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@madiirje / madiirje.tumblr.com

School librarian Superhero by day, crazy cat lady/renaissance-woman by night. Reblogging all the things.
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whokilledlordmorley

Why do you read?

GIF by neongardenia

What makes a book special?

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The sense of adventure

The experience of another person’s story

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The peace and quiet

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The beautiful illustrations

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The opportunity to explore your history

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The path to learn new skills

The way to find answers to your questions

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The feeling of wonder and nostalgia

The open door to visit new worlds

The chance to find a family

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Why do you read?

September 6th is National Read a Book Day!

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theliterarybug

To escape to a world unlike my own.

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lostinhistory
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carrieosity

Oh my god.

You guys. This picture book that just came in.

It’s an adorable story about a little “narwhal,” living with a narwhal family under the sea, but take a closer look.

Over the following pages, Kelp struggles to fit in. Kelp is different in so many ways; nothing ever feels fully right. Eventually, by pure chance, Kelp happens to get blown off by a stray ocean current and winds up on the ocean surface, where a remarkable discovery is made. 

Um. Wow.

And despite their nervousness…

Hurray! And then the question:

I’m dead. This book killed me. So much perfectness was never to be survived. Kelp, I love you.

(And you, too.)

And yes, I realize that it could just be a lovely story about a narwhal, not a metaphor for anything bigger, but isn’t that the beauty of all the best sorts of books?

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deadcatwithaflamethrower

Book made me cry before tea. <3

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chopythes
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mydearwtson

self-editing for fiction writers

Showing vs Telling

  • Do you have any narrative summary, or are you bouncing from scene to scene without pausing for breath?

Characterization & Exposition

  • What information do your readers need in order to understand your story? At what point in the story do they need to know it?
  • How are you getting this info across to your readers? Is it all at once through a writer-to-reader lecture?
  • If exposition comes out through dialogue, is it through dialogue your characters would actually speak even if your readers didn’t have to know the information? In other words, does the dialogue exist only to put the information across?

Point of View

  • Look at your descriptions. Can you tell how your viewpoint character feels about what you’re describing?

Proportion

  • Look at descriptions. Are the details you give the ones your viewpoint character would notice?
  • Reread your first fifty pages, paying attention to what you spend your time on. Are the characters you develop most fully important to the ending? Do you use the locations you develop in detail later in the story? Do any of the characters play a surprising role in the ending? Could readers guess this from the amount of time you spend on them?

Dialogue

  • Can you get rid of some of your speaker attributions entirely? Try replacing some with beats. 
  • How often have you paragrapher your dialogue?Try paragraphing a little more often. 

See How it Sounds

  • Read your dialogue aloud. At some point, read aloud every word you write.
  • Be on the lookout for places where you are tempted to change the wording. 
  • How well do your characters understand each other? Do they ever mislead on another? Any outright lies? 

Interior Monologue

  • First, how much interior monologue do you have? If you seem to have a lot, check to see whether some is actually dialogue description in disguise. Are you using interior monologue to show things that should be told?
  • Do you have thinker attributions you should get rid of (by  recasting into 3rd person, by setting the interior monologue off in its own paragraph or in italics, or by simply dropping the attribution)
  • Do your mechanics match your narrative distance?(Thinker attributions, italics, first person when your narrative is in third?)

Easy Beats

  • How many beats do you have? How often do you interrupt your dialogue?
  • What are your beats describing? Familiar every day actions, such as dialling a telephone or buying groceries? How often do you repeat a beat? Are your characters always looking out of windows or lighting cigarettes? 
  • Do your beats help illuminate your characters? Are they individual or general actions anyone might do under just about any circumstances?
  • Do your beats fit the rhythm of your dialogue? Read it aloud and find out

Breaking up is easy to do

  • Look for white space. How much is there? Do you have paragraphs that go on as much as a page in length? 
  • Do you have scenes with NO longer paragraphs? Remember what you’re after is the right balance. 
  • Have your characters made little speeches to one another? 
  • If you’re writing a novel, are all your scenes or chapters exactly the same length? -> brief scenes or chapters can give you more control over your story. They can add to your story’s tension. Longer chapters can give it a more leisurely feels. If scene or chapter length remains steady while the tension of the story varies considerably, your are passing up the chance to reinforce the tension. 

Once is usually enough

  • Reread your manuscript, keeping in mind what you are trying to do with each paragraph–what character point you’re trying to establish, what sort of mood you’re trying to create, what background you’re trying to suggest. In how many different ways are you accomplishing each of these ends?
  • If more than one way, try reading the passage without the weakest approach and see if it itsn’t more effective. 
  • How about on a chapter level? Do you have more than one chapter that accomplishes the same thing?
  • Is there a plot device or stylistic effect you are particularly pleased with? How often do you use it?
  • Keep on the lookout for unintentional word repeats. The more striking a word or phrase is, the more jarring it will be if repeated 

Sophistication 

  • How many -ing and as phrases do you write? The only ones that count are the ones that place a bit of action in a subordinate clause
  • How about -ly adverbs?
  • Do you have a lot of short sentences, both within your dialogue and within your description and narration? Try stringing some of them together with commas
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mrsmummifikation

Let's talk about mynoise.net

Have you ever been listening to Rainymood and thought, “Yeah, this is good … but it would be nice if I could customize the sound more, or if there was a little more choice.

Let me introduce you to MyNoise.

MyNoise is a customizable sounscape looper with so many options, even within each soundscape.  So say, for instance, you really love rain sounds when you write or study or relax.  Anything.  I know I’m a big fan of rain sounds.  They have a page for that.

But say you like really high, pattery rain, and LOTS of low thunder.  Here’s where MyNoise really stands out: you can customize that.  See those sliders with all the cute colors?  That is your equalizer. You can adjust the levels based on what you want to hear more and less of.  Here’s how it looks when you want high, pattery rain and low, rumbly thunder:

But say rain isn’t really your jam.  Say you want something a little more ambient, a little more background noise-y.  Something with people.  Well, they have customizable coffee house chatter that even has the levels listed for things like “kitchen,” “babble,” and “table”:

Or say you miss the ocean.

Or say you miss your cat.

Or say you miss your spaceship.

Or say you miss the dungeon where you and your team of scalawag adventurers used to explore and face off against, say, dragons.  In the dungeon.

This site is seriously so helpful, and those are just a fraction of every kind of sounscape the site has to offer.  The best part is that if you want to layer it with music (for instance, I’ll layer a playlist + rain + coffee shop if the scene I’m writing takes place in a coffee shop), you can adjust the master volume, meaning all of your layers stay at their respective volumes, just louder or quieter.

Enjoy!

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readysetgaikokujin

OH MY GOD

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taikaze

A friend helped me get the filesize small enough for a direct upload.

So here’s a direct upload.

[youtube link]

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anabundanceofadjectives

that rapid-fire character development ending was awesome

ok legitimately this is such a good video because it gets across the general vibe of “this show is more than you think it is” without giving away too many specific spoilers, like I think this would be a good video to show someone who didn’t know what su was

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karmaowesmesomeexcuses

This made me tear up tbh

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