Max Ernst. The Stolen Mirror. 1941.
What’s up just a reminder that the Hula Girl stereotype can go to hell and is in part responsible for Hawai’i being the tourist destination and getting invaded by rich white people, and for Hawaiian culture being disrespected and appropriated
Here’s a few sources on the topic:
How America’s Obsession With Hula Girls Almost Wrecked Hawai’i (the site is weird but the research is legitimate, gives a good overview of the issue and references a lot of sources that are harder to get your hands on read: books)
“Pop” Goes Hawai’i: The Twentieth Century Origins of Tourism in Hawai’i and the Impact of U.S. Pop Culture on Women in the Islands of Aloha (this one is very long but a really good read)
Misperceptions of the “Hula Girl” (this one is a personal essay but it’s an entry in the University of Hawai’i’s academic newspaper)
Cool cool so its Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month so I’m gonna uh. reblog this
Salam ! kawan-kawan penikmat mie instan yang tergerak hatinya terhadap keberlangsungan lingkungan dan ingin ikut andil dalam terwujudnya energi baru terbarukan.
Sampai tanggal 30 April ini sebuah kelompok riset di Bandung tengah aktif mengembangkan prototipe yang mampu mengubah bungkus mie instan menjadi minyak.
Tertarik untuk ikut membantu dalam riset tersebut ?
For more information and FAQ, kindly follow instagram @pramaditya.garry 😊
France is living something historical
March, 11th. While students were occupying a lecture hall in Montpellier’s University of Law, the Dean sent a fascist group helped by two teachers to beat up the students. Three of them ended up in the hospital, the girl in the picture with a fractured skull.
March, 27th. 4,000 students are sitting at Montpellier’s University of Art and Literature . We are voting the continued occupation of the University until all our demands are met. We make sure to include the French President’s resignation in our demands, to be certain that they will never be met. To this day, the university is still occupied.
April, 4th.
“Travaille, consomme et ferme ta gueule ! Et c’est quoi le message qu’on passe aux jeunes ?” “Tout est à nous ! Tout est à nous ! Rien n’est à eux ! Rien n’est à eux ! Tout ce qu’ils ont, ils l’ont volé ! Partage des richesses, partage des savoirs ou alors ça va péter !”
“Work, buy and shut the fuck up! And what’s the message you give to the youth?” “Everything is ours! Nothing is theirs! All they have, they have stolen! Share the wealth, share the knowledge or we will blow everything up!”
National day of strike. 2,700 people in Paris. 1,000 in Lyon. 2,000 in Montpellier. The workers joined the students, the hospital staff, the train and rails staff. Everyone marched, threatened by the CRS (security police) and smoke bombs. We had to stay masked because fascists groups were attacking people leaving the march.
April, 11th
Montpellier: Paul Valery University’s servers hacked, final exams pending
The Dean of my University (Art and Literature) has been a vocal opposant of our movement. In an effort to stop the occupation and threaten us, he has repeatedly refused to come to our meetins, has ignored the decisions made by the teaching staff and threatened to fire teachers who decided to march with us. His last effort has been regarding finals. Because the university is blocked since February (see the post I made), we didn’t have classes and almost no material to take exams. Final week was supposed to be from April 9th to 13th. The Dean ordered the teachers to create online exams for us to send. We received the subjects Friday 6th. I had to write an 18-page-long essay on animation in TWO DAYS. But today, something incredible happened. The plateform used by the university to communicate with students and send our exams was hacked by the protesting students. We can’t access it. We can’t send our exams. Furthermore, an assembly of teachers was held yesterday and they decided that they were going to play on a technicality. The Dean ordered them to make exams; he didn’t say if he wanted the teachers to grade them. A unanimous vote decided that they would give 10 to each student (we are graded on 20 and 10 is the minimum to pass) and bonus point if they give the exams.
Again, I’m begging you, share this around. The governement is purposefully hiding what is happening because they’re afraid it’s going to turn into another May, 1968. Reblog, repost, I don’t care. I just want people to see it. I’m 20 and I’m risking my life when I march.
I HAVE NEWS AND IT’S SCARY
Message from the video games teacher: “Hello everyone. There are rumors of police intervention in the next 48 hours on campus. I’m asking you to share the information, I will personnally be on campus tomorrow all day, as well as Friday. I don’t want to advise you to come, I’d feel too responsable if something happened to you… I do however think that the more students and teachers are here, the less risk there is that the police will come…’
[MORE NEWS]
“New information: a staff meeting is organized tomorrow at 9am by the university’s Dean. We just had Sud Eduction on the phone and they informed us that the meeting is organized in anticipation, to celebrate a very likely victory of the police against the students at 7am. I will be on campus at 6:30am with other teachers to support the students in case the police does come…”
THIS IS SCARY OK. THEY ARE DOING THE SAME THING THAT THE LAW UNI DEAN HAS DONE.
Tomorrow, I will go at 6:30. Let the police come. If they get violent against peaceful students who haven’t touched ANYONE in the two months this protest has been going on, there will be consequences. We will take pictures, we will film. I’m a fucking cinema students and you can bet I’ll send my bloodied face to every fucking news station if they ever lay a finger on me.
Again, I beg you, share this, please. If I’m about to get my face broken, it better be for the greater good.
For my non-French followers in the comments asking why/how this is happening, I will try to explain what is going on with the university/post-high-school mess that is going on in France.
Basically, the previous system was very complex. You have tons of possibiities after schools, going to bachelors, technical two-year degrees, professional two-year degrees, very expensive private schools, and everything is mixed in. You had to choose between those and if you didn’t get in what you wanted, you were waitlisted. For public universities though, people would be selected via a random roll, which imo was bad, but everyone had a fair shot (even though thousands of students would be left with nothing every year).
Therefore Macron (our current president) and his government decided to scrap the previous system and replace it with a system that would allow selection at entry level for universities. And if you can’t get in because people decide you’re “not good enough”, you’re sent for a year of classes to “put you at university level”. Not only does he want to do that, but he also wants to get rid of our three-way (literary, economic, scientific) high-school to replace it with a common core and make other subjects mandatory and limited for every student.
The government also loves guilting young students (at the age of 18 !) into choosing one and only one possible orientation, and shames those who “lost years because they chose the wrong path”. And basically, the laxity of changing orientations will be, imo, very affected, not allowing you to make mistakes, and making education more elitist in the process.
Students therefore started to block university campuses in protest of this reform, and a few days later, groups of fascists (as presented above) started to attack, some of them even being let in by professors and deans themselves.
I would almost say that I’m lucky to already be in a master’s degree, because the state of our educational system is just going downhill imo. I heavily support the students fighting for our rights of education. France has always stated that education is a right, and selection is the opposite of that. And the fact that we’re being under attack by both the police and fascists, tells a lot about what our government thinks of our right to protest and occupy campuses (by the way Campuses are under protection since 1231 and Gregory IX and the police cannot evacuate a campus without authorisation…).
TL;DR : While the previous system of university entry was really complicated and fucked up, the government is trying to make it even harder for students to access to higher education, which led to protests and students occupying campuses. However, we are being met with hostility and violence by both fascist groups and the police that is determined to make our protests stop at any costs.
Additional information : this isn’t the only bad thing that is happening in France at the moment, for example, the government is trying to privatise the national railroad system, which is only gonna make the prices higher and close the smaller lines that “don’t make enough profit”, and railroad workers are also met with the same kind of hostility in the media ; other public services such as airline workers, trash collectors, and public workers, are joining the movement to counter the right-wing politics Macron is trying to implement. The sigh of relief last year when Macron won the elections against extreme right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen was just a sigh of relief that she didn’t win ; most French people (or at least leftist folks like myself) knew that Macron was, is and always will be right-wing. But this level of violence is unprecented, and this is the reason why I support all strikers and their right, because Macron will not stop there.
I hope this explains it all, sorry for the long post but I really needed to talk about it, because everyone in the world that isn’t French and that is praising Macron right now definitely doesn’t know the level of violence we’re enduring right now just because we dare protest for our rights. Police brutality is at an all-time high and protestors can’t even go on strike without masks and first-aid kits with them in case of police forces attacking us. Please support us, we really need it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ADDITION
That rabbit/hare post is messing me up. I’d thought they were synonyms. Their development and social behavior are all different. They can’t even interbreed. They don’t have the same number of chromosomes. Dogs, wolves, jackals, and coyotes can mate with each other and have fertile offspring but rabbits and hares cant even make infertile ones bc they just die in the womb. Wack.
These
are more genetically compatible than These
and that’s why morphology-based phylogeny has Issues
The problem is perspective. People always think dogs are the ‘standard’ animal, the metric to use for whether or not two organisms “look like” they’re related. When in fact they’re a massive outlier due to the fact that we fucked up this lineage of wolf beyond recognition with selective breeding. It’s why people always say “breed” when they mean “species”, especially when talking about groups like lizards which can’t even be defined cladistically since some of them are closer to snakes than each other. To say nothing of fish.
I once read an article that emphasized there is no such thing as a fish. Sharks and rays, lamprey, lobe-finned fish like lungfish and coelacanth, bichir and sturgeon, and of course the multiple infraclasses of more “modern” fish groups are all only very distantly related to one another. They’ve maintained semi-similar body structures only because there are limited ways to efficiently move through water as a vertebrate.
This
And this
Are more distantly related from one another than you and I are from a lungfish
Which is absolutely fuckin wild.
Not only that, but all of us air-breathing land vertebrates, all the lizards and chickens and people and frogs, are closer to one another than those three “fish” are to one another as well.
Max Ernst, La Femme 100 Tetes (1929); Une Semaine de Bonté [A Week of Kindness]; Les 7 éléments Capitaux (1934).
Max Ernst and Paul Eluard. Répétitions, Les malheurs des immortels (The misfortunes of the immortals), La femme 100 têtes (The hundred headless woman), Rêve d'une petite fille qui voulut entrer au carmel (A little girl dreams of taking the veil) and Une semaine de bonté (A week of kindness). 1922-1934.
Can I be honest?
I just feel like, as writers, we need to promote each other’s work— validate and encourage one another, comment every once and while, reblog and share and just let each other know their words aren’t wasted space. That their words matter and we give a damn and we want them to keep writing, because writing is fucking hard. And often terrifying. I mean, sometimes it feels like standing on a stage facing hundreds (maybe thousands), in the middle of a spotlight, being asked to strip naked while everyone just stares. It takes hours sometimes to build up the courage to post that single sentence, paragraph, or page. So if you’re a writer reading this, or know a writer, or want to be a writer, don’t just pass up a post that makes you stop and stare. Do that writer a favor— show them some love and support.
SITES FOR WRITERS
Festisite ; Create a fake license, marriage certificate, credit card, ticket and you can find other stuff as well.
Said is dead (Remember that you can use said, don’t use it to less.)
Zen writer ; writing without distractions (Might not be free after a while)
Feel free to add more!
These are all fantastic! Thank you for the blog recs!
WRITEBLR DISCORD - or if you want to be fancy, just a writing discord server. It doesn’t have a lot of attachment to writeblr in particular. JOIN
Writerlythings is recently refreshed and looking to grow! With genre channels, resources, recommendations, sprint and writing question bots, and off-topic channels for general chat, resources, and more.
Please reblog to boost so we can build the community!
Rules and general server information: (more indepth if you join)
1) civility 2) posting writing in genre channels: you should provide feedback to the post above yours when posting to help facilitate the friendly environment we’re looking for
We have channels for mature content. This is writing, writing-related or tame nsfw only. I’m not authenticating straight up p/rn here. Roles for pronouns, genres, and length of activity on server Moderation by people with history for servers and experience with moderation. As we grow, we’ll also be holding weekly events–for sprints, questions, challenges and more!
Introduction to Mesoamerica reading material
This list is drawn from old school syllabi, what I’ve read, and what I’ve seen others recommend. I will try to update this periodically with more books, journal articles, book chapters, and even documentaries. I’ll try and provide an open access (or limited access like a free JSTOR account) for the journal articles and book chapters.
Books
General
* Mann, Charles C. 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Alfred a Knopf Incorporated, 2005.
* Coe, Michael D., and Rex Koontz. Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs. Vol. 29. Thames & Hudson, 2008.
* Evans, Susan Toby. Ancient Mexico and Central America: archaeology and culture history. Thames & hudson, 2013.
* Coe, Sophie D. America’s first cuisines. University of Texas Press, 1994.
* Matthew, Laura E., and Michel R. Oudijk. Indian conquistadors: Indigenous allies in the conquest of Mesoamerica. University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
* Restall, Matthew. Seven myths of the Spanish conquest. Oxford University Press, 2004.
* Miller, Mary Ellen, and Karl Taube. An illustrated dictionary of the gods and symbols of ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
* Tiesler, Vera, and Andrea Cucina, eds. New perspectives on human sacrifice and ritual body treatments in ancient Maya society. Springer Science & Business Media, 2007.
Aztec
* Smith, Michael E. The Aztecs. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
* Hassig, Ross. Aztec warfare: Imperial expansion and political control. Vol. 188. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
* Soustelle, Jacques. Daily life of the Aztecs. Courier Corporation, 2002.
* Lêaon-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture. University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
* Anderson, Arthur JO, and Charles E. Dibble. Florentine Codex. School of American Research and University of Utah, Sante Fe, New Mexico, II(1950).
* Portilla, Miguel León. The broken spears: The Aztec account of the conquest of Mexico. Beacon Press, 2006.
Maya
* Houston, Stephen D., and Takeshi Inomata. The Classic Maya. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
* Freidel, David, and Linda Schele. A forest of kings: The untold story of the ancient Maya. Harper Collins, 1992.
* Freidel, David A., Linda Schele, and Joy Parker. Maya Cosmos Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. (1993).
* Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya kings and queens: Deciphering the dynasties of the ancient Maya. Thames & Hudson, 2008.
* Coe, Michael D. “Breaking the Maya Code, rev. ed.” London and NewYork(1999).
* American Anthropological Association. Ancient Maya Commoners. Eds. Jon C. Lohse, and Fred Valdez Jr. University of Texas Press, 2004.
* Demarest, Arthur. Ancient Maya: the rise and fall of a rainforest civilization. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
* Sharer, Robert J., and Loa P. Traxler. The ancient maya. Stanford University Press, 2006.
* Iannone, Gyles, and Samuel V. Connell. Perspectives on Ancient Maya Rural Complexity. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2003.
* Scarborough, Vernon L., Fred Valdez, and Nicholas P. Dunning, eds. Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya: The Three Rivers Region of the East-central Yucatˆn Peninsula. University of Arizona Press, 2003.
* Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. The memory of bones: Body, being, and experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, 2013.
* Jones, Grant D. The conquest of the last Maya kingdom. Stanford University Press, 1998.
Olmec
* Pool, Christopher. Olmec archaeology and early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Teotihuacan
* Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos. Teotihuacan. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2009.
* Sugiyama, Saburo. Human sacrifice, militarism, and rulership: materialization of state ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
* Manzanilla, Linda. Teotihuacan, ciudad excepcional de Mesoamérica. El Colegio Nacional, 2017.
* Headrick, Annabeth. The Teotihuacan trinity: the sociopolitical structure of an ancient Mesoamerican city, 2007.
West Mexico
* Pollard, Helen Perlstein. Tariacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State. University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
* Warren, Joseph Benedict. The conquest of Michoacan: the Spanish domination of the Tarascan kingdom in western Mexico, 1521-1530. University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
* Von Winning, Hasso, and Olga Hammer. Anecdotal sculpture of ancient West Mexico. Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles, 1972.
* Von Winning, Hasso. The shaft tomb figures of West Mexico. No. 24. Southwest Museum, 1974.
* Hosler, Dorothy. The sounds and colors of power: The sacred metallurgical technology of ancient west Mexico. MIT Press, 1994.
* Townsend, Richard F. Ancient West Mexico: Art and archaeology of the unknown past. Thames and Hudson, 1998.
* Beekman, Christopher S. and Robert B. Pickering. Shaft Tombs and Figurines in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment. Gilcrease Museum, 2016.
* Altman, Ida. The War for Mexico’s West: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524-1550. University of New Mexico Press, 2010.
Oaxaca
* Flannery, Kent V. The cloud people: Divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Percheron Pr, 2003.
* Byland, Bruce, and John MD Pohl. In the Realm of Eight Deer. (1994).
* Joyce, Arthur A. Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (2010).
* Winter, Marcus. Oaxaca: the archaeological record. Editorial Minutiae Mexicana, 1989.
* Joyce, Arthur A., ed. Polity and ecology in Formative period coastal Oaxaca. University Press of Colorado, 2013.
* Spores, Ronald, and Andrew K. Balkansky. The Mixtecs of Oaxaca: Ancient Times to the Present. Vol. 267. University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
* Terraciano, Kevin. The Mixtecs of colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui history, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford University Press, 2004.
Film
I see a lot of writing tips and I post a lot of writing tips but I feel like I’ve been forgetting the most important one: you’ve gotta learn to trust yourself.
And I don’t mean that in sort of “uwu have faith in yourself! You can do it!!” kind of way. I’m not here to repeat empty affirmations–I’m saying you’ve consumed a lot of media over the years. You know what you like and what you don’t like. You have good taste.
But if you’re like me, all that certainty goes out the window when you’re writing your own stuff. “Will the readers like that?” you think. “This is too weird. It’s unrelatable. Nobody else’s story looks like this–I must be doing something wrong.”
“This is silly,” you tell yourself. “Why do I even bother?”
And when you start doubting yourself like that, that’s the moment you stop creating. You get blocked and stressed and it gets all too easy to fall back on cliches and stereotypes. You start stripping away the things that make the story uniquely yours in order to make it look more like everyone else’s.
Which is infinitely sad.
You’ve lived a life no one else has seen, and you have ideas that nobody else in the world could think of. Even if the story has been ‘done’ before, there’s nobody else who can tell it like you. You can start with the most ‘cliche’ idea ever, but if you come at it with any measure of emotional honesty, it’ll still be new–because it’s being told by you.
I just finished a draft of a book that’s probably the most painful thing I’ve written so far. It’s way out of my comfort zone, and I had to explore aspects of myself I prefer not to think about. I did a lot of second guessing, and a good bit of whimpering facedown on the floor because writing is scary and hard.
And rereading the draft now, the absolute best parts are the bits where I gave up on convention and I wrote what I wanted exactly the way I wanted to write it. Yeah, it’s kinda silly and kinda dumb and kinda just a big load on nonsense–but it’s MY nonsense. If people like it, great. Wonderful. If they don’t like it, well–reading is a subjective experience, and maybe my work just isn’t for them. That’s okay.
Be you. Be honestly, genuinely you. It’s a scary, vulnerable position to put yourself in, but… Even if you’re one in a million, there are 7,000 people just like you–and that’s 7,000 people who will read your work and go “this writer gets me.”
Write it for them. Write it for you. Create shamelessly. Learning to write is only half learning the craft–the other half is learning to trust in the value of the things you have to say.
ladastanstuff
Owo i need it
Anonymous asked:
Do you have any recommendations for other horror art blogs? Im trying to increase my scope, your art has me craving more
Aw, definitely! There are so many, but I’m going to list all the ones I can that I absolutely adore.
Olya Bossak and Atenebris do some gorgeous dark art mixed with fantasy. Definitely worth a look:
These artists draw some really impressive and intense J-horror type content. NSFW Warning for body horror and gore:
New painting: “Release"🐦 Patrons will have seen this piece a few days ago (and it will be the January print also😘), but here it is for you lovely insta peeps too! I painted this concept as practice and research for a big painting I want to do soon and for which the sketch has been glaring at me from my easel since before Inktober 😅 This idea is in part inspired by the incredible bird photographs of @geninne (her creations are also amazing, go check her out. Also, her dog is super cute. And her house is goals. Anyway.) I will be posting the timelapse of it on YouTube tomorrow😊❤ Hope you are all well lovely people! . . . . . #Painting #bluebird #bluebirdtattoo #birdpainting #surrealart #gouache #gouachepainting #acrylagouache #watercolor #watercolorart #myriamtillson #newart #myart #illo #surrealism #contemporarysurrealism #beautifulbizarre #symbolicart #artconcept #aquarelle https://www.instagram.com/p/BtEXjSXAKJ6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=bbtehztq1414
Marked As Explicit, Pulihkan Akunmu!
Dear teman-teman Tumblr, setelah Tumblr dibuka kembali aksesnya di Indonesia, saya menemukan beberapa akun yang barangkali dikira Tumblr mengandung konten sensitif/negatif. Kalau dibuka profilnya, tampilannya seperti ini:
Awalnya saya kira cuma kebetulan aja. Tapi kok makin kesini lumayan banyak yang ter-flag as explicit. Mungkin karena Tumblr lagi bersih-bersih konten negatif terkait perubahan kebijakannya 17 Desember lalu.
Coba deh iseng-iseng buka laman Tumblr kamu lewat browser, tanpa login. Kalau tampilannya seperti itu, tandanya profil kamu terindentifikasi mengandung konten sensitif yang gak akan bisa dilihat oleh pengguna lain yang mengaktifkan safe mode (kebanyakan orang sudah langsung aktif safe mode-nya). Termasuk gak akan muncul kalau dicari.
Saya juga pernah ngalamin. Sepertinya Tumblr salah mengidentifikasi post atau akun saya, dikiranya mengandung konten sensitif, sehingga di-mark as explicit dan laman saya ga bisa dibuka oleh orang lain.
Nah, untuk mengembalikan seperti semula, kamu harus hubungi bagian support Tumblr. Silakan ikuti langkah di bawah ini ya.
1. Buka general settings.
2. Pilih help.
3. Pilih support, yang paling bawah.
4. Pilih kategori.
Jangan lupa lengkapi details-nya, tambahkan pula attachment screenshot laman Tumblrmu yang gak bisa dibuka.
Terakhir, silakan disubmit. Gak lama setelah itu akan ada feedback dari Tumblr.
Semoga sedikit catatan ini bisa membantu ya.
— Taufik Aulia
Conveying emotion in your writing
One of the most crucial elements of good writing is making readers feel your characters’ emotions. Here are some of my tips for doing just that:
1. Use the right POV
- Third person omniscient is a great narrative point of view, but unless you are using expert techniques like free indirect discourse/stream of consciousness, it’s going to be quite difficult to immerse your readers in the emotions of your characters.
- So, if emotion is a key aspect of your WIP, I would suggest trying either first person or third person deep.
- I’m sure most of you know how first person works. Third person deep means that the narrator is inside the POV characters’ heads, conveying all they experience and feel to the reader. This can be very powerful and is the POV I’m using for my current WIP.
- These POVs allow the readers direct/close interaction with the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Therefore, the characters’ emotions will have a stronger impact on the reader.
- Once again, I’m not saying that it’s impossible to convey emotion through other points of view. These are just easier.
2. Use physical reactions (and metaphors)
- My biggest tip would be not to tell the reader how your character is feeling, but rather show them.
- Saying “she was sad” will have much less of an impact than “her body was trembling, tears rolling down her cheeks as a ragged sob broke from her lips”.
- Use physical cues to show the reader the character’s emotion.
- You can also use metaphoric language e.g. “there was a fist closing around her heart, squeezing until she couldn’t breathe”. But this has to be done with circumspection and skill. Using cliche or over-the-top metaphors will make your writing seem sloppy.
3. Use form to your advantage
- Use your intuition to utilise language/structure as an extra method for conveying emotion.
- Use short sentences for fear/anger/severe sorrow. Long, flowing sentences for sadness etc. You’ll feel what’s right for the moment.
- Use the right diction. Words like ‘heavy’, 'cold’, 'dark’, 'hollow’ etc. suit a sombre mood whilst words like 'bursting’, 'full’, 'bright’ will fit a happy scene. These are silly examples, but the point is that word choice is important.
- Use form to communicate the way you character is thinking in that moment. If their thoughts are quick, use short sentences. Rapid pacing. If their thoughts are disjointed, break off your sentences midway etc.
4. Less is often more
- Multiple pages of heart-wrenching emotion have their place, but don’t feel like you have to elaborate too much. Your readers will probably get bored and won’t be impacted.
- It can be very powerful to convey emotions quickly. One sentence or paragraph could be enough. And it often leaves a bigger impression on the reader.
- Similarly, you don’t want to inundate your writing with one emotional scene after the other. Your readers need a break, otherwise they will become drained and won’t feel anything after a while. Save the tear-jerking for when it is most appropariate and it will be impactful.
5. Allow yourself to feel the emotions
- I hate to break it to you, but writing is feeling. It’s exposing yourself to the things your characters are going through and allowing yourself to feel it completely.
- If you allow yourself to be consumed by the emotions of your character, chances are that you’ll write a very powerful scene.
- So, let yourself be happy and smile at your computer screen like an idiot. Be mad. Start crying. It’s a part of the writing process and it’s beautiful.
If you have any further questions about this topic (or any other aspect of creative writing) please feel free to ask.
Reblog is you found any of these tips useful. Follow me for similar content. Comment with your own tips.
Demon and griffin-shaped gargoyles on the Notre-Dame, from a French postcard.
Image reproduced for non-commercial purposes. Contact cmkosemen@gmail.com for removal.
Mill Bay, Land’s End, Cornwall
Painting by William T. Richards, 1880.
Image reproduced for non-commercial purposes. Contact cmkosemen@gmail.com for removal.
Twin-human-headed tomb with mystical patterns in a Zaza cemetery, from the Çılga village district in Tunceli (Dersim), Turkey.
Image reproduced for non-commercial purposes. Contact cmkosemen@gmail.com for removal.