Faerie Friend Of The Damselflies. Ink And Watercolor On Paper. There’s Tons Of Damselflies Around The

I also love giving them meds and drugs. Like, an empath needs anti-depressants, mood-stabilisers, etc. And there are special therapists for empaths, by law in many territories, any person showing signs of being an empath must take a government-issued test and, if empathy positive, are assigned a government approved therapist. 

Happy Storyteller Saturday! Do any of your characters wear glasses? I recently got a pair, and the world is much sharper than it used to be!

I’ve been thinking that perhaps they should, as well as rethinking my “supes never get sick” rule. As it stands, there are enchanted glasses that help with eyestrain, translations, and seeing through glamours, but no one I’ve written so far needs them correctively

Apps For Writers I Wish I Had

So, as a writer who’s more lazy than my cats, I spend many a sleepless night thinking up apps for me to use to make the process much easier. These are a few of those. 

One: A app where you can enter a name and click ‘search’ and it will tell you if it’s okay to use in a project. You can specify wether it’s a person name, an establishment name, a place name, etc. to refine your search.  A possible name would be ‘Name Check’ or some variant.  Two: a face claim app. You can specify the basics of your character and it will pull up pictures/face claims matching the description. Eg. ‘hazel eyes’ ‘black hair’ ‘male’ ‘freckles’ and so on getting more and more specific. 

Three: an app for job research. You type in the job you have for your character and it pulls up real life accounts of people with that job. It would explain what the basics are, day to day routine, schooling necessary, hazards, time, etc. Note that this only applies to real life jobs, not fantasy

Four: a music app. You give the browser the themes, feelings, etc. of your project and it pulls up music that fits that. Also can define by genre. Also applicable for characters. 

Five: kind of goes along with face claim. A scene reference app. You give the feeling, genre, what you know about it, etc. and it pulls up pictures that match that for you to reference. To see it in front of you. 

Six: This one is sort of like three. Need to write a scene you’ve never experienced? This gives you kind of like a guideline Do’s and Don’ts, if you will. Someone who’s experienced it explains(to the best of their abilities) what they were feeling. You have to know your character well enough to change those feelings to fit your character.  Not for fantasy.   Seven: Character name checking. It’s a fucking pain to have to figure out if this awesome name is available to use in a book or anything that’s going to be written by you. With this, all you have to do is type in the name and if it turns green, it’s safe to use. 

I’m tempted to say Ash but I don’t know. He’s supposed to be more soft but I love it when the soft one has repressed anger. Even though it’s a sort of over done trope.  But I digress.   The theme really makes it possible for all of them to have repressed anger. Though I think Ash would be the one who doesn’t realise it the most. 

tag the oc who has a lot of repressed anger and doesn’t realize it yet

The Fuck Is Happening?

So usually I suck—and I mean suck—at naming characters. It takes me forever and a plethora of research before I even get a working name. Now? I’ve come up with three off the top of my head, only looking up one name(Aysha) which is fair because of the rarity of it.  Though I came up with some…odd surnames. Greenbay and Greyborn. Like…what? Where did those come from? This is contemporary. Set in real life. 

Max: I don’t know really…Ash is just…he’s brilliant, ya know? It’s impossible not to love him. 

Tender Tuesday

This is an ask event specifically for romance writers, or those who have major romance tropes in their stories - therefore the questions sent to each other, has to be about love; think of things like “Who is big spoon/little spoon?”, “What’s the biggest challenge they have to face as a couple?” etc.

P.S.: This is an all inclusive party, all the colours of the rainbow are welcome. It doesn’t matter who your characters love, bring them in and tell us all about it.

I’m going to send out as many asks as I can. But just in case, this weeks question is:

What made your OC fall in love with their partner(s)?

Feel free to tag me if you answer.

Tag to use: #tender tuesday

Tag list:

@adie-dee, @adventuresofmeghatron, @aelenko​, @alias-levi, @asablehart​, @austrohungarianwriteblr​, @bigboldgold, @candyapplewriting​, ​ @castironbitch​, @clarissablackm, @drowsy-quill​, @drbibliophile, @earths-oeuvre, @elliegraule, @fictional-semantics​, @flashflyingfish, @ghostpicnic-writes, @gwens-fiction​, @happyorogeny, @hell-yeah-fantasy, @imsorry-idontcare​,  @itsmariemccurdy, @jekkiefan @justahufflepuffnerd, @kellymunro, @kryallaorchid, @ladywithalamp​, @lexiklecksi​, @lynnafred​, @lysander-xp, @midnightstarlightwrites, @missbrunettebarbie-writer, @mrs-raven-writes, @nectargrapes​, @nk-writes, @northernrosewritings​, @petrolstationflowers, @pheita, @princessofdarkness12, @raevenlywrites​, @rainbowcoloreddays​, @ravenpuffwriter​, @reininginthefirewriting, @rhiannonleewriting​, @scribbleknots​, @scripturientworld, @six-feet-underneath​, @smgrace3, @solesurvivorpaigeargot​ @sybil-writes​ @thegirlfairytalesforgot, @theswordofpens, @writerwaage, @writingamongthecoloredroses​, @writinginslowmotion​, @writemares​, @writer-in-monochrome

Please, interact with the post if you’d like to be added.

The tag list is here for you to see who you can send an ask for. If you get an ask, please, return it so we can keep this going.

Have fun! Keep the romance going ❤️

TOM HIDDLESTON

    Art of Villainy - Jaguar

The Best Thing About Being Bi

Is that you can sing virtually any love song and not have to change the pronouns. 

Introducing: #BusinessForBC

Right now, a growing number of businesses are pledging to guarantee birth control coverage for their workers. Why? Because it’s essential health care that helps workers thrive, and because access to birth control fosters more equitable, inclusive working environments. 

Business for Birth Control’s call to action is so important right now, because sexual and reproductive health care is under threat in the U.S. and around the world. Any day now, the Supreme Court will make a decision on two dangerous Trump administration rules that would allow employers and universities — based on their personal objections — to deny birth control coverage to employees and students. And the Trump administration has tried to bully the United Nations to eliminate references to sexual and reproductive health as part of their global COVID-19 plans, ignoring the essential nature of reproductive health care during a pandemic and always. 

Businesses that pledge to be a #BusinessforBC are helping to educate and inspire others in the business community to show their support for accessible birth control for all people. These companies know that access to birth control improves economic and health outcomes. Nearly 90% of women of reproductive age have used contraception in their lifetimes, and access to birth control has been proven to increase education level and wage earning. 

Pledging to guarantee birth control access is part of a larger commitment to racial and gender equity, too: Women of color, especially Black and Indigenous women, face disproportionate barriers to accessing affordable health care. Access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health services is key to addressing historical disparities in unintended pregnancy, maternal mortality rates, and higher rates of breast and cervical cancer. 

Women of color also face greater institutional barriers to promotion in the workplace. Black women and Latinas in the U.S. today earn just over half of what their white male counterparts earn. We have a long way to go, but committing to birth control coverage is one step toward greater racial equity in the workforce and more inclusive economic growth. 

Businesses that have pledged to be a #BusinessforBC include:

Amalgamated Bank

Argent

Bad Robot Productions

CREDO Mobile

Female Quotient

Hims & Hers

Jaya Apparel Group, parent company to Cinq à Sept and Likely

Postmates 

The Helm

The Lede Company

Trillium Asset Management

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Learn more about #BusinessForBC at BusinessForBirthControl.org.

I didn’t even realise I did this. Almost subconsciously, it’s just the way my writing is. I thought it was normal…? Okay. 

Hi, I'm rereading some of my work and I notice that most of the sentences start with a subject and it tends to get really annoying after a while. Any tips on other ways I could start my sentences?

How to Diversify Your Sentence Structure

This is a really common problem that I think a lot of writers have! Having a repetitive sentence structure without variation can make your prose really choppy, boring and difficult to read, while overall weakening your voice.

Here are some techniques to help you change things up a bit!

Switch around your subject

Very basic grammar: Every sentence has a subject and a predicate. I think when we think of subject in a sentence, we often think of person. This might be especially true in creative writing because we deal with characters.

For example:

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. She felt a cold breeze blow through her. She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

In this example, Amelia is the subject of every single sentence, and a verb is followed immediately afterward. Because every sentence begins with ‘Amelia’ or ‘she’, there’s no variety and it’s a little bit boring to read. 

Here’s what it could look like if I switched the subject around somewhere.

She felt a cold breeze blow through her.

A cold breeze blew through her.

The difference is subtle, but now the subject of the sentence is the breeze, not Amelia. The sentence structure is still the same: The subject is followed by a verb. However, because the subject is different from Amelia, it still brings variety to how your sentences read. 

Here’s what it looks like now:

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. A cold breeze blew through her. She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Now that every sentence doesn’t begin with “Amelia” or “she” it seems a little bit more interesting.

Put dependent clause before subject 

So we changed one subject in a sentence, but we still have multiple sentences that have Amelia as the subject. It still doesn’t have too much variety in sentence structure, and as a result, it can be stilted.

So let’s try bringing a dependent clause before the subject.

She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather, Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

By bringing ‘realizing’ before the subject, I created a dependent clause and succeeded making the first word something other than the subject. 

However, because it’s a dependent clause, ‘realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately’ is a sentence fragment — it’s an incomplete thought. So I combined it with the last sentence to make it complete.

So after those two techniques, let’s compare the original with the rewrite.

Original

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. She felt a cold breeze blow through her. She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket. 

Rewrite

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. A cold breeze blew through her. Realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather, Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Now because there’s a variety in sentence structure and subject, the paragraph  is not only more interesting to read, it also flows better and more smoothly. It also has the added bonus of diverse sentence lengths which was lacking before, and it helps make the writing more engaging.

I just wanted to note: there is nothing bad about having your subject as the first word in a sentence. I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to change every single sentence they ever wrote. Like in my example, the first sentence starts with Amelia. That’s fine.

The problem is that when every single sentence starts that way, it becomes repetitive. You can still have some sentences that start with your character, just make sure to throw in some other sentence structures, and your writing will be more engaging!

Outside of this specific example, you can also try playing around with dependent clauses in your existing sentences as well.

Jamie walked into the haunted house, despite her reluctance.

Despite her reluctance, Jamie walked into the haunted house.

The sentence is the exact same, but I just switched around where the dependent clause ‘despite her reluctance’ is placed. Even though it has the same meaning, it can provide a different feel or at the very least, switch up having your subject as the first word of every sentence.

I also talk about this in my guide about how to make your writing flow better. Sentence structure has a lot to do with making your writing sound cohesive and eloquent, so I would definitely recommend checking that out as well!

Thanks so much for asking Anon, I definitely struggled with this too when I was just starting out. I remember seeing how every single paragraph started with a name, and that was really annoying me, but I had trouble figuring out how to fix it. I hope this helped!

You know, just because you’re white doesn’t mean you can treat people who aren’t as less than human

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) dir. Gil Junger