messy chaotic ‘we’re terrible for each other but can’t keep our hands off each other’ prompts

oh hello i am in fact alive

(X)

got a concertina recently! here's a little tune i wrote for it.

I WOULD PAY TEN TIMES AS MUCH FOR CHOCOLATE IF IT MEANT REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF SLAVES IN THE WORLD? HOW IS THIS ANY KIND OF PROBLEM. 

good news, you can! the company’s called Tony’s Chocolonely and their entire purpose is to make slave-free chocolate and reform the chocolate industry.

https://tonyschocolonely.com/us/en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony%27s_Chocolonely

Whole Foods carries it. If you don’t want to support an Amazon-owned company, World Market carries it. You can also buy it directly from the company. 

It’s the best chocolate I’ve ever had and it’s 100% slave free. Tony’s Chocolonely works really hard to push for transparency within the chocolate industry and actually has and is following an action plan to eliminate slavery within cocoa production. They’re good people who make good chocolate.

A list of slavery-free chocolate companies:

Taza chocolate is really good 

This is super important! Slave child labor is used in many many cocoa farms from big name companies like Nestle and Dove. Here is a good link discussing it: http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/ .

 And here is an easy score card to see who the worst offenders are/who to avoid most: https://www.greenamerica.org/end-child-labor-cocoa/chocolate-scorecard 

Stefan and Ike training.

(Path of Radiance, A-Rank Soren, B-Rank Stefan for Soren, Near End-Game)

More under cut.

FE Engage Outfit Swap Challenge: MAlear x Diamant

— longing for someone prompts ◛⑅·˚ ༘ ♡

writing prompts to get to know your characters better

• individual characters

write a description of them from the pov of their best friend.

write a description of them from the pov of a person who absolutely hates them.

write their earliest or favourite memory.

write their death scene even if you are not planning on killing them.

if your character had a yt channel, write the script of their most watched video.

• one on one friendships

first meeting is overdone. write their first fight instead.

write a series of text conversations between the two.

one character has been detained / arrested, and the other one is trying to get them out.

how would they behave at an elementary school sleepover?

they've been working on a joint bucket list since they became close. write the bucket list.

• friend groups

a group picture goes horribly wrong. write the scene.

find some 'most likely to' questions. use them within the group.

one of them goes out of town, and the rest of the group has to watch their house/plants/pets/kid while they're away.

one friend works at a restaurant. the other friends decide to eat there. describe how they get the friend fired in one night.

• romantic relationships

write their breakup scene. doesn't matter if they break up in the book or not.

someone kills one of them. describe the other one's reaction.

write the stupidest argument they've ever had.

they return to the place where they first met/kissed. somehow, the place has been changed, and not for the better.

write a proposal scene.

Deflate when writing prose; inflate when writing essays for school.

ok but like when did self-sacrifice become synonymous with death? writers seem to have forgotten that people can make personal sacrifices for the greater good without giving their lives. plots about self-sacrifice and selflessness don’t always have to end in death. suffering doesn’t have to be mourning. you can create drama and emotional depth on your show without killing everyone. learn to explore the meaning of living rather than dying

Death. Is. NOT. The. Only. Way. To. Advance. The. Narrative.

Fun things to sacrifice for your loved ones in your free time that don’t include death and actually set up for a whole new season of high level drama:

- humanity (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) - memories (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) - love for that special someone (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) - emotions (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) - rank/position/ - yourself/your brain/your skills (give yourself over to bad guys and become their brainwashed agent so your loved ones live) - years of bloody ruthless traditions to make way for peace (hi lexa and fuck jroth tbh) - freedom (includes that of speech/mind/will) - your grandpa’s fortune - hell even material possessions have that girl sacrifice her goddamn house so they can pay off her gf’s student loans or whatever juST STOP KILLING CHARACTERS TO FURTHER YOUR PLOT

more on writing muslim characters from a hijabi muslim girl

- hijabis get really excited over pretty scarves - they also like to collect pins and brooches - we get asked a lot of questions and it can be annoying or it can be amusing, just depends on our mood and personality and how the question is phrased - common questions include: - “not even water?” (referring to fasting) - hijabis hear a lot of “do you sleep in that?” (we don’t) and “where is your hair?” (in a bun or a braid, usually) - “is it mooze-slim or mozzlem?” (the answer is neither, it’s muslim, with a soft s and accent on the first syllable) - “ee-slam or iz-lamb?” (it’s iss-laam, accent on the first syllable) - “hee-job?” (heh-jahb, accent on the second syllable)

- “kor-an?” (no. quran. say it like koor-annn, accent on the second syllable) - people tend to mess up our names really badly and you just get a sigh and a resigned nod or an awkward smile, maybe a nickname instead - long hair is easy to hide, short hair is harder to wrap up - hijab isn’t just covering hair, it’s also showing as little skin as possible with the exception of face, hands, and feet, and not wearing tight/sheer clothing - that applies to men too, people just don’t like to mention it ( i wonder why) - henna/mehendi isn’t just for special occasions, you’ll see people wearing it for fun - henna/mehendi isn’t just for muslims, either, it’s not a religious thing - henna/mehendi is not just for women, men also wear it, especially on their weddings - there are big mehendi parties in the couple of nights before eid where people (usually just women and kids) gather and do each other’s mehendi, usually just hands and feet - five daily prayers - most muslim kids can stutter through a couple verses of quran in the original arabic text by the age of seven or eight, it does not matter where they live or where they’re from or what language they speak natively - muslim families tend to have multiple copies of the quran - there are no “versions” of the quran, there has only ever been one. all muslims follow the exact same book - muslims have no concept of taking God’s name in vain, we call on God at every little inconvenience - don’t use islamic phrases if you don’t know what they mean or how to use them. we use them often, inside and outside of religious settings. in islam, it is encouraged to mention God often and we say these things very casually, but we take them very seriously - Allahu Akbar means “God is Greatest” (often said when something shocks or surprises us, or if we’re scared or daunted, or when something amazing happens, whether it be good or bad; it’s like saying “oh my god”) - Subhan Allah means “Glory be to God” (i say subhan Allah at the sky, at babies, at trees, whatever strikes me as pleasant, especially if it’s in nature) - Bismillah means “in the name of God” and it’s just something you say before you start something like eating or doing your homework - In Shaa Allah means “if God wills” (example: you’ll be famous, in shaa Allah) (it’s a reminder that the future is in God’s hands, so be humble and be hopeful)

- Astaghfirullah means “i seek forgiveness from Allah” and it’s like “god forgive me” - Alhamdulillah means “all thanks and praise belong to God” and it’s just a little bit more serious than saying “thank god” (example: i passed my exams, alhamdulillah; i made it home okay, alhamdulillah) - when i say we use them casually, i really mean it - teacher forgot to assign homework? Alhamdulillah - our version of “amen” is “ameen” - muslims greet each other with “assalamu alaikum” which just means “peace be on you” and it’s like saying hi - the proper response is “walaikum assalam” which means “and on you be peace” and it’s like saying “you too”

As a Muslim this post is so very important and it makes me so happy that it gives the small facts and details that one might be unaware of or confused about.

Low level/continuous pain tips for writing

Want to avoid the action movie effect and make your character's injuries have realistic lasting impacts? Have a sick character you're using as hurt/comfort fodder? Everyone has tips for how to write Dramatic Intense Agony, but the smaller human details of lasting or low-level discomfort are rarely written in. Here are a few pain mannerisms I like to use as reference:

General

Limb pain

Nausea/fever/non-pain discomfort

If you have any more details that you personally use to bring characters to life in these situations, I'd love to hear them! I'm always looking for ways to make my guys suffer more write people with more realism :)

I want more stories that explore the angst potential of unrequited platonic love.

Like:

‘You’ve always been like a brother to me but I’ve realised you only come to me when you want something’

‘My surrogate parental figure just sees me as another student/employee/lackey’

‘I raised you like my own child but you don’t even remember who I am’

And of course, the classic ‘You’re my best (and only) friend but I know I’m only one of yours’.

Oh maaaan, platonic pining is such a big thing for me. I think it’s something most of my fandoms have in common … I’ve come to realize that what I really want out of a piece of media is a relationship arc that hits most of the beats of a UST/pining arc, or a classic bickering-lovers/enemies-to-lovers arc, but does it with friendship and/or family relationships. Characters desperately yearning to be friends or family, and not knowing if their love is requited, is so completely my jam in every way.

i firmly hold that it's my duty as a reader to believe it when an author tells me at the beginning of the series that the dragons are gone forever and never coming back. but god it's a struggle sometimes.

degrees of difficulty, ascending order:

Dragons come back, but its only remarked upon briefly and incidental to the plot, as the fate of nations is mainly determined by socioeconomic considerations

Further Notes on Writing Signed Language

So I had a good think about this, based off of what I have written lately. As I go further into my novel, do even more research into different types of sign, and start on the arc that is written solely from the POV of my deaf character, I’ve begun to realize some other differences between signed and spoken dialogue.

For one thing, punctuation doesn’t apply in the same way. There is punctuation in sign language, but as I’ve talked about before, it is mostly facial; therefore, you describe it as a part of the dialogue tags. So then, what do about the commas, colons and semi-colons? In this case, the n-dash is your friend! The aforementioned punctuation marks indicate changes in tone, alterations of pace and pauses. Therefore, they can be replaced with an  n-dash, like so

And fingerspelled words would be written as single letters, hyphenated into a word:

For another, the syntax of your translated signed dialogue is subtly different. One sign can ususally mean several different words and filler words are absent. If someone were to say “really big.” in sign, they might just make the sign for “big” and super over-exaggerate.

So, verbal dialogue version:

And the signed dialogue version:

Keeping in mind that large, big, huge, bountiful (and other connected synonyms) are all the same sign.

I don’t like to write signed language in the syntax that it would be signed in (Name, yours, what instead of “what is your name”). Not only is this confusing for non-signing readers, but it also reads as childish or overly-simplistic for readers who don’t understand sign, which reinforces the harmful stereotype of deaf people being stupid/infantilisation of deaf people. It is impossible to truly do signed language justice in writing, because it’s a language made for hands, bodies and faces.

This all comes together to mean that the sentence structure of dialogue in sign will be different. You would use less contractions (isn’t, you’re, might’ve etc), fewer modifiers and shorter chunks of dialogue with the description of the sign in between.

If it reads differently or feels strange, that’s okay: signed language is different to verbal language and so they won’t sound the same as one another in writing. They’re more like cousins or step-siblings than part of the same direct family group. You’re utilizing different descriptors and tools.

Hopefully, this also answers the repeated issue of differentiation, which has come up time and time again from various people. Best of luck to you all with your writing x

 There’s also the option to do a bit more showing vs. telling. And it needn’t only apply to signed language, kind of like how some authors will write something along the lines of “He swore so colourfully and so vehemently, I was sure our father would rise from his grave to give him a proper scolding.”

 “She signed that she had seen a big dog, except she threw so much arm-waving emphasis on “big”, I figure she must have seen Clifford the Big Red Dog.”

"what should i say?"- it's time to meet the parents