Writing Tip June 4th

A list of body language phrases.

I’ve included a very comprehensive list, organized by the type of body movement, hand and arm movements, facial expressions etc. In some cases, a phrase fits more than one heading, so it may appear twice. Possible emotions are given after each BL phrase unless the emotion is indicated within the phrase. (They are underlined for emphasis, not due to a hyperlink.)

Note: I’ve included a few body postures and body conditions as they are non-verbal testimony to the character’s physical condition.

Have fun and generate your own ideas.:-)

Eyes, Brows and Forehead

Place To Place, Stationary Or Posture

Head Movement

Mouth And Jaw

Nose

Face in General

Arm and Hand

Sitting or Rising

Recline

Entire body and General

-Sharla Rae

Cheat Sheet for Writing Emotion

Anger:

Sadness:

Academic Writing

Introduction

Disagreeing without being disagreeable

Introducing the opposition

Verbs for Introducing Summaries and Quotations

Verbs for making a claim

- argue - insist - assert - observe - believe - remind us - claim - report - emphasize - suggest

Verbs for expressing agreement

-acknowledge - endorse - admire - extol - agree - praise

Verbs for expressing agreement

- celebrate the fact that - reaffirm - corroborate - support - do not deny - verify

Verbs for questioning or disagreeing

- complain - qualify - complicate - question - contend - refute - contradict - reject - deny - renounce - deplore the tendency to - repudiate

Verbs for making recommendations

- advocate - implore - call for - plead - demand - recommend - encourage - urge - exhort - warn

https://www.amazon.com/They-Say-Matter-Academic-Writing/dp/0393631672

*validates you aggressively*

I’ll be your optimistic black hole, mostly void, partially stars

hey you know who’s beautiful? yea guess what

guess what

yea

yea it u

no takesies backsies

There are a lot of ways but I will tell you about my favorite 1 and general tips

For realising you are in a dream you first need to do reality checks (you need to it a lot and turn it into a habit on the level that even dream you will do it)

So one way to do it is by trying to think of something you want to happen and remembering if your thought becomes a reality you are in a dream

Dreams depand a lot on thoughts cause they are thoughts so in order for something to happen you need to belive it will

For starters go to a quite place so you could focuse cause in the start you will really need it (later you could literly erase some of your nightmers I earased almost a full army but the leader escaped)

Again cause dreams depand on thoughts Im suggesting to start with something you remember well or could easily imagian (Im suggesting no humens)

+If you want to stay longer in a dream dont get to exited or scared cause these emotions might wake you up

Also by the way Im not responsible for whatever happenes

But if you need to get out of a dream just rub your eyes and you would wake up or switch to another dream or restart it

(making a habit of rubbing your eyes when you are faced with your fears can help)

11 years old me could wake herself up you can do it too

Also if you accidently created a nightmer and forgot it was a dream

Im sorry

Critit’s third dice kickstarter is live!! This time they’ve mixed it up with spirits of animals, classic D&D monsters, and the much await Spirit of Extinction dinosaur themed sets!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if it’s your birthday today or if your birthday just passed OR if your birthday is gonna happen in like just a couple days then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! biiiiiiiiiitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not trust people who use ‘I love you’ to excuse the way they treat you

Today is Blue Monday!

It’s statistically the most depressing day of the year. It’s dark, cold, and maybe people spent a lot of energy and money on the holidays. The festivities are long over and many people feel a strong and painful slump around this time of year.

You’re not alone! The dark days will get lighter- Hang in there!!!

DM Mastery: Lessons 1-4

1. When a party member opens a chest, grin wryly, and enquire which direction they are turning the key. Chuckle lightly, and roll some dice, preferably behind the screen. Regardless of whether or not the chest was alarmed, this will help create a sense of tension. 2. When a party member endeavours to climb a tree, inhale sharply through your teeth, and ask them if they are sure. Tut loudly, and roll 8d6. Glance at the numbers without reading them and urge them to continue. The tree contains that many ants. Do not touch. 3. When a party member goes off the beaten track, feign panic, and pull out the nearest Wizards of the Coast™️ official source book. Thumb aimlessly through it whilst the party member sweats. Breath a huge sigh of relief, implying the presence of a terrible entity… Inform them that their unique blend of kinks, and mental illness, is safe for today. 4. When a party member loses their character, weep openly and freely with them. Hold a memorial service for their sheet, bring incense. Ignite the paper, and chant the ancient song of old. Whoop and scream loudly, as new stats are rolled. This is to bring good fortune for the new character. 

hey check THIS shit out: *treats you with mutual respect*

YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

This is actually info I didn’t know

Seriously folks review my books! Review everyone’s books!

It’s the difference between Amazon giving a damn about you verses pushing your book to the bottom of the food chain. 

5 Better Ways to End Your Story

1. The Dialogue Gut-Punch

I usually imagine this ending happening after some great, destructive plot twist or long-kept secret has been revealed to the narrator and/or reader. There is shock and awe and maybe some betrayal. This is where you fully feel the effects of what has changed, the beginning versus the end. And in this case, the end is not ideal.

Maybe the resolution’s scene has been set, but that’s not offering enough closure. How to tie up the loose end? A short (and I mean short) piece of dialogue. It usually involves a sense of resolve and acceptance, even if the resolution at hand is otherwise displeasing or harrowing. The gut-punch comes from that acceptance, that acknowledgment of what has been lost in the quest to fulfill their goals. Doesn’t always mean defeat or a pyrrhic victory, but all protagonists must lose things while trying to gain others. This is where that character and the reader feels the loss in the wake of a resolution. 

2. A Question and an Answer

This is a lot like #1, only there’s a different setup. Instead of a scene being laid out and then one line of dialogue, there are three components. The scene is set, a question is asked, then an answer is provided. The end. The question and answer usually revolve around the reflection of what has changed. A “what now?” for all intents and purposes. Can be used for a mysterious ending to a standalone or a setup for the next installment in a series.

It is worth noting that the answer does not always have to be dialogue. For example, a character could ask: “So this is what we have left?” and then a (brief) description is given of a ragtag crew that’s survived the whole story. Play around with it. 

3. The Full Circle

There are a couple ways to go about this ending. Two, in particular, are my favorite.

A) The story begins with a scene that has a very specific tone and attitude of the main character(s). The end of the story is a very similar scene (through setting, circumstance, characters, etc. as long as it’s obvious the last and first scene parallel each other). However, the last scene has the opposite tone and the opposite attitude. If the first scene is hopeful and the MC is full of naivete and energy, then the last scene is melancholy and the MC has been washed away into tired hopelessness. Or vice versa. Offers sufficient closure to standalone works. For a series, it would be quite satisfying to take the first scene from the first installment and mirror/flip it for the last scene in the last installment. 

Or

B) The story comes full circle through setting (or circumstance) only. In this case, the first (or inciting incident) and last scene share a setting. But the scenes do not mirror each other overtly or consistently. The significance relies upon the setting and the changes that have been made to the setting because of what has happened. It’s a good way to symbolize similar changes in the character(s). Maybe the story begins in the MC’s childhood home, where it is bright and full of life, but when the story ends in the home, it has become desolate and empty. Something has happened to the home over time, just as something has happened to the character over time. 

Note: there is also the divergence from these two examples where the character in the beginning is not the character in the end. Most everything else remains the same. It’s been used to show succession, defeat, loss, and the passage of time. 

The Full Circle allows a nice platform to approach the reflection, the resolution, and the changes all through subverted scene similarities and symbolism. 

4. The Joke

Pretty simple. The last line is a comedic remark. It should still involve a level of reflection and/or resolution for closure and cohesiveness. And please make sure it matches the overall tone of the story (not just the scene). 

And now #5, the long one…

5. The Cliff-Hanger (But it’s actually used to its full potential)

So many times, especially with TV shows, I see a story end with a dull, exploitative cliff-hanger. Sure, it works. But it doesn’t work as well as it could. These endings usually rely upon a plot twist that has no previous setup or mild, unbelievable danger. So let’s fix that and use the crap out of a cliff-hanger’s potential. 

The plot twist with no previous setup is boring and unfair. The reader (or watcher since I brought up TV) should be thinking “oh my God” not “what the hell?”. The difference is “what the hell?” equates to confusion and sometimes the fracture of their suspension of disbelief necessary for all fictional stories. “Oh my God” equates to excitement, shock, and enthrallment. ENTHRALLMENT is the key word here, as a cliff-hanger should reel you in further just as the story ends and you become impatient for the next installment. So how do we get “Oh my God” with a plot twist (there are other ways to get “Oh my God” but since (bad) plot twists are common, we’ll use that as an example)? The answer is: we build it up, we add foreshadowing and clues for the reader to find. Let them feel like detectives as they fill in informational holes and fall down rabbit holes of speculation, even if they don’t know what they’re looking for exactly. Let them get close, but not close enough. Add red herrings. If the plot twist is a shock to the narrator, make sure they miss things the reader doesn’t miss and make sure they aren’t super reliable. It all adds to that cloud of mystery around the reveal. It keeps the reader inside the narrative, not thrust out by a plot twist that comes from thin air. Trust the reader and trust your ability to manipulate the illusion of reality. 

The mild, unbelievable danger that the cliff-hanger so often relies upon is an idea that easily triggers examples. Again, mostly TV episode endings are guilty of this. What this involves is a life-or-death situation involving a main character that the reader knows (or at least believes wholeheartedly) cannot die. Therefore the cliff-hanger’s life-or-death danger becomes the opposite because the reader believes the character will leave the situation alive. How to combat this? Easy. Don’t put them in a life-or-death situation (this also goes for scenes that aren’t cliff-hangers). It’s boring if you think or know the character will live no matter what. However, hopefully by this point, the reader is invested in the character fully and cares about their wellbeing (because their life is safe). So, exploit that. Offer up a situation where the character’s fears, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses are played against them. Because even though they may escape this situation alive, the reader will (probably) begin to wonder what other things are at risk. The character’s happiness, significant other, assets, stability, et al.  Those things become muted points when the danger is heavily reliant upon an unbelievable life-or-death situation. 

However, there is an addendum to this. If your story features a rather large MC cast and you have proven your willingness to kill off some of them in the past, then a life-or-death cliff-hanger could still maintain its intended effect. Just… don’t overuse it. 

tl;dr TORTURE YOUR CHARACTERS AND DON’T PLAY YOUR READERS FOR CHUMPS. 

//

If you take away only one thing from these 5 examples, let it be this:

The key to a satisfying ending is reflection.

It doesn’t have to be overt reflection (trust me when I say subtle reflection is usually better), but the ending should show in one way or another the changes that have taken place over the story and the resolution that has befallen the characters. The ending wraps it all up into a bite-size piece of text and is the last thing you leave your readers with. Proceed with thoughtful consideration and caution. 

Also a quick Q&A: 

Q: “I don’t know how to choose the right ending.”

A: Do a couple different things while brainstorming:

This was a long post. Whew. You’re a peach if you read it all the way through. Hopefully this helps you on your writing journey. 

oh well hello there! sorry to interrupt your dash-scrolling, but may i offer you some gay?

reblog this post if you:

no one will know which one it is!

what does this post say my reading comprehension turned off halfway through

don’t worry about it

30 things you will learn in your freshmen year of college

1. People lie about how much they study

2. Everyone learns at a differnet pace, don’t compare yourself

3. Grades don’t matter

4. It’s okey to avoid toxic people even though they seem nice

5. High school drama won’t matter

6. If you are kind and helpful, people will like you

7. You will need a hobby outside of college

8. You will need to learn how to take care of yourself

9. You will be lonely

10. You will miss home

11. You will learn that failing is normal

12. You will learn that you are not a genius or a prodigy

14. You will also learn that you aren’t an idiot or stupid

15. Organization is key

16. You won’t know how to organize at first

17. You will date casually and begin to learn what you like and not like

18. Nobody cares how you look when you show up to class

19. Dumb movies and tv shows are important for your mental health

20. You will stop feeling embaressed for crying in public

21. You will fall out with your high school friends and thats ok

22. But those true best friends will stay with you

23. You will learn that you need to clean your dorm for your own good

24. Weight gain/loss is normal

25. You will learn how to deal with stress better

26. You will learn that you can’t live of of junk food

27. Success is subjective

28. You will learn that your mental health is important

29. You will develope a new way of studying, completely different than in high school

30. You will be fine and you are going to get through this