having ocs is like she's my daughter. she's my power fantasy. i'm giving her everything i hate about my personality. she's a war criminal. she's never done anything wrong in her life ever. i love her. i hate her. i'm making her life miserable. who did this to her. she's unlikeable but everyone should like her. she's baby. she does cocaine in the bathroom

everyone tagging this "me but my ocs are guys" get OFF my post this post is for mean and irredemable wretched bitches who PERCH ON THE CEILING and HISS AND SCREECH and are SO CRINGE and SUCK SO BAD. FICTIONAL CUNTS ONLY!!!!!!

The desperate desire to create vs the oh so constant sleepiness plaguing my every action

So, since I keep seeing this on writerblr and have actually learned a bit about this process in my writing classes, I feel the need to say something. Nothing wrong with joking about spinning ideas around in your head and not writing, it's something we all go through. However, I feel like there's some real writing shame connected to the idea, and I think it's important we as writers lessen that.

Although a lot of writers see these as days or hours of lost progress, allowing yourself to become immersed in an idea, a world, a character, etc. is actually a super important part of the writing process. Yes, you may have no word count that day, but internally, you are expanding on content, plot threads, and what have you that is extremely important to having a word count later.

So, as someone that often pushes myself to write when I need more time doing this, please don't feel bad about just daydreaming about your wip or sitting on it for a while. It may feel like nothing, but it is a part of the writing process.

writing is so hard i want to be praised for all my most clever lines right now

everyone is like ‘writing is so isolating’ but i write three lines and immediately hit up all my friends for attention like im a cat who’s never been fed

[Text description:

Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.

END]

Richard Siken, the worm king’s lullaby; from “War Of Foxes”

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[ID: Tumblr user @slowwshoww writes:

suzanne collins killing prim after everything katniss did to save her………. THATS how you write a story about the brutality and futility of war ma'am thats what we call a compelling and fucked up narrative yessums thats storytelling babes!!!!

Tumblr user @books—and-cleverness adds a quote from an interview with the author of the book:

« That was one of the first questions I asked her when we sat down: ‘Did you always know that [Prim] was going to die?’ And she said, ‘Oh yeah, of course, that’s the whole point.’ » (x)

END ID]

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[ID: Tumblr user @orpheuslament:

i love tragedy i love circular narratives i love ppl who cannot escape their fate & characters that have been dead since the beginning

END ID]

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[ID: Tumblr user @faustandfurious:

the worst fictional deaths are actually the ones you see coming, where there is enough foreshadowing that you have time to hope, against all odds, that the character will survive, even as you realise that there’s no way out this time, they’re not going to make it, this was always how it was going to end.

END ID]

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[Text description:

Do you still believe myths

can save you? Foolish creature

Let me be clear: every version of this story

Ends with you being slaughtered.

END]

Tory Adkisson, Anecdote of the Pig

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[ID: Tumblr user @sawasawako:

if you’re dead at the end of the story were you dead from the beginning. oh emily brontë we’re really in it now

END]

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[Text description:

This was always going to happen. She’s been dead from the beginning.

END]

Aeschylus, The Oresteia

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[Text description:

This is why people cry at the movies: because everybody’s doomed. No one in a movie can help themselves in any way. Their fate has already staked its claim on them from the moment they appear onscreen.

END]

John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

And!

Reblog to save a writer’s life.

i think more characters should have canes actually. theyre cool. theyre sexy. they can have swords in them. they come in any color u want.

hi im stepping in as ur local cane user and i just wanna quickly add this about cane swords: if someone is putting weight onto their cane, they almost definitely aren’t using a cane sword (some exceptions may be possible). this is because the usual cane sword is made hollow with a relatively flimsy exterior metal as to not scrape against the interior sword, and thus the handle is typically the only solid part.

trust me–i’ve been on the lookout for a sturdy cane sword for years that would be practical for use and everytime i could feel it struggling under pressure.

it makes it relatively unreliable as a cane for the majority of people who use canes…. however! there is a neat alternative!

you can instead opt for a trusty knife hidden in the top of the cane, therefore making the rest of the cane sturdier to use, and, additionally, less likely to be checked when passing security. another fantastic cane that a friend of mine has actually unscrews the handle to reveal a tiny compartment that fits a small bottle. she mentioned it’s an antique, so we theorized that it was for cocaine back in the day, but it could fit other things (cyanide, maybe for a disabled spy character?)

also, as someone who also is trained in sword-based self defense: i find that i can relatively translate most basic strikes using my cane, if needed. just something to use….

what i’m getting at is there are lots of ways to expand upon epic cane usages.

Yeah, who needs the sword if you can just whack and crack bones to begin with? Just get one with somewhat pointy metal end for extra stab if necessary and you are good.

i know we writers complain about writing a lot as a joke, and that’s completely fine, but it’s also important to remember why we love it and what we find in it!

we keep coming back to the blank page because we believe we can fill it. we build something from nothing more than our own imaginations. we transfer thoughts to words to paper to people. writing really is one of the most beautiful things we can do, and that’s one of my favorite things about it.

unique writing asks🖋️

i know it’s been said before, but it bears repeating: a big, big part of maintaining your confidence & self esteem as a creator is fully embracing the concept of “you don’t have to be good like them.  you can be good like you.”

for example, i’m not someone who’s particularly good at coming up with complex, elaborate plots or incredibly unique ideas.  it’s just not how i choose to write.  and it would be easy for me to look at someone with an elaborate, super unique plot & decide that because i don’t write like that, i’m not a good writer.  after all, unique plots are good, and my writing lacks those, so my writing must not be good, right?  well, no, actually.  i just have different strengths, like taking a simple premise & digging super deep into its emotional depths.  that’s what i do well & it isn’t any better or worse than people who do elaborate world building or come up with really creative and unexpected plots.

your writing is never going to be all things to all people.  it just isn’t.  inevitably, you’ll have to make creative choices that favor certain aspects of writing over others.  there is truly no getting around that & it’s honestly a good thing, because it means you’ve developed your own style.  but you’ll always encounter other creators who posses strengths that you don’t.  it doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that your writing isn’t good enough. 

comparing yourself like that would be like taking a piece of pizza & a cupcake & going “oh no, that cupcake is so sweet & my pizza isn’t sweet at all.” or “gosh, the garlic crust on that pizza is delicious and my cupcake doesn’t have ANY garlic.”  obviously your pizza isn’t sweet.  obviously your cupcake doesn’t have garlic.  a food can’t have every single delicious flavor at once.  the cupcake is good like a cupcake.  the pizza is good like a pizza.  so you don’t have to be good like them.  you can be good like you.

Here’s some odds and ends of pictures and failed pictures from the lunar eclipse last night. The blood moon was too dark for me to get a good good photo but I tried.