Cant Wait Til I Move To Another Country And Be That Girl That Disappeared To Live Her Life

How to Write & Create Creatures

Here’s a list of quick tips when it comes to creating your fantasy (or horror) creatures!

1) Warp and combine already existing creatures. Be inspired by real life and mythologies— put a magical twist on an already existing animal. The “Nemean Lion” is a lion in Greek mythology whose fur is impenetrable. Medusa is a woman with hair of snakes. 

2) Think outside the box. A creature doesn’t have to be inspired by only living things. Beauty and The Beast has talking tea cups and clocks. If your creature is organic, think beyond your typical animals: plants, insects, bacteria, diseases, amphibians, etc.

3) Use all five senses. You don’t have to use them all at once in a description, but as the author, you should be aware of these details!

Sight: What do they look like? What are their unique features? How big are they compared to a human?

Touch: Is their skin rough like leather or soft like silk? Do they bare hair, and is it matted or greasy?

Smell: what scents come with the creature? Does the fairy smell like freshly baked muffins? Does the zombie smell like rotten eggs?

Hearing: What sounds do they make? Not just verbally but as a whole (loud footsteps, crackling bones, labored breathing, twinkling of a wand, etc.)

Taste: If they’re a rotting creature, would the salty taste of decomposition fill the air? Or does the pretty little fairy bring back memories of childhood sweets to your protagonist.

“The creature let out a low snarl, the smell of rotten flesh hitting me long before it ever came into view. Its leather-like skin was matte compared its the thin strands of greasy hair that danced in the moonlight.”

4) What sustains the creature? Does it feed off of blood, flesh, or human emotions? Is there a type of meal it would prefer or does it eat anything?

5) What is your creature’s motivation? What necessities does it need to survive? Does it need shelter, food, and water? Vampires require blood. Outside of basic survival needs… is it in search of something more material? An item or a specific person?

6) What summons your creature? Does it appear when someone rubs a magical lamp? Does it wander aimlessly until a sound catches its attention? Does the smell of blood make the monster from within come out?

7) Leave room for your reader’s imagination. While you want to thoroughly paint the picture of your creature, don’t over-explain. Instead, leave some room for your audience to fill in the gaps with their imagination. This will truly make the reading experience more unique to the reader.

8) Give it weaknesses. A creature that has limitations and rules is a realistic one. Werewolves only turn on a full moon and are weak to silver. Holy water burns a demon’s skin, and vampires can’t go out in the daylight. Is there a string of words that could paralyze it? If it can’t be killed, what can hurt it? Can it be captured or trapped?

9) Make it hard to kill. If the creatures in your story are easily defeated, that means there is less tension and conflict. Does it have immense strength or skin that is impenetrable? Make your characters think and be clever in the face of an impossible situation.

10) Does it have a home? Where does it rest? Does it live in caves with its herd or does it sleep under the beds of children? Is it a wandering monster or one that lives in the trees of a magical forest? 

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

i have thought a lot about censorship and what is “appropriate”. not a lot of people know this, but lolita was written to show what we allow on our bookshelves: there being no swear words in it meant it was free from censorship. a book about child molestation was allowed because it didn’t explicitly use the word “fuck”. he wrote it to show we don’t really care about protecting children, and it ended up being seen as a romance.

someone once told me - actually, many people have - that lgbt content isn’t appropriate for children. any content. not just kissing. i’m drowned in questions: “won’t the parents have to explain it?” “kids shouldn’t be thinking about sex at this age, or do you think differently?” “what will the kids think?”

at six i saw disney movies. people kiss and get married. i didn’t ask “what does that mean.” i didn’t ask “are those people going to have sex?” i didn’t ask anything, because i was six, and no six year old thinks twice about these things. nobody ever “explained” being straight to me, it was a fact, and it existed, and i was fine with that. why would being gay require a thesis, i wonder.

someone once told me that the one of the reasons people hate lgbt individuals is because they can’t see us as anything but sexual. we’re not people, so much as sinners. that they don’t see love, they see sex. just sex. it’s perversion, not a matter of the heart. only of the body.

i think i was in my early twenties before i saw someone like me. 

how old were you, though, before you saw violence? before you saw sexual assault on tv? i think something like that is only pg-13, and if it’s implied, they can get away with anything. i remember watching things and learning about blood, but knowing sex - sex was what was really wrong. sex was always rated r. sex was always kind of a bad word. i was told a lot that i wasn’t ready.

i had a dream last night that i made a site where people could ask any question they wanted about sex and get answered by a professional. it was shut down in moments because 15 year olds wanted to know if it should hurt, if “double-bagging” was a real thing, if this, if that. we shudder. don’t let the children know about that! 

but at thirteen i had seen enough violence it no longer struck me. i couldn’t say “fuck” but i knew that if you break your femur, you can bleed out internally in under half an hour. in school i wasn’t allowed to write about loving girls because what would the administration think - but i could write about wanting to kill myself and people would say how lovely, how blistering.

i have thought a lot about censorship. sometimes people on this site try it with me: don’t write this, don’t be so nasty. some of it is intrinsic. we know as people with a uterus not to complain about “that time of the month”, we know better than to talk about sexual assault (how shameful), we know that talking about a vagina is somehow scandalous. i can say “dick” and nobody questions me. some people only refer to the bottom half of me by “pussy”. they won’t wrap a mouth around “vagina” like it’s poison to them. even discussing this, that the language halts, that there’s an intrinsic desire to say “girls” instead of “women” - feels naughty, illicit. not for children.

the other day someone suggested i make my blog 18+. i said, okay, it deals a lot with depression and other problems that might be for a mature audience. oh no, they said, that’s not it, i think that’s helpful. i said, okay. so what is it then. well, you’re gay. you write about loving women. and i said, i don’t write about sex often and they said. it’s not about the sex. but wlw isn’t for a general audience. teenagers aren’t ready.

oh.

lolita is recommended for high school and up. i think about that a lot. i know girls who love it, who say it speaks to them on a deep level. it’s beautiful prose, after all. that was the whole point of the novel. something that looked like a rose but was intrinsically awful. i think about how if i was a model they’d want me to look young, thin, prepubescent. how my body would be sold and how through the mall i walk by images of barely-clothed women while mothers cannot breastfeed in public without fear of retribution. 

i think about how i can write a novel about violence and it will be pg-13 but if my characters say “fuck” twice it’s inappropriate. i said fuck three times so far in this post, which makes it only appropriate for adults. 

i think about that, and how my identity is something that people suggest lines up with a swear word. that people shouldn’t talk about it. that it’s a vulgarity. bad for children, harsh, confusing.

fuck. i love women. which one makes this only for those over eighteen.

real romance is just being deeply stupid together. i dream of one day meeting someone i can be deeply stupid with and not feel embarrassed 

Le Roi du Lys by  Naomi Savoie

“What is done with love is done well.”

— Vincent van Gogh (via goodreadss)

I think I want my next piercing to be through my heart with a wooden stake

sir that is my emotional support male celebrity that i direct all of my male attraction towards bc he is a highly idealized man that is safe to lust after because he cannot hurt me!!!!!!!

“I suppose she was afraid of linking her life indissolubly to mine. She had a horror of anything irrevocable.”

— Violet Keppel Trefusis, in Broderie Anglaise (1935)

Simon Alexandre-Clement Denis - Study of Clouds with a Sunset near Rome (detail)

autumnal asks

lantern - how did you meet your best friend? What were your first impressions of each other?

frost - if you could give some advice to your younger self, what would you say?

maple - is there a hobby / skill that you’ve always wanted to try but never did?

harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why?

fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?

cider - a food that you disliked as a child but now enjoy?

amber - share an unpopular opinion that you may have.

fog - how well do you think you’d do in a zombie apocalypse scenario?

jack-o-lantern - if you could look like any celebrity, who would you choose?

spice - have you ever encountered a house that you believed to be haunted?

orchard - share one thing that you’d like to happen this autumn.

crow - which school subject do you wish you had an aptitude for?

bonfire - describe your dream house.

cinnamon - if you had to live in a time period different than the present, which would you choose and where?

cobweb - (if you’ve graduated) do you miss high school?

cranberry - what’s one physical feature that you get complimented on?

maize - share the weirdest encounter you’ve had with a stranger on the street.

quilt - how do you take your tea (or coffee)?

pumpkin - do you think that humans are inherently good or bad?

moonlit - are you a neat or messy person? Is your room / house orderly?

flannel - have you ever gone on a bad date? 

cocoa - if you could have any type of hair, what colour and cut would you have?

ghost - is there someone that you miss having in your life?