The Skellingcorner

[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.

[writerswritecompany]

writerswrite.co.za

6 Myths About Genre That Should Be Shattered

The boundary lines of genre have become a lot more fluid in recent years, especially since the boom of online fiction, self-publishing and independent publishing.

However, it is still important to understand the role of genre for the author who wants to establish a brand and make money from their writing. But, for many first time writers there are still some lingering myths about genre that we need to debunk.

Here are six myths about genre that need to be shattered:

[marvellousbee]

cool disability psa!

[sparklysuperhero]

hi everyone!  so while the term “handicapped” is really outdated/problematic & we don’t use it to discuss pwd anymore, i still hear good, woke people use it to refer to parking spots/toilets/etc.  like “the handicapped stall” or whatever.  and i really think they do that bc they don’t know of a better term.  so i’m gonna give you one!  “accessible!!!!”

any time you’d say “handicapped,” say “accessible”

“oh, he has fibromyalgia, so he has an accessible parking permit” “due to her spinal cord injury, she has an accessible dorm room” etc etc

this is cool for two main reasons! 1 - you’re not using super outdated language  and 2 - it puts the focus on the accessibility of the environment, not the personal impairment, which if you’ve done any reading on the social model of disability, you’ll know is a really good thing.

so spread the word, practice better disability politics, and spare me the inward cringe every time i have to hear the word “handicapped”

[fandonetrash]

[psych2go]

If you like interesting factoids like these, follow us @psych2go . We will also be sharing interesting psychology articles along the way.

[fandonetrash]

[cosplaytutorial]

Cosplay Tip:

Disinfect your eye shadow by lightly rubbing with tissue and then giving a spray with rubbing alcohol. Great if you shared your makeup pallet with a friend during the con.

[vandroid-helsing]

your fave is problematic: Earthsea

• takes place in a universe of mostly people of color, and the whites are an imperialistic minority who don’t get more than a book to themselves—obviously there is a representation issue here, #AllLivesMatter
• subverts and questions the heroic quest archetype. if we can’t have unquestioned hero myths then what even is the good of fantasy literature
• spends an entire book focusing on some random lady’s life on a farm, as if what ordinary people do is of any importance at all
• distinctly non Judeo-Christian worldview: dragons are good or neutral, but we know that dragons should only ever be evil characters because Satan is represented as a dragon in the Bible
• is ambivalent about centralized authority, when really all that matters is that the right man lead (emphasis on right and man, amirite guys)
• portrays power as a double-edged sword, but obviously power is good as long as we have it and they don’t (you know who i’m talking about)
• lacks war as a central story element. like, where is my all-solving battle. c'mon.
• also: very little violence. how am I supposed to know who to hate if they don’t murder at least ONE baby.
• written by a woman, yet isn’t a romance??? *confused*

[relevy]

A-Z Book Recommendations.

What a great idea from my friend at @macrolit :) Had to give it a go. I’ve omitted “A’s” and “The’s” from most of the titles for sake of flow.

• A - American Gods by Neil Gaiman - A wandering modern “fantasy” that felt keenly poignant to me having grown up in the midwest. You’ll need patience for this one but this book is truly about the journey not the destination.
• B - Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer - I’ll be honest, I never finished this series. It got a little overblown but the characters are so genuine that I held out a lot longer than I would expect of myself. This first book though is the definition of a classic middle reader. Lot of Adventure and a lovable, fierce, albeit flawed, female protagonist. 
• C - Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - I used to read this book every summer. It’s a rough read with some explicit violence (sexual and otherwise) but an important one I think. I recommend reading the “British” publishing which has 21 chapters (the publishers took out the last one for American audiences, because apparently we don’t like character redemption and growth *eyeroll*). The real genius of this book is the vernacular Burgess created from scratch that is truly like reading another language at first. 
• D - Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab - Not to be cliche but I find that a lot of the titles Booklr obsesses over in the YA genre to be par-baked at best. Not the case with this series! Well developed characters that exist beyond their actions and exhibit real emotional complexity without relying on tropes and a plot that kept me turning and turning pages!

[its-a-writer-thing]

NaNoWriMo Prep: How to Write 2000 Words a Day

[letswritesomenovels]

Originally posted by byaseashore

Two thousand is a big number. Sitting down to write 2000 words can be extremely intimidating, so the first thing you should do is make that number friendlier.

Write 500 words in 4 writing sessions.  

Chop up that big, intimidating number. Start with a goal of 500 words. In one session, with no breaks, write them all. Take a break, then write the next 500. Repeat until you reach at least 2000. 

If you write 650 words in one session, don’t aim for 350 in the next. Let those extra words add up. A few hundred extra words each day will get you to 50k quicker than you could imagine.

I recommend timing your sessions, aiming for 20 minutes each time. The deadline will help you get the words out, With 10 minute breaks between each session, you can reach your 2000 word goal in two hours. Which brings me to the next point: 

Write fast. 

Don’t stop and think about your words. Don’t go back and improve a previous sentence. Save all of your edits for later. Focus on writing as quickly as possible, throwing everything you have at that blank page. This will actually help boost your creativity. Make your brain work so fast, be so focused, that it doesn’t have any space to doubt itself and you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. 

But don’t worry if you can’t write 500 words in 20 minutes on day one. Writing quickly is a skill and it will take a few days of training. 

Let the words suck.

This is absolutely key if you want a high word count. When you’re writing an entire chapter in a day, you shouldn’t expect the words to be beautiful. You’re not aiming at lyrical prose. You’re mining raw material that you can work into art later.

Letting the words suck can include:

• Writing [something happens here] in place of a scene.
  
• Letting yourself use cliches as shorthand.
  
• Dialog that is really exposition.
• Long descriptions of things that don’t matter.
• Letting your characters ramble until you discover what it is they actually need to say.

As long as there are 2000 words and they relate to your story, they’re exactly what you need. And if you hate having bad words on a page, once you have your 2000 for a day, you can go back and fix all of it. Take all the time you need. Just reach that word count first. 

Tip: if you do edit at the end of each day, make that a separate document from your official NaNo doc. This way, you can trim scenes, descriptions, and dialog without worrying about its effect on your word count. (If you make a scene/description/sentence longer, feel free to include that in your NaNo doc.) 

Don’t know what to write next?

So you’ve written 1200 words, completed a scene, and you have no idea where the story is going next. Here are some things you can do to get those 800 words in anyway:

• Go to writeordie.com and FORCE the words out.
• If that doesn’t work, reread the scene you’ve just written and see if you’re missing some obvious foreshadowing, some clue as to where the story’s headed. (You can also add a few lines to bulk up your wc.)
• If that fails, take a walk and let the fresh air usher a solution to you.
• If that fails, skip the next section. Write another scene. Go where the story is waiting for you. Come back to the other scene at a later time.

Helpful tip:

Instead of breaking your writing session into four parts, break it into five. Use your first writing session to sketch out an entire chapter, like an outline, but with bits and pieces of dialog and description. Figure out where you’re headed and a couple of key stops along the way. Knowing what you’re writing towards will make doing the actual, fleshed-out writing much easier and quicker.

You can also do an outline for the next day’s writing after you’ve gotten your 2000 words for the day in. Future you will be extremely pleased.