if in doubt add an egg

a side-blog for writing purposes; main tumblr: thiswaycomessomethingwicked

[fixyourwritinghabits]

The publisher Angry Robot is opening to novel submissions soon! Here's their criteria:

To apply, please email [email protected] and send us:

– A sample that consists of the first three chapters of your work (or first fifteen pages if the chapters are short).

– A synopsis of the full work in a separate Word document.

– An elevator pitch and author bio in your email.

We are looking for:

– Novel length works.

– Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

– Adult fiction.

– Finished manuscripts.

This submission period is exclusive to authors who don't have agents. They've also specified they are eager to receive manuscripts from authors of color and LGBTQ+ folks.

[woodswolfkid]

I know this feels like super common sense but it’s always good to have a regular reminder: If you are an unagented writer and get picked up by a press, make sure you read any and all contracts super close. Go through with a fine tooth comb. Talk to people in industry to understand what is normal, for big and small presses. If able, have a lawyer take a peak. Look into the press and see what people are saying with regards to what it’s like working with them.

Know what your worth is, know what good and fair treatment is. Advocate for yourself and your work.

[homunculus-argument]

Hey btw, if you're doing worldbuilding on something, and you're scared of writing ~unrealistic~ things into it out of fear that it'll sound lazy and ripped-out-of-your-ass, but you also don't want to do all the back-breaking research on coming up with depressingly boring, but practical and ~realistic~ solutions, have a rule:

Just give the thing two layers of explanation. One to explain the specific problem, and another one explaining the explanation. Have an example:

Plot hole 1: If the vampires can't stand daylight, why couldn't they just move around underground?

Solution 1: They can't go underground, the sewer system of the city is full of giant alligators who would eat them.

Well, that's a very quick and simple explanation, which sure opens up additional questions.

Plot hole 2: How and why the fuck are there alligators in the sewers? How do they survive, what do they eat down there when there's no vampires?

Solution 2: The nuns of the Underground Monastery feed and take care of them as a part of their sacred duties.

It takes exactly two layers to create an illusion that every question has an answer - that it's just turtles all the way down. And if you're lucky, you might even find that the second question's answer loops right back into the first one, filling up the plot hole entirely:

Plot hole 3: Who the fuck are the sewer nuns and what's their point and purpose?

Solution 3: The sewer nuns live underground in order to feed the alligators, in order to make sure that the vampires don't try to move around via the sewer system.

When you're just making things up, you don't need to have an answer for everything - just two layers is enough to create the illusion of infinite depth. Answer the question that looms behind the answer of the first question, and a normal reader won't bother to dig around for a 3rd question.

[ineffablecalculus]

Right? Vampires are out. Sewer nuns are my new obsession.

[swallowtailed]

[id: screenshot of tags reading “this is a great post but i am compelled by the sewer nuns” /end id]

[helenasurvives]

calling all authors!!

i have just stumbled upon the most beautiful public document i have ever laid eyes on. this also goes for anyone whose pastimes include any sort of character creation. may i present, the HOLY GRAIL:

https://www.fbiic.gov/public/2008/nov/Naming_practice_guide_UK_2006.pdf

this wonderful 88-page piece has step by step breakdowns of how names work in different cultures! i needed to know how to name a Muslim character it has already helped me SO MUCH and i’ve known about it for all of 15 minutes!! i am thoroughly amazed and i just needed to share with you guys 

[theredscreech]

Cultures include Yoruba, Sikh, Vietnamese, Polish, and dozens more!

[woodswolfkid]

and here we have more Ann Hood because of Reasons*

(*obligatory reading for the revision course. that’s the Reasons. but also I recommend this essay, it’s good) 

[woodswolfkid]

again, from Ann Hood’s essay Beginnings

[woodswolfkid]

Ann Hood once again being Very Relatable in her approach to writing

[solange-annick]

How To Write Grief by Diana Wallace Peach

Common Physical Reactions to Death

Tightness in the forehead, throat, or chest

Dry mouth

Breathlessness

Nausea and/or a hollow feeling in the stomach

Weakness, fatigue

Sleep disturbances, dreams, and nightmares

Appetite disturbances

Disbelief is often a first reaction upon hearing of a death, especially if the death is sudden. Disbelief manifests as an initial numbness, a surreal sense that this can’t be happening, that the world has stopped making sense.

Internal/External Coping: Your characters’ reactions will vary widely. Some will express themselves externally, others internally. This can be a source of misunderstanding – the less emotionally expressive characters accused of coldness or indifference, the more openly expressive characters accused of wallowing in self-pity.

Social Immersion/Withdrawal: Some characters will desire immersion within their social network to gain support or stem loneliness and fear. Other characters may avoid interactions, needing time to process and reflect in solitude. Many will fall somewhere in between, appearing fine until the brittle walls of control collapse at a word or gesture.

The Rollercoaster: Most people will dip in and out of grief, able to handle it in small doses before backing up and regaining emotional control. Your characters will function and grieve, function and grieve.

Reminders: Some characters may avoid reminders of the deceased, finding that places or objects trigger painful feelings. Others may have the opposite reaction—desiring to visit those places and carry keepsakes.

Active/Passive: Death generates a sense of helplessness. Some grieving characters may resort to intense activity (cooking, training, working, painting the house, or shopping). This is a coping mechanism that counters the loss of control. Others will feel lethargic, distracted and forgetful. They’ll have trouble focusing or wander in a fog without the will to complete the simplest tasks.

Spirituality and Religion: For some characters, death may challenge spiritual or religious beliefs and shake faith to its foundations. For others, spiritual or religious beliefs may be or become the lifeline that sees the character through.

Conflicted Relationships: These are relationships shaped by a tangle of positive and negative experiences, wishes, and emotions. Characters are grappling for balance and control, for respect, love, or approval. Death ends all chances for a satisfactory resolution. The feelings left behind are a stew of love, anger, regret, and guilt.

Recklessness: Though recklessness may appear as a death wish, it might actually be angry defiance, a wager that death can be beaten at its game. Characters may also put themselves at risk to make up for a failure to protect others or guilt at their own survival.

Anxiety, insecurity, and panic. Unlike recklessness, anxiety can be paralyzing. A shattered world can leave a character with a heightened sense of mortality, a fear of surviving on one’s own, or an aversion to taking risks.

Characters may feel relief after the death, particularly if the deceased suffered. Relief and a sense of liberation may also occur at the end of conflicted relationship, the battle finally over. Guilt frequently accompanies the sense of relief.

Guilt: Guilt is very common and often completely illogical. All the “I should have’s” and “if only’s” roll through the character’s brain, especially in cases of suicide.

Anger: Anger generally has four sources:

Justified anger at perpetrators and the failures of individuals and institutions. This is fertile ground for thoughts of revenge.

Lashing out at others in response to feelings of helplessness and loss of control.

Anger at one’s self for an inability to prevent the death.

Anger at the deceased for dying, for not fighting harder, not making better choices, or abandoning the survivors (like guilt, this anger isn’t always logical).

Unexpected Death: Death out of the natural sequence of life is generally more tragic than death after a long life. Sudden death is frequently harder to deal with than a loss that’s expected. Death by a purposeful or negligent hand is often more difficult than one by accident or illness.

Previous experience with death can prepare a character for new losses and soften the sharp edges. At the same time, if previous deaths weren’t fully processed, new losses can trigger unresolved emotions and complicate healing.

Delaying grief: Death and grief make characters feel vulnerable. In dangerous situations, it’s common for grief responses to be suppressed or delayed. Then once safe, the emotional blockade opens. If that safe haven for grief is a long time coming, consider that feelings may bottleneck, turn in on the character, or explode.

Children’s Grief – Don’t forget that babies, children, and teens grieve too!:

Babies experience a sense of absence in their lives. They also respond to the stress of the adults around them.

Little children and teens experience the SAME feelings as adults including guilt – believing that they somehow could have prevented the death.

Children also dip in and out of grief, cry and whine one minute, then play and laugh the next.

Children and teens tend to regress to younger behaviors.

Children will frequently delay their own grief until they see that the adults are handling it well and it’s safe to grieve.

In an attempt to fit in, teenagers will frequently hide their grief. Teens may not talk about their feelings with their parents, but will talk to another trusted adult.

[humanityinahandbag]

@samanthafrank​ ANOTHER treasure 😉

[somerabbitholes]

Essays

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love

also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!

Literature + Writing

Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag

The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul *

Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux *

A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi

How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik

Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone

Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman

Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom

The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote *

The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes

Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman *

Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan *

Why I Write - George Orwell *

Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland *

Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)

Looking at War - Susan Sontag *

Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz

Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker

The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews

In Plato’s Cave - Susan Sontag *

On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger *

On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger *

Kalighat Paintings  - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri

Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past -  Maël Renouard

Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel

Cities

Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash

Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo *

Timur’s Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur

The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall *

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s iconic railway station - Srinath Perur

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective -  Andrew Harris

The Limits of “White Town” in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay

The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel

Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan

A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp

The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne

The Nowhere City - Amos Elon *

The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour

Philosophy

The trolley problem problem - James Wilson

A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram

Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls *

Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer

The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato *

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape

If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood

Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart

The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae *

The Science of “Muddling Through” - Charles Lindblom *

History

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan

The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore *

The Anti-Che - Jay Nordlinger

From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert *

Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson *

All By Myself - Martha Bailey *

The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder

The sea/ocean

Rim of Life - Manu Pillai

Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery

‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History) *

The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History) *

Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti

Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*

Assorted ones on India

A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *

Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash

Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee

Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu

The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar *

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta

Our worldview is Delhi based *

Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)

‘Massa Day Done:’ Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman *

Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh

When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger

Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha *

Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha

MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way *

Music

Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo

Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder

The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs *

Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield *

How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield

Concert for Bangladesh

From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen 

Gender

Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane

The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin

Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu *

Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe

Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman *

Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack

Food

How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)

Colonialism’s effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee

Tracing Europe’s influence on India’s culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal *

From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad *

The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin *

How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream *

Pav from the Nau

A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes

Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)

Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)

Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter) *

Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua

The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales) *

Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales) *

Travel

The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism

Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan

On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose

On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas *

More random assorted ones

The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries) *

In El Salvador - Joan Didion

Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee

Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell

Politics and the English Language - George Orwell *

What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard *

The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith

Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia *

Credibility and Mystery - John Berger

happy reading :)

[brynwrites]

High Payoff Scenes.

If that scene you meant to be emotional, jaw-dropping and climactic isn’t working right, try taking a step back. 

All the usual aspects of a good scene also apply to the buildup toward a good scene. As well as including all these aspects into the scene itself, remember that at the point where your awe inspiring scene hits…

The reader should already feel deep, ‘positive’ emotions for the characters involved, whether that be love, intrigue, or an I love to hate them feeling.

The reader should already understand and have witnessed the characters struggling in some way with the goals they are working towards during that scene.

The reader should already have a clear picture of the character’s relationships and emotions, and understand which direction they are moving.

The reader should already be well-based in the plot and have a good understanding of every piece of information they need order to be fully immersed in the scene. 

The reader should already have a clear picture of the current stakes and playing field, so they can decide what outcome to root for. (Or in some cases, they can feel the same desperation the pov character has as they realize there are no good outcomes.)

Most importantly, remember that there are no perfect first drafts, and barely any half-decent second, third, or fourth drafts either. If you need to rewrite and rewrite a few times over, that’s okay. 

Just because the amazing scene in your head seems to fall short once it’s written, doesn’t mean all its amazingness isn’t still buried in there somewhere.

[weusedtobegiants]

It is easier to tell a story of how people wound one another than of what binds them together.

Anne Carson, from Plainwater: Essays and Poetry

[tobermoriansass]

Also, man, everyday you all sure do make me read takes on novels that have zero bearing on what they're actually about with my own two eyes

[tobermoriansass]

Like, the obsession with novels having "messages" as in didactic, moralist sermons embedded in their structures is just such a poor and thin way of interacting with any work! Yes, if that's all you look for, that's all you'll find but my god. Sometimes novels don't have "morals" or "messages". Sometimes novels aren't fables or Social Novels - sometimes they seek to question, interrogate, ponder, reflect or express. They may be ideologically without resolution, with no clear answers, no possible delineation of right and wrong because sometimes in this world things that happen are bad and worse or good and better. Or perhaps they just happen because of the absurdist nature of existence and the novel seeks to disentangle this, search for meaning, complicate meaning, even dodg meaning.

If the only way to read a novel is to find it's "messages" you miss the bigger picture and the bigger possibility of the novel as dialogue, a ménage a trois between you, the author and the characters as you wrestle with some new or old dimension of the world. Looking for clear "messages" is the worst way to unpack the "signs" of the novel and is such a pathetic and terrible bastardisation of critical literary theory and theories of representation, it is genuinely upsetting - why do people imagine that flattening and blatantly misusing the wonderfully, layered theories about reading and understanding texts, very often by academics of colour from radical leftist backgrounds, is in any way respectful or in any way a reasonable tribute and recognition of their intellectual work? Jesus. If you're going to call upon a tradition to search for "messages" the least you could do is actually know what it entails and move beyond 8 year old level "this says this is good" and "this says this is bad".

[woodswolfkid]

So I'm trying to figure out how best to use this space.

Aside from a place to keep writing references and that sort of thing - for other content would prompts be of interest? Like monthly or bi-weekly or something? High-level guides on query letter writing/other stuff on how-to's with the writing world? Lit mag suggestions? I'm open to anything really.

[ms-demeanor]

I am absolutely not joking at all when I say that The Sixth Sense should be required as teaching material when you’re trying to get kids to learn about why color matters.

No, the red DOESN’T mean love or violence or passion, however the creators set it up so that in this particular work red means OH NO A SCARY GHOST IS HERE.

When I was in college (as a lit major) I ended up sitting down and talking to a returning student who was having trouble in one of our classes. He liked books, and he had GI bill money so he decided to be a lit major.

He was VERY confused about the “The Curtains Are Blue And It Means Something” approach to symbolism and I remember that he very seriously got out a notebook and a pen, sat down, and asked me “Okay so what to stars mean as a symbol?” 

And I was at a loss because of course I was! Stars-as-a-symbol can mean a thousand things and are heavily dependent on context. Are you reading a book about sea travel? Stars mean a map. Are you reading Maus? Stars represent faith and community and the way that the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people. Are you reading something by a romantic author who has a thing for the classics? Stars probably have something to do with heroism and destiny. Are you reading science fiction? Stars are probably just stars but if you’re reading Whipping Star by Frank Herbert they are literally people and our entire conception of stars is reexamined.

So one one the things that I think a lot of people are missing in their high school English classes is that whether the curtains are blue matters or not depends on the work.

The fact that Hamlet is wearing black is an important part of the story and the antagonist commenting on it it is almost the first thing that happens in the play.

What color dress is Lizzy wearing at the first dance in Pride & Prejudice? It doesn’t matter, the curtains are just blue.

And that’s one of those things that it takes a lot of time and a lot of exposure to different kinds of stories to learn and when you’re in high school you just don’t have that experience and your teachers are just now telling you for the first time “sometimes it matters why the curtains are blue” and I know you’re going “okay, sounds fake” but the goal is to get you to look at blue curtains and ask if they do matter, which is why they hand you books with big obvious examples of the kind of shit they’re talking about. You read A Tale of Two Cities because it’s full of binaries and line motifs and it’s the perfect thing to teach a fifteen year old how to look for a motif because there are a shitload of them. You read  The Scarlet Letter to look for color symbolism and to ferret out biblical allusions.

“The curtains are just blue” is just “yet another day has gone by and I haven’t needed algebra.” Most people aren’t going to need algebra in their day-to-day lives but it’s handy to know how to do a bit when you need it and it’s good to learn that the concept exists.

If you’re reading books just because they’re fun and you like them then that is cool and I’m glad you’re having a good time and you absolutely do not have to give a fuck about symbolism.

But I am going to laugh my ass off at you if you’re one of those folks who is like “the curtains are just blue it doesn’t matter” and then whines about why scifi and comics and cartoons and video games are all political these days. They were always political, you just couldn’t tell because the curtains were red.

(also because you were socialized to see certain things as apolitical and value neutral but if you’re going “WHY DO THEY PUT SERIOUS MORALS AND SHIT IN A KID’S SHOW, STEPHEN UNIVERSE IS FOR TEN YEAR OLDS IT’S NOT THAT DEEP, LOONEY TUNES WASN’T LIKE THIS” I’m afraid I’m going to have to refer you to all the actual war propaganda made by Disney and Warner Brothers.)

[luntfontanne]

[luntfontanne]

[larkandkatydid]

Full article is here and has a lot more wild details, like the fact that you can actually see Toni Morrison’s career as an editor (1967-1983) in that chart reflecting a rise, and then fall, of black authors. 

[goreprofonde]

“At present, I am horrified with myself for containing —having devoured him —the dearest and only lover who ever loved me. I am his tomb. The earth is nothing. Dead. Staves and orchards issue from my mouth. His. Perfume my chest, which is wide, wide open. A greengage plum swells his silence. The bees escape from his eyes, from his sockets where the liquid pupils have flowed from under the flaccid eyelids. To eat a youngster shot on the barricades, to devour a young hero, is no easy thing. We all love the sun. My mouth is bloody. So are my fingers. I tore the flesh to shreds with my teeth. Corpses do not usually bleed. His did.”

- Jean Genet, Funeral Rites.

[writingwithcolor]

Would a jewish or muslim person pray if they were in a dire, hopeless situation and thinking they were going to die? If so, what would they say?

Jewish and Muslim characters - what would they pray in a dire situation?

Jewish answer

“Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One / Blessed is God’s Glorious Name For Ever and Ever” (Shma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad / Baruch Shem, K’vod Malchuto, L’Olam Va’ed) – this is the shema, there are plenty of times to say it and this is just one of them. My flippant way of describing it in my head is that if we’re mobile phones this is the way we ping the tower.

–Shira

Definitely agree it would be the Shema. 

The only exception I can think of is if it’s the time of day for ritualistic prayer (either shacharit, mincha or ma'ariv), they might prioritise that over reacting to the situation as an affirmation of their faith in face of death. There is no obligation to risk your/others’ lives in order to pray at the correct time, in fact this would be against Torah, but if the situations seems hopeless anyway then I can think of some stories of people saying ‘it’s time for *insert daily prayer*’ and proceeding to go through the relevant service with no obvious signs of fear. 

Similarly, you might want to research how to make sure your character’s attitude towards the situation is in line with their unique Jewish identity.

If they’re very religious, for example, they may have an easier time accepting this fate than the average person. Jewish theology involves a belief that everything ultimately comes from G-d and is therefore good. We do have a strong emphasis on protecting life as one of our main obligations in this world, but there is also an acceptance towards death as something that G-d created and so is ultimately for the good - the first thing we say on hearing that someone has passed away is ‘Baruch Dayurn Ha'Emet’, 'Blessed is the True Judge.’

 Unlike Christianity, we don’t have a concept of the Devil as a being independent of G-d who is capable of introducing fundamentally bad things into the universe. This may or may not play out in your character’s thought process and decisions in the situation you’re describing, it depends on their relationship to Judaism and Jewish theology, so that’s something I recommend including in your research.

–Shoshi

As you can see, Shoshi and I have varying levels of knowledge about how much prayer belongs when, and that’s something to keep in mind – if your character is Reform they might sound more like my answer and if they’re Orthodox go with Shoshi’s – but that difference is only relevant at specific times of the day.

–Shira

Muslim answer - open to followers

The Muslim portion of this character is open to followers.

Muslim mods are not active at this time. We’ll be recruiting for more mods soon; Muslim writers, feel free to apply anytime! 

https://forms.gle/qywJmrwcZj3E28nh8

[evening-rose-309]

Southeast Asian Muslim here

Like all the replies before me have stated, the most likely thing to happen is your character recite the syahadat (“there is no other God than Allah, I testify that Muhammad SAW is his messenger” [rough translation from what my language translates it as]) over and over. We’re gonna need specifics for what sort of dire situation you’re in because, well, we have doas/prayers for just about everything under the sun.

Now, if you were about to die? Lots of teaching will tell you what to recite, but the one thing most people will urge their family members on their death beds is to recite the line: “laa ilaha illallah” which is the first half of the syahadat. If your body has gone stiff and you can do literally nothing else, this line is not only the most ‘practical’ (according to my teacher, I went to a school for this stuff) because it requires no other movement than the tongue and air for all the ‘h’s, but it’s memorable and easily repeatable.

Again, the above is death bed level 'you are about to meet the angel of death oh look they’re right there’ stuff. If you’re on a sinking ship? About to crash into an asteroid? The other replies have mentioned repeating the syahadat; 'sujud’ which is bowing with your forehead, hands, and knees and tips of your toes flat on the ground 'kising’ it; ayat kursi, which is also good against malevolent spirits/entities and general protection against anything that might crawl into your dreams as you sleep; and dzikir, which are, like, three verses that all mention God in some way that most muslims recite after every one of our daily prayers/sholat. Those would be go-tos for most people, the Al-Fatihah verse as well because it’s one of the most used surahs in the Quran and is the first verse anyone teaches their children and is used in, well, basically everything.

Sorry if this isn’t as coherent (kinda hard to explain a few things because I’ve been taught them in my language and for some reason English tends to make harmless words in Indonesian sound evil or some shit, I don’t know, I hate it) or detailed as the others. I live in a fairly moderate household despite going to a Muslim boarding school, so my day to day has kinda diluted the more detailed things I’ve been taught(?) and so I’m kinda lax on a few things. Kinda sad that I tend to forget important bits when I’m at home, but I hope this helps.

[mrsq8geek]

This!  Adding that the general dua for any misfortune is “ina lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un” – which roughly translates as “we belong to God and to him we return”, here it is in the Quran if it helps.  Note that this dua is applicable for everything, from, say, you failed a test or didn’t get the job you want, to your parent just died or your country was invaded.

From the context, it sounds like there might be an offending party about to kill them?  If that’s the case, there are also many duas for tyranny and injustice.

[evening-rose-309]

I’m not familiar with the tyranny and injustice ones (either that or they slipped past me in school) but yeah innalilahi wa innailaihi raji'un is a pretty common one to use in harrowing situations or if you hear a person has recently passed. Another is 'anuzubillah min dzalik’ which is used mostly like a 'dear God no’ or 'please let that not happen to me’ sort of thing.

[writingwithcolor]

More Muslim Commentary

@cinnnamonrollstan said: A Muslim would probably recite the shahada/ testimony of faith. Which basically translates to: I testify that there is no God but God and Muhammad is his messenger.

@polarissdiary said: A Muslim would say the shahada (testimony of faith) and if they can, they would pray what we call two rak'at. Since we are closer to Allah with our foreheads on the floor, they would say any dua'a (supplication) in that position, from asking for forgivenes to asking for mercy. This in case there is no escape for them. If there is a chance to break free or save themselves, as Muslims they have the obligation to put they’re trust in Allah and at least try. Hope it helps 🖤

@bloomiii said: Hello! I am a practicing Muslim.

A Muslim character might definitely pray in a dire situation. It doesn’t have to be any specific prayer. This could be in any language and even just in your own thoughts.

If you want a character to recite something specific, they might recite a certain part of the Qur’an (one thing I often recite to myself when I am anxious is aayat al-kursi, which is a very holy part of the Qur’an, that you recite for protection) or a specific dua (thats the arabic word for prayer). There are duas for specific things, such as one dua to recite when traveling that Muslims might recite when driving.

Jewish Commentary

@beautifullights1  said: Some Jews, esp those who are less familiar with the traditional liturgy, less fluent in Hebrew, and/or from a progressive denomination, might pray in a more freeform way. For example, they might have a conversation with Gd or plead for Gd’s help in their own language.

@addiehour​ said: just wanted 2 say i’m orthodox & agree w shira!

Thanks for all the great answers, everyone!