So according to an interview with Neil Gaiman in the back of Good Omens, before Terry Pratchett became a full time writer he wrote at least 400 words a day.

I’ve been trying it out for a couple weeks now and let me tell you 400 words is a totally awesome goal. It is very approachable and not intimidating, often leads to more than 400 words cause well now I have to finish this scene. 

Seriously I probably would have written nothing in the last couple weeks, instead I’ve written 1000′s of words. 

10/10 would recommend.

Terry would be proud.

ease : preview / download

this is a simple, easy-to-customise tags page. instructions on how to customise this theme (including changing the number of columns) are in the code and you can have an unlimited number of tags. boxes are stacked with masonry. 

Vibrant “Natural” Coloring Tutorial

Someone asked if I could make a tutorial on how I color, specifically referring to the last gifset of Luke I posted. I’m going to share a bit of my general coloring technique and a few examples of color correcting. Keep in mind that I take extra time when I make gifsets and, although I color with my same technique every time, I start ALL of my coloring from scratch. There isn’t a PSD I’ve saved. Disclaimer: this is my personal preference for coloring and what I think looks good. You don’t have to agree, of course. Anyways, on to the tutorial:

*This tutorial is for those with a basic knowledge of photoshop/gif making* **I use Photoshop CS6 and KMPlayer to get my screencaps**

I’ll be showing you how to get from the first gif to the second under the cut:

Keep reading

FONTS by AUDITOREPS

Everything in these PSDs is editable, including:

[download]

Portals

Portals to another world are a staple of fantasy world. Chronicles of Narnia; Stargate; Monsters, Inc.; and many others have portals to another world, all presented differently. I’ll go over some different types of portals and ways to deal with them.

Types of Portals

Portal to a parallel universe

Portals to parallel universes, like the quantum mirror in Stargate SG-1, transfer the character(s) from this world to a parallel one, one where there has been some divergence but where it is still fundamentally the same as where they came from.

There are basically two types of portals you can have for this. You can have a physical portal, like with the quantum mirror, or you can have a purely magic portal. I’ve seen one story where the portal is passive and worn and transfers the consciousness to the same body in another world when the person wearing it dies.

There are three main things to think about for this:

Is it two-way? You need to figure out whether or not it’s a one-way trip, and your character doesn’t need to know the answer to this when they go through the first one. If it is a two-way trip, there should probably be some symmetrical means to get back. It always reads weirdly when they come through by one means and come back by another. There has to be a really good reason for the characters to come back a different way than they came; the physical object only existing in one world is one of the only good reasons I can think of. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be a whole adventure to be able to go back home.

Where do they come out? You have a few options for this. They can come out in an arbitrary place, they can come out at some set magic nexus, they can come out wherever the physical object is on the other side, or they can come out in the same place (longitude/latitude). For each of these options, you need to think about why they come out where they do.

Do they replace alternate!them? Because they’re coming out in a world that they would theoretically exist in, think about whether they replace them or exist in addition to them. In Stargate SG-1, for example, there are times when they show up and there’s another of them there and there are times when other!them is dead and they never interact with them. Both of these have their issues—what happens when you meet yourself, how are you different from other!you, how do people keep from conflating you, etc.—and you need to figure out how to incorporate them into your story.

Portal to another planet

What I’m talking about here is where the characters and the reader know that they are on another planet in the same universe (and often the same galaxy) as where they came from. The classic example of this (and yes, I have a theme) is Stargate, where they use portals to travel to other planets. For this, one of the biggest things to think about is making the new planet(s) livable without making it/them Earth. Do the aliens look human? Are they even humanoid? How do they communicate with each other? How do they communicate with the protagonist?

Also, how did the portals get there? In Stargate, they were seeded through the galaxy, as were the humans, which is why there are humans on many of the planets with Stargates. If there are ones to multiple planets, you also need to think about dialing and identification systems, as well as whether or not characters have other means to get to these planets (i.e. space ships).

Portal to a magic/other world

This is the classic idea à la Narnia, where there is some way to get to another totally unrelated world that is neither on another planet not in a parallel universe. The common story with this is a character or characters on Earth being teleported to a world with magic and either being the “chosen one” or otherwise getting embroiled in political unrest or war while having to figure out their way around.

These worlds tend to look Narnia and/or Tolkein-esque, with foresty pseudo-European landscapes and cultures. As with all fantasy stories, that isn’t at all necessary. You can have them show up in desserts or tundras or marshes or floating cities or underground or literally wherever you want. It’s fantasy.

Another common thing is to have the world be magic with pseudo-European-medieval-except-without-the-gross-stuff levels of technology. You don’t need to go in that direction. You can have whatever type of magic you want with whatever level of technology you want, because these worlds don’t need to have the same historic path as the Earth.

Portal hub

Another option is that there is a hub of portals where a character can enter from any and go through to any other—or whatever other level of security or access you want—and it can end up as some sort of trade or culture hub.

Things to Think About

What is the portal? Whether or not the portal is a physical thing, there needs to be some idea of what the portal actually is. Traditionally it’s something that’s walked through, like a literal gate, but it can also be an object or a teleportation spell.

How does the portal work? Is it activated by touch? Is it activated by magic? Is there a ritual? Is there a specific time it needs to be turned on? Is there a specific place it needs to be? Is there a set of criteria to create it or make it work? Is there a specific length of time for which it can be turned on? Is passing through active or passive?

Who has access to it? This is true both in terms of physical access—who can physically get to it, who knows about it—and in terms of who can pass through magic-wise. There could be a class distinction or a location requirement, or maybe only a select number of people know about it (e.g. Narnia, Stargate).

Can inanimate objects be sent through? Can communication (e.g. radio or sound waves) be sent through?

What is the cost? This is tied into how it works, but also think about what physical objects may be needed, what physical toll opening it or passing through may cost, or what magic may be required.

Can it be opened from both sides? Is it possible to pull someone through to your side or even open up a portal and let people come through from another side without them opening it on their side?

103. psd by ironcollection xx

how to redirect ‘/ask’ to your faq page

It can be frustrating sometimes when people go on to your blog and want to ask you a question but rather than going to your linked faq/ask page they go directly to yoururl.tumblr.com/ask this is a simple solution to that problem.

Add this somewhere between <head> and </head> in your code:

You can see this in action by adding /ask on to the end of my url here

Theme ‘limerence’ — oulysses

Features:

Helpful Reminders for Paragraph-Based RPing

Hello friends! I’ve been RPing for at least 7 years with many different characters, and one thing that I find pretty common is nervousness/insecurity about para-based RPing. So I decided to make a quick guide of things to keep in mind and little bits of etiquette too, because even seasoned folks want some pointers now and then.

(I am by no means an authority on this! Obviously these rules aren’t universal, but they’re a good starting point!)

What to include in your post:

It takes practice to find a good balance between these aspects, but I find it helpful to run through all of these and see what I can add if I find my response is too short.

Length! When writing a reply, it is helpful and considerate to try and match the length of your partner’s reply. They took the time to write it out, and it makes everyone feel good to see that you took just as much time. It also makes it easier for them to reply in return. Obviously it is sometimes difficult to match the length of your partner, but most RPers use the general rule that you try to at least match half of their length. 

Description! Describing your character’s surroundings is also a helpful tool. Your character is probably 99% of the time not going to be in an empty void. What do they interact with? What do they see? Think of the five senses. This is a great way to add length to your post if you are struggling.

Other guidelines/etiquette to keep in mind:

That’s honestly all I can think of right now, but I hope this is helpful to some people! Please feel free to reblog this, and if anyone has anything to add, don’t hesitate to do so!

Below you will find #155 hispanic surnames. I’ve kept this list mildly popular, but there are a few uncommon ones in there too, and definitely quite a few underused in roleplay. The list is in alphabetical order. If you need help naming your hispanic character, please refer to this post.

Keep reading

Hi! This fonts were found by my snowps. I hope you enjoy and pls like/reblog if you take

// barefootbluejeannight // californiaharvest // Dksundaymonday / stealingkissesinthemoonlight  // shimes two //  snowinter // Lyrics Movement // september mornings //

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

apparently i have written quite a few guides/tutorials - O_O - here’s a list of the code tutorials so far… no doubt, this will be added to - make sure to check the ‘resources & tutorials’ page for more…

g  d o e s  a  t h i n g - how to make a tumblr theme from scratch;

[ parts 6 & 7 come with full base codes… ]

c o d i n g  &  t h e m e s

popups;

custom fonts and text effects;

editing links and permalinks;

theme backgrounds;

other and misc;