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A land not safe from torment;

@ofwoodsandwaves / ofwoodsandwaves.tumblr.com

Linn. 25. I feel the fire, the end of the road
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crowetrry
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ofwoodsandwaves
“I will hurt you, he says. His arms are hanging heavy at his side. I will destroy you, he says. His fingers brush your cheek. I will burn you, he says. The match he holds is broken. I will, I will, he says. His sweet breath at your neck. Please do, you say. His hands dig a hole into you, and he buries himself deep in your lungs, honeyed and addictive like your dying breath.”

— 1am; you thought you couldn’t make any more bad choices (l.d)

#oooooold stuff
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thestateofardadreaming
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runawaymarbles

There should be a fanfic writing game called the showrunners challenge where someone writes a story and partway through someone else can play things like "actor leaves after 4000 more words" or "topic now too politically sensitive due to unforeseen world events" or "lost rights to that reference"

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copperbadge

I need this to be a real game right the hell now

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sprintingowl

I do not have the energy do do a full layout right now b/c it is kickstarter season and I am under water, but here's a prototype that can be solo-played (you can also have a friend just pick from the lists if you want that pvp feeling.)

Showrunner's Challenge By Runawaymarbles (also sorta by sprintingowl)

Begin writing a fanfic. It is a feature length television program being watched every week by thousands. There is no plan. The industry is in shambles. The writer's room is barely hanging on.

At the end of each chapter, roll a d12.

1 Everything at once. Roll twice, use both. If you get this again, keep rolling. Your only way out is to stop getting 1s. 2 Product placement! The next chapter must center (and subtly promote the features of) a product belonging to the most recent brand you've seen. 3 Fan favorite. Your most recently mentioned character (or named object) is now beloved by the audience. You must give it a bigger part in the story, a special destiny, or an important new romance or friendship. If you get this twice for the same character or object, the adoration cools and you must go back to treating the character or object normally. 4 Executive meddling. You must change to a different genre. You cannot go back to a genre until you have changed genres three times since then. 5 Audiences are craving more coziness. The next chapter must be completely low stakes and set you at ease. 6 Audiences are craving more suspense. The next chapter must take place entirely in a single location, ideally just a single room, and build tension with every exchange of dialog. 7 Audiences are craving more action. The next chapter needs to involve at least one extended fight scene, and the weapons must be the last three objects mentioned. 8 Audiences are craving more romance. The next chapter needs to involve a deep, sappy confession of either love or admiration between two characters that have not previously been romantically involved. 9 Go to the most recent line in your fic that references a brand. Due to ongoing legal action, that brand cannot be mentioned again, but you score 1 audience point every time you allude to it in a way that paints it in a negative light. 10 The two most recently mentioned characters' actors have, IRL, gone through a VERY messy divorce or friend breakup. You cannot put them in the same scene, but they must both remain relevant parts of the show. If you get this with the same two characters again, they reconcile. 11 The most recent negative event (stabbing, poisoning, banishment to jupiter) is now the center of a very real IRL news story. You must immediately pivot away from all plotlines involving it and, if possible, also find away to apologize for even thinking to include it without breaking character. 12 The most recently mentioned character's actor has decided to leave the show. You must write them out in the next chapter. If you are brave, also roll a d12. 1--6, they were well loved and their sendoff must be as flowery as possible. 7--12, they were despised by the cast and crew. Mulch them.

You win if you can complete the fic in a state of relative coherency.

Alternate Game Mode: TV Digest Version

Don't write full chapters, just summaries of what happens in each chapter.

Alternate Game Mode: Realism Edition

Start your fanfic with your own telling of the first episode of an existing show, then proceed from there.

#this is ridiculously interesting#very tempting lol#writing challenge#writing prompt
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wishful-thinkment
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apocryphics

lydia davis

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snakesonacartesianplane

In the same vein:

"The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to a highly distinctive feature of modern English vocabulary: sets of three items, all expressing the same fundamental notion but differing slightly in meaning or style, e.g., kingly, royal, regal; rise, mount, ascend; ask, question, interrogate; fast, firm, secure; holy, sacred, consecrated. The Old English word (the first in each triplet) is the most colloquial, the French (the second) is more literary, and the Latin word (the last) more learned." (Howard Jackson and Etienne Zé Amvela, "Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology." Continuum, 2000)

via ThoughtCo

Though I like how John McWhorter phrases it better:

But language tends not to do what we want it to. The die was cast: English had thousands of new words competing with native English words for the same things. One result was triplets allowing us to express ideas with varying degrees of formality. Help is English, aid is French, assist is Latin. Or, kingly is English, royal is French, regal is Latin – note how one imagines posture improving with each level: kingly sounds almost mocking, regal is straight-backed like a throne, royal is somewhere in the middle, a worthy but fallible monarch.

from "English is not normal"

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bngrc

This funny thing happens when you try to translate from Chinese into English.

See every language has it's own way of sounding pretentious. English speakers do it by using long multisyllabic words of latinate origin. Chinese speakers who want to sound pretentious speak in idioms derived from classical Chinese poetry/literature.

When translators (usually native Chinese speakers) convert this style of dialogue into English, they usually do so by finding an English idiom that has a similar meaning to the Chinese idiom in the original dialogue. This usually results in a very awkward translation. English idioms don't convey that same fancy/high class vibe that Chinese idioms do. In fact they often convey the opposite vibe.

The result is ... weird.

You're watching cdramas set in the 17th century where all the characters are supposed to be royals/gentry . You know they're supposed to sound over-educated and snooty and pretentions, but then you read the English subtitles the translation is chock full of corny platitudes like "a day late and a dollar short" or "when the cat's away the mice will play" or "all's well that ends well."

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