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Perhaps a doodle of Guillermo and Baby Colin building Legos or something? Idk bonding!!

I miss them :(

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me logging into tumblr dot com every day to talk about vampires and gay sex:

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The best way to predict the future is to create it.

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7 Reasons you might be procrastinating and how to solve them:

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"You got vampire lore wrong in your story because real vampires do this and that" Buddy I have terrible news about all of vampires. Heartbreaking news. Worst news you're gonna hear all day.

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grief.

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i have waited exactly 407 days to post this meme.

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So, You Want To Write Vampires...

Here's a basic list of things to do/consider when approaching this creature.

Source Material

Go back to the origins. Almost every culture around the world has a story or myth containing cannibalism / blood drinking. You may want to base your origin story for vampires on one of these. This can also give you some ideas about what traits and abilities you might want to include that have been written out of modern fiction. It could help you add a unique twist.

2. Vampire Fiction

Vampires have been popping up in fiction for a very long time. Read The Vampyre by John Polidori (thought to be one of the first books written on vampires). Check out Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (the lesbian vampire story that came out before Dracula). Speaking of, Dracula is a classic.

Look at modern fiction. Vampire Academy, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, A Dowery of Blood, Crave. Read the good and the bad. Learn what qualities you like and which you will not use.

Make a list of things you like and things you don't.

3. Themes

Writing vampires brings a lot of themes surrounding mortality, immortality, morality, and at what point do we draw the line between what is human and what is other. These themes are integral to a vampire story whether you're writing a gothic horror, a paranormal romance, or a YA.

4.Pick your traits

Vampires tend to be unique to the writer. The vampires in Twilight work differently to the vampires in The Vampire Diaries to the vampires in Dracula.

By this point you should have a list of possible traits and abilities you might want to give your vampires. My advice: tailor it to your genre. If you're writing a horror go with the traditional vampire abilities, give them the things that scare you. Think Nosferatu. If you're writing romance, then you might want to soften the traditional vampire traits in the way you find frequently in modern vampire media.

What you choose is up to you.

5. Origins

This is often overlooked in vampire stories but how did your vampires come into being? Who was the first vampire? Is this vampire still alive? How far back do vampires go as a species?

This could affect your vampire going in terms of relationships with others of their kind, their powers, their strength.

This might not impact on your plot but, in terms of worldbuilding, if you intend to turn your book into a series then this could be very important going forward.

6. Society

Unless you're writing about the first ever vampire you're probably going to be writing about an established vampire population who will have their own laws, their own history, their own leadership, their own customs. This is an important piece of worldbuilding. It will affect your characters relationships, add conflict to the plot, create established enemies and can be used to raise the stakes.

7. Nocturnal Life

If you're following a traditional burn-in-the-sun vampire and they haven't found a way around this then you need to determine the night life of your setting. What is there for your vampires to do at night?

8. Feeding, Hunting, and Bloodlust

This will affect the level of gore in your story as a lot of the bloody parts in your story will take place through feeding and hunting. This will also determine your vampire population.

You need to decide how much your vampires need to feed, how often they need to do so, and what they can feed on. Do they drink animal blood? Is that possible? Do they drink human blood? Can they drink from blood bags? Do they need the blood fresh? If they need human blood do they need all of it?

The less a vampire feeds, the larger a population you can have in one area as it attracts less attention.

What happens when your vampires are hungry? What does their bloodlust look like? How does it affect a vampire? Is the amount of bloodlust a vampire experiences determined by how old the vampire is?

9. Threats

Unless your vampires are well and truly endless there will be ways to kill them and they will have enemies. Do these enemies take the shape of humans, of other vampires, or another species entirely? How can your vampires be killed? What other species are out there?

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🧛🏻buffysummers' vampire appreciation week🧛🏻

DAY V: favorite vampire fiction:

The Twilight Saga

"It's twilight - the saddest time. The end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don't you think?"

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Une or Un, that is the question.

Vite vite, you're talking to a French client, and you can't remember if it's "le lundi" ou "la lundi" ... the clock is ticking.... which is it ? Okay let's try "la", shit shit shit no... maybe "le", you always pick the masculine form when you don't know... why choose "la" now ? ARRGGH the client is waiting....... I know how hard it is to learn the gender of words in French. But luckily for you, there are some rules you can learn to immediately guess the gender of a word. (Okay, okay, it's not that simple... there are obviously some exceptions to the rules... this is French after all, what did you expect ?) Sources I've used : X, X , X, X. I did not put every exceptions, only the most common words ! I don't think you'll be using words like "sigisbée" (Cicisbeo in English). MASCULINE WORDS : Automatically masculine words :

FEMININE WORDS :

Note : If a noun "comes" from an adjective, it's feminine Grand -> La grandeur, rouge -> La rougeur , laid -> la laideur...

Little test : (Reminder : my tables might not work for every French words, but I think it will work for the most common ones, if not...well déso) Guess the gender of the following words : 1. développement / 2. expulsion / 3. fermoir / 4. romance / 5. manège / 6. racisme / 7. ville / 8. village / 9. radiation / 10. électricien / 11. ficelle / 12. lance / 13. paille / 14. chagrin / 15. étude Answers : F for féminin and M for masculin 1. M / 2. F / 3. M / 4. F / 5. M / 6. M / 7. F / 8. M / 9. F / 10. M / 11. F / 12. F / 13. F / 14. M / 15. F PS : I have the tables without any colors if you guys prefer ! PPS : There are still a lot of words' gender you'll have to learn by heart PPPS : Go check this doc X (page 16) for more examples the pattern "grand -> la grandeur". Check also page 12 to see the feminine and masculine version of common jobs !

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i wanted to create something fun for langblr that will keep people actively using and advancing in their target languages. feel free to complete these either by writing or speaking, and please be open to constructive criticism, as well as giving it out in order to help everyone reach ~fluency. ♡. most importantly, have fun with these!

the object of this challenge is to write or speak a short segment on each of the 30 topics listed below. your answers don’t have to be too personal or revealing. upload them in a text or audio post and tag them as #30daylangblrchallege or just #langblr, or even tag me! the 30 topics are journal and writing prompts that i’ve collected, and are also great for keeping your own journal in your target language. there is no word or time limit, no deadlines. if you skip a day or two, it happens! i am looking forward to seeing your posts!

what should i write/talk about?

{01} write about your favorite animal {02} research your favorite time period and write a short segment on it {03} translate your favorite song into your target language {04} talk about your favorite movie {05} what is your favorite season, and why? {06} talk about your favorite food, and see if you can find a recipe in your target language… if not, try to make one! {07} describe what is in your bedroom/any room really {08} talk about your job or major in school, or dream job {09} describe your morning or night routine {10} pick a color and list as many things as you can that are/have that color {11} what are your biggest pet peeves {12} describe your dream house {13} can you create a grocery list in your target language? use foods you actually eat {14} describe a dream you had recently or that you remember vividly {15} describe your perfect vacation {16} pick a country you know nothing about, do a little research on it, then do a short segment on it {17} what would you do with one million dollars? {18} come up with a joke {19} try to rhyme! {20} what superpower would you want, why, and what would you do with it? {21} what is your favorite time of day? {22} if you could create your own country, what are some traditions you would have? {23} describe your biggest fear {24} what would you do if time froze and you were the only one not affected? {25} make a vocabulary list relating to something you love (pet, job, hobby, etc.) {26} would you rather travel to the future or past? why? {27} invent a monster and describe it {28} design a gadget or technology you think would be useful {29} if you were a king or president of your current country, you would… {30} write a short story about literally anything.

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French Youtube Channel Recommendation

I recently found this fantastic Youtube channel for French learners. It’s called Piece of French.

The content varies between videos teaching French, like the one about slang that you see in the picture below, and videos in French. It’s very good for beginner and intermediate learners, since the owner of the channel speaks slowly and enunciates clearly, and there are subtitles in French and English.

Click here to check it out!

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More prompts for beginners!📝

Describe your day 

Describe your morning routine 

Describe your evening routine

Describe a (imaginary) friend 

Describe your favourite season 

What is your favourite activity to do? why?

Describe your neighbourhood

Describe your favourite holiday

What is your favourite book/movie? why?

What was your favourite trip/vacation? why?

Describe your dream trip/vacation

Write your to-do lists in your target-language

Where would you want to live? why?

Describe a recent dream

What would you do with a million dollars?

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the most beautiful thing about learning a language is,

when the world starts to unmute; when you starts hearing or reading things that you didn't understand before, but you understand it now

don't give up, yet

you will soon discover the thrill of understanding the kanji you once learnt with so much fuss because it has too many strokes

you will soon understand the lyrics to your favorite Korean ballad, understand the Vlive, your idol's tweet

you will soon recognize the grammar pattern you once learnt, in a film, a book, or somewhere on the internet

and you know, it's exhilarating

don't give up on your study, yet

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What should you be reading to maximize your language learning?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of literature we can learn from. Baby books bore you, but you’re not ready for any type of novel, so what’s left?

Here are some tips 

For beginner/A1/A2 learners

Watch a YouTube video in your target language, then read the comments

you’ll already have vocabulary from watching the video, most of the comments will probably use that vocab

it’s a short enough text that you won’t get fatigued

the only downside is that sometimes people utilize abbreviations and slang terms, but even these are good to know

Read news headlines and if you find one you understand almost fully, try to read the full article

sometimes the vocabulary used is not common in everyday usage, but it’s a total win for an A1 learner to fully read and mostly understand any text

while vocab is not used everyday, it will give you the ammunition to talk about that particular topic

Watch Netflix in target language with subtitles in the same language

believe it or not, you will learn to read better, especially because you don’t have to understand written description of visuals (usually uses very niche vocab) or emotion

and now you can slow down or speed up 

I watched DARK in German before I felt like I could read a book, and I understood 85% of it. This is because I looked up some vocabulary in the first episodes and they continued to use it throughout the show so it really cemented in my head to the point where I don’t even think about it. Now, I had to rewatch some conversations the characters had, but that’s much better for understanding than switching it to English or looking up full phrases and sentences. 

For intermediate/B1/B2 learners

read fanfiction

it’s ALWAYS good to read about something you’re interested in so if you like any major movies, books, television, this is the perfect option for you

most people use relatively basic language and you can choose the length 

find a comic book or graphic novel

like watching tv, that visual aid really helps with understanding of the plot without all those tricky descriptions

read a book in your target language that you’ve read and loved in your native language

this is by far my favorite way

you don’t have to worry about trying to understanding the bigger picture because you already know what’s happening/what will happen, you really have to discover the meaning of each sentence and then you begin to picture the scene using only your target language

Check out my other post for methods of how to get the most out of reading !

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Quick Tips for Learning Languages on Your Own

Here are some mindsets and techniques that helped me study Italian on my own after classes ended. Hope this helps :)

Also, I’m trying out a new format for shorter posts–let me know what you think!

Text format below.

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