

It didn’t use to always be this way.

[allthingsschwab]

Victoria Schwab Tweets:

“This just in: you can love writing and also find it hard.

“I was once on a panel and another author essentially said, ‘if you don’t enjoy every moment, then why are you here?’ and I was…exasperated. Creativity is a complicated beast. You don’t have to love every second to be a valid participant.

“I love the ideas. I love brainstorming, and problem-solving, and I love making this better, fine-tuning language.

“I also hate drafting, claw my way through self-doubt, crawl on my hands and knees through the frustration of the unrealized.

“I’m not here because I love every second.

“I’m here because the parts I love are worth the rest.”

[quasi-normalcy]

What I can tell you as a transgender woman is that occasionally I will read trans woman characters written by cisgender authors. And I can pretty much always tell when the author is cis, even if the character is portrayed respectfully, because they get some details wrong or something. But I certainly don’t think that they shouldn’t be allowed to take a stab at it, and I actually appreciate any representation that isn’t egregiously harmful. And I certainly don’t think that only transgender women should be allowed to write transgender women because then it falls on me, and that’s rather tokenizing, isn’t it?

[quasi-normalcy]

Also it seems like demanding that only #OwnVoices authors should be allowed to write certain characters is an excellent way to enforce a situation where most books are about cishet white people.

[quasi-normalcy]

And no: you probably won’t get all of the specific details of someone else’s lived experience correct, in much the same way that most authors don’t get all of the specific details about how, say, nuclear reactors or space work. But so long as your character passes as realistically human and not a one-dimensional caricature of what you think that other types of people are like, then I think that that’s reasonable.

[irisbleufic]

Also, sensitivity readers are a thing, and enhance all of the above actions! Paying a reader from the demographic you have written to go over your writing and give constructive feedback is a wonderful thing to do. It benefits both parties involved not only in the financial and craft-honing senses, but also in the exchange of ideas and learning about someone whose perspective and lived experience are different from yours.

[thisdarkmirror]

The half liter of coke sweats on the table

The deli is empty, music is piped

In from nowhere. The cashier studies a chipped nail, as if to divine how to spend her evening.

The chip points to the left.... maybe she’ll go out with Dillon tonight.

I see my food sitting on the cook’s counter.

I cough, but the music is too loud.

[thisdarkmirror]

Going into conversations thinking that they already love you (regardless of the truth of the statement) seems to be the number one way to combat the paranoia that coats social interactions.

I feel too exposed, usually.

But this closes it, that gap.

Just enough.

But I have to be careful.

My moods swing really quickly.

Especially when I’m tired.

But, when I’m tired, there is less paranoia. No filter.

I don’t want to ever be too afraid to be myself.

We’ve all felt that feeling, when someone wholly accepts us for who we are, of our soul opening up.

Why not give that to myself, everyday, instead of looking for that acceptance in others?