Tag: writing

mystictrashheap:

mystictrashheap:

mystictrashheap:

mystictrashheap:

A small list of random ass sites I’ve found useful when writing:

  • Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics
  • Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 
  • This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters
  • A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly
  • McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it
  • A Glossary of Astronomy Terms: to pepper in that sweet terminology for your astrophysics major college au needs

Adding to this since I’m working on a shifter au one-shot:

More:

  • Cocktail Flow: a site with a variety of cocktails that’s pretty easy to navigate and offers photos of the drinks. You can sort by themes, strengths, type and base. My only real annoyance with this site is that the drinks are sometimes sorted into ~masculine~ and ~feminine~ but ehhhh. It’s great otherwise.
  • Tie-A-Tie: a site centered around ties, obviously. I stumbled upon it while researching tie fabrics but there’s a lot more to look at. It offers insight into dress code for events, tells you how to tie your ties, and has a section on the often forgotten about tie accessories

Even more:

Medical MacGyverisms that Make My Nurse Brain Scream in Agony (But Inspire So Much Fic)

disease-danger-darkness-silence:

macgyvermedical:

****Please for the love of your chosen deity this is for writing and educational purposes only- I know its tempting but do not try any of this at home!!!****

Medical ether and industrial ether are basically the same.

Medical oxygen and industrial oxygen are also basically the same (industrial oxygen for welding is actually more pure than medical oxygen, but this doesn’t matter much).

Most drugs are completely effective (>90% of expected active drug) for at least 5 years after their “expiration” dates provided they are kept in their original, unopened packaging. Some drugs are completely effective for decades if kept in controlled conditions.

According to one study, that fact includes EpiPens.

Speaking of EpiPens, they actually contain about 5x the amount of epinephrine they actually deliver. Here’s how to use the rest of it if necessary.

In patients who have never chronically used opioids, a combination of 1,000mg acetaminophen (tylenol, paracetamol) and 400mg ibuprofen (motrin, advil) every 6 hours have been shown to be equivalent to the
standard starting dose of oxycodone/hydrocodone in treating acute musculoskeletal (breaks, strains, sprains, dislocations) pain.

Rotating these medications (giving the acetaminophen, waiting three hours, giving the ibuprofen, waiting 3 hours, giving the acetaminophen again, and so on) makes them more effective. This works pretty well any time you have more than 1 medication for the same thing.

Benadryl can be used as a local anesthetic if you can find (or make) a form of it that can be safely injected.

Nitrous oxide cartridges for artisan whipped cream dispensers (naturally found in an abandoned Starbucks in the aftermath of an apocalypse, or on Amazon) can provide up to 3 minutes of decent conscious anesthesia each (they need to be emptied into a whipped cream dispenser and given with 25-50% regular air or oxygen and breathed in order to work well).

Wound-wise, you don’t need saline or sterile water to clean an already dirty wound. If you would drink it, its safe for wound cleaning.

Speaking of that, you can make an irrigation syringe by poking a small hole in the top of a pop bottle filled with irrigation fluid (or tap water).

Many venoms can be at least partially degraded by soaking the bite site in very hot water.

You can make a spacer for an albuterol inhaler out of a 16oz pop bottle by cutting a hole in the bottom, placing the inhaler through it (with some space around it for air to get in), and breathing through the top.

A pressure cooker (stovetop or electronic) is basically just an autoclave re-purposed for food. Throw a shelf in there to sit over a small amount of water and you can quickly sterilize temperature/pressure resistant equipment like metal scalpels.

If you get the balance right, you can centrifuge something/blood with a hand drill by attaching a test tube to each side of the spinny part.

It seems counterintuitive because generally bacteria eat sugar, but raw honey works as well or better than most antibiotics when preventing/treating wound infection (the honey goes in the wound, btw, but eating it would still taste good).

Regular insulin does not actually need to be refrigerated unless its being stored for long periods. Even open, it will still last about a month at room temperature without significantly degrading.

IV is not the only form of rehydration. Oral rehydration is actually best, but you can infiltrate sterile IV fluids slowly into fat, or provide a very slow enema of tap water or even slightly brackish water that the body will absorb and utilize.

Smelling isopropyl alcohol or peppermint oil can help with nausea.

Fishing line is extremely similar to suture material. Dental floss is less so.

You could, theoretically, hook up as many as 4 people to the same ventilator as long as they all had relatively similar ventilation needs and they were all chemically paralyzed to the point where assist-control mode would be appropriate. Programmed tidal volume would be the total of all four patients.

You can re-locate a dislocated shoulder by having the person lay face down with the dislocated arm hanging off the side. Tie about 10-15lbs to it and let the weight slowly release the muscle and reduce the shoulder.

Most of these came from the book Improvised Medicine: Providing Care in Extreme Environments, By Kenneth V. Iserson.

Feel free to add any you’ve heard of!

Do not try this LONG-ASS LIST at home, etc. I’ve got some medical and generalized survival shit to add based on some fucked-up shit that’s happened to me in my life! My trauma should benefit your fic, so here:

Weiterlesen

Last Minute NANO Advice

We’re almost out of days for nanowrimo, it could be you fell behind, it could be your story just pooped out on you.  Either way, here are a few last ditch efforts to help you drag your story across the finish line.  At this point just add some words, you can edit it later.

1. Change every said to _____ told _____.  This will add two words for every time you wrote said.

2. Add words to adverbs.  He didn’t smile happily, he smiled with so much joy lighting up his face she almost thought she would be blinded, but couldn’t look away.

3. Add adverbs.  If its what it takes, add a qualifier to every word you can find. Make your characters speak rapidly, climb quickly, drink heartily, and finish successfully.

4. Add chapter headings, or add long chapter headings. 5: The chapter where they try to find a sheep, but then lose it and find something else instead adds 19 words.

5. If you’ve just ran out of novel for your novel, have you characters tell each other stories.  Add a character, or have a character that is characterized by long stream of consciousness rambles about a rock they saw or their chemistry homework, or your chemistry homework.  Retell the three bears in the world of your novel, retell a conversation with your mom, don’t let yourself get story blinders.  You are in charge of your story.

6. Expand acronyms.  Use the replace tool in your word document and change AI to artificial intelligence, change NARA to the national archives and records administration.  Let that acronym be that delicious list of words it was meant to be.

7. Describe everything.  Start at the beginning of your story and describe every noun.  Describe every everything.  What does that coffee cup look like exactly, describe how to pick that red dress out of a line up, where did your character find those shoes, what process did they go through to adopt that dog?

8. Add titles.  It’s not Mark, it’s Mark the tall.  It’s not Judy, it’s Judy the one with the pocket knife.

9. Add footnotes, appendices, or stuff in parenthesis.  If you’re not able to make yourself break the narrative flow with all the Dickensian stuff above go on tangents that are vaguely connected in the foot notes.  Did you think up a cool back story, but it just isn’t fitting in the flow?  Stream of consciousness that baby into the foot notes  Make it funny, make it factual, just make it longer.

You can do it!  I believe in you!  (And even if you can’t, I still believe in you!)

mindfulwrath:

Here’s a hot take: villains should be relatable.

Not every villain, not every time, and certainly not to everyone at once, but there should be moments. We should, occasionally, be able to see ourselves in the bad guys, be able to understand how they got there.

Because it reminds us not to fucking go there.

Antis who get upset about villains having relatable qualities (often couched as being “romanticized” or “woobified”) are people who cannot bear to ever think of themselves as having the capability of being wrong.

Every human alive is capable of being a horrible person. Relatable villains remind us to keep an eye on that shit.

Tropes that are totally overused and I love them to death

dogsanddigimon:

agirlnameded:

  • grumpy jerk and actual ray of sunshine are BFFs
  • mutual unrequited pining
  • character A falls fast and hard for character B
  • character A slowly falls in love with character B over the course of several years, realization hits them that they’ve been in love with B for a long time hits them like a truck
  • cool badass is actually a giant fucking nerd
  • The Power of Friendship ™
  • flat “what” reactions
  • sweet adorable characters with horrible tragic pasts
  • villains-turned-heroes becoming the Weird Uncle
  • characters that aren’t actually related having a parent-child relationship
  • characters that aren’t actually siblings having a sibling-like bond
  • “I can’t stand this person but I would die for them”

@thetwilightroadtonightfall

LazyFamily Fic requests and prompts?

I’m trying to get a handle on writing Lazytown fic with a family dynamic.  I’m not super comfortable writing romance for this fandom yet, so I’d prefer to just avoid it, if you don’t mind.  I am interested in writing some fic with family dynamics Sportadad in all his variations, Lazydad in all of his, adopted children, biological children, grandparents, the Glaepur-Rotten clan, siblings and any other variation of LazyTown folks in family groups to get some practice in. 

If you’re interested in that sort of thing, please send me prompts and fic requests! 

beautiful icelandic words

frightenedfawn:

afdrif, the fate of somebody

afturganga, a ghost, “one who walks again”

álfadans, dance of the elves

átt, the direction of the wind

augabragð, the twinkling of an eye

álfatrú, belief in fairies

bíldóttur, having black spots around the eyes of animals

blámóða, blue mist

blika, a cover of clouds, often foreboding storm or rain

blær, soft, calm wind

draugagangur, the walking of ghosts, a haunting

draumaland, land of dreams

dúnalogn, calm as death

dýjamosi, bright green moss growing in quagmires

fenna, to fill with snow

fjallavættur, a mountain spirit

fjúka, carried away by the wind

flygja, a ghost who accompanies a certain person

föl, a thick film of snow covering the ground

galdraöld, the age of magic

grængolandi, deep and dark green

gullbúinn, adorned with gold

hlakka, the cry of a bird of prey

hrafnagervi, the outward form of ravens

huldurdalur, hidden valley

kaf, to plunge into deep water

kollgáta, the true answer to the riddle

kossleit, looking for kisses

leirskáld, a bad poet

lumma, a pancake, or, the palm of a small hand

mói, ground covered with heather

morgungyðja, the goddess of the morning

mosavaxinn, overgrown with moss

náttúrufegurð, the beauty of nature

norðankaldi, a light breeze from the north

rammgöldróttur, full of witchcraft and wizardry 

rósóttur, with a design of roses

selslíki, the shape of a seal

sjódraugur, the ghost of a drowned man

smáminnka, getting smaller and smaller

sólskin, sunshine

stirndur, set full of stars

sumarsól, the sun in the summer

sæbrattur, rising steeply out of the sea

sælurdalur, the valley of bliss

undirsæng, a soft feather mattress

veturnætur, a few days before the first day of winter

Hiya! B, C, M, T. Byeya!

B: I write every single day!  I write for work 5-6 days a week and I write stuff like fanfic and fun little drabbles on the weekend.

C: I have so many fav characters! I have a character named Arete who is a sort of bird elf who loves books, his terrifying dragon wife, his wife and his precious troublesome babies.  I also have a character I love called Arche who is a post apocalyptic moderator for users trapped in virtual reality games.  She is an agricultural ‘goddess’ and she keeps really big pigs.  And I have a character called Queen Pi who’s the physical manifestation of the number pi.  She is very smart and self-disciplined and well as funny and emotional.  I also love Bad Davey because he was a lot of fun to write and design.

My favorite character someone else has created is probably Jane Eyre who is queen of the moors and the schoolhouse and my heart.  I also really love Benton Frasier from Due South and all of the Heroes of Hogan’s Heroes.

M: I have feelings about the phrase ‘harsh yet constructive criticism’ because in my experience the best constructive criticism is neither cushioned or flowery or harsh, its simple and gives examples.  This character doesn’t work because they feel like two separate people, this plot line is unsatisfying because its over before the reader can process what’s happening, that sort of thing.  People write harsh criticism most of the time because they didn’t put the work into the text and they want to push back against the unspoken fact they should have, they want to feel smart or funny, or they’re trying to make a point.  That aside, I get the point that the meme is trying to make, how do I feel about criticism that is hard to hear because of delivery or my personal attachment which an Venn diagram in to a place called hurt feelings.

I’m usually okay with ‘harsh’ criticism, especially in the editing stages, because I feel like it makes the story better.  If something doesn’t work I need to put the time in to make it work or I need to change it, or both.  If I don’t its a disservice to myself and the story.  Once a story is finished I get a little more edgy about it because I know the story/poem/chapter has gone through an editing process and been refined. 

I think that (especially in fanfic, although somewhat in literary criticism) when a reader reads something once, gets upset because the writer didn’t read their mind and give them what they wanted and then just vomit out really negative things without going back to look at the text that’s not criticism at all.  That’s just being upset something isn’t the way the reader wants and wanting everyone else to agree with them and validate their opinions.

T: For fanfiction, it is about ninety percent people reading and enjoying it the other ten percent is the part where I finish a chapter and am pleased with it.  For regular writing its the editing process: discussion and pulling stuff apart with the editor to talk about what works and what doesn’t.  My life (and job) runs on research and analysis, I write things that are meant to be researched and analyzed.  I put historical references into my historical fiction and pack in metaphor and imagery into my chapters.  Sitting down and talking about he what and why of my chapters is a lot of fun.

Reblog If You Are A Writer Of Any Kind And Want To Be Asked These Questions

askboxmemes:

A: What do you write?  Fanfiction, original fiction, nonfiction, articles, songs, poems, essays, plays, what?

B: How often do you write?

C: Who is your favorite character of your own?  Who is your favorite character created by somebody else?  Why?

D: If you had the choice of going without writing forever or going without dinner forever, which one would you choose?

E: Have you ever participated in National Novel Writing Month or any of its variations?

F: What’s your favorite book? Favorite author?

G: What’s your least favorite book?  Least favorite author?

H: How long have you been writing?

I: What grades do you/did you get in English class?

J: What does writing mean to you?

K: Share an old, embarrassing work?

L: What advice would you give to other writers?

M: How do you feel when somebody gives harsh yet constructive criticism?

N: Which writing blogs and writing help blogs do you follow?

O: What motivates you to write?

P: What are your goals for things to happen to your writing? (Getting published, getting a good review, having a fandom, etc)

Q: How do you get through writer’s block?

R: What genre do you write in?

S: Would you let a stranger off the streets read your first drafts?

T: What’s your favorite part of the writing process?  Why?

U: What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?  Why?

V: What do you listen to when you write?

W: What’s your biggest pet peeve in writing?

X: (Leave a prompt in the person’s ask box)

Y: How would you describe the perfect prose?  How would you describe your own prose?

Z: How often do you read?