Refseek.com

Let's talk about foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing can add a lot of depth to your writing and make it more exciting for the readers. They create a sense of coherence and satisfaction when future events unfold as hinted—or shock if they don't.

Here are some tips for effectively using foreshadowing in your novels and books:

Plan Ahead: Foreshadowing works best when it's woven into the fabric of your story from the beginning. As you outline your plot, think about key events and revelations you want to foreshadow, and strategically place hints and clues accordingly.

Use Subtlety: Foreshadowing doesn't have to be obvious or heavy-handed. The best foreshadowing is often subtle and understated, leaving readers with a sense of intrigue and curiosity rather than outright prediction.

Establish Patterns and Motifs: Look for opportunities to establish recurring patterns, motifs, or symbols that can subtly hint at future events. These can be visual, thematic, or even linguistic cues that tie into the larger narrative arc of your story.

Create Tension: Foreshadowing is most effective when it creates tension and anticipation for the reader. Use foreshadowing to hint at potential conflicts, obstacles, or twists.

Reveal Gradually: Foreshadowing doesn't have to be limited to one-off hints or clues. Instead, consider how you can layer foreshadowing throughout your story, gradually revealing more information as the plot unfolds.

Pay Attention to Timing: The timing of your foreshadowing is crucial. Introduce hints and clues at strategic points in your story, building anticipation and suspense without giving too much away too soon.

Revisit Foreshadowing: Ensure that foreshadowed events are eventually fulfilled or addressed in the story. Revisiting earlier hints or clues can provide a satisfying payoff for readers and reinforce the narrative coherence.

Balance Subtlety and Clarity: Foreshadowing should be subtle enough to intrigue readers without giving away major plot twists too early. Aim for a balance where foreshadowing is noticeable upon reflection but doesn't detract from the immediacy of the story.

Let's look at some ways to incorporate foreshadowing:

Symbolism: Symbolic imagery or motifs can serve as subtle foreshadowing devices. Think about objects, settings, or descriptive details that can serve as symbolic foreshadowing. A recurring image or object, for example, might subtly hint at future events or themes in the story.

Dialogue Clues: Characters can drop hints or make cryptic remarks that foreshadow upcoming events. Dialogue is a natural way to introduce foreshadowing without being too obvious.

Character Reactions: Pay attention to how characters react to certain situations or events. Their emotions or responses can foreshadow future conflicts or revelations.

Subtle Descriptions: Incorporate subtle descriptions or details that hint at future events. These can be easily overlooked on a first read but become significant upon reflection or when the foreshadowed event occurs.

Dreams and Visions: Dreams, visions, and other forms of altered consciousness can be effective vehicles for foreshadowing—they can hint at an upcoming event, or explore characters' subconscious desires and fears. This method can sometimes be either blatant or subtle depending on how it is incorporated.

Foreshadowing Through Setting: Use the setting to foreshadow events or developments in the story. For example, a stormy night might foreshadow conflict or turmoil ahead, while a serene setting might signal upcoming peace or resolution. (On the flip side, this can be used to catch readers off guard, like a "calm before the storm" type of situation.)

Parallel Storylines: Foreshadowing can occur through parallel storylines or subplots. Events in one storyline can subtly hint at future developments in another, creating anticipation and intrigue.

Recurring Themes: Identify recurring themes or motifs in your story and use them to foreshadow future events. These thematic elements can serve as subtle hints or clues for attentive readers.

Misdirection: Foreshadowing can be used to misdirect readers and create suspense by hinting at one outcome while actually leading to another. (See my post on misdirection for more!)

Happy writing! ❤

lets make a videogame how hard can it be

Sun Tzu is so fucking funny to me because for his time he was legitimately a brilliant tactician but a bunch of his insight is shit like "if you think you might lose, avoid doing that", "being outnumbered is bad generally", and "consider lying."

at some point, I wanna make a short list of resources frequently used by dlsite games, because a lot of people assume there's more of a baseline quality gap between "eastern" and "western" rpgmaker games than there actually is, and a lot of that comes down to the JP rpgmaker community having established avenues through which to acquire cheap royalty-free assets that specifically match the vibes of rpgs lol

I stumbled across this blog on accident, but I am intrigued and I have to ask: is there a specific best place to read the Ulster Cycle in English?

yo! welcome to the niche corner

okay so first up the “ulster cycle” is a modern term given to a huge and disparate body of texts, some of which connect obviously to each other and some of which don’t but happen to have some of the same characters. some retellings attempt to rewrite the whole thing into a single coherent narrative but those are, by necessity, retellings rather than translations since that isn’t actually... what it is.

not all the texts have been translated but most of the big ones have and some of them even have multiple translations which is great

the big, central text and the one i reference most often is táin bó cúailnge, which used to get translated as “the cattle-raid of cooley” until thomas kinsella came along and was like “hey, maybe people would take us more seriously if we called it the táin”, so that’s what it generally gets called now. kinsella’s translation is good, as is ciarán carson’s. carson’s is a bit cheaper and personally i prefer it for general reading because of the style, but kinsella’s has the big advantage that he includes a bunch of the other stories which relate to the táin

another useful book is gantz’s early irish myths and sagas, which includes a bunch of texts from the so-called “ulster” and “mythological” cycles (again, modern terms). i would... ignore 99% of what gantz says in his little textual introductions because a lot of it is now quite outdated scholarship, but the translations themselves are solid enough

there are some more texts translated in the celtic heroic age by john carey and john koch but these are more academic translations and don’t really try and smooth over the syntax or any gaps in the manuscript for a modern audience, so that’s only if you’re really keen

you can also find a lot of the texts in translation at CELT, the Corpus of Electronic Texts (whoever came up with that acronym must have been so proud of themselves) -- these are generally older translations but hey, they’re free and they’re online and a lot of them are very accurate, even if that can make them a bit less readable

@finnlongman makes videos about medieval irish lit and has retold several ulster cycle texts on youtube here

hope this helps! you will also find various retellings out there, many of them victorian or early 20th century (lady gregory, eleanor hull etc) but like i said, if you want the texts in their most “accurate” form, these are the best places to start

[please note that links are amazon uk affiliate links, if you buy via those i get a teeny tiny commission, but actually would advocate supporting your local bookshops if possible, they’re mostly there for illustrative purposes]

There is a new subreddit called r/PeriodPantry that allows people who need period products to post wishlists. Many people are forced by poverty to chose between menstrual hygiene products and other necessities, and may end up skipping meals or suffering health problems or social isolation as a result of lacking hygiene products. Please feel welcome to post a period product wishlist, fulfill a wishlist, and/or reblog this post to help it reach others.

A boy can dream, can't he?

i dunno who needs to hear this but viz just put death note, inuyasha (all eps plus the movies), hunter x hunter (seasons 1-3), naruto (seasons 1-8), and sailor moon for free on youtube (subs only, and the sailor moon playlist includes the first three seasons of the reboot too). go HAM EVERYBODY!!!

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free