#[ smithing tips - writing advice ]

[nanowrimo]

Four Traps that can Kill your NaNoWriMo Novel

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Dabble, a 2022 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an easy-to-use writing tool that lets you organize, plot, and create amazing stories. Today, Dabbler Robert Smith shares some tips on how to avoid some common writing pitfalls:

Writing a novel is a journey that can be fraught with peril, challenges, and obstacles. Like any good adventurer, it’s best to be prepared for the traps that lay ahead.

1. Distractions

We’ve all been there: we planned out time to write, but then macaroni explodes in the microwave and all that time is suddenly gone. Or maybe that’s just me.

Regardless of the pyrotechnic capabilities or your cheesy pasta, you’ve probably found yourself distracted from writing before.

There are tons of studies proving how distractions tear down our ability to perform. The best thing you can do is remove as many distractions from your environment as possible. Here’s how to do it:

Set up your writing space to be boring (but not uninspiring!).

You can’t write effectively with a movie on.

You can’t write effectively while talking to someone.

You can’t write effectively while cleaning up macaroni.

Leave tech elsewhere.

You don’t need your phone while writing (unless you’re writing on it).

Hide your most distracting items far away from your writing space.

Turn off pop-up notifications on your laptop, especially email.

Set your writing app to focus mode.

You just need to be alone with your words and notes.

Dabble automatically fades to focus mode when you write.

2. Perfectionism

This one can get the best of even the most experienced writers. When you’re writing a draft, let it be a draft. 

Some people will have a higher tolerance for their own grammar mistakes than others. But, if you find yourself grinding to a halt each writing session just so you can rephrase each sentence to achieve beautiful prose, you’re probably letting perfectionism kill your novel. Here are some tips to get past perfectionism:

Turn off grammar and spell check.

I know that this sounds blasphemous, but it really can help with momentum.

You can toggle these on and off super quickly in Dabble.

Set some “no backspace” time.

This one can be even scarier than the last.

This strategy also gets easier with practice.

3. Imposter Syndrome

So you’re all set for those words to flow and that book to come to life. Then even more macaroni erupts in the microwave. You don’t know where all this pasta keeps coming from, and suddenly you’re convinced you’ll never be a writer.

Okay that might just be me again, but you know what I’m talking about. Especially with creative endeavors, imposter syndrome plagues our minds. Here are some tips to get past it:

Read more drafts.

You are probably comparing your work in draft form to completed novels.

Find a writing group to read more drafts and gain community support.

Look up what your favorite authors have said about the drafting process.

Edit your work.

If you’re having trouble believing you’re a good writer, take some time to polish your writing.

This might help you prove to yourself that you’re better than you think.

Be careful not to let this kill your writing momentum.

4. Messy Process

We’ve all been there: notes, pages, and ideas all spread between desks, journals, and apps. It can get messier than a (two-time) macaroni-covered microwave.

Have you ever had an amazing idea, written it down, and then never found that note again? I know I have.

It’s worth taking the time to consider the time cost of each step in your process, from generating ideas to editing your manuscript. Here are some tips:

Write down each step in your process.

Look for steps that can be condensed

Look for better processes

Keep everything in one place.

The best way to make sure you always have what you need is to keep it all together.

Dabble is organized into projects where you can store images, links, notes, plot points, and your manuscript all together.

Make sure it’s a place you can access anywhere (like Dabble). You don’t want to lose ideas.

Now go forth and conquer! May your words be plenty and your stories ring true.

Robert Smith is a Dabbling Writer, and a Writing Dabbler. 

All NaNoWriMo participants can use the discount code NANOWRIMO22 for 20% off 1 year of Dabble!

Top photo by Thomas Franke on Unsplash.

#nanowrimo #writing #writing advice #writing tips #nanowrimo 2022 #by nano sponsor #dabble #robert smith

[deardreamerxo]

#writers of tumblr #writing advice #editing advice #editing tips #writeblr #writing community #quotes #zadie smith

[storiesgoeveron]

Unlock the writer's craft & elevate your writing! 🖊️✨ 

Embrace the power of revision, transforming your rough draft into a polished masterpiece. Gain fresh perspective, listen to the rhythm, refine for impact, & craft your masterpiece. 

Share your journey! 🖋️💡

#writing #writing tips #tips #tips and tricks #craft of writing #revision #revision matters #word smith #elevate your writing #writer #writing journey #journey #embrace the challenge #refine and polish #polish #refine #writing help #writing advice #advice #creative #creative writing #writer of tumblr

[chemicallywrit]

Iiiiiiit’s Audio Drama Sunday! And I’m sick but I’m still writing this post because this week in audio drama absolutely slaps. Beware of some light spoilers ahead, let’s GO

🔥 oh man, @camlannpod landed this season finale beautifully. I’m so glad our crew triumphed and that the world is fuller than any of them thought and that the story can go on and change. I have to relisten, this is such a good show. If you haven’t listened to Camlann yet, now is the perfect time, go LISTEN.

🐷 @hellofromthehallowoods is dark but it only occasionally truly scares me. This episode, I was scared. WHAT is Shanks and WHAT is up with that freakin puppet and WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO? I feel the weight of these stories tangibly and I worry, just like our eyes in the skies, for the fate of the people I care about.

👽 One of the strengths of Among the Stars and Bones is its ability to put extremely normal people in absolutely harrowing situations, and in this episode, when it's your second harrowing situation in less than half a year, what are our heroes going to do but be like "Well Sure, This Might As Well Happen." Contrast that with the reactions of Captain Francis and Johann (played with deftness and skill by Oliver Smith and Jerron Bacat), who are experiencing the horrors for the first time and Not Doing Well and that's horror babe. I'm especially interested in Johann, what a fascinating character.

🙃 I started @worldgonewrongpod this week and it is everything I like. It's a) a fictional advice show in b) extraordinary circumstances that's c) very funny and sweet and d) hits like a brick in a sock. If that tweet by John Rogers ("every day i remember with gritted teeth that people lived perfectly fulfilling lives in during the fall of the roman empire," if I may paraphrase) was a show, it'd be this show. I love it.

✨ Call me Rion, because I'm here to take on things that aren't my responsibility and ask you to pLEASE support season two of @storiesfromylelmore. In maybe the cutest crowdfunding announcement I've ever heard, ItMe has called for our help and I don't have any freakin money, but if you do, you should consider giving it to Stories from Ylelmore!

🧛🏻‍♂️ In Hannah News, to borrow a phrase from fellow producer, friend, and all-around badass Tal, it's so much fun to listen to Re: Dracula without having to make it. I'm having a great time now that Drac is back. Won't you join us? Inn Between is also about to hit all our early access folks with a gut punch, get ready.

Hey! Certain entities that owe me money are not paying me in any kind of time, but nevertheless I have to pay bills. It's rude how the bills do not take that into account. In any case, if you like what I make or enjoyed this post, consider leaving me a tip!

#audio drama sunday #audio drama #audio fiction #fiction podcast #camlann #hello from the hallowoods #among the stars and bones #world gone wrong #stories from ylelmore #re: dracula #inn between

[am-i-interrupting]

tehehe I just saw the regina george ones (i reqested it so ty for writing it) but now i really want one with a karen smith type reader. like reader is lowkey dumb but mega pretty and knows how to maintain the prettyness (is that a word??) of their appearance! also... if possible... i would like to go by 🍗 so you know it's me

your's truly 🍗 anon 😌

Velvette is surrounded by pretty people all the time.

At a certain point in her career she stopped seeing them as people and instead began seeing them as mere positive and negative traits in the eyes of the populace.

Then she met you and was reminded of what true beauty was.

It wasn’t some bullshit about how you were beautiful on the inside.

No, no, no, it was that you were pretty while trying but not for other people. Only yourself.

You had a VoxTube where you posted skin care and beauty tips.

Because you were very knowledgeable on color theory, giving random strangers advice based on a few shitty quality pictures that was actually stuff she would recommend if she gave a shit, Velvette was under the impression that you were smart in general.

When she met you, she was proven wrong.

You knew how to look pretty, sure, and you were good at helping other people look pretty but that’s about where you expertise ended.

You were sincere and gullible and it was a goddamned miracle someone (Valentino) hadn’t swooped you up into a contract yet.

She was actually amused by it.

She’d try to get you to sign a contract only to realize why no one had gotten you to sign one.

Something about superstitions of selling your soul causing stress because of the expectations and what did stress cause? Fucking acne. And what did you want to avoid? Fucking acne.

So instead, she hired you as a freelance makeup artist for her shows.

Slowly she’d begin thoroughly enjoying your presence.

Enough so that she might even request it after work hours.

#hazbin hotel velvette x reader #velvette x reader #🍗 Anon

[butchgtow]

Introduction to Armchair Activism

Current feelings about the state of radblr.

Fundamentals

"Yes, Everyone on the Internet Is a Loser." Luke Smith. Sep 3, 2022. YouTube.

An activist movement can be a place to build community with like-minded people, but action is its foremost purpose, not community. To allow yourself and other activists to remain effective, you are obliged to abandon your personal dislikes of other individual activists. Disagreements are worth discussion, but interpersonal toxicity is not.

Connect with in-person community and do not unhealthily over-prioritize online community. Over-prioritization of online community is self-harm.

Luke is a loser, but his channel is teeming with entry-level digital literacy information and advice pertaining to healthy use of technology for us cyborgs.

"Surveillance Self-Defense: Tips, Tools and How-Tos For Safer Online Communication." Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Hackblossom, outdated, is discontinued. The EFF project Surveillance Self-Defense is up-to-date, comprehensive, and follows personal educational principles of simplicity and concision.

To learn more about general (not focused solely on personal action) cybersecurity, visit Cybersecurity by Codecademy and Cyber Security Tutorial by W3Schools. Both contain further segueways into other important digital literacies.

Direct recommendation: Install and set up the linux distribution Tails on a cheap flash drive.

Direct recommendation: Develop your own home network security schema.

Direct recommendation: Always enable 2FA security for Tumblr, disable active / inactive status sharing, and learn to queue reblogs and posts to protect against others' interpretations of your time zone.

Direct recommendation: It's both possible and relatively simple to host your own instance of a search engine using SearXNG.

Zero-Knowledge Architecture.

As a remote activist (even if also a hybrid activist), none of your action should be taken on, using, or interfacing with non-zero-knowledge-architecture services. Tumblr is, of course, a risk in and of itself, but you should not be using services provided by companies such as Google, Microsoft, or any others based in or with servers hosted in 13-eyes agreement nations.

Search for services (email, word processor, cloud storage) which emphasize zero-knowledge architecture. Businesses whose services are structured as such cannot hand over your data and information, as they cannot access it in the first place. If they cannot access the majority of your metadata, either - all the better.

Communications for Armchair Activism

"Technical Writing." Google.

Contained within the linked page at Google Developers, the self-paced, online, pre-class material for courses Technical Writing One, Technical Writing Two, and Tech Writing for Accessibility teach activists to communicate technical concepts in plain English.

"Plain Language." U.S. General Services Administration.

Plain language is strictly defined by U.S. government agencies, which are required to communicate in it for simplicity and quick, thorough comprehension of information.

"Explore Business Law." Study.com.

Extensive courses are offered to quickly uptake principles of business law such as antitrust law, contract law, financial legislation, copyright law, etc. Legal literacy is often the difference between unethical action of a business and its inaction. Legal literacy is also often the difference between consideration and investment in your policy idea and lack thereof.

"Business Communication." Study.com.

Now that you're able to communicate your prioritized information, you may also initiate writing with bells and whistles. While other activists care most about the information itself, business communication allows you to communicate your ideas and needs to those who you must convince worthiness of investment to and win over.

Logic.

Learn it through and through. Start with fallacies if you're better at language and work your way backwards to discrete mathematics; start with discrete mathematics if you're better at maths and work your way forwards to fallacies, critical literacy, and media literacy. State that which you intend to state. Recognize empiricism and rationalism for what they are. Congratulations: you are both a mathematician and a law student.

Economic Literacy for Armchair Activism

"Microeconomics." Khan Academy.

"Macroeconomics." Khan Academy.

The globe operates on profitability. Women's unpaid labor is a massive slice of the profitability pie. While it's possible to enact change without understanding all that drives the events around you, it's impossible to direct or meaningfully manipulate the events around you beyond your scope of comprehension.

Understand economics or be a sheep to every movement you're active in and to every storm that rolls your way.

#masterpost #armchair activism #remote activism #hybrid activism #cybersecurity #literacy #digital literacy #women in tech #radical feminist community #mine

[thr-333]

hi 👋!!! I LOVE your Tmnt mm x 2012 crossover so far! Please continue it!! Your art is also so good! While I’m asking got any writing tips for fanfics?

Ahhh thank you! Actually posted the second chapter just now so I will be continuing. As for writing tips I’ve never been asked that, so this is gonna come out rambly and very much neurodivergent.

I’ll first establish I have aphantasia, meaning I don’t ‘picture’ things so much as I think in words(and in abstract concepts of movement). So when I write I don’t spend much time describing what things look like, I can’t picture it so why would I spend time explaining what it should look like? This means my writing is very dialogue heavy. It focuses on what character are saying and how they sound and what they do when they say it(because of how I think about movement)

So one of my best writing tips is when I get stuck or am slowing down with a scene I’ll start jotting down the dialogue. No actions in between, no they said this or that, no quotation marks they waste time, usually I won’t even note characters names and trust future me to know. Or trust I've written the charcters with strong enough individual voices that it's obvious at least to me. For example later in the fic is this scene:

We actually don't have a last name

Not until we had to go to school then we had to choose one

We didn’t really know what to pick so we settled on Stockman!

Stockman

Yep that’s our cousins last name and Baxter Stockman technically created us so that makes him our uncle-dad

I see, here Baxter Stockman is an associate of the shredder

… yeah we learnt that yesterday, but our Baxter stockman never did anything really bad!

Unless you count animal extermination as bad

Which we do

It’s still better than going with something like Smith

Writing it like this means the dialogue flows better. It also helps my brain out since I don’t have to constantly switch tracks meaning I can write faster. Also lets me move onto other scenes I have the itch to make. Often I won’t come back and fill in the gaps until I’m editing.

Another thing that helps me is using the fact fanfiction comes with prebuilt stories to work on top of. I like having an episode with premade plot points to build off of. My best example of this is another fic I wrote, The Bat Trap which was based on The Parent Trap(a movie I love). In it I had a bunch of one liners and situations from the movie that I wanted to include, so I would follow(and adapt) the plot to fit and follow. While in other places I could go off script so I wasn’t following it word by word. To this day it’s the only longform fic I’ve completed and that's entirely due to following a movie plot, so I had an endpoint I could work towards. Instead of an overeaching storyline I made myself with no end in sight.

And my best piece of advice! Give yourself a voice in your story. Especially if you’re doing something comedic. It’s all well and good to give your characters hilarious lines but ultimately only a fraction of your writing is going to be dialogue. Most of it is that connective tissue, what characters are thinking, where they are, what they’re doing. So think as the ‘narrator’ of these parts as a character equally capable of jokes. Such as my favourite technique the ‘smash cut’. My art for the first chapter is an example of that. 

“They will be fine”

“Mikey was not fine”

It’s a fun way to open a new perspective and I will use it at nauseum because it entertains me. Ultimately it’s fun! Have fun writing, undercut your serious scenes. You want to add something but it doesn't fit the tone? Screw that, write it anyway. It doesn't matter if people don’t like it, because you’re gonna spend a hell of a lot more time writing than they will reading. Eventually that becomes your writing style and people ask you for tips:P

#asks #ask welcome #tmnt mutant mayhem #someone should ask me how write fight scenes I have an actual technique for that #wink wink nudge nudge #mutant mayhem

[poetsandwriters]

Announcing our March/April issue! Inside you’ll find a conversation between poets Patricia Smith and Tyehimba Jess, an interview with Rakia Clark of Mariner Books, Emma Hine’s lineup of 10 “award-winning” residencies, Gabriella Graceffo’s advice on surviving a toxic workshop, Jennifer De Leon’s tips on how to prepare for a writing residency, and more. Read more: at.pw.org/MarchApril2023

#Writers Retreats #magazine cover #Cover Reveal #Agents #Editors #March #April #Spring #Patricia Smith #Slam #Residency #Quotes #Inspiration #Writer's Block #writing #Deadlines #Contests #Tyehimba Jess

[trimmedessays]

Best Practices For Avoiding Plagiarism

The entire section below came from Trimmed Essays.  To avoid plagiarism, one must provide a reference to that source to indicate where the original information came from.

"There are many ways to avoid plagiarism, including developing good research habits, good time management, and taking responsibility for your own learning. Here are some specific tips:

Don't procrastinate with your research and assignments. Good research takes time. Procrastinating makes it likely you'll run out of time or be unduly pressured to finish. This sort of pressure can often lead to sloppy research habits and bad decisions. Plan your research well in advance, and seek help when needed from your professor, from librarians and other campus support staff.

Commit to doing your own work. If you don't understand an assignment, talk with your professor. Don't take the "easy way" out by asking your roommate or friends for copies of old assignments. A different aspect of this is group work. Group projects are very popular in some classes on campus, but not all. Make sure you clearly understand when your professor says it's okay to work with others on assignments and submit group work on assignments, versus when assignments and papers need to represent your own work.

 Be 100% scrupulous in your note taking. As you prepare your paper or research, and as you begin drafting your paper. One good practice is to clearly label in your notes your own ideas (write "ME" in parentheses) and ideas and words from others (write "SMITH, 2005" or something to indicate author, source, source date). Keep good records of the sources you consult, and the ideas you take from them. If you're writing a paper, you'll need this information for your bibliographies or references cited list anyway, so you'll benefit from good organization from the beginning.

Cite your sources scrupulously. Always cite other people's work, words, ideas and phrases that you use directly or indirectly in your paper. Regardless of whether you found the information in a book, article, or website, and whether it's text, a graphic, an illustration, chart or table, you need to cite it. When you use words or phrases from other sources, these need to be in quotes. Current style manuals are available at most reference desks and online. They may also give further advice on avoiding plagiarism.

Understand good paraphrasing. Simply using synonyms or scrambling an author's words and phrases and then using these "rewrites" uncredited in your work is plagiarism, plain and simple. Good paraphrasing requires that you genuinely understand the original source, that you are genuinely using your own words to summarize a point or concept, and that you insert in quotes any unique words or phrases you use from the original source. Good paraphrasing also requires that you cite the original source. Anything less and you veer into the dangerous territory of plagiarism."

#college #classroom #homework #study motivation #college life #school system #student

[fullregalia]

i don’t know about you.

Another year, another round up that I felt obligated to write since I basically abandoned this whole thing in 2020. As we are on the cusp of ‘23--I wanted to share some of the things that made ‘22 worth living. Personally speaking, I’m saving about 90% of this year for my memoir; it was a weird one filled with a lot of firsts! Culturally speaking, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, I finally watched Heat, and we all learned the word polycule.

Let’s get down to business, what did I read, listen to, watch, and generally consume that was noteworthy this year. 

Books

I didn’t read as much as I wanted to this year, but two noteworthy novels I finally got to were Mating by Normal Rush and Happiness, As Such by Natalia Ginzburg. Of contemporary fiction, I was happy for the return of Selin in Either/Or and bookended my year of Emily St. John Mandel with Sea of Tranquility. 

Music

Do I even need to say that my most listened to artists of 2023 were Paul Simon, Niia, John Coltrane, Prokofiev, and Steely Dan? However I did also enjoy the new Beach House, of course I listened to Benito and Steve Lacy, there’s too much Antanoff out there but The 1975 seemed to tamp down his worst impulses, and after REAISSANCE came out I stopped playing Break My Soul on repeat and now am a Virgo’s Groove bitch. 

Movies

As I noted up top, I plugged a lot of holes in my viewing history this year. Shout out to Blank Check and the Big Pic pods for keeping me in the loop. Movie content and analysis for 2022 is abundant (just see: Fran Mag’s 2022 wrap up), so all I am going to say is, “Hi, I’m Petra’s father.” Oh also: Jenny is the MVP of Banshees or Inisherin, and Eyes Wide Shut. 

Podcasts

How Long Gone... How Long Gone? How Long Gone. It turns out I’m exactly that insufferable. I didn’t buy any merch, and I didn’t see them live--but I thought about it, which is bad enough. Besides that I started listening to Celebrity Book Club and I did go to a live taping of Odd Lots. I shed a ton of crooked podcasts (and it feels great). Sorry, but I need smooth brain. 

TV

Speaking of smooth brain, White Lotus season two was the perfect mix of stupid and interesting to keep me totally absorbed. Shout out to my GOAT F. Murray Abraham and perfect Italian American Man Michael Imperioli. Both were underutilized. Industry season two was the fish t-shirt representation I needed. The Bear was exactly how I cook, so that’s cool. I finally caught up on Barry; my friend and I binged The Dropout during a bomb cyclone while we were in North Adams; and just like that... we got an SATC sequel (remember that?! It was terrible). 

Odds & Ends

By far the most notable point of the year in culture for me was Opulent Tips, Rachel Tashjin Wise’s invite-only newsletter (*flips hair*). Her perspective on style and library of references are neither snobby nor abstruse. She loves self-expression and is generous with her advice. Blackbird Spyplane finally helped me to understand WHY EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE PUTTY NOW. If you’re not getting your croissants at Brauð & Co in Reykjavik, what are you even doing there? I made a few art acquisitions (quite possibly a cheap Picasso lithograph and a limited edition poster from The Paris Review) my exposed brick looks so Brooklyn it hurts. Out for 2023? West Elm everything ... In for 2023? Taper candles, mercury glass vases, continuing to pile up the LRBs.

That was honestly just a small fraction of the year... but like every year, it’s impossible to pinpoint when the vibe shift happens. It was a weird year! I hope the one to come is filled with even more adventures (I’m going to Switzerland!), fantastic meals (did I mention I got to buy out Laser Wolf for a work event?!), and grailed acquisitions (I FINALLY got a Mimi Vang Olsen x NY Humane Society t-shirt!!!!) for all. I’ll leave with one final note for 2023, we’ll see if any of it comes true.

#2022 #year in review #tv #movies #books #opulent tips #2023 predictions #the bear #industry

[radioactive-earthshine]

Can I ask how you personally found the motivation to write 50k for a dead unpopular ship when I can't even put put 1200 words for a very popular ship and I have ok ideas?? Sorry but I just want to know how you did it.

Konbart’s not dead it's just uncommon, and I’ve been monitoring the tags and it’s actually on a bit of an upswing. Every other week I get at least 2-3 new people mass liking my own Konbart tag. However, this week was incredibly favorable as 17 new people dropped in for Konbart specifically. And Sunshine.Falling. got over 100 new hits this week alone compared to the slow trickle since being published in May. 

Things are going GREAT for this ship, I’m not sure what other Konbart content creators have been experiencing but on my end it’s positive.

My general writing advice is the kind of advice that no one likes hearing but it just works and you have Neil Gaiman to thank.

Look up his 8 Good Writing Practices and just... write.

I particularly focus on #8: "The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can."

I write and as long as it makes sense I am not worrying about if it’s ‘good’ or ‘smart’ or ‘conveys emotion’ whatever people are fretting about with their writing. I feel like a lot of people get wrapped up with “does this sound GOOD or smart enough?” and then they get discouraged and stop writing entirely which is self defeating. 

I have a scene in my head, and I think “okay, what needs to happen to get there?” then I write it.

I’m not worrying about if people will like it because SOMEONE will and I have been getting great positive feedback (even a few jaded anons that feel threatened by Konbart... for whatever reason.) 

As for motivation I am simply really excited to tell this story because I cannot get it out of my head. If it stays in there then no one else will get to see it or know about it except for @fire-fira and I want others to enjoy it. 

One of the BEST pieces of information I EVER heard was from a comic writer/film maker that I met at a convention years ago (I forget who it was precisely, I think it was Kevin Smith). 

“A story idea is only worth ten cents. The effort put into writing it is worth thousands, even millions.” This is correct no matter how much people don’t want it to be true, that the most original and exciting idea is only worth pennies when it’s not written down. 

This is motivation for me because just “an idea” does nothing for anyone. 

Yes, I do have training with creative writing (yes, shocking, I know) and I have certain skills and tips to get through scenes and how to tell a story in a direct way without following white rabbits, but the motivation comes from passion, love and some spite. 

If anyone wants to know my creative process and how I avoid traps and get around hard scenes you can ask but a creative process is sort of up for the individual to find what works for them, so I am not sure how helpful it will be to anyone that isn’t me. 

TLDR: Just write, your idea sitting there not written does nothing for anyone, don’t worry about if it’s good or clever, just put it down. Don’t take yourself too seriously it’s just fiction.

#sunshine. falling.

[dolllikelove]

I love my partner but our relationship started in an awful way. What should I do if I can’t trust him? | Leading questions

Facts and evidence might not solve this, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. If you want this doubt to go away, you have to banish it I have a strong relationship with my partner; we work together, we love each other and we were friends for a long time before we eventually fell in love. The problem I have is that the way our relationship started was awful. He was in a long-term but flawed relationship with a friend of mine. He couldn’t tell her for a long time, and I was not able to force him to do so. I did ask, but not enough. So I witnessed him lying to her for so long, and I can’t forget this. Now I realise I just can’t trust him. I love him deeply and I care a lot for this relationship to last, but I’m so afraid he’ll do the same to me. I think this in the long run will affect our relationship. I don’t know how to change this and I’m constantly thinking that I should run away, and give him no chance of betraying me as he did with her. Talking to him is not easy: he’s the overly successful and very busy character, the kind of man that finds talking about emotions difficult (like many others I’ve met). What should I do? Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading... http://dlvr.it/T36bnF

[bittersweetpangs]

Be it through a veil, tell the truth. And other writing advice

ZADIE SMITH:

"Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two

Here are some more rules

ROSE TREMAIN:

1 Forget the boring old dictum "write about what you know". Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that.

2 Nevertheless, remember that in the particularity of your own life lies the seedcorn that will feed your imaginative work. So don't throw it all away on autobiography.

SARAH WATERS:

1 Read like mad. But try to do it analytically – which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work.

3 Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.

4 Writing fiction is not "self-­expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. ...

HILARY MANTEL

7 Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to a place, or things alter around them, that's the point to step back and fill in the details of their world. People don't notice their everyday surroundings and daily routine, so when writers describe them it can sound as if they're trying too hard to instruct the reader.

8 Description must work for its place. It can't be simply ornamental. It ­usually works best if it has a human element; it is more effective if it comes from an implied viewpoint, rather than from the eye of God. If description is coloured by the viewpoint of the character who is doing the noticing, it becomes, in effect, part of character definition and part of the action.

MICHAEL MORPUGO:

2 Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadnesses and bewilderments and joys.

WILL SELF:

1 Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in . . .2 The edit.

3 Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.

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Clean Joke

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Your Friend is Thinking About Learning to Drive and Would Like Some Advice

Your Friend is Thinking About Learning to Drive and Would Like Some Advice. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: Say why a driving license is advantageous Recommend a driving school Give any extra guidance/tips Dear Smith, I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. I heard that you are thinking about learning to drive and I wanted to offer some advice to help you make an…

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#Your Friend is Thinking About Learning to Drive and Would Like Some Advice

[ozmaba]

I posted 4,687 times in 2022

3 posts created (0%)

4,684 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@untamedunrestrained

@angrybi-king

@ineffectualdemon

@suibianjie

@luobinghelovebot

I tagged 4,657 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#untamed - 1,562 posts

#svsss - 1,064 posts

#lol - 739 posts

#video - 428 posts

#yeah that - 241 posts

#pretty - 224 posts

#cats - 184 posts

#fic - 117 posts

#life tips - 71 posts

#tgcf - 69 posts

Longest Tag: 70 characters

#i have seen like one fic where lbh finds out sqq calls him white lotus

My Top Posts in 2022:

#3

Why does this keep fucking happening to me? Why do I keep stumbling on stories that are tagged hurt/comfort but have only a few paragraphs of comfort at the very end? Why do people do that? If I wanted to read a whump I would have gone and read a fucking whump. I read these stories for the comfort that comes after the hurt. If you fail to deliver, stop fucking mistagging. I'm sure there are plenty of people who love reading the hurt part more.

Just, please, people, stop.

0 notes - Posted December 5, 2022

#2

How do I turn off the notifications that I posted something to my blog? I know when I posted/reblogged stuff, I don't need Tumblr telling me about it. This is very annoying.

0 notes - Posted July 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Dreaming is interesting sometimes

I've just had a really cool dream. It was sort of like a movie, but not really. It had a structure of a movie plot, and also the main character was played by Will Smith. He was, like, a young man, and had a mother who was a famous sculptor, or maybe engineer, I don't remember exactly. The point is that during her life she made only two paintings. One was a really cool somewhat abstract mosaic of a hand in shades of blue, and the other was a mystery. The spot where it was supposed to go was empty, and she refused to tell anyone where it is and how it looked like, and then she died. So her son wanted to find to missing piece. Also he had a weird-looking discolored patch on his skin. On his arm maybe?

Anyway, in this dream I was an art expert, a fan of her work, and also wanted to find her missing piece. So we teamed up for that and became friends. There were some hijinks in the middle I don't remember, some typical buddy movie stuff with art flavor.

In the end, the culmination if you will, we had an argument and were, like, angrily sitting around in some back alley. And then i looked up at the wall and there was this cool somewhat abstract mosaic of a person in shades of blue. And it seemed somhow familiar, so I looked at Will Smith and it looked kind of like him. And then I looked at this weird patch on his skin and realised that they look exactly the same. So I point it out to him, and he has a moment of realisation, and remembers his mother applying it to him while giving him some wise advice, and we make up after that.

The last thing I remember of this dream is writing a blog post about finding the missing piece.

0 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

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