The Skellingcorner

[magic-in-every-book]

Read PoC//Fantasy and Science Fiction

I only listed one book per author, usually their most popular or highest rated book/series, so make sure to check out their Goodreads page for more of their hardwork!!

• Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
• Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari
• Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K Banker
• Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
• Three Souls by Janie Chang
• The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang
• Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
• The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
• The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
• Acacia: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham
• The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani
• Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
• The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
• Warchild by Karin Lowachee
• The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
• The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Nexus by Ramez Naam
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
• Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyami
  
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara
• A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
• Of Bees and Mist by Erick Seitawan
• The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
• Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

More Recommendations

• 19 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels by Women of Color You Must Read (Buzzfeed)
  
• 10 Sci-fi Stories Created by Women of Color (The Mary Sue)
  
• 7 Black Women Science Fiction Writers Everyone Should Know (For Harriet)
  
• Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color (Goodreads)
  
• Speculative Fiction Reads by Asian and Asian-American Authors(@cielrouge)
  
• The Ultimate 21st Century People of Color Sci-Fi List (ColorLines)

Read PoC Posts
Young Adult//Historical Fiction//General Fiction//Autobiographies and Memoirs

[its-a-writer-thing]

avajae.blogspot.com

How to Write Excellent Plot Twists

Photo credit: Romain Toornier on Flickr I got an interesting suggestion not too long ago about writing a post on plot twists—specifical...

[avajae]

I got an interesting suggestion not too long ago about writing a post on plot twists—specifically, how to write a good one. I’ve found, for me at least, there are two kinds of experiences with writing effective plot twists: planned plot twists and surprise plot twists.

• Planned plot twists. By and large, this is the majority of plot twists. In order to pull off a twist that both makes sense and is effectively built into the story but clever enough that it’ll surprise readers, you often need to plan ahead. When trying to come up with a plot twist, some steps you can use to spark a twist include:
  
  
• What are all of the possible outcomes? Write them down. Even the most ridiculous, out-there outcomes, add them to the list.
  
  
• What are other outcomes I didn’t include? By this, I mean push yourself. When you’ve come up with what you think is a final list, it can be good to push harder and consider what you could add as a possibility that you may have initially censored out. (Remember: don’t censor!)
  
  
• How can I make this specific outcome bigger/more surprising? Once you have a favorite (or a couple favorites), brainstorm to see how you can make it bigger and more surprising. What can you do to enhance this twist? Again, don’t censor even the most ridiculous possibilities.
  
  
• How can I make sure this outcome makes sense in the context of the book? Now that you have an outcome, built it back into the plot. This is one of the many reasons why it’s helpful to plan ahead—it’s much easier to build something into the plot when it’s all an outline than it is to add something retroactively to a manuscript.
  
  
• Surprise plot twists. Now, this might seem a little incongruous—of course plot twists are a surprise! That’s the point! But what I actually mean are plot twists that are a surprise to the writer. This has happened to me a couple times; I’ll have a solid plot down, start writing, and out of nowhere a wild plot twist appears! It’s always fascinating to me when this happens, but I also have to make sure to integrate it into the plot as I write—and rewrite—because spontaneity can sometimes be messy. 
  

While those are two options for the inception of a plot twist, far more important, to me at least, is honing them in revisions. I’ll often use multiple rounds of critique partners and readers to see who gets the twist and when, so I can then go in and make adjustments as necessary to make sure the twist is believable, but not predictable. Sometimes this means tweaking specific characters, or revising several scenes to leave a dusting of foreshadowing (but not too much!). It often takes some careful rounds of testing with readers to get the right balance between surprising but believable—but it’s definitely worth the extra work.

How do you write plot twists? And what are you favorite examples from YA lit?

[scarvesandcelery]

[irresistible-revolution]

ok but can we talk about this

Aang is about the strike the final blow and kill Ozai while in the Avatar state, and all the past Avatars of all the Four Nations are speaking through him, but he stops, and the glow fades from his tattoos

and the fire and the water and the earth drops away, and all he’s left with is Air, his native element, the element of a people that were wiped out, and the air surrounds him with this simple grace and dignity

and it’s like, even with all the power in the world, Aang remembers who he is, he remembers what he learned from the monks, he remembers his heritage, and he stays true to it. It’s no accident that Air is the element he’s left with when all the others fall away, that it’s Air he’s surrounded by when he comes out of the Avatar state and decides to spare Ozai’s life.

The Air Nomads were wiped out by ambush because they had no military power, Aang was brutalized in his fight with Ozai because of his mercy, and everyone, including his friends and past lives, were urging the necessity of killing OzaI. Ozai himself taunts Aang “your people didn’t deserve to exist in this world, in MY world”. But against all this, Aang refuses to let go of the ideals of compassion and mercy. He refuses to believe that power and violence are the only ways. Aang sparing Ozai was the last, bittersweet stand of the Air Nomads: not vengeance but true justice, an affirmation of the power of their beliefs, an assertion that the ways of peace, freedom and forgiveness are vital for the world.

I mean, how much courage does that take, when your entire culture has been wiped out by a violent world, to still say “No. What my people believed has value, has strength.”

[neal-mackenzie]

This is why I adore this entire series

[scarvesandcelery]

Reading this makes me rather emotional :’)

[elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey]

[lunalab]

the politics of light and dark are everywhere in our vocabulary…psa to writers: subvert this, reveal whiteness and lightness as sometimes artificial and violent, and darkness as healing, the unknown as natural

[heroes-get-made]

Some ideas for bad things that are white/light:

• lightning, very hot fire
• snow storms, ice, frost on crops
• some types of fungus/mold
• corpses, ghosts, bones, a diseased person
  
• clothing, skin tone, hair, etc. of a bad person
• fur, teeth, eyes of an attacking animal/monster
• bleached out deserts, dead trees, lifeless places
• poison
  

Some ideas for good things that are black/dark:

• rich earth/soil
  
• chocolate, truffles, wine, cooked meat
  
• friendly animals/pets/creatures
• a character’s favorite vehicle, technology, coat, etc.
• a pleasant night
• hair, skin tone, clothing, etc. of a good person
• undisturbed water of a lake
• the case/container of something important
• valued wood, furniture, art
• velvet
  

Think to burn, to infect, to bleach vs. to enrich, to protect, to be of substance.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

^ THIS

Get rid of the idea that ‘Dark’ is bad or scary

[odinsblog]

The English language is littered with racially coded euphemisms & colorism

[elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey]

I LITERALLY BRING THIS UP EVERY TIME PEOPLE ARE LIKE DARK SIDE IS BAD IN STAR WARS IM LIKE LISTEN BITCH STAR WARS IS ABOUT BALANCE AND EQUATING THE DARK SIDE WITH EVIL LEADS TO THIS KIND OF RACIST SHIT

[therandommeerkat]

[faegeekgirl]

i think it might be a good idea, when you’re designing a villain, if you look at them and think “why do these characteristics make me think of them as villainous” and like, if those characteristics reflect groups of real-life marginalized people….maybe, don’t go with those design choices?

[verysmallfrogs]

*large hook noses, dark complexion, prominent lips, elderly, physical deformities, injuries, or disabilities, non-conforming gender presentation, obesity or overweight body types, improperly represented mental illnesses, sometimes sexual expression or agency especially in female villains, and certain accents*

[therandommeerkat]

Especially if none of your heroes have these characteristics. Like, if all your good guys have light complexion and your villain is the only person who mysteriously has dark skin…

But if some or all your heroes also have dark skin, it isn’t that which sets apart your villain from the rest.

[fairlyfunctioning]

[writing-prompt-s]

You’re in charge of assigning every child on Earth the monster under their bed. One child in particular has caused every monster assigned to him/her to quit. You decide to assign yourself.

[kittenwiskers]

Case: #273402
Status: Disastrous.

I stare at the file and realize I have no options, over the last 2 years every monster assigned to Charlotte Dower has quit, every last one. Her first monster; a giant goldfish-faced humanoid named Bubba, had been with her for four years, and then she wasn’t scared of him anymore. After that it was a string of different common, uncommon, and rare monsters… I even assigned a sentient sock monster to her. He came back crying!
I look on my tablet, only one assignable monster left; myself. Field work has never been my cup of tea, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So at 8:03 pm, after Mrs. Gideon tucks in Charlotte and her little brother Daniel; I slither into the space beneath Charlotte’s bed.
Across the room underneath Daniel’s crib is a rookie, Chico, a standard Creep kind of monster.
I turn my attention to the bed above me, Charlotte is still awake but barely, I reach up over the bed and run an ice cold finger over her cheek, silence, so I do it again.
“I’m not afraid of you monster!” She whispers, but her voice is shaking. I can see a small clock on the wall 8:14, a door somewhere in the house slams and there is an audible hitch of breath from above me. A few minutes go by I can hear Francis Gideon yelling at his wife. There are heavy footsteps on the stairs, and loud panting breaths, Charlotte scrambles off the bed and…
She. CRAWLS. Under. The. Bed. With. Me.
“Move. Over!” Charlotte hisses at me. I do.
The door to the bedroom slams open and I smell the stench of human intoxicants before the man even steps inside.
I know why Charlotte isn’t afraid of any of my monsters; she’s afraid of her own.
Francis reaches a hand under the bed and I thrust my wrist into it, he starts to pull, I slither out.
“What the…” I cut Francis’s next words off by unfolding to my full 12 foot height. Looming over the drunken man I caress my cold fingers down his face.
“If you ever touch, scare, or harm my child again, I will find you, and I will do the same to you, for all eternity.” I promise to him.
As Francis runs from the room he soils himself.
I pull Charlotte from under the bed, tuck her back under her covers and kiss her forehead goodnight. “I’ll be back tomorrow night, sleep well darling.”
Charlotte Dower is my child, I am the monster under her bed.

[bi-est-witch-of-middleearth]

WELL GODAMN, WE HAVE OURSELVES A WINNER

[gabbyzvolt25]

Holy shit I’m gonna cry that’s beautiful.

[fairlyfunctioning]

Every single cursed moment of my tumblr existence has led me here. I am whole. I am complete.

[kaoruyogi]

@general-uptight inspired me to reupload this. Allegra Clark (Josephine) said she had a really hard time recording her lines in the Wicked Grace scene right after Cullen’s “Nerd Laugh!” XD

[creamhy]

15 things to remember:

1.   that thing you did that was kind of embarrassing and weird, everyone else forgot about that already

2.   you look fine today, if you can’t notice something on your face standing 6 feet from a mirror then nobody else will either.

3.   social lives can go through cycles sometimes, if you feel like your friends are all ignoring you for no reason they’re probably just busy with other things.

4.   if you can’t stop thinking about someone or something, read a book, paint your nails or watch a movie. it won’t solve any serious problems but you will feel better.

5.   listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

6.   if you want something, go get it. 

7.   drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit, exercise more, go outside, get enough sleep and think positive thoughts.

8.   if you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.

9.   throw away the idea of a perfect tomorrow and live in the moment.

10.  stop comparing yourself to others.

11.  a beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset. It’s a privilege to simply be alive and healthy. Start acting like life is a blessing.

12.  act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act.

13.  you will change. You’re not the same person you were three years ago. you’re not even the same person you were three minutes ago and that’s okay. especially if you don’t like the person you were three minutes ago.

14.  you don’t have to open the curtains if you don’t want to.

15.  being happy is the most important thing.