New Again (A Writing Blog)

"It rips through his spine- they think he can just let it go. They think he can just shake it off, easy as that. Like the truth isn't seated as deep as it is, it's... foundational." ao3: FutureHeart

[whatagrump]

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.

“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.

“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.

“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”

“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”

“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

[sockatoothewafflebird]

THIS IS A LIFESAVERRR

[tacthescribbler]

Reblogging for my fellow writerly types. Writerlies? Eh. Anyway, enjoy!

[toolusingmammalgirl]

The Four Sacred Artistic Motives:

-what if this bad thing was good instead

-how about Make-Believe Land can have whatever I want

-would that be fucked up or what

-I think that shit's hot

[doriangraysrockcollection]

i must say, i am a huge fan of when a book is in the middle of a very exciting plot containing many interesting problems when out of nowhere for a few pages it's like, "hey by the way, real quick, here's a detailed explanation of the city's water filtration system! i'm telling you this for a reason and you should worry about it. anyway! haha okay back to the plot" and you just get to be Scared for a while

[doriangraysrockcollection]

i am kissing you on the mouth right now

you are the only person who understands me. you and the person who tagged a series of unfortunate events

[spiribia]

as a writer you will have a specific deck of vocab words you like using a lot and when you read other peoples' work you will see a very clear spread of different vocab words on their end. this is why you need to read, to collect other writers' words like it's a card game

[holymagdalenes]

"There's no hope for the future." And that's how they felt during the Atomic Age, during the World Wars, during the Enlightenment Revolutions, during thr plagues, during the Viking raids, during the fall of Rome.

Yet, we persisted.

[ave-immaculata]

[letmetakeastabatit]

CS Lewis had something to say about this

[angie-words]

Been feeling a bit hopeless of late. Wasn't expecting to stumble across a quote that would fundamentally alter my perspective and make me cry during my lunch break but here we are

[outrageousring5655]

This is an excellent sentiment.

[moninils]

And all of this at once.

[cuunos]

*takes a bite of my cigarette*...... heh. the character...... *walks into a small puddle but it swallows me up like the ocean* *i am found dead years later in maine*

[brainstreams]

[write-something-new-again]

Literally all I am saying is what about:

Bell waking up when everyone finally finds him and Ryu in the deep floors, speaking with them for a few moments, and then passing out. And then waking up, asking if they can take him home, and then passing out again. And then waking up, and passing out again

Him being carried on Welf's back, suddenly jolting awake and frantically tapping on the blacksmith's shoulder to put him down, and subsequently retching onto the dungeon floor (probably the mold Ryu made him drink). It's just water and saliva and a little bit of blood, having not eaten in days.

Thinking that he's good to start walking by himself, only to stumble on the very first step. The group decides to take a break.

The group eagerly trying to get Bell to drink but he can barely stay awake long enough to process what they want in the first place

Bell shaking and shaking and shaking and Welf putting his jacket on him.

Cassandra having healed him as best she can, but magic can't fix blood loss or shock or the bone-deep exhaustion that comes with barely surviving the deep floors for days

Bonus:

Later, having to very awkward recall to Airmid all the injuries he sustained. The poison, the bites, the self-cauterization...

Bell holding onto Hestia's hand before his arm procedure

[gatesofminrathous]

there will never be anything as funny as the mutual disbelief between long form and short form fic writers about each other's style.

short form writers look at people writing 100k+ fics as though this is some sort of talent given as part of a fae bargain, that the commitment required shows some sort of ungodly mental fortitude.

meanwhile long form writers look at people writing 1000 word one shots like god I would cut off my left nipple to be able to say anything concisely. i would love to play with multiple ideas. free me from the shackles of this child I have birthed. i love them but I now must take them to t-ball and doctor's appointments and they're going to destroy everything I own.

[write-something-new-again]

In light of me reaching cour 2, allow me to be extremely self-indulgent and propose:

-Bell using Firebolt on his friends and screaming at them to stay away, not realizing that they're not monsters at first

-Bell breaking down in tears when he finally processes his allies are here to help him

-Bell begging them to take him home, he wants to go home so badly

-Bell letting out a blood-curdling scream when someone grabs his arm to lift him up, because obviously nobody knew the bones were broken

-Bell hyperventilating the whole way back to the surface on Welf's back

-Bell who throws himself into his goddess's arms and sobbing that he never wants to step foot in that dungeon again

-Hestia who doesn't believe him, because she knows how strong her Child is, but lets him take all the time in the world he needs to build back up the courage

[azaablue]

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.

[write-something-new-again]

Look I know I get it I'm literally the only person who cares, BUT as a whump lover through-and-through, I cannot stop thinking about how badly Bell got FUUUUUUCKED up by that black minotaur at the end of season 3. Even for anime standards that felt like a lot of concrete walls and floors for one guy to go crashing through back-first and not completely vaporize his spine lmfao

And because I am a whump lover through-and-through, I am now doomed to daydreaming about an alternate end to that scene, where Hestia and Mikoto or whoever alarmedly running towards this literal CRATER left in the ground by their boy, where he lays totally mangled in a river of red.

Imagine he's totally delirious when Hestia crashes onto her knees beside him, all smiling when he says "H-hey, Kami-sama," as if he's welcoming her home from work, though the words are gargled with blood and hard to understand.

Mikoto swiftly moves to turn him on his side so that the blood continuing to leak out of his nose and mouth don't choke him to death, if those injuries don't kill him first. "We need a healer, Hestia, now."

And poor Hestia, she jerks her head in a nod before foolishly asking, "Bell, can you- can you stand?" The question is brainless, obviously, but she can't think straight when Bell looks one foot in the grave like he does now. She's seen her child down and injured before, but not... not like this.

"Nnno, I can't... feel m' legs Kami-sama."

Imagine Hestia holding Bell's unrecognizably bloodied and bruised hands in her own. Imagine the nauseating sight of all his joints and bones not where they were ten minutes ago. Imagine all the blood.

[survivesurvivingwhump]

multiple whumpers assaulting the same whumpee where some of them ARE asking for consent before they do things to whumpee - but from a particular whumper. maybe they’re the one seen as in charge, the highest ranking one, the one who ‘owns’ whumpee in some capacity (a captor, the person with most direct control, etc. living weapon whumpee’s handler). regardless, when they want to do something to whumpee, that whumper is whose permission matters.

maybe even calling whumpee ‘it’ for an extra layer of dehumanization and objectification.

“can i fuck it?”

“can i use it? i’ve got some stress i’d like to work out.”

“can i leave marks?”

“how hard can i hit them?”

“can i make them cry? how about scream? i’d love to hear that.”

“do you mind if i choke them?”

whumpee is never asked at all. it’s like they’re not even there, and if they are, they’re certainly not a person.

[redstonedust]

big fan of when a character is dead and the narrative frames them in a very angelic, soft, gentle manner but then it turns out not only are they still alive (plot twist) but theyre alive in the most gruesome and horrific way. your loving kind mentor who motivates you to fight in their memory came back wrong and theres blood and dirt under their fingernails from clawing they way out of the grave.

[writing-is-a-martial-art]

truly some people have no genre savviness whatsoever. A girl came back from the dead the other day and fresh out of the grave she laughed and laughed and lay down on the grass nearby to watch the sky, dirt still under her nails. I asked her if she’s sad about anything and she asked me why she should be. I asked her if she’s perhaps worried she’s a shadow of who she used to be and she said that if she is a shadow she is a joyous one, and anyway whoever she was she is her, now, and that’s enough. I inquired about revenge, about unfinished business, about what had filled her with the incessant need to claw her way out from beneath but she just said she’s here to live. I told her about ghosts, about zombies, tried to explain to her how her options lie between horror and tragedy but she just said if those are the stories meant for her then she’ll make another one. I said “isn’t it terribly lonely how in your triumph over death nobody was here to greet you?” and she just looked at me funny and said “what do you mean? The whole world was here, waiting”. Some people, I tell you.

[formerlyluckymanticore]

Reblog if you will never. Ever. Use AI in your writing.