The Skellingcorner

[sweetlittlevampire]

Sooo pretty! I just love when the Christmas markets open and the lights are on everywhere. I’ll need to pay the large one a visit asap.

The blurriness in the first one was intentional; I love how it looks

[writerswritecompany]

As an author, self-publishing gives you the independence to make your book your way. This doesn’t mean that you have to go it alone, though. You’re likely not a trained editor, proof-reader, book designer, or book production specialist. You shouldn’t attempt to both write and publish your book using your skills alone.

As a layman, a self-published book may appear acceptable to you. If it is your own book, flawless even. But professionals can spot signs of amateur work that may not be obvious to you. We know that a lack of know-how can have disastrous results. Bad editing, poor design, and terrible covers are a few examples of how things can go wrong.

Avoid these pitfalls by doing your research first. Find out exactly what it involves. Shop around. Compare the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of various avenues.

Here are five ways to identify whether a self-publishing service provider is any good.

[esrcol]

[sweetlittlevampire]

Was in need of a few new notebooks. Couldn’t resist these watercolour ones. 

[sweetlittlevampire]

Fun fact: I´ve always liked most Evanescence songs when I was younger.

I just discovered Synthesis, where they revisit many of their old songs in a new way, with much more orchestra and a bit of electronics, and -

Oh my God. I am head over heels in love.

This is pure magic to me. Magic!

[sweetlittlevampire]

Seems like the chocolate spice cake I made yesterday won’t last very long.

[writingwithcolor]

[chuwenjie]

A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background. 

[writingwithcolor]

Anonymous asked:

So I personally am really sick of romantic plots becoming the main focus of fiction today. My story doesn't really have a romantic type setting to hook onto (it's about her coming back from the future.) Shippers can ship all they want, and that's fine but on the page she will not have a canon relationship just chemistry. That being said, I have noticed that WOC usually get shafted when it comes to a romantic interest/plot. That is something I don't want to do either... yikes help!!!

WOC and Romantic Relationships

A romance plot doesn’t have to become the main focus in your story for romance to be present. You can downplay a relationship or romance as much as you’d like. You should note, though, people read stories for relationships. Not necessarily romantic ones, no, but characters and their interactions with the world and one another.

I can’t think of many novels that can get away with one character interacting with no one but nature or themselves. Good friends, best friends, frenemies, siblings, acquaintances, makeshift companions, mentors, and yes, romances…these things make stories interesting and give readers something to care for, root for. There’s been characters I’ve cared nothing about, but burst into tears when they died simply because a character I did like was heartbroken from their death.

I personally tend to have a strong subplot of romance in my stories, whether it’s mystery, fantasy or adventure, but I’ve easily enjoyed stories that didn’t have this, plus, as you mention, there’s usually good chemistry, implications and “cute” moments to push me along. Then again, I’m a big romantic so whether this “spice” is a necessary aspect of your story may vary for readers.

Not everyone wants that love stuff and that’s fine; you’ll just not have those readers. Write what you want to read. It’s up to you how much you’re willing to give to the audience.

Evaluate: are you just bored of the romance plot?

Are the romance/relationships you read about just becoming cliche and same ole to you? Then don’t write relationships like this. In real life, no one relationship is the same and each can have it’s own charm. Check out this post “25 types of romantic relationships.” You’ve probably encountered a number of these, but you can put a spin on any number of them or add depth (starting with your characters) to make them fresh in itself as opposed to just a flat, tired love trope.

I’d personally find it off if no one was in a relationship in the story, though? Even if it’s just some secondary characters, people who are married, dating, or whatever. You don’t necessarily have to make it a big focus or become the plot, but it would come across as dry if you just decided not to develop those relationships and gave us “tell vs. show” aka just noting they’re together without elaborating. So I’d suggest you develop the love relationships just as you would any other relationships, even if it’s not a main focus. Subtleties and small gestures can go a long away.

And note, even “cliche” plot lines like the love triangle and will-they-wont-they isn’t exactly cliche when it’s involving a WoC…because how often are we really seeing this, really? It’s usually a White woman in the center of the love triangle, whose heart is being sought, who gets the love and affection. So consider that.

I’d also make sure that some WoC are in caring relationships too. I’d be a bit suspicious if only the White characters got strong relationships and no WoC or your heroine, especially in the case of Black women (and also Asian Men) who face the desexualized trope so often.

~Mod Colette

[writingwithcolor]

Anonymous asked:

I have a main white male character that ends up saving the life & status of a woman of color with political power, which could potentially play into racial and patriarchal stereotypes & negative messages. Two alternative options I would consider are making her white (I have a number of other characters of influence in the story who are POC) or making her male, to negate this. (A) Do I have a problem? (B) Which of these alternatives is best? (I do not plan on altering my main character or plot.)

Avoiding Racial and Patriarchal Stereotypes

A) You don’t necessarily have a problem unless the white MC is constantly saving the Woman of Color and if you write the woman as if she’s not capable of handling things on her own. That’s not to say that she’ll never need help or that she’s not capable of accepting help, but that she’s not helpless. As a Woman of Color, she has to fight twice as hard to get to a position of power, so I expect her to be competent at her job.   

B) Neither of your options are good options.

Option 1: Removing diversity to avoid a stereotype. 
Leave her as a Woman of Color. You aren’t solving any problems by making her White. There are very few representations of Women of Color in positions of power that changing her ethnicity would actually be doing your story a disservice.

Changing the character’s ethnicity would only maintain the status quo and your story will likely get lost in the sea of other stories of White characters. The simple solution to this question is to just remove the stereotype. Either have her save the White male character from time to time or possibly change the main character to be a POC. If changing the main character to a POC isn’t an option, ask yourself why. 

Option 2: Changing the sex of a character. 
Changing the sex of the character from a Black woman to a Black man doesn’t solve any problems and actually reinforces other stereotypes between Black and White men. 

These two options actually reinforce the stereotypes that you are trying to avoid. You need to push yourself past these fearful feelings and just write your story the way you intended it to be. Actively try to work on avoiding these stereotypes by having your WOC character help out the White MC as much as he helps her and make all the characters three dimensional. 

~Mod Najela

[abschaumno1]

[thequantumwritings]

Sometimes i think about the idea of Common as a language in fantasy settings.

On the one hand, it’s a nice convenient narrative device that doesn’t necessarily need to be explored, but if you do take a moment to think about where it came from or what it might look like, you find that there’s really only 2 possible origins.

In settings where humans speak common and only Common, while every other race has its own language and also speaks Common, the implication is rather clear: at some point in the setting’s history, humans did the imperialism thing, and while their empire has crumbled, the only reason everyone speaks Human is that way back when, they had to, and since everyone speaks it, the humans rebranded their language as Common and painted themselves as the default race in a not-so-subtle parallel of real-world whiteness.

In settings where Human and Common are separate languages, though (and I haven’t seen nearly as many of these as I’d like), Common would have developed communally between at least three or four races who needed to communicate all together. With only two races trying to communicate, no one would need to learn more than one new language, but if, say, a marketplace became a trading hub for humans, dwarves, orcs, and elves, then either any given trader would need to learn three new languages to be sure that they could talk to every potential customer, OR a pidgin could spring up around that marketplace that eventually spreads as the traders travel the world.

Drop your concept of Common meaning “english, but in middle earth” for a moment and imagine a language where everyone uses human words for produce, farming, and carpentry; dwarven words for gemstones, masonry, and construction; elven words for textiles, magic, and music; and orcish words for smithing weaponry/armor, and livestock. Imagine that it’s all tied together with a mishmash of grammatical structures where some words conjugate and others don’t, some adjectives go before the noun and some go after, and plurals and tenses vary wildly based on what you’re talking about.

Now try to tell me that’s not infinitely more interesting.