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Writing Reference - Blog Posts
sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four
Writing Tips
Punctuating Dialogue
✧
➸ “This is a sentence.”
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
Fantasy Guide to A Great House (19th-20th Century) - Anatomy of the House
When we think of the Victorians, the grand old Gilded Age or the Edwardians, we all think of those big mansions and manors where some of our favourite stories take place. But what did a great house look like?
Layout
All great houses are different and some, being built in different eras, may adhere to different styles. But the layout of certain rooms usually stayed somewhat the same.
The highest floors including the attic were reserved the children's rooms/nursery and the servants quarters.
The next floor would be reserved for bedrooms. On the first/ground floor, there will be the dining room, drawing room, library etc.
The basement/cellar would be where the kitchens and other food related rooms would be. Servants halls and boot rooms may also be down here too along scullery, where sometimes a maid would clean.
Rooms used by Servants
Boot Room: The Boot Room is where the valets, ladies maids, hallboys and sometimes footmen clean off shoes and certain items of clothing.
Kitchen: The Kitchen was usually either in the basement or the first floor of the house, connected to a garden where the house's vegetables were grown.
Butler's Pantry: A butler's pantry was where the serving items are stored. This is where the silver is cleaned, stored and counted. The butler would keep the wine log and other account books here. The butler and footmen would use this room.
Pantry: The Pantry would be connected to the kitchen. It is a room where the kitchens stock (food and beverages) would be kept.
Larder: The larder was cool area in the kitchen or a room connected to it where food is stored. Raw meat was often left here before cooking but pastry, milk, cooked meat, bread and butter can also be stored here.
Servants Hall: The Servant's Hall was where the staff ate their meals and spent their down time. They would write letters, take tea, sew and darn clothes. The servants Hall would usually have a fireplace, a large table for meals, be where the servant's cutlery and plates would be kept and where the bell board hung. (these bells were the way servants where summoned)
Wine Cellar: The wine cellar was where the wine was melt, usually in the basement. Only the butler would be permitted down there and everything would be catalogued by him too.
Butler's/Housekeeper's sitting rooms: In some houses, both the butler and the housekeeper had sitting rooms/offices downstairs. This was were they held meetings with staff, took their tea and dealt with accounts.
Scullery: The scullery was were the cleaning equipment was cleaned and stored. The scullery may even also double as a bedroom for the scullery maid.
Servery: The Servery connected to the dinning room. It was where the wine was left before the butler carried it out to be served. Some of the food would be delivered here to be carried out as well.
Servant's Sleeping Quarters: All servants excepting perhaps the kitchen maid and outside staff slept in the attics. Men and unmarried women would be kept at seperate sides of the house with the interconnecting doors locked and bolted every night by the butler and housekeeper. If the quarters were small, some servants may have to share rooms. Servants' bathrooms and washrooms would also be up there, supplied with hot water from the kitchens.
Rooms used by the Family
Dining room: The dining room was where the family ate their breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was also where the gentlemen took their after dinner drink before joking the ladies in the drawing room.
Drawing room: The Drawing Room was sort of a living/sitting room. It was mainly used in the evenings after dinner where the ladies would take their tea and coffee before being joined by the men. It could also be used for tea by the ladies during the day. The drawing room was seen as more of a women's room but any of the family could use it. The drawing room was a formal room but could also be used for more casual activities.
Library: The library is of course where the books are kept. The family would use this room for writing letters, reading, doing business with tenants and taking tea in the afternoons.
Bedrooms: The bedrooms would take up most of the upper floors. The unmarried women would sleep in one wing with bachelors at the furthest wing away. Married couples often had adjoining rooms with their own bedrooms in each and equipped with a boudoir or a sitting room.
Nursery: Was where the children slept, usually all together until old enough to move into bedrooms. They would be attended to be nannies and nursemaids round the clock.
Study: The study was a sort of home office where family could do paperwork, chill and write letters.
Dressing room: Dressing Rooms where usually attached to bedrooms where the family would be dressed and their clothes would be stored. The valets and ladies maids would have control of the room.
Hall: The hall was where large parties would gather for dancing or music or to be greeted before parties.
Furnishings and Decor
Most of these Great Houses were inherited which means, they came with a lot of other people's crap. Ornaments from anniversaries, paintings bought on holiday, furniture picked out by newly weds, all of it comes with the house. So most of the time everything seems rather cluttered.
As for Servant's Quarters, most of the furnishings may have been donated by the family as gifts. Most servants' halls would have a portrait of the sovereign or sometimes a religious figure to install a sense of morality into them.
I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.
Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!
Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)
And hey, is this helps... maybe sit down and write a story! :)
Hi there! If you feel up to it, would you be willing to expand a bit more on the idea of white creators creating poc characters who are ‘internally white’, especially in a post-racialized or racism-free setting & how to avoid it? It’s something I’m very concerned about but I haven’t encountered a lot of info about it outside of stories set in real world settings. Thanks & have a good day!
Hey, thanks for asking, anon! It’s a pretty nuanced topic, and different people will have different takes on it. I’ll share my thoughts on it, but do keep in mind that other people of colour may have different thoughts on the matter, and this is by no means definitive! These are things I’ve observed through research, trial and error, my own experiences, or just learning from other writers.
The first thing I guess I want to clarify is that I personally am not opposed to a society without racism in fiction. It’s exhausting and frankly boring when the only stories that characters of colour get are about racism! So it’s a relief sometimes to just get to see characters of colour exist in a story without dealing with racism. That being said, I feel like a lot of the time when creators establish their settings as “post-racial,” they avoid racism but they also avoid race altogether. Not aesthetically -they may have a few or even many characters with dark skin- but the way the characters act and talk and relate to the world are “race-less” (which tends to end up as default white American/British or whatever place the creator comes from). Which I have complicated thoughts on, but the most obvious thing that springs to mind is how such an approach implies (deliberately or not) that racism is all there is to the way POC navigate the world. It’s definitely a significant factor, particularly for POC in Western countries, but it’s not the only thing! There’s so much more to our experiences than just racial discrimination, and it’s a shame that a lot of “post-racial” or “racism-free” settings seem to overlook that in their eagerness to not have racism (or race) in their stories.
A quick go-to question I ask when I look at characters of colour written/played by white creators is: if this was a story or transcript I was reading, with no art or actors or what have you, would I be able to tell that this character is a character of colour? How does the creator signal to the audience that this is a character of colour? A lot of the time, this signal stops after the physical description - “X has dark skin” and then that’s all! (We will not discuss the issue of racial stereotypes in depth, but it should be clear that those are absolutely the wrong way to indicate a character of colour).
This expands to a wider issue of using dark skin as a be-all-end-all indication of diversity, which is what I mean by “aesthetic” characters of colour (I used the term “internally white” originally but upon further reflection, it has some very loaded implications, many of which I’m personally familiar with, so I apologize for the usage). Yes, the character may not “look” white, but how do they interact with the world? Where do they come from? What is their background, their family? A note: this can be challenging with diaspora stories in the real world and people being disconnected (forcibly or otherwise) from their heritage (in which case, those are definitely stories that outsiders should not tell). So let’s look at fantasy. Even the most original writer in the world bases their world building off existing things in the real world. So what cultures are you basing your races off of? If you have a dark skinned character in your fantasy story, what are the real world inspirations and equivalents that you drew from, and how do you acknowledge that in a respectful, non-stereotyped way?
(Gonna quickly digress here and say that there are already so many stories about characters of colour disconnected from their heritage because ‘They didn’t grow up around other people from that culture’ or ‘They moved somewhere else and grew up in that dominant culture’ or ‘It just wasn’t important to them growing up’ and so on. These are valid stories, and important to many people! But when told by (usually) white creators, they’re also used, intentionally or not, as a sort of cop-out to avoid having to research or think about the character’s ethnicity and how that influences who they are. So another point of advice: avoid always situating characters outside of their heritage. Once or twice explored with enough nuance and it can be an interesting narrative, all the time and it starts being a problem)
Another thing I want to clarify at this point is that it’s a contentious issue about whether creators should tell stories that aren’t theirs, and different people will have different opinions. For me personally, I definitely don’t think it’s inherently bad for creators to have diverse characters in their work, and no creator can live every experience there is. That being said, there are caveats for how such characters are handled. For me personally, I follow a few rules of thumb which are:
Is this story one that is appropriate for this creator to tell? Some experiences are unique and lived with a meaningful or complex history and context behind them and the people to whom those experiences belong do not want outsiders to tell those stories.
To what extent is the creator telling this story? Is it something mentioned as part of the narrative but not significantly explored or developed upon? Does it form a core part of the story or character? There are some stories that translate across cultures and it’s (tentatively) ok to explore more in depth, like immigration or intergenerational differences. There are some stories that don’t, and shouldn’t be explored in detail (or even at all) by people outside those cultures.
How is the creator approaching this story and the people who live it? To what extent have they done their research? What discussions have they had with sensitivity consultants/readers? What kind of respect are they bringing to their work? Do they default to stereotypes and folk knowledge when they reach the limits of their research? How do they respond to feedback or criticism when audiences point things that they will inevitably get wrong?
Going back to the “race-less” point, I think that creators need to be careful that they’re (respectfully) portraying characters of colour as obvious persons of colour. With a very definite ‘no’ on stereotyping, of course, so that’s where the research comes in (which should comprise of more than a ten minute Google search). If your setting is in the real world, what is the background your character comes from and how might that influence the way they act or talk or see the world? If your setting is in a fantasy world, same question! Obviously, avoid depicting things which are closed/exclusive to that culture (such as religious beliefs, practices, etc) and again, avoid stereotyping (which I cannot stress enough), but think about how characters might live their lives and experience the world differently based on the culture or the background they come from.
As an example of a POC character written/played well by a white person, I personally like Jackson Wei and Cindy Wong from Dimension 20’s The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy D&D campaign. Jackson and Cindy are NPCs played by the DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, who did a good job acknowledging their ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes and while giving them their own unique characters and personalities. The first time he acted as Cindy, I leapt up from my chair because she was exactly like so many old Chinese aunties and grandmothers I’ve met. The way Jackson and Cindy speak and act and think is very Chinese (without being stereotyped), but at the same time, there’s more to their characters than being Chinese, they have unique and important roles in the story that have nothing to do with their ethnicity. So it’s obvious that they’re people of colour, that they’re Chinese, but at the same time, the DM isn’t overstepping and trying to tell stories that aren’t his to tell. All while not having the characters face any racism, as so many “post-racialized” settings aim for, because there are quite enough stories about that!
There a couple factors that contribute to the positive example I gave above. The DM is particularly conscientious about representation and doing his research (not to say that he never messes up, but he puts in a lot more effort than the average creator), and the show also works with a lot of sensitivity consultants. Which takes me to the next point - the best way to portray characters of colour in your story is to interact with people from that community. Make some new friends, reach out to people! Consume media by creators of colour! In my experience so far, the most authentic Chinese characters have almost universally been created/written/played by Chinese creators. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows created by people of colour. Apart from supporting marginalized creators, you also start to pick up how people from that culture or heritage see themselves and the world, what kind of stories they have to tell, and just as importantly, what kind of stories they want being told or shared. In other words, the best way to portray an authentic character of colour that is more than just the colour of their skin is to learn from actual people of colour (without, of course, treating them just as a resource and, of course, with proper credit and acknowledgement).
Most importantly, this isn’t easy, and you will absolutely make mistakes. I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that you will mess up. No matter how well researched you are, how much respect you have for other cultures, how earnestly you want to do this right, you will at some point do something that makes your POC audience uncomfortable or even offends them. Then, your responsibility comes with your response. Yes, you’ve done something wrong. How do you respond to the people who are hurt or disappointed? Do you ignore them, or double down on your words, or try to defend yourself? Just as importantly, what are you planning to do about it in the future? If you have a second chance, what are you going to do differently? You will make mistakes at some point. So what are you going to do about them? That, I think, is an even more important question than “How can I do this right?” You may or may not portray something accurately, but when you get something wrong, how are you going to respond?
Essentially, it all comes down to your responsibility as a creator. As a creator, you have a responsibility to do your due diligence in research, to remain respectful to your work and to your audience, and to be careful and conscientious about how you choose to create things. It’s not about getting things absolutely perfect or being the most socially conscious creator out there, it’s about recognizing your responsibilities as a creator with a platform, no matter how big or small, and taking responsibility for your work.
In summary:
Research, research, research
Avoid the obvious no-no’s (stereotypes, tokenization, fetishization, straight up stealing from other cultures, etc) and think critically about what creative choices you’re making and why
Do what you’re doing now, and reach out to people (who have put themselves out there as a resource). There are tons of resources out there by people of colour, reach out when you’re not sure about something or would like some advice!
Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility
Thank you for reaching out! Good luck with your work!
some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs
* body language masterlist
* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does
* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes
* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said
* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again
* some more body language help
(hope this helps some ppl)
some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs
* body language masterlist
* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does
* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes
* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said
* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again
* some more body language help
(hope this helps some ppl)
more on writing muslim characters from a hijabi muslim girl
- hijabis get really excited over pretty scarves - they also like to collect pins and brooches - we get asked a lot of questions and it can be annoying or it can be amusing, just depends on our mood and personality and how the question is phrased - common questions include: - “not even water?” (referring to fasting) - hijabis hear a lot of “do you sleep in that?” (we don’t) and “where is your hair?” (in a bun or a braid, usually) - “is it mooze-slim or mozzlem?” (the answer is neither, it’s muslim, with a soft s and accent on the first syllable) - “ee-slam or iz-lamb?” (it’s iss-laam, accent on the first syllable) - “hee-job?” (heh-jahb, accent on the second syllable)
- “kor-an?” (no. quran. say it like koor-annn, accent on the second syllable) - people tend to mess up our names really badly and you just get a sigh and a resigned nod or an awkward smile, maybe a nickname instead - long hair is easy to hide, short hair is harder to wrap up - hijab isn’t just covering hair, it’s also showing as little skin as possible with the exception of face, hands, and feet, and not wearing tight/sheer clothing - that applies to men too, people just don’t like to mention it ( i wonder why) - henna/mehendi isn’t just for special occasions, you’ll see people wearing it for fun - henna/mehendi isn’t just for muslims, either, it’s not a religious thing - henna/mehendi is not just for women, men also wear it, especially on their weddings - there are big mehendi parties in the couple of nights before eid where people (usually just women and kids) gather and do each other’s mehendi, usually just hands and feet - five daily prayers - most muslim kids can stutter through a couple verses of quran in the original arabic text by the age of seven or eight, it does not matter where they live or where they’re from or what language they speak natively - muslim families tend to have multiple copies of the quran - there are no “versions” of the quran, there has only ever been one. all muslims follow the exact same book - muslims have no concept of taking God’s name in vain, we call on God at every little inconvenience - don’t use islamic phrases if you don’t know what they mean or how to use them. we use them often, inside and outside of religious settings. in islam, it is encouraged to mention God often and we say these things very casually, but we take them very seriously - Allahu Akbar means “God is Greatest” (often said when something shocks or surprises us, or if we’re scared or daunted, or when something amazing happens, whether it be good or bad; it’s like saying “oh my god”) - Subhan Allah means “Glory be to God” (i say subhan Allah at the sky, at babies, at trees, whatever strikes me as pleasant, especially if it’s in nature) - Bismillah means “in the name of God” and it’s just something you say before you start something like eating or doing your homework - In Shaa Allah means “if God wills” (example: you’ll be famous, in shaa Allah) (it’s a reminder that the future is in God’s hands, so be humble and be hopeful)
- Astaghfirullah means “i seek forgiveness from Allah” and it’s like “god forgive me” - Alhamdulillah means “all thanks and praise belong to God” and it’s just a little bit more serious than saying “thank god” (example: i passed my exams, alhamdulillah; i made it home okay, alhamdulillah) - when i say we use them casually, i really mean it - teacher forgot to assign homework? Alhamdulillah - our version of “amen” is “ameen” - muslims greet each other with “assalamu alaikum” which just means “peace be on you” and it’s like saying hi - the proper response is “walaikum assalam” which means “and on you be peace” and it’s like saying “you too”
your dark fantasy novel doesn't need a logic-based magic system it needs a bear with a human face
as a little addition to this, many video stores would have a rewind fee if you forgot to rewind VHS tapes upon return. it was also a common job for those working in video rental to rewind tapes before putting them back on the shelf. this is why you didn't (usually) need to rewind your rented movies when you first watched them.
while I'm here I'll throw in a bit more 80s and 90s knowledge:
CRTs were common up until the creation of LCDs in the late 90s/early 2000s. CRTs take a few seconds to power on and the picture is darker until it has a chance to "warm up". CRTs aren't usually flat, curving in at the edges and corners (flat CRTs did exist in the late 80s but were expensive). they often emit a quiet hum and sometimes a high pitched tone (usually if there's something broken or misaligned inside). they can also have static electricity build up on the surface of the glass which raises the hairs on your hands. if you run your hand over this static and touch a doorknob, you could get an unpleasant shock.
dial-up internet was around since the early 80s but wasn't common in households until 1992, and was surpassed by broadband in the late 90s/early 2000s. your PC had to actually dial a phone number your internet provider gave you and the data would be transmitted through the phone line as audio which your PC's modem would decode. if someone used the phone to make a call it would harm the connection or disconnect you from the internet, so families typically had a reserved "computer time" when no one was allowed to use the phone.
before USB sticks, SD cards, and even CDs, old software was commonly installed with floppy disks. due to their small capacity a simple program might be sold on dozens of disks loaded into a floppy drive one at a time.
blowing air on game cartridges that weren't playing properly didn't usually do anything, mostly the act of removing and reinserting the cartridge does the trick, but it was still a common practice
game disks (such as from the PS1) that were scratched or played often would take longer to load over time. character and world geometry is typically smaller than audio tracks meaning they load faster. my copy of spyro 3 would load into the game before the audio had a chance to catch up, leading to music and dialog playing seconds later than expected or not at all.
I hope this info helps aspiring younger writers out there who want to write a story set in this period!
Younger writers. Please, just know that you could not skip to different songs on a cassette tape, that’s CDs. With tapes you pressed fast forward or rewind and prayed.
Also, VHS tapes did not have menu screens. Your only options were play, fast forward, rewind, pause, stop, or eject.
Y’all are making me feel like the crypt keeper here, I’m begging you 😭
Writing Tips
Descriptions in Between Dialogue
✧
⤠ how characters interact with the environment
⇝ moving something, picking something up, looking somewhere
⤠ how the environment interacts with the characters
⇝ weather, other character’s actions or movements
⤠ gestures
⇝ facial expressions, body language
⤠ shifts in position
⇝ standing, sitting, leaning, shifting weight, crossing arms/legs
⤠ physical reactions
⇝ body temperature, fidgeting, heart rate, character quirks
⤠ environmental descriptions
⇝ descriptions using the five senses, setting, character’s appearances
⤠ internal dialogue
⇝ emotional reaction to what was said, reflection of past experiences, connections to other characters/settings/actions
➵ I want to reiterate… descriptions using the five senses ; when in doubt, think of the five senses your character is experiencing and pick what best moves the story forward
Writing Tips
Punctuating Dialogue
✧
➸ “This is a sentence.”
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
under the cut are a list of websites and articles i like, that perhaps may come in useful for writing reference. a lot of the sites linked are NSFW, so please be careful when you click! they’re separated into 5 sections (sex, drugs, death, technology, and culture) and a lot are archived links. happy browsing!
sex
boogie sites | article from 1998 detailing the rise of online porn
‘the fuck brief’ | a lawsuit regarding fuckingmachines.com, their use of the word ‘fuck’, and how it relates to the first amendment
the teenager and the porn star | longform article from 2006 (with a postscript) about then-18 year old pornstar sasha grey. features lots of in-depth info about the porn industry and the sets.
rubbed the wrong way: sasha grey’s porn set pet peeves | interview with sasha grey (then 22) focusing on her porn set dislikes
photos and stories from the secret world of strip clubs | anecdotes from strippers, taken from the book ‘wanting you to want me’ by bronwen parker-rhodes and emily dinsdale
peer inside japan’s secretive love hotels | photos of love hotels in japan, ranging from simple to extravagant
the vice guide to becoming a whore in 2004 | a-z by an anonymous sex worker detailing her lifestyle in the sex industry
a lap dancer answers 17 prying questions about working in a strip club | q&a with a lap dancer about her work
romance @ homedespot | offshoot of tokyo damage report, linking to the page about romance, love, and sex. there’s other links on the page to different sections.
bdsm ettiequte @ evilmonk dot org | simple website with a wealth of information on bdsm history, manners, and other readings.
drugs
candyland: the secret life of a tokyo coke baron | long read on the rise of foreign criminal activity in the japanese drug industry
death
the splat calculator | input some data and see how fast you’ll fall, as well as your impact velocity
tailstrike database | a database of ‘black box’ recordings/transcripts from plane crashes
9/11 thread on fark.com | one of the few livethreads on the internet providing live updates from 11/09/01; it stretches on for nine pages
i am pen pals with deathrow inmate richard ramirez aka the night stalker. ama. | reddit ask-me-anything thread with a person who is penpals with noted serial killer richard ramirez. features images of letters, drawings, and other paraphernalia the user was sent, as well as some talk about the man himself.
nukemap | drag the pointer to anywhere in the world, enter some data, and see what effect a nuclear bomb would have
inside stalin’s ‘cannibal island’ | in the 1930s, joseph stalin deported thousands of opponents and prisoners to a barren, isolated location that would become known as ‘cannibal island’
somethingawful 9/11 thread | often-referenced livethread from 9/11/01 on the website somethingawful dot com. has pictures, emojis, and other turn-of-the-century forum goodness. stretches for 18 pages (you need to click from the truegamer links to view) and has a retrospective thread from march 2002.
technology
fuck you and die: an oral history of something awful | touches on turn-of-the-century internet/messageboard culture
how shock sites shaped the internet | from shock horror movies to rotten dot com - how disgust evolved for the internet age
unscathed corpse | blogspot site gathering various other ‘curious, weird, sexiest, funny, crazy and interesting’ websites
this is what campaign websites looked like in 1996 | screenshots of political websites from the 1996 election
urban desires | online zine from 1995 focusing on various interesting topics (music, sex, food, fashion etc)
the curious history of the y2k cyberbabes | details the early 00s obsession with 3d women
next year’s models | featured in the above article, this specifically focuses on webby tookay, a virtual 3d model
disinformation dot com | defunct website from 1996 that stretches into the 00s, focusing on news that isn’t reported by the mainstream media
rotten library | ‘an unforgettable collection of all that mankind swore to forget’ - rotten dot com’s library, with various information on everything from the occult to languages to art to hoaxes
textfiles dot com | archive of ascii texts on various topics
cyborg foundation | website created in 2010 to ‘help humans become cyborgs, defend the rights of cyborgs, and promote cyborg art’
404pagefound | active vintage websites, old webpages, and web 1.0
tokyo damage report | autobiographical website from an american man living in tokyo. the css seems to have failed, so it’s rather unreadable, but you might be able to find some material if you click on the many, many links.
culture
lolita history | gallery of j-fashion magazine scans
what indie sleaze was really like at the time | article on the ‘indie sleaze’ movement and subculture of the mid-00s
answer me! | magazine from 1991-94 featuring social pathologies and various topics
aids in the heartland | series of articles from the late 80s providing an on-site look at the aids crisis in rural america
how to be amuro! | fansite for japanese singer namie amuro; this section focuses on how to look and dress like the singer, providing a useful insight into the budding gyaru style of japan
hubris | an online journal that the user has been keeping since 1998
a look inside british invasion obsessed teen magazines (1965-1966) | photos of articles and comics from 16 magazine during the height of the british invasion
hippies from a to z | everything you ever wanted to know about hippies, by a hippy
s&m: brutally good indie | text-only playlist from a college radio station that ran from september 2000 to december 2001
mixing for the 80s | interesting article from 2009 on how 80s songs were mixed
video vixens tell all about the ‘wild west’ mtv days of the 80s and 90s | various models from videos for artists such as zz top, jay-z, and billy idol detail what working as a ‘video vixen’ was like
britney spears and the myth of the ‘get ready with me’ video | thinkpiece on the culture of GRWMs and how they have affected personal appearance
and you thought you were obsessed with buffy the vampire slayer…: makeup counter | fansite page detailing the cosmetic makeup used on the set of buffy the vampire slayer, as well as makeup worn by main actress sarah michelle gellar in her spare time
tooth and nails | 1997 article on the rise of urban decay, which at the time was a fledgling makeup brand making major waves in the industry
urban decay shrine | neocities website featuring various products, adverts, and other outside links relating to the ‘glory days’ of urban decay
yolk magazine, 1994-2003 | blogspot article about yolk magazine, a magazine targeted at the asian-american demographic. the blog as a whole also focuses on chinese-american visual artists and culture, and stretches back to 1861!
star1973 dot com | star was a short-lived controversial teen magazine from 1973 that circulated around la’s teenage groupie scene and glam rock.
capitol hill staffers explain dc’s complex dress codes | the world of political fashion is probably more complicated than you could have imagined
Tips for fight scenes
If you get punched in the nose your eyes will water, a lot, even if it didn’t really hurt
Your body follows your head, your head gets pushed one way and your body will want to go that way
Getting hit in the stomach isn’t good, it hurts, getting hit in the diaphragm is worse. Causes your lungs to kinda spasm and make it hard to breathe (diaphragm is between stomach and chest)
When fighting a larger person they will have an easier time forcing you back
The jaw is the knockout button. Hit it hard enough and down for the count
Back of the head is very vulnerable, can cause serious damage if hit there
Kidney punches. They hurt. A lot.
People with experience will try to be where they are comfortable. A wrestler will try to get their opponent on the ground, a boxer will stay on their feet, etc.
Easiest counter to a kick is to get closer to whoever is throwing it, then they won’t have enough room for it to be effective
If you want realism, avoid fancy, flashy moves. They’re less practical and easier to counter.
Words related to “afraid”:
jittery
jumpy
fearful
scared
rattled
shaken
startled
panicky
anxious
worried
terrified
hesitant
alarmed
agitated
shocked
petrified
spooked
timorous
unnerved
distraught
lily-livered
frightened
distressed
concerned
intimidated
fainthearted
yellowbellied
apprehensive
disconcerted
panic-stricken
Writing Tips
Punctuating Dialogue
✧
➸ “This is a sentence.”
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!
(save the images to zoom in on the pics)
20 Flirty Remarks to Build Romantic Tension Without Being Overbearing
Feeling stuck trying to give your characters a good flirty one-liner that doesn't sound cringe/overdone? Here are 20 ideas/dialogue prompts for you (that I may or may not have stolen from my own books):
“I must warn you: you have a dangerous effect on my heart rate.” / "You have no idea what you're doing to my heart right now."
"If I said I wasn’t thinking about you, I’d be lying. And I’m a terrible liar."
"You know, I could get lost in those eyes, but I'd probably trip over my words trying to find my way back." (could also double as description/inner monologue).
“I can’t tell if you’re really charming or if I’m just easily charmed.”
“You have a knack for making me forget what I was going to say. It’s kind of impressive/infuriating.”
“I think you owe me a drink. When I saw you, I dropped mine.”
“I’ve been trying to find the perfect excuse to hang out, but I keep forgetting everything when I’m around you.”
“I bet you get away with a lot of trouble with that smile.”
“You must be a magician because every time you walk in, everyone else disappears.” (The right character could pull it off I swear)
"I’ve been trying to think of something clever to say, but all my brain can come up with is how much I want to (kiss) you."
"I saw that little glance—you’re not as sneaky as you think."
"How do you manage to make even the most mundane things sound exciting?"
"You do this cute thing with your hands when you’re nervous, you know?"
“One more word, and I might just have to kiss you.”
"Finally, there's that pretty smile of yours. I've been waiting for it all day."
"You keep staring—should I be flattered?" / "Keep looking at me like that and I might start thinking you have a crush on me."
"Do you have any idea how fun it is to watch you try to keep a straight face?"
"I’m pretty sure you could charm the socks off anyone, but I’d like to keep mine on for now."
"If laughter is the best medicine, then I’m pretty sure you’re my favorite doctor."
"Is it bad that I kind of like the way you’re trying to mess with me?"
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors! Instagram Tiktok
Writing References: Character Development
50 Questions ⚜ "Well-Rounded Character" Worksheet
Basics: How to Write a Character ⚜ A Story-Worthy Hero
Basics: Character-Building ⚜ Character Creation
Key Characters ⚜ Literary Characters ⚜ Morally Grey Characters
Personality Traits
5 Personality Traits (OCEAN) ⚜ 16 Personality Traits (16PF)
600+ Personality Traits
East vs. West Personalities ⚜ Trait Theories
Tips/Editing
Character Issues
Character Tropes for Inspiration
Tips from Rick Riordan
Writing Notes
Allegorical Characters
Binge ED
Childhood Bilingualism ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ On Children
Culture ⚜ Culture: Two Views ⚜ Culture Shock
Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness)
Emotions ⚜ Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness
Facial Expressions
Fantasy Creatures
Happy/Excited Body Language ⚜ Laughter & Humor
Hate ⚜ Love
Health ⚜ Frameworks of Health
Identifying Character Descriptions
Jargon ⚜ Logical Fallacies ⚜ Memory
Mutism ⚜ Shyness
Parenting Styles
Psychological Reactions to Unfair Behavior
Rhetoric ⚜ The Rhetorical Triangle
Swearing & Taboo Expressions
Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions
Uncommon Words: Body ⚜ Emotions
Voice & Accent
Writing References: Plot ⚜ World-building
I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.
“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.”
Is that like the “pillow words” that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?
“I don’t think it’s like the pillow word.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”
Which helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing and involving than the frantic cheerful action in a lot of American animation. I asked him to explain that a little more.
“The people who make the movies are scared of silence, so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. They might go up and get some popcorn.
But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions–that you never let go of those.
— Roger Ebert in conversation with Hiyao Miyazaki
IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST
OR ‘PEAKED’
BUT PIQUED
‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’
THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA
“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.
So you know when you're writing a scene where the hero is carrying an injured person and you realize you've never been in this situation and have no idea how accurate the method of transportation actually is?
Oh boy, do I have a valuable resource for you!
Here is a PDF of the best ways to carry people depending on the situation and how conscious the injured person needs to be for the carrying position.
Literally a life saver.
(No pun intended.)