birdiestar
Works of Madness
I haven't been on this site in forever. I'm here for my Fandoms, ships, and maybe share some wiring if I get the confidence and start wiring again ššā¤š§”
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Your English teachers lied to you.
Thought I'd post my old writing advice guides onto this blog since I deleted my old one. I hope it's helpful!
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Listen. I respect the hell out of teachers. The vast majority of them work crazy hard and most of the time, including the times they give you well-meaning āwriting rules,ā only want to instill good and helpful habits into you.
That doesnāt change the fact that many of these rules are stupid.
Here are my top five āwriting ruleā pet peeves, and five rules that should be followed.
ā Donāt write āsaid.ā
Okay, I know this is common knowledge by now, but itās so important. The concept that you can never write ā so-and-so saidā is hurting novice writersā narratives. Said is invisible. Said is powerful. Said is transformable. If every quote ends in a strong synonym, it is distracting. Sometimes, in an established repartee, quotes donāt need to be tagged at all. Or an adverb following āsaidā might be better for the narrative than any single verb.
Eg. //
āI hate the rain,ā grumbled David.
āI love it,ā Claire announced.
āYou love everything,ā he muttered.
āIncluding you!ā she giggled.
versus.
āI hate the rain,ā grumbled David.
āI love it,ā said Claire.
āYou love everything,ā he said impatiently.
āIncluding you!ā
ā Donāt write āsomething.ā
Cold hard truth, baby. āSomethingā is a draft word. Itļæ½ļæ½ļæ½s what you write when you want to think of a replacement. I cringe when I see it in a sentence that would have been improved tenfold by a specific noun or descriptive phrase in its place. There are times when āsomethingā works or is the only option, but experiment by replacing that word with more description before deciding itās necessary to keep.
Eg. // He pulled something shiny from his pocket. She craned her neck to see what it was. A metal flask. versus. A flash of light caught the metal he pulled from his pocket. She craned her neck to see what it was. A drinking flask.
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ā Avoid adverbs.
This is true and false, but Iāll address the false part first. The concept that you canāt use adverbs at all is ridiculous. Donāt blindly (!) replace every adverb in your prose with a single verb because someone said you should. You want whatever you are writing to flow well and to deliver the best impact or imagery. Sometimes that means adverbs. Or you might want the verb to be discreet (such as when using āsaidā) but still want to invoke emotion. That also means adverbs.
Eg. // "Don't do that!" she spluttered, panicked by the urgency of the situation. versus. "Don't do that!" she said frantically, panicked by the urgency of the situation.
ā Use strong verbs. At least consider them.
Verbs make the world go āround, people. Most of the time, a strong verb will make your writing flow well and deliver the best impact or imagery. Weigh a strong verb against an adverb + weaker verb and decide the one you want to keep in a scene. Donāt just stick with whichever you wrote first because you grew attached to the sentence.
Eg. // She held up her blood-slicked sword proudly, her other fist raised triumphantly. versus. She thrust her blood-slicked sword into the air, her other fist clenched high in triumph.
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ā Donāt use a thesaurus.
I. HATE. This rule. I had an English teacher in middle school who marked any words she thought you had looked up as wrong. As a young reader with a large vocabulary, I was always needing to prove that I hadnāt just picked a random synonym from a thesaurus, that I knew and deliberately chose those words. (That sentence has a great example of a necessary adverb! Get BENT Mrs E. (She also hated adverbs.)) This is the same idiotic concept as telling artists not to use reference images. Use a thesaurus if a certain word is failing you or you hate every word youāve come up with yourself. Thereās nothing bad or shameful about it.
Eg. // There are no examples for this. Iām not sure how I would even do that. Insert stock photo of someone perusing a thesaurus here?
ā Donāt use words you arenāt comfortable with.
Now, when you search the great wide web for a synonym to a word and then choose whichever one sounds nice because hey, the internet said it was interchangeable, so it must be! ā¦ Yeah. Donāt do that.
I use a thesaurus to find words that I canāt think of in the moment but they are always ones I still know. Every word has a subtle (or not so subtle) connotation that you need familiarity with before deciding it is the perfect replacement. Know your words before you start playing Mix n Match.
Eg. // Amusement in the profession puts transcendence in the performance. (Utter nonsense, written by me and thesaurus.com) versus. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. (Inspiring quote, written by Aristotle)
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ā Donāt end sentences with a preposition.
Whoever made up this rule is an elitist hack. (I just googled it, and supposedly it began with a bunch of 17th century scholars who thought English should have Latinās grammar, so. Yeah. Elitist hacks.) Ending sentences in prepositions sounds wayyyyy more natural than the alternative. If you donāt want to sound stilted, beat this rule into the dirt.
Eg. // They didnāt know of what she was capable. versus. They didnāt know what she was capable of.
ā Be conscientious of your sentence construction.
A lot of grammar rules are bogus. Not ending a sentence with a preposition, not starting a sentence with a conjunction, not laying face down on the floor and screechingā¦ Oh, right, that latter one isnāt a rule, itās just what you want to do when you have to think about grammar.
But, regardless of bogus grammar rules, you need to put thought into your sentence construction. Editing (not writing) is the best time to do this. Thatās when you can make sure the words flow together naturally as an individual sentence, as part of a paragraph, and within the chapter as a whole.
Another common construction faux pas that I see is disregarding the sequence of events because you believe it will have greater impact. In reality, if you avoid putting your narration out of order, it usually results in stronger sentences.
Eg. // "Tell me it's not true!" He stood in the doorway after bursting into Kyle's room, panting from his sprint up the stairs. versus. He sprinted up the stairs two at a time and burst into Kyle's room without knocking. "Tell me it's not true!" he demanded breathlessly.
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ā If you break writing rules youāre a bad writer.
If anyone tries to convince you of this, kick them in the neck. (You heard it here folks, kick your DANG TEACHERS IN THE NECK.) (Not really, please donāt.) (If you do, though, donāt say that I encouraged it.) (Iām not encouraging it, I just want to make that clear. Please be nice to your teachers, they have hard jobs.)
Rules were made to be broken. You just need to know the rules in the first place in order to decide to break them, so itās never a bad thing to educate yourself on general writing advice. Still, there is a fine line between creative liberty and bad writing, and sometimes a famous book or author turns the latter into the former. Know your stuff, but donāt be afraid to throw your stuff into the fire and watch it burn. (Figuratively. Donāt literally throw your possessions into fire, thatās irresponsible on so many levels.) (A lot of parentheses in this rule rant.) (Now thatās just bad writing.)
ā Take writing rules and advice with a grain of salt, but donāt ignore them.
As a novice writer, or even an experienced one, it is hard to differentiate between which rules work best in your own prose. You may only realize it in hindsight. That doesnāt mean you should ignore every piece of writing advice or dismiss criticism of your work. Think critically about your own style, read books you enjoy and think about their styles, and deliberateā donāt dismiss. Maybe your writing style requires no dangling prepositions or never using an adverb. Thatās your decision to make. Justā¦ donāt make it because youāre too stubborn to see how you can improve.
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Thatās all Iāve got! Do you have any pet peeves about common writing advice? Feel free to reblog and add your own!
Donāt forget to write a sentence of your story today! Thanks for reading~
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Zodiac Signs as Fairy Tale CharactersĀ š§āāļø
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VAX, PERCY, GROG & SCANLAN IN THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA (2021-)
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do you have any recommendations for smutty feysand/moriel fanfics ?? i'm feysand and moriel trash.
YOU MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE PERSON EVER FOR ASKING THIS QUESTION
Moriel Trash:
Take Me to Church AU & Good Girl by @highfaelucien
Iām a Mess Part 1 (Part 2 pending) & Chocolate (steamy almosts) by @bat-winged-brothers
Masturbation Smut by @a-court-of-chronicles
My own horrible (NSFW light) cabin smut lol
Sadly, thatās all I have for smutty Moriel! I have several other fics for them though on tap that are angst or fluff if you need āem.
Feysand Trash:
Training, Wings, & Darkness by @upagainstabookcase (Wings is probs my favorite, but itās ALL AMAZING)
Lacey Things Store by @pterodactylichexameter
An incredibly delicious headcanon by @bat-winged-brothers
A Court of Lust and Ice by @nightrhysand (mild NSFW, but still one of my most fav Feysand fics!)
Lacy Little Underthings by @thelittleloverofbooks
My own two fics: The Wall & Tease.
There are so many out there, these are just a sampling of what I could find on tap right away! I need to start organizing lists for the other ships the way I do for Moriel so theyāre easier to find. Hope this helps!
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Chapter 48: The Inn (Rhys POV)
I take zero credit for the dialogue or characters behind this fic. They belong 100% to Sarah J. Maas.
Iām kind of sad right now. I think this is the last Rhys POV I have in me for the first two books. Everything I wanted to write, Iāve written! I will still continue to write other fics, but I think of canon Rhys POV re-writes, this is the last one for a while. So here it is - the Inn scene taken from Chapter 48 of ACOMAF. Thank you to the many, many people who asked for this and sat by patiently waiting for me to write it. I know it took me a while and I appreciate you all waiting on me.
And for @feysand16 who, I think, has waited the longest and most patiently for this fic. <3
Out of the Shadows
To say the inn where we were staying was cramped would have been an understatement, but there it was. The attic room given us was tiny, Feyre was grumpy as hell from training, and I was horny as fuck from flying her here against my chest through the wind and rain.
The encounter with Lucien seemed to have triggered something in us both that even the Court of Nightmares and Starfall had not managed. I thought about how Feyre had looked with those powerful wings gliding out of her back the entire flight to the inn, trying not to drop in my anxiety her as we flew.
Keep reading
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Chapter 48: The Inn (Rhys POV)
I take zero credit for the dialogue or characters behind this fic. They belong 100% to Sarah J. Maas.
Iām kind of sad right now. I think this is the last Rhys POV I have in me for the first two books. Everything I wanted to write, Iāve written! I will still continue to write other fics, but I think of canon Rhys POV re-writes, this is the last one for a while. So here it is - the Inn scene taken from Chapter 48 of ACOMAF. Thank you to the many, many people who asked for this and sat by patiently waiting for me to write it. I know it took me a while and I appreciate you all waiting on me.
And for @feysand16 who, I think, has waited the longest and most patiently for this fic. <3
Out of the Shadows
To say the inn where we were staying was cramped would have been an understatement, but there it was. The attic room given us was tiny, Feyre was grumpy as hell from training, and I was horny as fuck from flying her here against my chest through the wind and rain.
The encounter with Lucien seemed to have triggered something in us both that even the Court of Nightmares and Starfall had not managed. I thought about how Feyre had looked with those powerful wings gliding out of her back the entire flight to the inn, trying not to drop in my anxiety her as we flew.
Keep reading
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WINGED VAX'ILDAN WINGED VAX'ILDAN WINGED VAX'ILDAN
I KNEEL TO THE ANGEL OF DEATH !!
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Artist of the Month: Louis Tomlinson
November isn't over just yet. Louis Tomlinson is our Artist of the Month and we're sharing some behind-the-scenes footage from the "Silver Tongues" music video.
Check it out and listen to Louisā new album Faith in the Future right here.
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Just a fun FYI. Don't tell someone who has been raped that they would have healed if they would have gotten pregnant and had the baby. š Fuck off with that shit
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