The Skellingcorner

[mariah-wants-to-live]

[mx-bones]

when ppl try to start shit on your blog

[writerswritecompany]

30 Writing Prompts For April 2017

[writingwithcolor]

emeelwrites-blog asked:

I'm working on a story where there are many mythological creatures that appear in lots of cultures, like dragons and unicorns. I want to include influence from multiple cultures in each to the overall species while maintaining some cultural differences in breeds (like all dragons would have a general appearance and abilities but it would vary between the different regions of origin). How would you suggest I go about this without having one culture speak louder than others or drowning one out?

Should I give Cultures Equal Attention in my Story?

How would you suggest I go about this without having one culture speak louder than others or drowning one out?

By not worrying about having one culture speak over another because you are not writing an anthropological-style dissertation for fantasy genres, you are writing a story.  

And the principle of “don’t speak over other peoples’ experiences” has to do with warning people about preventing others from learning about other viewpoints and experiences in order to better understand a situation that is usually social and/or political. 

The whole Frankfurtian school of “MUST ALWAYS MULTICULTURALISM” is just, no dude, you gotta have a main character or at least a band of main characters, so there’s gonna be focus on something.  

Quality, not quantity, this isn’t about quotas.

I mean do your world building, but people don’t read stories to learn about made up fantastical sh*t that doesn’t exist, they read stories to relate to characters and be sucked into the suspense of what’s gonna happen next. 

Quality world-building is a vehicle for the story and a means to set mood and tone and motif. It doesn’t drive the conflict, it creates an environment for it. 

If you want to make these characters some kind of political message in disguise and one culture representing a real world one, and the plot examines a relevant topic that disproportionately impacts members of that culture, then yeah you want to worry about not mis-representing it, but that boils down to accurate research and beta reading, not making sure all of the cultures get a say in.

- Rodríguez

[sweetlittlevampire]

vamp-prince-mikhael hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet: Bye bye, hip-long hair!

show show show!

@vamp-prince-mikhael I was already in bed so it´s a wee bit disheveled, but I´m very satisfied with the outcome.
Also say hi to my nightgown!

[its-a-writer-thing]

Things I Try to Remember When I’m Nervous About Writing

[lunamanar]

1. Write what you want to read. 

2. There is no problem with a story so great that it cannot be fixed in revision. Keep going.

3. If your story is as uncreative as you think it is, you wouldn’t want to write it so badly. You want to write it because there’s a unique spin on it you have never seen, and want to express. Many people may write similar stories, but it’s the details that make it personal. You may not know it now, but there is someone who is looking for exactly what you’re writing. If you don’t finish it, they’ll never see it. 

4. You can write something amazing and still be met with silence. There are myriad reasons for this that have nothing to do with the quality of what you produce. 

4.1 It’s okay to repeat post your work if no one has seen it. 

4.2 It’s okay to post your work in multiple places.

5. You don’t have to agree with every criticism (but take it gracefully anyway). 

6. Most writers are scared of the same things you are.

7. Don’t judge your works in progress against the archives of finished, polished stories other writers have put together. Archives are Internet portfolios and generally don’t show all the multitude of failures, incomplete, and draft-form works those writers are also struggling with. They aren’t perfect and you don’t have to be, either. Keep working and you will have a portfolio of your own. 

8. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with other writers. It’s not annoying as long as you’re not self-important about it. Be humble and gracious, and others will reciprocate.

8.1 You can’t write as well in a vacuum; the more people know that you are working on something, and what, the more support you will get for that work. Starting a dialogue before you post something will make it more likely people will read it when you do post it. 

9. It’s okay to take breaks. If the ideas just aren’t coming, go do something else for a while. 

10. Be kind to yourself. Don’t call yourself names. You are not stupid, or uncreative, or boring. You wouldn’t call other people those things, so don’t do it to yourself. 

I don’t know if these are helpful to other people, but they are helpful to me, so just in case, here they are!

[writerswritecompany]

Happy Birthday, Tobias Hill, born 30 March 1970

10 Quotes

1. Judgements and secrets are what make a good novel.
2. Imagination isn’t more important than knowledge to the writer; not even to the poet. Knowledge in good writing isn’t something you can always see, but then you can’t see foundations. Imagination rises out of knowledge, and poets are not and never have been innocent creators.
3. People have expectations of what you are as a writer. And writers, on the whole, don’t like to be classified.
4. My strong suits, coming from poetry, will naturally be description, which I love doing. It comes very easily, and possibly structure, up to a point.
5. The problem with themes is that writers don’t realise they are themes until someone points them out.
6. There is more consciousness now of the precision and muscularity a good poet can bring to the crafting of a novel. If that poet also has a talent for storytelling, and something to say, and characters who push themselves up and come storming off the pages…well, then that poet has the potential to be a really interesting novelist.
7. If, at a party, I say I’m a poet, people have a hard time responding, almost as if I’d said I’m a priest.
8. Writing is not only about imagination. It takes work, and work is about getting to know what you’re about.
9. The poem and the short story have an affinity, in that you know it’s going to be over soon. With a novel, there is no hurrying it. You’re constantly walking into the unknown.
10. I’m not a technophobe I think it’s all rather incredible. But I think the business of the writer is to write.

Hill is an award-winning British poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

[fandonetrash]

[beenwandering]

help I’m having emotions about a cartoon antidepressant trying to be useful

[purgatoilet]

DID YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY GIF AN ABILIFY COMMERCIAL 

[kdaziz]

yes but look at it, it cares about her and just wants to help her be able to function. It’s like “I know you’re sad. here, I’ll help you.”

[mcgonagirl]

LIKE OKAY THOUGH can I explain why this is exceedingly brilliant??  Because when anti-depressants work right, that’s what they DO.  They don’t make you happy or emotionless or unhealthy in any way, they make you FUNCTIONAL.  They make it so that a depressed person who can barely get out of bed can start to support themselves again and more importantly, start to THINK for themselves again without the permeating presence of depression.

Depression is a cyclical disease, that tells you to think a certain way, and, because you’re depressed, you generally believe it, and then things get worse and worse.  The ONLY thing anti-depressants do is to STOP that cycle in its tracks!!  Which is something to be ecstatic about and celebrated, even if you don’t realize it at the time, because when you’re depressed, getting out of bed is climbing Mount Everest.  Antidepressants help stop that cycle so that one day soon, getting out of bed can JUST be getting out of bed.  They don’t even expedite the recovery process in most cases, they just make recovery POSSIBLE IN THE FIRST PLACE.  So this little guy is portrayed with a fuckton more accuracy than I ever expected from a commercial.

[metalheadswaltzing]

It’s back and adorable

[rubyreed]

I always thought meds made you “happy” … until I went on them. Then I realized they do basically what the commenter above said… they just make it easier to function. 

[asterlunanova]

It’s funny, because I knew people that ‘used’ antidepressants as a party drug under the assumption they made you ‘happy’.

[its-a-writer-thing]

[sliceofbri]

THERE MUST BE A PARAGRAPH BREAK EVERY TIME A NEW CHARACTER SPEAKS

THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL

NO ONE WANTS TO READ ONE BIG BLOCK OF TEXT JESUS CHRIST

[0palsea]

REMEMBER TIP TOP OK:

Make a paragraph every time that any of these things change!

Ti me

P lace

To pic

P erson

[theother51imagines]

it’s my worst pet peeve to see whenever people don’t do this!

[dontshootmespence]

Good advice for writers that are just starting!

[fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment]

toldentops asked:

How would you ride!! A squid???

jayrockin answered:

You can’t put a saddle on soft-bodied organisms, so I recommend training one to hold you.

[its-a-writer-thing]

[sweetlittlevampire]

[just-shower-thoughts]

If a ghost can open cupboards and break things, why not just take a pencil, find paper, write exactly why it’s unhappy, and tape the message on the fridge.

[agwitow]

It just became second nature to close all the cupboards first thing in the morning (even though they’d been closed the night before). Which was when things escalated from banging cupboard doors to actually breaking things.

Faucets, door handles, curtain rods ripped from the wall… all the repairs started to add up.

“Look, I didn’t mind having an ethereal roommate, but I can’t afford to keep fixing all this shit. Here’s a pencil and some paper. Just write what’s bothering you–I doubt you could put anything that would be more expensive than having a plumber come out to replace all the faucets again.”

The next morning there’s a scrawl line at the top of the page that devolved into an angry scribbling mess that tore through the page. Two cupboard doors were entirely ripped off.

“I don’t want to get someone in to banish you, but this is ridiculous. Just tell me what you want.”

The second piece of paper is ripped into shreds and several knives are embedded in the wall.

A careful examination of the paper scraps show that it had the same scribbles as the first piece.

A quick trip to the library and a stop at a store later, there are kindergarten workbooks on learning to write spread across the counter.

“Look, I don’t know if you’re just being difficult, but I hope not. So I got an audiobook on learning to read and write, and here are some workbooks for kids–don’t get mad–to teach them their letters. Just press play on the stereo, and work through the books at your own pace. I’ll get more when you finish.”

The first workbook is half-completed before being ripped to pieces, but at least there was no other damage. Replacing it is significantly cheaper than replacing cupboard doors.

It takes awhile, but eventually the workbooks progress to a fifth grade level. These ones are starting to be more costly (they’re bigger, for one thing), but it’s not even the money anymore. Little notes scrawled in a shaky hand appear on the steamy bathroom mirror

Have A gooD dy

Or written in ketchup on the counter (that was a frightening sight the first time)

You R out of MLK

And then one day there’s a message taped to the fridge. The spelling and penmanship isn’t the best, but it’s legible and even signed.

Dear Occupente,

I have haunted this spot for ovr three huner hudre 300 years. My bones are dust and I am fergotN. I do not have wants to trap me. I am here 4 ever.

I am bord. Lonly.

I am sorrY 4 breaking things.

We be frends?

Syncerly Eloise

[tygermama]

I love you, Eloise

[moonlightcaughtyoureye]

@vamp-prince-mikhael