hey, writers. reblog this with your opinions on:
(using parentheses)
using em-dashes—more or less liberally
using italics
DIALOGUE IN ALL CAPS TO IMPLY YELLING
the semicolon; or, how to properly use it
capitalizing Important words
using. repetitive. punctuation. for. emphasis.
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do you have any quotes on loneliness you particularly like?
Oh, boy... I do. Let’s see.
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This night is now
half-gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone
Sappho, trans. by Mary Barnard in Fragments
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We’re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?
Ursula K. Le Guin, from “Nine Lives”
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My brother once showed me a piece of quartz that contained, he said, some trapped water older than all the seas in our world. He held it up to my ear. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘life and no escape.’
Anne Carson, in “The Anthropology of Water”, from Plainwater
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Heaven be praised for solitude that has removed the pressure of the eye, the solicitation of the body, and all need of lies and phrases.
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
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I could live there all alone, she thought, slowing the car to look down the winding garden path to the small blue front door with, perfectly, a white cat on the step. No one would ever find me there, either, behind all those roses, and just to make sure I would plant oleanders by the road. I will light a fire in the cool evenings and toast apples at my own hearth. I will raise white cats and sew white curtains for the windows and sometimes come out of my door to go to the store to buy cinnamon and tea and thread.
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
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And no one else remembers
Except the moon and I.
Roland Leighton, in “Clair de Lune”, quoted in Testament of Youth
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I have come home in love with loneliness.
L. M. Montgomery, in Anne of Avonlea
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and I was downstairs reading the part in Wuthering Heights
where Heathcliff clings at the lattice in the storm sobbing
Come in! Come in! to the ghost of his heart’s darling,
I fell on my knees on the rug and sobbed too.
Anne Carson, from “Three”, in The Glass Essay
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Thomas Alexander, Solitude
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—the way somebody comes back, but only in a dream.
Mary Oliver, from “We Should Be Well Prepared”, in Red Bird
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I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
Christina Rossetti, from “Who Shall Deliver Me?”, in Poems and Prose
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I know you want me to tell you that hunger and silence can lead you to God, so I will say it, but I awoke. As the nail is parted from the flesh, I awoke and I was alone.
Anne Carson, in “The Anthropology of Water”, from Plainwater
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Ce n’est pas par hasard que tu n’as jamais été aimée… Désirer échapper à la solitude est une lâcheté. / It is no coincidence that you have never been loved… Wanting to escape loneliness is cowardice.
Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la Grâce (Gravity and Grace)
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So. What are you seeking? The image you’ve each created of the other? The people you think you love don’t exist. Not really. And that’s a very lonely place to be.
Jonathan Sims, in The Magnus Archives [MAG 159]
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aber immer wieder weggedreht,
wenn du meinst, sie endlich zu erfassen. /
over and over always turning away
just as you think you have grasped it at last.
Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt of “Sonnet 23 (Part II)”, trans. by Martyn Crucefix in Sonnets to Orpheus
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Think of this—that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and that they were alone with each other.
A. S. Byatt, Possession
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Child of our time—
haven’t you found the right shell for your soul?
Before I die I shall
Edith Södergran, excerpt of “Hope”, trans. by Herbert Lomas in Contemporary Finnish Poetry
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When they made love
Geryon liked to touch in slow succession each of the bones on Herakles’ back
as it arched away from him into
who knows what dark dream of its own—
Anne Carson, excerpt of Autobiography of Red
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Myths, Creatures, and Folklore
Want to create a religion for your fictional world? Here are some references and resources!
General:
General Folklore
Various Folktales
Heroes
Weather Folklore
Trees in Mythology
Animals in Mythology
Birds in Mythology
Flowers in Mythology
Fruit in Mythology
Plants in Mythology
Folktales from Around the World
Africa:
Egyptian Mythology
African Mythology
More African Mythology
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
The Gods of Africa
Even More African Mythology
West African Mythology
All About African Mythology
African Mythical Creatures
Gods and Goddesses
The Americas:
Aztec Mythology
Haitian Mythology
Inca Mythology
Maya Mythology
Native American Mythology
More Inca Mythology
More Native American Mythology
South American Mythical Creatures
North American Mythical Creatures
Aztec Gods and Goddesses
Asia:
Chinese Mythology
Hindu Mythology
Japanese Mythology
Korean Mythology
More Japanese Mythology
Chinese and Japanese Mythical Creatures
Indian Mythical Creatures
Chinese Gods and Goddesses
Hindu Gods and Goddesses
Korean Gods and Goddesses
Europe:
Basque Mythology
Celtic Mythology
Etruscan Mythology
Greek Mythology
Latvian Mythology
Norse Mythology
Roman Mythology
Arthurian Legends
Bestiary
Celtic Gods and Goddesses
Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic Lands
Finnish Mythology
Celtic Mythical Creatures
Gods and Goddesses
Middle East:
Islamic Mythology
Judaic Mythology
Mesopotamian Mythology
Persian Mythology
Middle Eastern Mythical Creatures
Oceania:
Aboriginal Mythology
Polynesian Mythology
More Polynesian Mythology
Mythology of the Polynesian Islands
Melanesian Mythology
Massive Polynesian Mythology Post
Maori Mythical Creatures
Hawaiian Gods and Goddesses
Hawaiian Goddesses
Gods and Goddesses
Creating a Fantasy Religion:
Creating Part 1
Creating Part 2
Creating Part 3
Creating Part 4
Fantasy Religion Design Guide
Using Religion in Fantasy
Religion in Fantasy
Creating Fantasy Worlds
Beliefs in Fantasy
Some superstitions:
Read More
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Things to do as a famous writer;
Make a “fan blog” of ur book of Tumblr and stalk ur fandom from within.
Go to a book store, find ur books, sign a copy, then leave.
Write purposefully bad fan fiction of ur book and post it anonymously.
Buy a copy of ur own book and write commentary in the margins, then sell it online.
Cosplay ur own character to a con, don’t let anyone know it’s you.
Using your “fan blog” befriend another fan online. Ask them to video chat you, record their reaction.
Draw purposefully bad fan art and post it anonymously.
Read ALL of the fan fiction of ur book, then declare random ones you like as cannon in the comments.
Talk to aspiring writers online or at schools and encourage them.
Become a beta reader for one of ur fans.
Hold long in depth conversations with a fan who doesn’t recognize you, disagree with everything they say.
Ask to talk a picture with people who recognize you on the street before they have a chance to ask you first.
Anonymously commission artists to draw ur characters, then surprise them by posting it to ur “official blog.” Make sure you credit them so you draw more attention to their amazing artwork!!!
Tease ur fans about the next book coming out.
Tell ur fans a character is gonna die in the next book, but not say who. Watch them squirm.
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