The Skellingcorner

[writerswritecompany]

A Creative Life Online: How To Use The Internet As A Creative Tool

Welcome to the first post in ‘A Creative Life Online‘. We want to nurture your creativity by exploring how to use the internet as a creative tool.

How To Use The Internet As A Creative Tool

The internet is a tool, how we use that tool determines how effective or destructive it can be.

Have you ever wondered where your creativity comes from? I do. Often. It’s something that has kept me guessing. Creativity is so intrinsic to my life that I often forget to take note and to appreciate it.

I’ve also figured out that I feed it, sometimes unintentionally, and this makes me happy. A few months ago, I realised I wanted to feel like that a lot more, so I made a conscious decision to improve my consumption. Not just food-wise, but mind-wise. It’s part self-care, it’s part ‘killing two birds with one stone’.

I wanted to stop the mindless scrolling and brain-dead staring.

Creativity is such an amazing part of my life and it still breaks my heart when I speak to someone who says they do not consider themselves creative. You are, I promise, but you might just be a little out of practice or stuck in an online rut of miserable feeds.

A Creative Life Online: How To Use The Internet As A Creative Tool

[rpgrules]

[scifi-fantasy-horror]

by  Eunsil Song

[sweetlittlevampire]

You know a fic is good when your mum bursts into your room asking if you’re alright because you’ve been laughing and crying and cooing so loudly she noticed one floor away from you.

[sweetlittlevampire]

[sweetlittlevampire]

Right, let’s make a list to hold me accountable for all the things I actually have to do today:

• The girlfriend complained that she’s running out of tea, and her order is being late…so I’ll pick some up for her.
• Go to the jeweller’s and pick up that pair of earrings she fell in love with (don’t forget your discount coupon, woman!)
• Go to the craft store and see whether they have the rope, thread, paint, glue, and seashells (alternatively: polymer clay) for that one project you wanted to do
• Go to the deco store and pick up one or two of the lotus tealight holders I’ve been eyeing for literal years  (come on, they’re on sale!)
• Go to the grocery store. Because food.
• Sit down and get two competition drawings done - deadline’s tomorrow, so go go go!

Let’s revisit this tonight to see how much I actually got done, lol.

[sweetlittlevampire]

04:45 PM update -

• The girlfriend complained that she’s running out of tea, and her order is being late…so I’ll pick some up for her. - CHECK.
• Go to the jeweller’s and pick up that pair of earrings she fell in love with (don’t forget your discount coupon, woman!) - CHECK.
• Go to the craft store and see whether they have the rope, thread, paint, glue, and seashells (alternatively: polymer clay) for that one project you wanted to do - CHECK.
• Go to the deco store and pick up one or two of the lotus tealight holders I’ve been eyeing for literal years  (come on, they’re on sale!) - CHECK.
• Go to the grocery store. Because food. - CHECK.
• Sit down and get two competition drawings done - deadline’s tomorrow, so go go go! - SEMI-CHECK. I’ve got ¾ finished, but I need a break.

Not bad, I’d say!

[webuiltmonsters]

World-Building Resource List

[themerrywriter]

us A quick note about how this works - I’ve put a double asterisk (**) next to anything that is particularly good, useful, or well-regarded, but they are all good resources! If you know of anything you think should be added let me know!

Articles & Blogs

• 100 World-Building Questions
• 5 Tips For Creating Believable Fictional Languages
• Building A High Fantasy Religion **
• Crafting Fictional Cultures
• Creating A Distinct World **
• Creating A Fictional Religion **
• Creating Religions & Belief Systems
• Creating Realistic Cultures
• How To Create A Rational Magic System
• How To Create Your Own Fake Town
• How To Invent A Language **
• Law For Fantasy Writers **
• Making New Cultures
• Naming Countries, Continents, Cities, & Towns In High Fantasy
• The Language Construction Kit **
• The Magical Worldbuilders Guide (available in PDF)
• Welcome To World-Building **
• World-Building 101
• World-Building Guidelines **
• Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Guide **
• Worldbuilding: Magic Systems

Books;

• Eight Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex For Writers And Creatives - by Maurice Broaddus et al
• Jester David’s How-To Guide To Fantasy Worldbuilding - by David Gibson
• Stan Lee’s Master Class - by Stan Lee **
  
• The A - Zs Of Worldbuilding - by Rebekah Loper
• The Art Of Language Invention - by David J Peterson **
• The Kobold Guide To Worldbuilding - by Wolfgang Baur et al
• World-Building - by Stephen L Gillet **
• World-Building From The Inside Out Workbook - by Janeen Ippolito **
• Worldbuilding Theory: The Second Pillar Of Fantasy Adventure - by Berin Kinsman

Generators & Builders:

• AutoRealm; a program which lets you build your fantasy realm in map form. 
• Donjon; a generator which produces random names, towns, inns, and adventures (also useful for D&D) **
• Seventh Sanctum; generates names for characters, realms, ships, and even taverns!
  
• Serendipity; generates names for places, people, and novels (fantasy specific) **

If you found this resource list helpful and you want to keep me writing and creating please consider buying me a Ko-FI or donating via paypal.

[m4cravings]

Victorian Style With Classical And Modern Twist.

[marvellousbee]

Why “doing something relaxing” does not help your anxiety

[merrybitchmas91]

A lot of the time when people give advice intended to relieve anxiety, they suggest doing “relaxing” things like drawing, painting, knitting, taking a bubble bath, coloring in one of those zen coloring books, or watching glitter settle to the bottom of a jar.

This advice is always well-intentioned, and I’m not here to diss people who either give it or who benefit from it. But it has never, ever done shit for me, and this is because it goes about resolving anxiety in the completely wrong way.  

THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO when suffering from anxiety is to do a “relaxing” thing that just enables your mind to dwell and obsess more on the thing that’s bothering you. You need to ESCAPE from the dwelling and the obsession in order to experience relief.

You can drive to a quiet farm, drive to the beach, drive to a park, or anywhere else, but as someone who has tried it all many, many times, trust me–it’s a waste of gas. You will just end up still sad and stressed, only with sand on your butt. You can’t physically escape your sadness. Your sadness is inside of you. To escape, you need to give your brain something to play with for a while until you can approach the issue with a healthier frame of mind. 

People who have anxiety do not need more time to contemplate, because we will use it to contemplate how much we suck.

In fact, you could say that’s what anxiety is–hyper-contemplating. When we let our minds run free, they run straight into the thorn bushes. Our minds are already running, and they need to be controlled. They need to be given something to do, or they’ll destroy everything, just like an overactive husky dog ripping up all the furniture. 

Therefore, I present to you: 

THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO WHEN ANXIOUS

–Go on a walk

–Watch a sunset, watch fish in an aquarium, watch glitter, etc.

–Go anywhere where the main activity is sitting and watching

–Draw, color, do anything that occupies the hands and not the mind

–Do yoga, jog, go fishing, or anything that lets you mentally drift 

–Do literally ANYTHING that gives you great amounts of mental space to obsess and dwell on things.

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHEN ANXIOUS:

–Do a crossword puzzle, Sudoku, or any other mind teaser game. Crosswords are the best.

–Write something. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. Write the Top 10 Best Restaurants in My City. Rank celebrities according to Best Smile. Write some dumb Legolas fanfiction and rip it up when you’re done. It’s not for publication, it’s a relief exercise that only you will see. 

–Read something, watch TV, or watch a movie–as long as it’s engrossing. Don’t watch anything which you can run as background noise (like, off the top of my head, Say Yes to The Dress.) As weird as it seems, American Horror Story actually helps me a lot, because it sucks me in. 

–Masturbate. Yes, I’m serious. Your mind has to concentrate on the mini-movie it’s running. It can’t run Sexy Titillating Things and All The Things That are Bothering Me at the same time. (…I hope. If it can, then…ignore this one.) 

–Do math problems—literally, google “algebra problems worksheet” and solve them. If you haven’t done math since 7th grade this will really help you. I don’t mean with math, I mean with the anxiety. 

–Play a game or a sport with someone that requires great mental concentration. Working with 5 people to get a ball over a net is a challenge which will require your brain to turn off the Sadness Channel. 

–Play a video game, as long as it’s not something like candy crush or Tetris that’s mindless. 

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO DURING PANIC ATTACKS ESPECIALLY:

–List the capitals of all the U.S. states

–List the capitals of all the European countries

–List all the shapes you can see. Or all the colors. 

–List all the blonde celebrities you can think of.

–Pull up a random block of text and count all the As in it, or Es or whatever.  

Now obviously, I am not a doctor. I am just an anxious person who has tried almost everything to help myself.  I’ve finally realized that the stuff people recommend never works because this is a disorder that thrives on free time and free mental space. When I do the stuff I listed above, I can breathe again. And I hope it helps someone here too. 

(Now this shouldn’t have to be said but if the “do nots” work for you then by all means do them. They’ve just never worked for me.)

[lovelyplot]

This would’ve been great an hour ago

[h0lyhandgrenade]

This is good advice for anxious peeps and peeps with anxious friends. Seems obvious now but I hadn’t thought about it this way before.

[randomslasher]

oh heck this is…really really useful advice.I wonder if it would also help when my brain does that ‘too fast can’t settle’ thing and flips from activity to activity at ludicrous speeds.I think I’ll try it next time. <3

[writerswritecompany]

The Greatest Fictional World Builders Teach You To Write Fantasy: Robin Hobb

Welcome to the third post in my greatest fictional world builders series. This series is a resource for writers who are building their own worlds.

(Look out for the next post in the series. Sign up for our newsletter to get our Daily Writing Links, and you won’t miss out.)

Reading and studying the fantasy greats is one of the best ways to teach you to write fantasy.

I started the series with Terry Pratchett and J.R.R. Tolkien. In this post I will write about Robin Hobb.

Robin Hobb (who also writes as Megan Lindholm) continues to be the undisputed master of the modern Epic Fantasy.

The Greatest Fictional World Builders

Number 3 – Robin Hobb

[rpgrules]

[nomorerealitys-blog]

Northmen by Asahisuperdry

Asahisuperdry - Digital Artist | DeviantArt

Check out Asahisuperdry's art on DeviantArt. Browse the user profile and get inspired.

deviantart.com

[writingwithcolor]

[superheroesincolor]

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2020)

The follow-up to Kindred, the #1 bestseller, comes Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking dystopian novel

In this graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind the #1 bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, the author portrays a searing vision of America’s future. In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny … and the birth of a new faith.

by Damian Duffy (Adapter), Octavia E. Butler (Author), John Jennings (Illustrator), Hopkinson Nalo (Introduction)

Pre-Order it here

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a renowned African-American author who was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Since her death, sales of her books have increased enormously as the issues she addressed in her Afro-Futuristic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant.

Damian Duffy, author of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, and teacher. He holds a MS and PhD in library and information sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, where he is on faculty.

John Jennings, illustrator of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside.

[SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest / support ]

[word-nerds-united]

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

Please don’t make your kids eat foods they hate

[looksmokin]

There’s a way to make sure your kid has a healthy, balanced diet without making them eat foods they hate. If they can’t do the texture of broccoli, do soy or citrus for the same vitamins. “Eat your vegetables” shouldn’t mean choke down the mushy peas that set their teeth on edge. This is a teaching opportunity: “Just because you can’t do this thing doesn’t mean you’re bad, it just means we have to figure out a different way to do it so you’re capable and healthy.”

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

that is such a great way to put it

[billnye-wlw]

My mom always had the “no-thank-you bite” rule if it was a new food that we were unsure about. One bite, that’s all we needed. And if it ended up being something we hated, she’d get us to try it again a couple months later, and if we still didn’t like it, we didn’t have to eat it again. I still can’t eat fish, rice, hamburgers, coconut, or eggs, so if she makes a meal including one of those, she’ll cook something similar but slightly different for me (chicken instead of fish, turkey burgers instead of hamburgers, noodles instead of rice, etc.). It’s saved me a lot of horror with food and given me a much healthier relationship with eating new things.

[smallest-feeblest-boggart]

good parenting

[keyla-lovely]

Yeah, forcing kids to eat foods is actually a bona-fide way to give them issues further down the line. They start to have negative experiences with foods and will start to refuse to try new things. The no-thank-you bite rule is absolutely amazing. I have also seen it as the three-bite rule.  

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i hear time and again from people whose parents forced them to eat foods they hated, only to find out years later about an undiagnosed allergy or sensory issues. (e.g. my autism was undiagnosed, and for years my food issues were dismissed as being a “picky eater”)

if a food causes a child distress, there’s zero reason to coerce them to eat it. whether or not it’s a medical issue, it still sets them up to have dysfunctional relationships with food down the line

[word-nerds-united]

I had like, a word association thing where if I knew there was an ingredient I’d THINK would taste gross I wouldn’t eat it so my mom stopped telling me what was in the new food I was eating (I have no food allergies and this started in high school) and I started eating way more foods than I thought I’d ever. Now I’ve adopted it myself where I’ll try any new food but I refuse to know what’s in it until I’ve tasted it. That’s how I ended up eating fish eggs, which I know I’d never have eaten had I known beforehand.

Very much a method that doesn’t work for most people, but I figured I’d share anyways. Definitly something you’d start with someone older.

[screechingbeardtraveler]

I really don’t do well with unexpected textures. For instance: a crunchy bit in pudding, gristle in basically anything, exceedingly mushy veggies. This caused problems with eating some things because my dad would scold me for not finishing my food even if it was something I liked. I could eat half of a burger and hit a weird hard bit and then have to stop eating it because I would gag otherwise. Eventually I trained myself to muscle through but not everyone is lucky enough to do that…