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Jules of Nature
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we're not kids anymore.

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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@writingwithdice
Georges Hobeika ‘Vamp’ fall 2023 rtw
Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP
(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)
An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:
(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)
I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:
IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.
You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:
HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:
First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.
Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.
Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.
In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.
In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:
I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.
In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.
Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.
Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!
NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!
im not joking when i say that this meme single handedly got me invested in learning how the fuck electrical production works small scale so that i could explain it to somebody from a millennium ago
If that's a thing that bothers you for more subjects then just electricity there's actually a book for this! That I own! That is both very stupid and fairly useful! And entertaining!
How to invent everything: a survival guide for the stranded time traveler is the book for you, complete with flowchart about how to identify what time you've landed yourself in! It's very funny and very fun and informative and starts with the production of written language and works it's way forward through inventions of varying complexity, all framed in the way of "so you got into this time machine from our company and it's broken, huh? Well tough fucking shit! Welcome to your new home!"
Man I keep seeing this post with all sorts of different resources/things about how to explain modern technology to ancient people, and every time I see it I want to write a long essay about exactly why and how none of this would work At All
There are some things where a modern person could conceivably get ancient people over a technological knowledge barrier (medical knowledge in particular), but in most cases? Knowing about electricity isn't gonna do a damn thing, my guy.
The average person's grasp of how technological advancement happens is completely wrong, okay, and some of it has to do with this thing called Colonialism
So there's this concept called the "Great Man Theory," right? It's the idea that events in history are caused or driven mainly by the actions of a few "great men" who are the movers and shakers of history
And this idea isn't taken very seriously by historians any more, but it still is pretty much how lots of regular everyday people think about history. And that's how people think about technology. They think technology comes about because of "inventors," who Figure Out the knowledge barrier stopping technology from happening.
But that's not actually how it happens
For a type of technology to become a part of a society, several different conditions have to be met, and they're all related:
Knowledge: People have to know how to create the technology.
Resources: The resources to create the technology have to be available.
Economic Feasibility: It has to be practical to obtain those resources.
Usefulness: It has to actually be useful for this technology to exist in the society it's in.
Keep in mind that ALL of these things are a pyramid of conditions that have to be met before the technology can Become A Thing. Like, to collect resources in large amounts, you have to be able to mobilize large amounts of labor. To mobilize large amounts of labor you generally have to have centralized hubs of people and hierarchical societies where people can command other people, and so on.
Historians don't just try to find explanations for "Why did X event happen?" They also try to answer "Why did X event happen at the time it did, and why didn't it happen sooner?"
One major thing where people get this wrong is agriculture. People portray it like agriculture happened when people "figured out" how to cultivate plants and settle down.
But that's wrong! Because hunter-gatherers KNEW everything that a farmer would need to know to farm. (They used the exact same tools to harvest wild plants as farmers did when they settled down.) It's just that in prehistory, hunting and gathering was, for most groups of people, an objectively better way to live. In fact, a big archaeological sign that a people group were settled farmers is...malnutrition.
Why do you think writing emerged where and when it did? It's not because the groups that developed it were the first to "figure it out." It's because writing things down was genuinely pointless or impractical for everyone else. People in supposedly "pre-literate" societies have hardcore systems of mnemonics and oral tradition to pass on knowledge.
If you're a horseback-riding nomad, are you going to lug around clay tablets with you? If you live in a humid tropical forest, how long is anything that passes for "paper" going to last? If the utility of a writing system is very limited for your people, are y'all going to keep teaching your children how to write?
How does this connect to colonialism? Well...there's this idea that societies "progress" through a linear series of "stages" of development, socially and technologically. And it's still ubiquitous, even though it's completely, laughably wrong.
When the Americas were first colonized, Europeans in some cases admired the Native Americans, but saw them as societies in an earlier "stage" of development, that had yet to "advance." British colonizers compared them to the early ancestors of British people, and thought that Native Americans would happily accept speedrunning the next "phase" of their development, becoming just like Europeans.
But that's not what happened.
Because American societies weren't actually "less advanced," they were just...different. The stressors, politics, and resources of their continent were different. And it created a very different type of society. Now, they were happy to borrow aspects of the Europeans' culture and practices that were useful or just neat to them. But the colonizers were in for a rude awakening when they realized that the Americans weren't falling over themselves to become European, and in fact thought that a lot of things about the European way of living...sucked.
Terms like "Stone Age" are useful for when you are in an area that had a clear progression from using stone tools to using metals, but describing a society that just...doesn't use certain metals as "stone age" is bull-fucking-shit. Anyone who claims a modern society of indigenous people is "Stone Age" is being more than a little racist whether they like it or not. It's a term that implies that all societies pass through these "ages," and the people you're talking about are still relatively in their infancy, when...maybe they just don't live in a place where you can get at metal resources.
But that's a little bit of a digression. The point is, it's all well and good to know what steel is, but say your time machine drops you in, I dunno, southern Alaska, 6,000 BCE. You're with a group of people that moves around hunting mammoths and stuff.
You don't just have to know about steel, you have to find iron, and you have to be able to mine it and smelt it. And, crucially, you have to be able to convince the people around you that doing all that is worth it.
You know the ins and outs of how to make and run a steam engine. Great. You explain this to a nomad dude in western Asia sometime around 1,000 BCE. Your problem isn't explaining the steam engine, it's explaining why a steam engine is better than a horse.
How do you describe a character giving someone an order and them doing it? It always ends up feeling repetitive or clunky
Have you tried...?
1. Commander says name of subordinate, and that person complies without further instruction
2. Commander begins to command, but subordinate has already begun/completed task
3. Silent communication between them, no dialogue necessary
4. Time skip over the command and get on with the action
5. Once pattern of command/comply is established, describe it happening less often because reader can now assume
Hope this helps!
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+ Please review my pinned Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you.
卓越したボディコントロール Σ(゚Д゚) スッゲ! Body control of a horse archer
( Reddit:r/Damnthatsinteresting u/rgatoNacho )
Reem Acra Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection
A recipe for finding your story's plot:
Ingredients:
2 cups of Things that must be in the story (this can be characters, specific scenes, settings, subplots etc.)
1 cup of Vague plot ideas I may not use
1 tbsp of Central Themes
1 tsp of Ending (either happy, tragic, or bitter-sweet)
1 tsp of Protagonist's Primary Motivation
2 lbs of Brick Wall
Time, as needed
Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix Things that must be in the story. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, sift together Vague plot ideas I may not use. Discard the excess and set aside.
Add Themes, Ending, and Motivation to a small jar. Screw lid on tight and shake until mixture becomes Conflict.
Pour Conflict and Vague plot ideas into Things that must be in the story. Blend on medium until Plot Points form.
Taste.
If it is still missing something, smash head against 1 lbs of Brick Wall for one to six hours.
Let marinate for one to 365 days. Add more Things and Vague plot ideas as desired.
Smash head against the rest of the Brick Wall for one to six hours.
Scream.
Repeat steps 5 through 9 as needed.
After sufficient marination, the mixture will form an idea. This will tell you what specific action must happen in order to resolve your story's conflict. Write this down and make appropriate sacrifices to thank whichever deity took pity on you.
Now you have your conflict, climax, and resolution. You just have to figure out how to get there. Good luck with the damn middle section dork!!
@bloodakoos for some reason tagging you isn't working? but if you see this by chance. I want you to know I respect you.
Being a writer is just 97% googling words to make sure they mean exactly what you always assumed they meant.
Homemade Cheesy Crab Spring Rolls
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as promised (thumbs up) heres a lil uhhhh simple breakdown of how i general do fur things! can be applied to hair in general and also clouds and grass depending on how you work it (thumbs up pt2) feel free to request other tutorials
More writers should consider just not telling their readers all of shit. Just don’t tell them stuff. What’s that monster? Fuck if you’ll find out. How did that weird as hell landscape marker come to be? Wouldn’t you like to know. How does the magic work? Just believe it does, motherfucker.
Readers don’t need to know everything. In fact, I absolutely advocate for not telling them certain stuff. If the characters don’t know, neither do they. If the narrator is omniscient? Lol no they aren’t.
Is this necessary for every story? Probably not. There’s plenty of good stories you could write while explaining all of it. But leaving those gaps, leaving those holes, can bring a story to life. Sometimes things happen in life that just… happen. Fucked if anyone knows why. Sometimes information gets lost. Sometimes information is hidden. But even beyond that, it expands the narrative.
If you explain when and why and how the murder monster became a murder monster, well… that’s forever set in stone now. Now they know. But if you leave it blank, absent of explanation, any explanation… it becomes an unknown. It forces your audience to wonder. Makes them think. That, more than you might think, makes a story get into your audience’s head, and once you’re there, you can make some real impacts.
So yeah, tell a story. But sometimes? Don’t tell your readers something. Make them fill in the blanks themselves.
SWORD FIGHTS! My ENCYCLOPEDIA of tutorials BOOKS is coming in a SECRET KICKSTARTER in APRIL 2023! The ONLY WAY to get the BOOKS is to join the SECRET LAUNCH MAILING LIST, which will open up LATER THIS MONTH - STAY TUNED!
Lorenzo!
Writing Tips
Descriptions in Between Dialogue
✧
⤠ how characters interact with the environment
⇝ moving something, picking something up, looking somewhere
⤠ how the environment interacts with the characters
⇝ weather, other character’s actions or movements
⤠ gestures
⇝ facial expressions, body language
⤠ shifts in position
⇝ standing, sitting, leaning, shifting weight, crossing arms/legs
⤠ physical reactions
⇝ body temperature, fidgeting, heart rate, character quirks
⤠ environmental descriptions
⇝ descriptions using the five senses, setting, character’s appearances
⤠ internal dialogue
⇝ emotional reaction to what was said, reflection of past experiences, connections to other characters/settings/actions
➵ I want to reiterate… descriptions using the five senses ; when in doubt, think of the five senses your character is experiencing and pick what best moves the story forward
I'm afraid people think I'm faking or that I don't accept reviews when they have a questions about my story and almost always I have an answer for it. When this happens, I get happy because I can share this detail I have carefully been thinking about and I hope for them to give me an opinion, but then I'm afraid that they think I'm making it up in that moment. And I start to have lots of negative feelings like I'm a fake or that I'm cheating. Does this happen to other people?
Imposter Syndrome When Asked for Story Details
I'm sure it does... "imposter syndrome" is a real thing that affects many creators, writers included. I suspect many people have felt this particular way before.
However, the thing you have to remember is it's not a requirement to know every single detail about your story. Our story worlds can be so big and complicated, and our characters' lives and backstories can be so deep and complex, it would be impossible to have thought up every single detail in advance. So, even if you didn't know the detail someone asked you about, there's no reason to feel like a fake or like you're cheating. And there's no reason to feel that way when you do know the detail. I suspect most readers probably don't expect you to know every single detail about your story... when they ask a question, it's not to challenge your knowledge of your story or the breadth of your planning. They're just curious to know what you, the creator, think the answer would be... whether that detail was planned in advance or not. And if some reader did feel like you should know every detail of your story, that's just someone who doesn't understand storytelling or writing. so their judgment doesn't really apply.
So, try not to worry about it.
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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!
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Oh! But I love being asked these questions because then I have to think about them so that I CAN make it up in the moment!
If any advice post makes you feel you need to overhaul your whole wip and examine every inch for "problems"...step back and analyze the advice instead. It may not apply to you, it may be taking a small issue and making it big, or it may be entirely wrong.
^^ this x100000
Random writing advice posts are for people LOOKING FOR writing advice! And being honest, a lot of advice that blogs like myself post doesn’t work or even apply to many writers and their unique WIPs.
For example, a lot of people got angry or upset in the notes of my “Cutting Filler Words” post because they felt that it preached about writing only the bare minimum of words and subtracted from people’s creativity.
In reality, that post was supposed to be for people like myself struggling with their word count looking for any excuse to hack away parts of their WIP!
If you see any unwarranted advice that makes you feel like a bad writer, definitely scroll! What could be helpful to others can be detrimental to you, so start by seeking answers to problems that you already know you’re having, rather than finding new problems!
“chuffed doesnt mean what you think it means”
it means exactly what i think it means its just some stupid word that literally has two definitions that mean the opposite thing
what the hell
This makes me really chuffed
This post is quite egregious
Well I’m nonplussed by this whole post.
goddamnit.
all of you go to hell
And you wonder why i am boggled at times
These are called contronyms! A word that is its own opposite.
Why the fuck do these exist
One theory is that the sarcastic use of the word became exceedingly prevalent and because another dictionary definition.
Are you telling me that we were such sarcastic shits it literally changed our language.
Literally is another example now.
There are 21 languages that have Contronyms/Contranyms.
English has 128 contranyms, almost 5 times that of language with the next highest number of contronyms (Arabic with 26) and more than the total number of crontranyms of every other language combined (89).
We just love being contrary little shits