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SchreibWriting

@schreibwriting

I feel like many people have a fundamental misconception of what unreliable narrator means. It's simply a narrative vehicle not a character flaw, a sign that the character is a bad person. There are also many different types of unreliable narrators in fiction. Being an unreliable narrator doesn't necessarily mean that the character is 'wrong', it definitely doesn't mean that they're wrong about everything even if some aspects in their story are inaccurate, and only some unreliable narrators actively and consciously lie. Stories that have unreliable narrators also tend to deal with perception and memory and they often don't even have one objective truth, just different versions. It reflects real life where we know human memory is highly unreliable and vague and people can interpret same events very differently

Some types of unreliable narrator:

The Watson: is present for the event but does not have the same level of perception as protagonist

The Lemony Snicket: isn't present for the event, reconstructs the facts based on later research, can get things wrong or incomplete

The Ted Moseby: is present for the event but has romanticised and embellished their memory of it through nostalgia to an extent that you cannot fully believe it; is also prone to misremembering or outright forgetting details.

The Katniss Everdeen: is present for the event, is the protagonist, but is completely foreign to the world and out of their depth so they don't quite understand a lot of what is going on.

The Rose Quartz: is present for the event, but due to their personal agenda or feelings of shame hides and embellishes what actually happened in favour of a version that paints them in a better light.

The Big Brother: overwrites what actually happened in favour of propaganda.

The Jonathan Harker: is absolutely clueless about what is going on around them and the genre they're in so their perception of events is tinted by their own naivety.

The Goob: the narrator's own emotional bias clouds their judgement of what really happened.

The Tyler Durden: the narrator is suffering from hallucinations and doesn't realise it.

The Pi: the narrator has survived a traumatic experience and copes with it by turning it into a wonderful tale.

It’s so significant too that this narrative was collected by Zora Neale Hurston, one of the greatest authors and anthropologists of her time. She was shunned by the “gatekeepers” of both of these professions, largely because of her Blackness, her womanhood, and her uncompromising commitment to honoring and showcasing both in her works. She died penniless and alone in a state-run institution in 1960. All of her works had gone out of publication by then. It took more than a decade before she was rediscovered. A young author by the name of Alice Walker had come across her work and was deeply inspired by it. “In 1973, after an exhaustive search, Walker came across Hurston’s unmarked grave in Ft. Pierce, Fla. She purchased a headstone for Hurston’s tomb and had it inscribed “A Genius of the South.“”

It is through Zora Neale Hurston’s pioneering sacrifice, and the acceptance of that inheritance by Alice Walker that we have found this missing piece of our history. Without the courageous and unfailing work of Black women, we wouldn’t have Cudjo Lewis’s story. We are slowly regaining a narrative that’s been hidden from us, one that continues to be lied about. Trust Black women to lead the way.

Source: twitter.com
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.”

omg this is so helpful

GUYS. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN WRITE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FICS ON AO3

Other things you can do:

  • Linked footnotes
  • Customized page dividers
  • Sticky notes
  • Lined paper
  • Paper that looks stacked on top of each other
  • Old looking paper
  • Newspaper articles
  • Tumblr posts
  • iOS text messages
  • Emails
  • Fake ao3 authors notes and kudos button
  • Freaking discord chats

Its fucking amazing. Ao3 is fucking amazing. Can I legally marry a website?

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the-stars-our-destination

One of those times I'm reblogging something so I can find it again later

Sylvia Plath, from a diary entry featured in The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (edited)

Ancient Roman amethyst intaglio showing Pan, the pastoral god, playing pipes under a crescent moon and a leaning tree, with a goat observing.

Dated between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The gold ring setting is of a later date.

Collection & Credit: Sands of Time Ancient Art.

I WANT TO HAVE SO MANY PIECES OF INTAGLIO JEWELERY.

Thoughts on Scents

So I wanted to just give my thoughts on some interesting scent options, because no hate to sandalwood, it seems like everyone always smells like it in fics. And since I also have an indie perfume obsession, I wanted to share some scents that may broaden people's horizons. I may do a part two depending on how well I like how this turned out.

  • Pine resin, with hints of wood smoke, and warm brandy.
  • The smell of damp fresh earth after a summer rain.
  • Palo santo, dry desert grasses, and sage
  • Amber, laudanum, and frankincense
  • Tobacco, burnt grasses, with hints of citrus
  • Pine needles, forest floor, and stone
  • Saltwater, ambergris, fresh rain, beach sand
  • Stone, oakmoss, clay, and wet concrete
  • Animal fur musk, mulled wine, and a cold winter breeze
  • Freshly washed linen, lemon cakes, and black tea
  • Coconut, dark rum, and sugarcane
  • Leather bound books, a dying fire, and cedar
  • A crisp fall evening, apple orchards, and toasted marshmallows
  • Magnolias, Spanish moss, and honeysuckle
  • Sun warmed earth, tomato plants, and iced tea
  • Cactus flowers, sweet grass, and wood dry vanilla
  • Lemon grass, heliotrope, and sugar cookies
  • Dead leaves, dry hay, and cognac

And that's no even touching on all the different kinds of plants, flowers, and foods. I could go on for a very long time.