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"If you smile too much you'll get laugh lines!!!!!" what a horrible curse, to be afraid of having happiness permanently placed onto your body

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did anyone else notice how the song that plays in the first episode of titans when kory is introduced (heaven must be missing an angel) is the same song that plays when the series ends with dick and kory walking in the night together?

#hbo titans #dc titans #titans #titans spoilers #dickkory #kory anders #koriand'r #kori anders #dick grayson #nightwing #dick x kory #so sweet #titans season 4 #titans s4 #titans series finale #titans s1 #titans finale #titans forever

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The Last of Us 1x01 || The Last of Us 1x08

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Rick really wrote a scene where Piper and Annabeth dramatically touched foreheads while Piper gave a monologue about how you can’t run from your feelings, you have to embrace them and then Rick acted like it was a surprise that Piper liked women in ton dude you fooled NO ONE

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wheres that quote from a letter melville wrote to hawthrone that always manages to makes me insane

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work song by hozier / mahmoud darwish

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LOVE AS VIOLENCE VS LOVE AS SOFTNESS

Ada Limon, The Good Fight // Mary Oliver, West Wind // Danez Smith, Bare // Sappho, Fragment 58.25-26 // Mitski, I Don’t Smoke // Ashe Vernon // Hozier, Cherry Wine // Shauna Barbosa, GPS // Richard Siken, Little Beast // Chen Chen, Summer [The sunflowers fall…] // Warsan Shire // Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

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Just realized that which Titan looks most likely to kill at first glance is inversely proportionate to which one is actually most likely to kill.

Raven is literally a pacifist and doesn’t even attack unless it’s necessary or she loses her temper.

Robin’s family has a strict no-kill policy, but are also trained to make sure that anyone they knock down stays down.

Cyborg was originally just a normal dude so he isn’t about to actively attempt to kill anyone but he’d probably do it if he felt like he had to.

Beast Boy was originally part of the Doom Patrol, who very obviously believe in “acceptable losses,” and while he’s worked very hard to get away from that mindset he’d most likely be willing to get his hands dirty so the others don’t have to.

Starfire has killed before and would gladly kill again.

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ways you can further develop your main character

give them a misbelief

no characters have a personality when the plot starts. all of them have backstories, a past, and a mindset that they grew up with!

basically, a misbelief is the wrong mindset that they grew up with, and is also a belief that will be restructured by the end of your novel.

this not only shows character growth and development as their mind is "restructured" or they learn their life lesson, but also drives the internal plot of your story, which differs from the external (or action) plot that most people seem to read.

+ this gives readers a deeper insight to your character!

give them a goal

every character has a goal, or something they want in their lives. having them strive for it would essentially drive your plot, and may also help you dig deeper into your character's motivations!

this goal doesn't always need to be achieved, or may be impossible to (for example, someone wanting to meet a loved one who turns out to be dead; they may have not reached their goal, but it took them on a journey)

this goal should also be concrete if possible! vague ones like "they want to be happy," isn't very helpful. what do they think will make them happy?

(side note: wanting everything to be the way that it is can also be a goal, cause they're striving to make things go back to the way they were!)

more notes / explanations here! most of these notes in this post are taken from story genius by lisa cron, and i thought they might help. please take all this information with a grain of salt, and maybe use it in a way that'll work best for you! <3

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character motivations:

fear

hurt

survival

failure

being pressured

instability

desire / hunger

guilt

belief they are doing something good

love

loyalty

vengeance / revenge

inequality

unfulfillment

hatred

honour / dishonour

pride

jealousy

death

humiliation

pain

greed

shame

rejection

loss

power

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Oscar Wilde, De Profundis // @i-wrotethisforme // Jorge Louis Berges // @smokeinsilence //@viridianmasquerade //Jorge Louis Berges // @honeytuesday // Kaveh Akbar // F. Scott Fitzgerald // AKR //Olivie Blake, from “Alone With You in the Ether” // Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrimage

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If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?

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Writing Tips

Maintaining Motivation to Write

❀

➼ if you’re bored writing a part & want to move on to another scene… imagine how bored your readers must be

➝ keep it interesting and meaningful ; write every scene like it will be your favorite

➼ if you’re stuck on a scene — skip it

➝ use placeholders and come back to it when motivation strikes

➝ personally, I do something like: {ENTER: battle scene} and then I’ll list details, lines, or dialogue I want to include so I don’t lose my ideas

➼ if you’re stuck on where to go with a scene — delete the last line and reroute

➝ keep your last line saved somewhere or in brackets — never actually delete anything, but this can help broaden your perspective and encourage creativity

➼ if you’re stuck on a character name — use placeholders

➝ I love to research my names intensely; I’ll spend way too long researching that I’ll forget what I wanted to start writing ; plus once I get attached to a name I am reluctant to change it, even if I think of a better one

➝ so I’ll temporarily replace the name with something like: [A] or [Villain] or [King]

➼ if you don’t have motivation to write an entire excerpt, write a sentence for each of the five senses in the scene

➝ touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell

➝ having these details can help immerse yourself back into the scene when you’re ready to write it

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He asked me when I fell in love with him and I knew it sounded dramatic to say the moment I saw him, so I told him this story of my grandma who had Alzheimer's- she forgot her name and the words for fruit and food, she forgot her address and how to use the washroom, all her life lost to the disease. The only thing she remembered was her son's name and when that began to fade, the one thing she always remembered was that she loved him, even in illness, even in insanity. She saw this 6 foot 2 man with a scrubby beard and she didn't know him but she said she trusted him, she asked him to hold her hand when she died. When does memory end and love begin? All I know is- she loved him before she remembered him.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

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you ever think about the fact that hippolyta said that kory was on diana's level - how kory and diana literally went head to head and kory held her own considerably which is no joke; she went against WONDER WOMAN - how donna said that kory would beat her the majority of times they sparred, how roy said out of the titans, kory would be the one he'd have to shoot twice, how kory and superman went head to head a few times - and how she literally has the ability to depower him just by bending the uv radiation away from him - how kory was trained by the warlords of okaara and is considered one of the deadliest fighters in the fucking galaxy, how tamaraneans are regarded for their war like temperament and that while they are looked down, they are simultaneously feared by many species, that kory was beating ass since childhood, how she went supernova on ppl many times and yet we still got DC writers downplaying her strength, power and abilities because they're misogynistic assholes who refuse to give her the respect she deserves.

because i think about that a lot. and it makes me mad as hell.

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Greek Mythology Retellings

Neon Gods - Katee Robert

Keep Me Close - R.M. Virtues

Lore Olympus - Rachel Smythe

Daughter of Sparta - Claire M. Andrews

Gild - Raven Kennedy

The Dark Wife - Sarah Diemer

Ariadne - Jennifer Saint

Never Look Back - Lilliam Rivera

Promises and Pomegranates - Sav R. Miller

Electric Idol - Katee Robert

The Cassandra Curse - Chantel Acevedo

Punderworld - Linda Sejic

The Star-Touched Queen - Roshani Chokshi

Hot As Hades - Alisha Rai

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus- Mary Shelly

For Her Dark Skin - Percival Everett

The Just City - Jo Walton

Neverhome - Laird Hunt

Galatia - Madeline Miller

House Of Names - Colm Toibin

Helen In Egypt - H.D.

The Vegetarian - Han Kang

Cold Mountain - Charles Feazier

The Autobiography Of Cassandra, Princess & Prophetess Of Troy - Urusle Molinaro

Women And Power - Mary Beard

Here, The World Entire - Anwen Kya Hayward

Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips

Weight: The Myth Of Atlas And Heracles - Jeanette Winterson

Lavinia - Urusla K. Le Guin

The King Must Die - Mary Renault

Autobiography Of Red - Anne Carson

The Cassandra - Sharma Shields

Daphne - Will Boast

The Children Of Jocasta - Natalie Haynes

The Silence Of The Girls - Pat Barker

Eurydice - Sarah Ruhl

An Orchestra Of Minorities - Chigozie Obioma

Everything Under - Daisy Johnson

Circe - Madeline Miller

The Song Of Achilles - Madeline Miller

The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood

Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis

The Labours Of Hercules - Agatha Christie

Please feel free to add more!

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Tear Jerker Books

Sometimes you just gotta let out the waterworks and understandably so! Here are some heart-wrenching books so we can do what we love the most. Cry over fictional characters!

You Should See Me in a Crown - Leah Johnson

Reasons To Stay Alive - Matt Haig

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry - Fredrik Backman

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Me Before You - Jo Jo Moyes

Marley & Me by John Grogan

Dragon Hoops - Gene Luen Yang

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

The Light Between Oceans - M. L Stedman

My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult

Hold Still - Nina Lacour

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Goodnight Mr. Tom - Michelle Magorian

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Second Chance Summer - Morgan Matson

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah

I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

Night - Elie Wiesel

Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain

The Girl with the White Flag - Tomiko Higa

Warriors Don’t Cry - Melba Pattillo Beals

Wave - Sonali Deraniyagala

Marley & Me - John Grogan

P.S. I Love You - Cecelia Ahern

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

All the Bright Places - Jennifer Niven

The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien

All Your Perfects - Colleen Hoover

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Just Kids - Patti Smith

The Noughts And Crosses series - Malorie Blackman

Five Feet Apart - Rachel Lippincott

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

One Day - David Nicholls

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

Love, Rosie - Cecelia Ahern

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Frankly in Love - David Yoon

More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All - Laura Ruby

Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers - Loung Ung

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruis Zafon

The Light of the World: A Memoir - Elizabeth Alexander

The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman

The Things We Cannot Say - Kelly Rimmer

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro

A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

Homes: A Refugee Story - Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung

Atonement - Ian McEwan

Room - Emma Donoghue

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

The Green Mile - Stephen King

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Fault In Our Stars - John Green

The Host - Stephenie Meyer

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

Out of My Mind - Sharon M. Draper

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

The Home for Unwanted Girls - Joanna Goodman

Please feel free to add more!