Hey gang, pinning this for awhile until the hysteria dies down, but let me be really clear regarding folks using AI to write fanfiction or taking one of their fave fics that hasn’t been updated in awhile and feeding it to ChatGPT to “finally read the ending”:

I explicitly forbid ANYONE from feeding my fics to AI generators to create their own content, even if it’s only using pieces to create a beginning or an ending.

I work really hard on my writing, and it’s incredibly disrespectful for other writers to disregard that and use AI to generate their own content or to try to “finish” someone’s fic for them because they’re upset it hasn’t been updated recently.

Writing can be frustrating and really hard. I say this as someone who hasn’t written something new in months (maybe a year?). Give your favorite writers some kudos and encouragement instead of whining that you’re going to use AI to finish their fics for them.

In the vein of using AI to write fic from start to finish, please know that AI writing isn’t good enough yet to create completely organic, new content - if you use AI to write fic, you’re plagiarizing. That’s it. Even if you have good intentions, you’re plagiarizing.

helpful sites for writers

i have a little collection of websites i tend to use for coming up with ideas, naming people or places, keeping clear visuals or logistics, writing basics about places i've never been to, and so on. i tend to do a lot of research, but sometimes you just need quick references, right? so i thought i'd share some of them!

some sillies from paleostream!! joined late so there's only 3 of them: jormungandr, hesperotestudo and prionosuchus

how to draw arms ? ? 

holy fuck

holy fuck is right… but… does it work with legs???

yes !!

but how much extend

^^^^^^^^^^

I NEARLY CHOKED

ENJFDFNFATFVFDF

finally. i can be accurate

This is too fucking great to not reblog

I give it MASCLES

BIG MACHO

LMAOOOOOO

Okay but for anyone who legit wants to know how to calculate it correctly:

The elbow joint on average rests a couple inches higher than the navel, so if you measure how long the distance is from the middle of the shoulder to that point then you have the length of the upper and fore arms!

So if anyone’s wondering about legs too, the simplest rule of thumb is that the length from the top of the leg to the knee is equal to the distance between the top of the leg and the bottom of the pectorals:

And I wanna stress that when i say “top of the leg” i’m not talking about the crotch (please don’t flag me tumblr it’s an anatomical term) i’m talking about the point where the femur connects to the pelvis, which is higher up on the hips:

It’s easier to see what I’m talking about in this photo of a man squatting: 

So yeah if you use that measurement when using this technique you should get fairly realistically proportioned legs:

But remember! messing with proportions is an important and fun part of character design! Know the rules first so you can then break them however you please!

HOW THE HELL DID I FIND THIS POST OMG

Licherally in the midst of drawing a guy and crying at how bad the arms are. Thanks Tumbles

I only ever saw the part where people started drawing the limbs outrageously long and genuinely wanted to know how to fix that, so I’m really thankful to see the rest.

Thank you for the tips, op!

reblogging for my artist friends

calling all authors!!

i have just stumbled upon the most beautiful public document i have ever laid eyes on. this also goes for anyone whose pastimes include any sort of character creation. may i present, the HOLY GRAIL:

https://www.fbiic.gov/public/2008/nov/Naming_practice_guide_UK_2006.pdf

this wonderful 88-page piece has step by step breakdowns of how names work in different cultures! i needed to know how to name a Muslim character it has already helped me SO MUCH and i’ve known about it for all of 15 minutes!! i am thoroughly amazed and i just needed to share with you guys 

Cultures include Yoruba, Sikh, Vietnamese, Polish, and dozens more!

This could also be a good staring point for conlangers looking for inspiration for personal name conventions.

Vocabulary List for Fight Scenes

Combat Actions

Hits

Another fantastic list or words!!

I kind of suck at tagging, so I made this infographic to help make it easier.

Hey, thanks for making this!  I’ve never struggled with what to put in tags on my fic, but I’ve never been systematic about it, either–I just kind of put whatever.

The categories seem like a really useful way to think about it–not every fic will necessarily have something for each category, but it’s a good framework for either thinking of things to put, or making sure you don’t skip things that would be good to put.  

Image description: Tags are Tricky…a quick and dirty guide

1 Canon How does it relate to canon? Alternative Universe Canon Compliant Canon Divergence Crossover Fix-it-Fic Future Fic Missing Scenes & Codas Pre-canon/Backstory

2 Format Is it something other than a story? 5+1 Things Art Dialogue-Only Epistolary Online & Social Media Podfic Poetry Songfic Texting

3 Tone How does it make you feel? Angst Crack Fluff Humor Hurt/Comfort Smut and PWP Whump

4 Relationship Describe the relationship Platonic Coming Out, Families, Friendship, Siblings Getting Together Amnesia, Body Swap, Childhood Friends, Different First Meeting, Drunken Confessions, Enemies to Lovers, Fake Dating, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Huddling for Warmth, Meet-Cute, Miscommunication, Road Trips, Roommates, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Trapped in Elevator PG-13 Cuddling, First Kiss, Kissing and Making out Sexy Times ABO, Dirty Talk, First Time, Kink, Roleplay, Sex Pollen, Sexting and Phone Sex, Voyeurism Commitment Arranged Marriage, Established Relationship, Honeymoons, Infidelity, Jealousy, Kid Fic, Long Distance Relationship, Pregnancy, Weddings & Proposals

5 Theme What is the theme? Activities and Interests Baking and Cooking, Camping, Celebrations, Crafts and Hobbies, Drinking or Getting High, Fashion, Holidays, Pets, Piercings and Tattoos, Religion, Sports, Theater and Dance, Yoga Adaptions Fairy Tales, Historical, Reality Show, TV/Movie/Book/Adaption Character Driven Anxiety and Mental Health, Introspection, Queer Themes Jobs Artist, Celebrities, Crimes and Suspense, Firefighters, Lifeguards, Media and Journalism, Medical, Military, Musiscians, Pilots, Retails, Royality, Teachers Other worldly Apocalypse, Faries, Ghosts, Magic and Fantasy, Parallel Universe, Sci-fi, Shapeshifters, Superheros, Supernatural, Tentacles, Time Travle, Vampires, Witches, Zombies Places Bookstores & Libaries, Coffee Shops & Restaurants, College, Flower Shops, High School, Summer Camp, Wineries

Note: These are examples, not a definitive list, but I hope the categories are useful" end Image description

Tag your fics! It’s how we find most of them…

Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters

Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.

As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.

Deaf Characters:

Deaf characters masterpost

Deaf dialogue thread

Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)

A deaf author’s advice on deaf characters

Dialogue between deaf characters

Mute Characters

Life as a Mute

My Silent Summer:  Life as a Mute

What It’s Like Being Mute

21 People Reveal What It’s Really Like To Be Mute

I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!

Blind Characters:

The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.

@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.

The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.

An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.

And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.

Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye

4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye

Learning to Live With One Eye

Adapting to the Loss of an Eye

Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision

Monocular Depth Perception

Deaf-Blind Characters

What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?

Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights

Deaf and Blind by 30

Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)

Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)

A Day of a Deaf Blind Person

Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind

How the Deaf-Blind Communicate

Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind

Raising a DeafBlind Baby

If you have any more resources to add, let me know!  I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.

I hope this helps, and happy writing!  <3

Updated with more resources, specifically for characters who are blind in one eye.

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

*wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat*

WAIT IT’S CALLED A THROW PILLOW

here is a super helpful website for this kinda thing!

the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better

here’s some examples:

Reblog to save a writer's sanity.

T h a n k y o u k i n d s i r .

THANK YOU REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE

if you’re white and wanna write a poc character and feel awkward about it i implore you to ignore any twitblr stuff treating it as a massive ethical burden and instead come in more with the same mindset you’d have if you wanted to write about idk firefighters but didn’t know anything about firefighters so you do... research. Like fuck off with the weird kinda creepy calls for spiritual introspection you’re not writing about god damn space aliens you’re writing about humans and if you think you need more perspective of different life experiences just read?

If I were writing about firefighters I'd also, in addition to just reading about them, take advantage of Our Blessed Internet to ask actual firefighters about how shit works. I'd do the same for a minority I'm not a part of.

I remember when there was this LiveJournal community where you could just ask about anything you needed for your novel - medicine, professions, vehicles, how things function in country X - and people who knew something about that would answer.

We need to bring this back.

And apparently just this summer they DID bring it back - it's called Little Details and it's on Dreamwidth!!!!

Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on “ inside a cinema ” or something like that. Then, BAM. Here’s a list of smell and sounds. I can’t remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3

I FOUND IT BITCHES

This is going to save me so much trouble in the future.

I HAVE WAITED ALL YEAR TO POST THIS

Here’s an invaluable writing resource for you.

Was looking for this information just yesterday. Thanks so much.

Y’all I could have used this so many times before oh my good god

For those needing the metric version

thank you for your post! it has made me feel… *gets out wheel of emotions and rolls*

Still thinking about him....

Spoilers for the Mandalorian, Season 3 Ep 6

~~

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!

❀ You can see the rest of my art through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog!

fantasy is so fun until you have to name your countries and make a map someone please end my misery

all you need to do is come up with 3-4 unique names. then come up with a meaning/translation for those names. now that you know what they mean, you can combine their elements with eachother and add new random sounds in.

eg: "mir/miel" means lake in my conlang, "da" means hill, and "guu" means bear. now that i know that i can name something daguu/guuda (bear hill) or guumir (bear lake). and i can go "hwa" (which means white but in this case pretend i came up with it at random) sounds good with "guu" so what if i name something hwaguu or hwaguumir? and then just repeat the process

some of the things i recommend having words for when it comes to naming locations:

- hill (you can have so many variants that mean hill)

- lake

- river/creek

- valley

- directional words (north, east, south, west)

- road/path

- forest/wood

- clearing/plain

- rock/cliff

it doesn't have to be extremely overwhelming! you can just start with a few small and common words and slowly expand

countries are definitely a bit harder then average place names, but they usually name themselves either after the people who live there or something symbolic!

a fun little read, sometimes only covers their exonyms in english though, let me see if i can find one that goes into country's names in their native languages

still not quite what i was looking for, but covers groups of people!

this is closer to what i was looking for, it shows the countries' endonym and english exonym next to eachother which is a good start, but doesnt provide a translation of meanings. better than nothing though

country names... have meanings... oh my god that makes everything so much easier

Saving for reference.

Best trick I ever picked up. Seriously.

I have also learned this is great for [PICK A COOL NAME FOR A SHIP] and [LOOK UP THE FACTS ABOUT OXYGEN LEVELS] and [WHAT’S THE WORD] and [DOUBLECHECK CHARACTER’S EYE COLOR] and ALL KINDS OF THINGS.

Anything that isn’t critical in the moment, and could be filled in later while I’m currently trying to burn through writing pages that will be lost if I don’t get them out right now? Brackets.

This is seriously the best advice, and it really helps put it into perspective that the first draft is just that- a draft. There’s no reason to agonize over a particularly tricky bit of writing when you could just leave it in brackets and skip to the good parts, the parts you’ve visualized. I also use brackets for [fact-check this], [use a stronger verb], [is this in character?] and other notes as I write, just so I don’t forget what I want to work on when I go back and edit. 

Note the good sense of [brackets] not (parentheses).

Parentheses AKA round brackets can appear in fiction, usually as an afterthought in a character's thoughts or narration (as I saw them used just recently), but square brackets hardly ever do.

I do this but I HAVE to do the all caps bc otherwise I Will Forget