REGULAR REMINDER THAT IT IS COMMON COURTESY TO SEND AN ASK TO THE PERSON YOU REBLOGGED AN ASK GAME FROM !! THIS PART OF TUMBLR CULTURE HAS BEEN LOST OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS SO PLEASE KEEP ASKS GAMES ALIVE BY SENDING ASKS !!

Standard tumblr ettiquette used to be send an ask one up and one down the chain (i.e. who you reblogged it from and who reblogged it from you) because that ensured everyone who wanted asks got at least one :) and yes anon totally counts!!

Remember the point of ask games is less to talk about yourself (although yeah of course that's fun!) and more to provide opportunities to get to know others with some icebreakers 💕 if you want to get to know people (mutuals or otherwise!!) sending asks to others in an ask game is a key way to build rapport :) you can learn about their likes and dislikes, share headcanons, check in on life, and most importantly you can chat about their/your answer in the replies of the post - it's a time honoured tradition on tumblr as one of the key ways to make friends 😁

Just a reminder that this blog supports trans people. No terfs allowed. Your faves would love you no matter your gender. Don't feel just because you don't fit in the binary doesn't mean you can't be included in the self insert community.

Let me know if anyone wants a list of Jewish fantasy novels

Hit me

Adding more!

YOU hates terfs

rb if u hates terfs

For artists who have problems with perspective (furniture etc.) in indoor scenes like me - there’s an online programm called roomsketcher where you can design a house/roon and snap pictures of it using different perspectives.

It’s got an almost endless range of furniture, doors, windows, stairs etc and is easy to use. In addition to that, you don’t have to install anything and if you create an account (which is free) you can save and return to your houses.

Examples (all done by me):

Here’s an example for how you can use it

Great find, thanks!

OMG HEAVEN!!

Bless you!!!!

Very nice resource for those looking to improve their perspective, composition, and background rendering skills!

I will keep reblogging this lol

“Make good art” - Neil Gaiman

GUYS IF YOU’RE FEELING DOWN ABOUT YOUR ART OR STRUGGLING ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST LIKE ME, I SUGGEST YOU WATCH THIS 20-MIN SPEECH. HOPEFULLY IT WILL BRIGHTEN YOUR MOOD.

“You have one thing that’s unique. You have the ability to make art. For me and for so many people I’ve known, that has been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones.”

How to write a novel

I was talking to a girl at ComicCon, the kind of person who has a million creative projects at the same time. As many people do, she has a story she wants to write, with amazing characters she wants to share with the world, but writing is hard and a first novel can be daunting. Here’s what I told her.

Now, this applies to the people who REALLY want to see their story done. These are the main pillars of the cathedral that is your story. Let’s begin.

1- YOUR GOAL IS TO WRITE A COMPLETE FIRST DRAFT. It will be shit. But it will be complete. You can build on it and rewrite, but the most important thing is to WRITE TILL THE END OF THE STORY.

2- SIT DOWN AND WORK. That’s the difference between writers and the million people who say they have a story that they’ll write someday.

Alright, let’s get technical, and start by the end. 

3- Art is about causing your public to have emotions. Decide right now what emotion you want to leave your readers with when they close your book. Is it happy, sad, bittersweet, hopeful? Pick one. (This can be changed later if you rewrite and find some other ending, but we are working on the first draft.)

— Maybe you have a nice gimmick, a cool idea for a story, like idk, ‘What if you cloned yourself and that clone took over your life’. This is interesting, but it’s not a story in itself. A story needs emotions. If you don’t pick the emotions you want your reader to feel, your idea is just a gimmick. 

4- Now that you have the final emotion, decide your ending in accordance to said emotion. Are characters dying? Is the bad guy defeated? Is everyone splitting up or leaving together as a found family? 

Then we go back to the beginning.

5- You probably have a million characters you all want to write. Pick one to be your protagonist. Yes, just one. Multi-characters stories are harder to write and demand experience and time. We want this novel to exist, and not be stuck in limbo forever. Anyway, people tend to always prefer side characters. Who has heard of someone having a protagonist as a fave?? Your side characters will be loved, no worry. 

How to find your protagonist: It’s the person who makes decisions and makes the plot advance. Simple as that. Not to be mistaken for the leader of a group.  

6- Now that you have your protagonist, you decide what is normal for them. That is your beginning. 

7- And then, you break that normality in some horrible way that will prevent your protagonist to come back to it. That is your inciting incident. 

Then we write the middle

8- You google Three-Act-Structure and get one of these babies. 

(But Talhí, I hear you say, why should I follow this? It’s been overdone, and my story doesn’t follow this, and I have more to write than this… Well, that’s your choice. I’m not the boss of you. I’m just saying that this is a solid model for western storytelling and it’s been proven to work time and time again. You can create outside of this, but again, the main goal here is to get your novel on paper. This is a solid template.)

9- You probably have a general idea of events you want to happen in the story. Place these scenes where you feel they should go on the structure. Like, a confrontation with the main bad guy goes in climax of act three, and the confrontation with the main henchman goes to climax of act two, etc. Be mindful of the rising action and tension: a cute misadventure in the woods would probably go earlier in the story than a fight to the death.

10- Now, a secret: What separates bad writing from good writing? Bad writing is adding a bunch of events in the middle and have the characters go through them like a checklist of scenes. You can often see this in movies. But good writing links the events. Each and every event that happens has to be a result of your character making a decision. Then, an obstacle happens, and your character makes another decision, that leads to your next event/obstacle. 

11- Another secret: A character will gain power, money, weapons and allies through the story. In videogames, this is useful to defeat the bad guy. But storytelling is not videogames. Having a superpowerful hero at the end is boring. What we want is keeping the reader in suspense. So you’ll have to take everything from them. Leave them powerless and alone. And then, break their leg. I mean, not literally, although you can do that too, but have them super disadvantaged. And then they can use the personal growth they got in the adventure to prevail. (What is more interesting: a character fleeing from a facility but with weapons and kickass moves, or a character fleeing the same facility without weapons or shoes and with a broken arm? Who do you root for?)

Other tricks

The rest of the crew: I go with what Pixar does for characters: Main character gets three or more characteristics. That’s your Woody. Second tier character gets two characteristics. That’s your Buzz. Third tier characters get one characteristic, like Rex and Mister Potato Head. Keep control of your character tiers and never give too much time to the lower tiers ones, it doesn’t help your story.  

Herd your cats: Characters will want to wander in every direction, and you’ll want to follow them. Keep them in groups, and even though you can follow a side character for a scene or two, focus 80 to 90% of your story on your protagonist. 

DND is not a novel: I’m pretty sure your campaign is super fun, but you can’t just put it on paper and call it a novel. It needs a narrative arc and serious editing. You can use a campaign as a base, but it needs to be worked as a novel, because you’re changing mediums, and a novel has different requirements. 

That’s pretty much what I can remember for now. This should help you with the bones of your novel, and you can add the meat on that. I hope it helps. But honestly, the best advice I can give you is 

SIT DOWN AND DO THE THING. 

not a digital art tutorial, but it might come in handy

moleskine = bad

IT’S SO BAD AND I HATE IT

moleskine makes people hate pens and is probably a huge part of why so many people give up on good pens.

to folks who might not know, moleskine is extremely famous AND infamous. they are hardcover notebooks with elastic enclosures. they are expensive, and sold everywhere from pharmacies to bookstores, and does collaborations with a variety of brands including james bond and pokemon. moleskine has tried to establish itself as a luxury notebook, which it technically is.

as long as you do not write in it.

moleskine paper is wholeheartedly shit. it is complete fucking garbage. you might wonder, what makes good paper? well the first thing is how well it can be written on. good paper can handle ink well. good ink handling means clear, solid lines without any feathering (fuzzy spreading), not bleeding through the page, and not ghosting. basically, you want paper that can do crisp lines with a variety of different inks and be used on both sides.

moleskine does not do that. anything more than a ballpoint or pencil will look fuzzy and gross and bleed right through the fucking page. the paper is shit. and that makes people think their pen is shit. and ballpoint pens can be seen on the other side of the page.

common knowledge is that fountain pens, rollerball pens, gel pens, felt pens, and more work better on good paper. good meaning good with ink. but when many people think good paper without knowing any better, they will reach for a moleskine notebook. because moleskine is expensive and advertises itself as good and is widely available. so people try out actually good writing implements on this shit paper, see how bad it works, and then blame the pen.

fountain pens, gel pens, and rollerball require much less pressure than ballpoint pens. they are ergonomic. easier on joints, easier for chronic pain. and moleskine makes people give up on them. nobody wants shitty bleeding feathered lines.

in the united states, our ideas of good paper and good stationery in general are extremely warped. so much of this is because paper here fucking sucks. a lot of paper performs like moleskine. there is shit paper at all price ranges. but you can pick up caliber brand paper (the ones that say made in vietnam) from cvs and have infinitely better performance for pennies. even though it looks low quality, caliber paper (vietnam) can even handle calligraphy ink clearly. bad paper makes people hate good pens and bad pens make people hate writing.

another thing really important to mention, a lot of people think thick paper is always better. this is extremely wrong. in terms of being able to handle a wide variety of inks clearly and cleanly, some of the best paper in the world is tissue thin (tomoe river).

do not buy moleskine. even if the stand is right there. they have some of the worst paper you can get at that price point. expensive paper is not always good paper, good pens need good paper, moleskine paper makes good pens seem awful, and moleskine is something you should only give to someone you loathe.

THIS.

God Moleskine is such a frustrating product, and as an aspiring stationer, I hate that it’s so popular in North America. They’re beautifully constructed, yes, but god the 70gsm paper that they use is SUCH GARBAGE when it comes to inks wetter than a ballpoint pen. They do offer heavier paper - 100-200gsm weight - but only in extremely expensive, large, or difficult to find products.

Leuchtturm 1917 produces great sketching books and, if you get their 120gsm notebooks, they hold up to inks fantastically. Their standard notebooks come in 80gsm paper, and that does hold up to fountain pen ink much better than Moleskine, but while you do get much less feathering and bleeding, there is still some bleedthrough with wetter pens.

Now, if you want the finest fountain pen paper I’ve found in a notebook format, you want Maruman’s Mnemosyne 183. It’s also an 80gsm paper, but it’s treated and laid in such a way that there’s no feathering or bleeding, even with a very wet fountain pen.

That said though, honestly the best notebook I have, in terms of accessibility, expense, and quality of paper, is a Brandz United notebook that I got for my birthday a few years back. It’s not anything special, in terms of paper weight - I can’t find anything concrete, but it feels like 80gsm to me - but it barely feathers and you need to really saturate the page for it to bleed through.

Also, if you’re looking for loose paper, I highly recommend Tomoe River’s paper - so fine and thin you can practically see through it, but it holds ink like a sponge, doesn’t bleed, has no feathering, and is smooth as glass. For correspondence, though, I am a fan of G. Lalo’s Pur Vélin, which is a 125gsm 50% cotton and 50% wood pulp paper. It’s absolutely beautiful and has just enough grain to it that there’s a super pleasant tactile feedback when you’re writing.

And if you want to go a lil’ bit fancy with gorgeous designs (and I mean GORGEOUS designs), look up Castelli. 

My current fave. No feathering, no bleeding, works perfect with ballpoint pens and with fountain pens, and the paper is super smooth. I’ve literally written novels in these fuckers. Also: cheaper than moleskine. 

@jimtheviking​ already mentioned Leuchtturm; I’m adding Black n’ Red, Clairefontaine and Rhodia.

All have better paper than Moleskine, which has been milking its early reputation for years while product quality went downhill. Now they’re just another Lifestyle Accessory for people who shop by brand-name.

I know I have a lot of artists who see my stuff

I was about to add Clairefontaine but I’ll add

ClaireFontaine’s paper is great no matter which books you get [or loose] but the age bag and Europa notebooks are my absolute fave, I buy them in batches to handwrite in with a fountain pen, and their sketching books, hardcover 90gsm is AMAZING if you draw with inks, especially crow and spoon pens, no bleeding, feathering and no catching with the sharp points

this feels like one of those subjects I Will Not Get, because the fanciest pen I own is the fisher space pen in my EDC

I have a notebook from Dollarama for $1.25 five or six years ago that handles my fountain pen’s ink better than a luxury grade notebook my mother found once and gave to me. Paper quality is SO important.

Dealing With Executive Dysfunction - A Masterpost

Two and a half years ago, shortly after my book Outside the Charmed Circle was published, I came across a request for a PDF of it on a subreddit known for distributing pirated books. Someone on that subreddit registered an objection to the book being, well, stolen goods, and another redditor responded with (a.) the dubious claim that pirated books drive sales, and (b.) even if they didn't, it was "a tax on the golden elite," meaning me.

"A tax on the golden elite." It's one of those phrases that sticks with you, especially when it's directed at you.

To date, my humble little book has sold somewhere around 2,000 copies. My royalty rate is pretty standard for authors in the niche I write in, right around a dollar a copy. This means that, since the preorders for the book were first opened in (I believe) December of 2019, I've made somewhere around $2,000.

I can't even be glib or coy about this: two grand over the course of three years is not "golden elite" money. That's why I have a day job, and why I have no interest in pursuing full-time writing as a profession. Dying of consumption in drafty garrets is romantic nonsense, and so is the notion that my work, our work, should be a gift to "the community" without any recompense. We need to eat, and pay bills, and maybe even support other artists, too.

There isn't a week that goes by that I don't think about that phrase, "a tax on the golden elite," and how it made me feel. And you know what? That feeling sucks. It sucks worse than having TERFs say my book is garbage, worse than people leaving mediocre reviews on multiple platforms because it wasn't the book they expected to be, worse than my own family's disinterest in reading it. It sucks because, in a way, it's the ultimate insult. These are people who valued my work enough to want it for free, sure... but not enough to pay me for it.

They are, in a very real sense, erasing me from the work I created for them.

And if that sucks for me, I can only guess that it sucks for other artists, as well.

I wish I knew how to write. that would be cool. it would be so cool if I could write. or if I were literate.

people were highly highly highly encouraged to go to college, to the point schools are now designed solely to get kids into college and rated on how many students go on to college-

and yet the past two years everyone acts like we are dumb for having gone to college?

No but actually!! The way that I've seen millions of times now that college is a scam and that I'm wasting my life in college is so??? Wild to me??

As if teachers all throughout my life, IN AS EARLY AS 2ND GRADE WHEN THEY TAUGHT US CURSIVE FOR COLLEGE CLASSES, weren't setting us up to go to college. Telling us we'd need to know x or y in college or that college was going to be more fast paced or harder than their class. Our entire formative years were influenced by those setting us up to go there. And now? That we do? We're idiots??

As if we haven't constantly been told we won't get a "real job" if we don't go to college. Constantly being told we'll end up as a bum or homeless if we don't go? The amount of anxiety instilled into us regarding college and now we're the idiots for listening to them??

Romantic Killer Content Warnings

The first nine episodes are relatively tame if a bit fucked up, but here are some things I would warn people about for episodes 10, 11, and 12!

Loved the show but I didn't know this so it kind fucked with me a lil bit! Please stay safe everyone <333

Folks, friends, y’all…. esk*mo is a slur. I understand a lot of people don’t know that, I don’t want to be a dick about it, but I’ve been seeing it in fics. Wanna write “esk*mo kisses”? Just say “nuzzled noses” or something.

I’m not here to call anybody out, it’s been in multiple fics, I’m not vague posting. This is just a psa. 👍🏻

If you could help me spread awareness about this by reblogging, I’d really appreciate it.

You bored, or feeling artsy but don’t have any inspiration...? *updated!*

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

Still haven’t found something that would float your boat? Try these:

Maybe none of these peeked your interest-maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start-or you just enjoy making O.C’s….

This masterlist is to help you in making your own OCs….it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! (´ヮ`)!

How to Write Better OCs:

Character Development:

Need an Appearance idea?

Diversity

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Villains

Relationships

ARCHETYPES

NAMES

APPEARANCE

DETAILS

Need Item names?

Other stuffs!

How to put “wrote fan-fiction” on your résumé:

Leveraged an inventory of established fictional character and setting elements to generate a disruptive custom-curated narrative entertainment asset.

I worked in HR, handling applications and interviews, and if someone turned in that string of techno babble nonsense, I would have rejected them out of hand.

A resume doesn’t need to sound fancy or overly technical, it needs to tell us why we should hire you.

“Independent novelist/writer” is more than sufficient here. If you want to express the skills that fan fiction taught you, something like, “creative writing, editing, and publication,” will get you a lot further than… Whatever that just was.

A resume should be tailored to the position, if you can afford the time and energy for that. But if not, then just think about what writing got fandom taught you. How to respond to criticism, how to present a professional pubic face, how to correct punished mistakes, creative thinking, project planning, persuasion via emotional leverage, html formatting, office suite fluency.

There are a lot of actual, marketable skills that go into fan fiction.

How to put “I was in a zine” on your resume

Writer:

Artist:

Merch artist / graphic designer:

Running a zine

Added some more

kita plants a tree on the farm the day you get married, his hands tender as he rakes soil over the tangle of roots, pressing firmly around the thin trunk of the sapling. you water it from intertwined hands, the water pouring from your cupped palms like a benediction. the heavy scent of wet earth perfumes the air; it reminds you of him in the sowing season, when the paddies eddy at his feet. you press a kiss to his scarred knuckles, and he tugs you close.

he kisses you with still-wet palms cradling your cheeks, his callused fingers reverent against your skin. the tree's leaves whisper in the breeze, and it matches the catch in his breath when he pulls away.

you press your forehead against his, and say nothing.

there's nothing that needs to be said, because your husband plants a tree the day you get married, all so that your love still lives long after you're both gone.

@khinux you are so correct!!

it is absolutely a fruit tree and you try the fruit for the first time on your anniversary. but fruit trees take a long time to mature, and the fruit is tart that year, a sharp taste that nips at your tongues.

(kita kisses away the sting.)

you try again the next year, and it's sweeter this time. a mellowed flavor, soft but not without a bite. the flesh isn't quite juicy yet.

(kita buys you fruit at the farmer's market, and smiles at the way juice runs down your chin.)

you keep trying, always curious to see which year will be the one. the fruit sweetens each year, as if drizzled by honey, and it grows plumper, too.

on your fifth anniversary, you manage to convince kita to take the first bite. his eyes light up, sunstruck amber, and you know as he nudges the wedge of fruit against your lips. you sink your teeth in, and it's perfect, like the summer sun is sweet on your tongue, juice dripping sticky from your lips. you laugh, and kita smiles, big and broad and precious, and plucks another piece of fruit from the tree. he coaxes you to sit under it with him, and you swap slices through the afternoon, until you're full.

(and you know that you will always eat well.)