The Skellingcorner

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
nimblesnotebook-blog

Anonymous asked:

Would you happen to have any resources regarding publishing a children's book? Is the process much different than publishing a novel?

It’s pretty much the same process (agent (optional) —> editor —> publication), just with a few differences:

Anonymous answered childrens
nimblesnotebook-blog writingwithcolor

Stereotyping Tropes List (TVTropes)

writingwithcolor

A masterpost of the Stereotyping Tropes from TVtropes.org. This list is identical to the one linked above, save the addition of Indigenous peoples, which was added. Check for the titles with links, as it leads to more pages of tropes.
For an assortment of other related tropes, some not mentioned here, see “Race Tropes" as well as "Prejudice Tropes.”
Advice on handling characters that lean towards harmful portrayals can be found in the tropes & stereotypes tags at writingwithcolor.

General

Africans

African Americans/Black

Americans

Arabs

Asians

Australians

Brits

Canadians

Chinese

Dutch

Eastern Europeans

Europeans

French

Germans

Indians

Indigenous

Irish

Israel

Italians

Japanese

Jewish

Latin Americans

Nordic Countries

Russians

Scots

Spaniards

stereotypes
amielleon julystorms
julystorms: “an-ime-goil: “ thewritewire: “ Show vs. Tell Great description of the difference. ” In one of my fiction-writing classes, we had a workshop where we critiqued each other’s writing. There was one student that had a story about a poor boy,...
thewritewire

Show vs. Tell 

Great description of the difference.

an-ime-goil

In one of my fiction-writing classes, we had a workshop where we critiqued each other’s writing. There was one student that had a story about a poor boy, who had to work to help his family. At one point, the writer describes his room, and it sounds pretty standard: “vintage posters of rock musicians on the wall, an old board game his family had kept for years, battered Nike sneakers under the bed”. Our teacher said, “Your main character’s pretty selfish.” We all stared at her. “I mean, his family barely has enough to eat, and he’s spending money on buying expensive vintage band posters and Nike shoes?” I was shocked. I hadn’t thought anything of that description - it was just to paint a vivid picture, right? And I didn’t know vintage posters were expensive. What if the Nike shoes had been given to him as a gift? What if the mother had bought them? But it was the moment I realized that great writers put a lot of thought into all those seemingly useless details they leave in there, and they’re all clues leading to a larger truth. It’s not good enough to paint a vivid picture and put in details. Those details will be read into, and they need to point to the truth of your story or your character. That student certainly didn’t mean to make their character come across as selfish. And yet that was the conclusion that the details led to. 

At the same time, sometimes the curtains are just blue, so to speak, and it doesn’t mean anything. Which is why consistency is also important. I wouldn’t have necessarily surmised that the character in the original post was clumsy just cause he tripped once - so establish this trait, remember that you made him clumsy, make him drop crumbs all over their lap and almost drop things that are handed to him. Otherwise I will assume his clumsiness is a one-time thing. It’s your job as a writer to include meaningful details, just as it is to establish when something is just a coincidence, or a plot device. 

julystorms

This is good. I bolded the part I felt was most important; good writers include details and keep things consistent, but I agree that great writers include those details for a reason and make them actually mean something (versus allowing them to simply be decoration).

amielleon

The commentary’s better than the original post.

When I was a young writer, I thought details were there for the sake of being details. You enter a room, you describe the room so the reader can see it in their head, the end.

But in fact, nothing is supposed to be so pointless as to simply check off a box next to “Imagery” in an English class workbook. These details are meant to give the reader something meaningful about the impression it makes on the perspective character, or what’s up with this world and its people.

As for the original post… I think either could work depending on context. If you were trying to have that awkward kid really own this story, making it a story about her perspective rather than a series of events we the readers are watching, you’d go with the left, because it captures a sense of the kid’s understanding of the world rather than appealing to ours.

It’s also worth noting that the right example is very zoomed in, and forces you to go into the details of this particular event and follow it to a reasonable stopping point, which may or may not be desirable.

Source: thewritewire
official-niedersachsen official-german-schulsystem
allthingsgerman: “43. Here we see two very rare specimens of German Quality TV in their natural habitat: a box. One is deep-frying chips while the other is close to choking. They are competing for the world championship in staying in a box together...
allthingsgerman

43. Here we see two very rare specimens of German Quality TV in their natural habitat: a box. One is deep-frying chips while the other is close to choking. They are competing for the world championship in staying in a box together while annoying the shit out of each other. Magnificent.

official-niedersachsen

“Hoffnungsträger des deutschen Fernsehens” :D

Source: allthingsgerman
ogott das is fast ne woche her ich weine gleich die haben auch mal brechmittel genommen und einfach gewartet bis wer kotzt und wer als letztes kotzt gewinnt remember baking fat remember brummi dinner remember alles bei mtv home remember schildkrötentag REMEMBER SVEN GEWALT uwuwuwuwuwwuwuwu ich liebe die spastis ein bisschen follow 4 more jokoklaas action
princessrpc
CONNECTIONS “ • Plot Ideas and Connections Masterlist by Athena • Connections Masterlist by Harry • Connections Masterlist by Nicholas • Connection Ideas Masterlist by Cassie • Character Connections by Lucy • Connections Masterlist by reyesrph •... 
CONNECTIONS
FACECLAIMS
HOBBIES
JOB IDEAS
LABELS
NAMES
PLOTTING IDEAS
QUOTES (FOR SIDEBARS)
STARTERS
SUBJECT IDEAS
TRAITS
rpc rph rpcha masterlist r: masterlist mine
thewritersarchive
This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers. I apologize in advance for any not working links. Check out the ultimate writing resource masterlist here (x) and my “novel” tag here (x). ✑ PLANNINGOutlining &...

This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers. I apologize in advance for any not working links. Check out the ultimate writing resource masterlist here (x) and my “novel” tag here (x).

✑ PLANNING

Outlining & Organizing

✑ INSPIRATION

✑ PLOT

In General

Beginning

Foreshadowing

Setting

Ending

✑ CHARACTER

Names

Different Types of Characters

Males

Character Development

✑ STYLE

Chapters

Dialogue 

Show, Don’t Tell (Description)

Character Description

Flashbacks

P.O.V

LANGUAGE

✑ USEFUL WEBSITES/LINKS

Last but not least, the most helpful tool for any writer out there is Google!

lit writing writing resources resource helpful tunwrm
writingwithcolor

Separating Culture from People

life-chats asked:

I’m in the planning stages of a story set in a fantasy port city where people from all over the fantasy world pass through. Except for one small tribe of pale people in the north, who will not feature prominently in the story, all the societies in this world are made up of people of color. In writing about the various peoples that pass through my main city, I’m trying to find ways to break out of the idea that certain cultural elements always have to go with certain skin colors (aka white people don’t always have to live in feudal castles, brown people don’t always have to be horse-riding nomads, etc). Obviously some elements of any given culture come from the environment or from specific histories or traumas, and I’m going to incorporate that into the history of my world. But my question is, would it be wrong to assign cultural elements that DON’T have those traumatic histories to groups with different physical traits than in real life? This might take the form of, for example, black people whose culture uses chopsticks. Is this a form of erasure or appropriation? Should I stick to more generic cultural aspects or to inventing totally new ones that don’t have such strong real-life racial associations?

There are Black people who live in Asia and use chopsticks. There are Black people who don’t live in Asia that use chopsticks. Diaspora exist. Diasporic communities exist. There is cultural exchange and trade all over this planet. So when writers use that, I think it’s really neat.

But when writers go “What would happen if I randomly had this people group have this other group’s culture?” it makes me feel like they think other people’s cultures exist to be their toys. For funsies!

Culture is not for shock factor. A group of people’s culture, history, cultural artifacts and traditions - these aren’t toys and doing this is not the way to insert originality into a work.

Cultural elements don’t have to go with certain skin colors because there’s a huge range of skin colors in almost every country. Diaspora, immigration, intermarrying, that’s all stuff that happens. But cultural elements don’t exist as a sort of external force that has nothing to do with the people of that culture. Culture is created, consumed and changed by people. So when you pick things here and there willy-nilly, you’re divorcing people from their culture for no reason.

And I’m not sure if you know this, but chopsticks (what they’re made of, how they look, proper usage) vary all over Asia/East Asia. Their usage has evolved differently in different countries. For example, Koreans like metal chopsticks that are kind of skinny/flat, and they’re intended to be used in sets with spoons (so they’re intentionally designed to be sold in sets). 

Chopsticks in Japan, though, are often made of wood, are more “chunky” shaped, and often lacquered. You don’t really buy Japanese chopsticks in sets with spoons like you would in Korea. [Mod Stella honestly prefers using Japanese-style chopsticks because they’re just more comfortable for her to hold. But she definitely grew up with Korean chopsticks!]

Chinese chopsticks are longer because they eat “family style” which is putting everything on the table and reaching for it. [Mod Jess says, “Family style is how I certainly eat at home, reaching for things instead of asking to pass them. So it’s actually expected that some stuff might drop onto the table itself, which is solved by mopping it after each meal.”]

But my point is that randomly taking the idea of chopsticks and arbitrarily assigning it to a people group just seems like a really problematic thing to do. Chopsticks have a specific history. We don’t put them in our hair. Some things that are rude in one country that uses chopsticks isn’t considered rude in another. How do you describe that (as well as the reasons why chopsticks evolved differently) while divorcing it from the actual country that uses them? 

The idea of randomly assigning cultures to other peoples is a very uncomfortable and frustrating one, so we’d advise you to reconsider it.

~Mods Stella, Jess & Colette

Culture erasure racism asian east asian cultural appropriation submission asks
yourfuckingmuse

Today: A lesson in German capitalisation

Die Spinnen!
= The spiders!
Die spinnen!
= They are crazy!

Er hatte liebe Genossen.
= He had kind companions.
Er hatte Liebe genossen.
= He had enjoyed love.

Sich brüsten und Anderem zuwenden.
= to gloat and turn towards other things
Sich Brüsten und Anderem zuwenden.
= to turn towards breasts and other things

Sie konnte geschickt Blasen und Glieder behandeln.
= She was adept at treating blisters and limbs.
Sie konnte geschickt blasen und Glieder behandeln.
= She was adept at giving blowjobs and handling members.

Der Gefangene floh.
= The prisoner escaped.
Der gefangene Floh.
= The imprisoned flea

Helft den armen Vögeln.
= Help the poor birds.
Helft den Armen vögeln.
= Help poor people with sex.

Source: dict.leo.org
german language deutsch this is why I love this language and give my deepest sympathies and most roaring laughter to anyone having to learn it don't be sad though english has some too I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse for example. language things