Avatar

Beautiful soul, hectic mind

@melldraven / melldraven.tumblr.com

Gigi,English Lit student, 29.
Posts
Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
bebx

reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

Avatar
reblogged
iguessweallcrazyithinktho
Avatar
kangals

hey ummmm we know ur just trying to read ur phone in peace but actually 😩 it is 10 minutes until din dins 😩 and we have never eaten before ever 😩😩😩

Avatar
reblogged
heywriters
Avatar
rewind-on-purpose

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-22/food-plant-solutions-malnutrition-farming-edible-plants/12580732

https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World

This guy is my new hero. I LOVE learning about native food plants that just grow everywhere without human help.

The database is a little clunky to use (especially on a phone), but still loads of excellent information.

Avatar
plantyhamchuk

Here’s their website - Food Plant Solutions - and they can use volunteers! And $ of course. What they really need help with is connecting with NGOs/groups on the ground already working in countries, to get them access to the database. They also need help from formally trained agronomists, people good with website stuff, and people good at marketing / getting the word out about their project.

Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
merkstreet

5 editor’s secrets to help you write like a pro

1. Sentences can only do one thing at a time.

Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? I edit a lot of sentences that work the same way. You need a noun, you need a verb, you might need an object. Give some serious thought to stopping right there.

Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; they’re not meant to be stretched to the limit. I’m not saying you necessarily want a Hemingway-esque series of clipped short sentences, but most writers benefit from dividing their longest sentences into shorter, more muscular ones.

2. Paragraphs can only do one thing at a time.

A paragraph supports a single idea. Construct complex arguments by combining simple ideas that follow logically. Every time you address a new idea, add a line break. Short paragraphs are the most readable; few should be more than three or four sentences long. This is more important if you’re writing for the Web.

3. Look closely at -ing

Nouns ending in -ing are fine. (Strong writing, IT consulting, great fishing.) But constructions like “I am running,” “a forum for building consensus,” or “The new team will be managing” are inherently weak. Rewrite them to “I run,” “a forum to build consensus,” and “the team will manage.” You’re on the right track when the rewrite has fewer words (see below).

(If for some insane reason you want to get all geeky about this, you can read the Wikipedia article on gerunds and present participles. But you don’t have to know the underlying grammatical rules to make this work. Rewrite -ing when you can, and your writing will grow muscles you didn’t know it had.)

4. Omit unnecessary words.

I know we all heard this in high school, but we weren’t listening. (Mostly because it’s hard.) It’s doubly hard when you’re editing your own writing—we put all that work into getting words onto the page, and by god we need a damned good reason to get rid of them.

Here’s your damned good reason: extra words drain life from your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has. Therefore:

Summer months Regional level The entire country On a daily basis (usually best rewritten to “every day”) She knew that it was good. Very (I just caught one above: four-year-old little girl)

You can nearly always improve sentences by rewriting them in fewer words.

5. Reframe 90% of the passive voice.

French speakers consider an elegantly managed passive voice to be the height of refinement. But here in the good old U.S. (or Australia, Great Britain, etc.), we value action. We do things is inherently more interesting than Things are done by us. Passive voicemuddies your writing; when the actor is hidden, the action makes less sense.

Bonus: Use spell-check

There’s no excuse for teh in anything more formal than a Twitter tweet.

Also, “a lot” and “all right” are always spelled as two words. You can trust me, I’m an editor.

Easy reading is damned hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Avatar
heywriters

This is tailored to writing articles, essays, and copy, but for creative writers these are still good tips and good to know! This info can help you write blurbs, query letters, promo posts, etc. Two types of writing, both useful.

Avatar
reblogged
razerathane
Avatar
detectivehole

please know that when i type a lone "?" i am tilting my head slightly to the right and am staring at you blankly in confusion and curiosity

Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
l1atena1

Don't you sometimes get an absolutely extrodinary, mind blowing, such an awesome idea for a story, but you just don't have enough skill level to pull it off?

Avatar
dark-magical-ships

Write it anyway.

Write it anyway, write it anyway, write it anyway.

There are so, so, so many reasons:

  • You gain that skill level only through practice. So practice.
  • No matter what you’re writing, no matter how badly you think you’ve written it, there is ALWAYS some audience that will love it and cherish it.
  • You can use what you write the first time around as a first draft and just rewrite it again later when you feel like tackling the story again!
  • Rewriting the same story over and over is a valid writing process. It’s literally just creating new drafts. Each iteration will be better than the last, because each is building on your growing skill and experience.
  • If you love the story, it will always be worth telling simply for your own enjoyment. If no one else ever sees it, that’s okay! Your art should be for you first, anyway.

Write it anyway.

Avatar
bettsfic
“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Avatar
joanhello2

Among professional writers there's a category called trunk stories. A trunk story is one that you feel inspired to write but you know isn't ready for prime time. Before the computer age, when it was all hardcopy, the writer put trunk stories away, in a drawer or box early in their career, then in an actual trunk or a filing cabinet as the number of trunk stories grew. When writers find themselves stuck for ideas, they often read some of the trunk stories, hoping to be inspired to rewrite one into something they'd actually be willing to let their fandom see. Some stories stay in the trunk for decades before finally seeing the light of day. Some are still there when the writer dies. The Silmarilion was basically pieced together from trunk stories after JRRT's death. If you have an inspiring idea but don't think you can do it justice now, write as much as you have and put it in the trunk.

Avatar
heywriters

you really do learn so much by doing an amateur job of a compelling idea. it's better than writing something you don't care about, or sitting around with no ideas at all

You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.