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purplecowbell · 1 year

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If only one of my posts gets read by amateur authors let it be this:

SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO THE TOP PUBLICATIONS FIRST AND WORK YOUR WAY DOWN!

What do I mean by top? Standards of quality, audience, pay rate, legal contract; it can be anything. What matters is that you set the metric you prefer and aim for the top.

I say this because most new authors think that when submitting short stories, or flash fiction, or poetry, you need past credentials to publish with the highly-ranked publications. That's probably true but the logic is backwards. By the time you're good enough to publish in the highest ranking magazines, you've probably already published in a lot of others. Don't settle, you have nothing to lose.

Let's look at two scenarios. One in which you believe in your writing and one in which you don't.

The confident writer starts submitting to all the top publications. They submit, wait for a rejection, and submit again to a different one. They slowly work down the line until finally they hit the very top of the range of publications that are willing to accept their work. They now know what market they have a chance in and what markets to read from to improve.

The insecure writer starts submitting to all the unknown/unpaid/unvetted publications. They need to build credentials before they can submit to the preferred publications, right? If they don't get scammed out of rights they slowly move up the line of publications. They stop when they get accepted by the very bottom range of publications that will pay them the least amount, or give the least exposure, and think themselves lucky. And now they find themselves gaining much less confidence, and much less understanding of the markets, than if they started from the top. They'll have markets they believe they have to learn from when really they've surpassed them.

Even in the worst case publishing scenario: only one market accepts your publication at the very bottom, the only thing that is lost by being confident is your time. With any other publications willing to accept your work, you're guaranteed to get the better deal by being confident. Starting from the bottom is only self sabotage.

You may get more rejections (or even fewer than you think), but if you keep your head up and keep pushing, it'll be better for your writing and your confidence in the long run.

Besides, you'll probably be scammed less if you start with the ones that everyone trusts.

#writing #publishing #short stories #flash fiction #publication advice #writing advice #poetry #writeblr #writers of tumblr #writers community #literary magazines #literary journal

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digital-inkwell · 5 months

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some rather basic tips to writing

Start with an idea: The first step in creating a good storyline is to come up with an idea. This can be anything from a character, a setting, or a plot point that you find interesting.

Develop your characters: Once you have an idea, it's time to start developing your characters. Think about their personalities, motivations, and backstories. This will help you create characters that are relatable and interesting to your readers.

Create a plot: With your characters in mind, it's time to start creating a plot. Think about what your characters want, what obstacles they will face, and how they will overcome them. This will help you create a compelling story that will keep your readers engaged.

Use descriptive language: When writing your story, use descriptive language to help your readers visualize the setting and characters. This will help them become more invested in the story and feel like they are a part of it.

Show, don't tell: Instead of telling your readers what is happening, show them through actions and dialogue. This will help your readers become more engaged in the story and feel like they are experiencing it firsthand.

Use dialogue effectively: Dialogue is an important part of any story, as it helps to reveal character traits and move the plot forward. Use dialogue effectively by making it sound natural and realistic.

Edit and revise: Once you have finished your first draft, it's time to edit and revise. Look for areas where you can improve the story, such as plot holes or weak character development. This will help you create a polished final product that your readers will enjoy.

By following these steps, you can create a good storyline and use effective writing techniques to engage your readers and keep them invested in your story.

#writing tips #writing advice #micro publications #how to write #writing help #writing resources #writing tools #writing characters

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phantomrose96 · 11 months

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Fun bit of etiquette difference between Reddit and Tumblr is if someone misuses a word on Reddit (wrong "their", "peak"/"pique", whatever) it's common to see someone in the replies correct it and the OP will be like "oh thank you. edited my comment to fix grammar error"

If you do that on Tumblr you get mauled with teeth.

#chrissy speaks #I believe this counts as helpful advice toward any reddit newbies here because of the API blackout #edit: thinking about this a little more seriously #i think it's because Reddit is a bit more of a public forum #and oftentimes cares more about appearing smart in conversation #and since the things you say are meant to be viewed by the public #and meant to be part of a back-and-forth with strangers #then correcting grammar is a sort of 'hey your fly is down' moment #to help the person prevent future embarassment #while tumblr is much more 'you're just fucking around with some friends'#and if a stranger comes up to you to go 'well actually' theyll seem like a total knob

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kasumikoujou · 1 year

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#moment of weakness #the sumi art #riddle rosehearts #twst #twisted wonderland #twst fanart #for daze: (if you are not daze you can stop reading)#Article 11 - Freedom of expression and information1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to #hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.#2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected. #Source:Official Journal of the European Union C 303/17 - 14.12.2007 #You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice #before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer #one will be #appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present #you have the right to #stop answering at any time.#- Miranda Warning #alright now that we have the law of free speech and the criminal suspect notificarion up #daze if i hear one singular thing in regards to me and riddle and my prior bullying that (still) continues #if i hear it.#i shouldnt #ok #uim going to sleep. its 3am.

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aeb-art · 4 months

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most normal interaction on a subway (another earth bot has invaded my sketchbook)

cat belongs to @8um8le

#2024 #stellar city #sc cataclysm #sc ash #self insert #late evening scribbles once again just for fun #okay so it is so interesting to think about how really tall bots are normal so public transit is probably larger to accomodate #so then lil ol me looks more like a kid than i normally do in the subway car built for giants #anyway i'm thinking about how jarring it must be to only know geo and then see cat lmao #unknowingly meeting your coworker (crush)'s prototype on your evening commute home :x #…wait hang on it would be really funny to confide in cat about having a crush on geo #gives me the most batshit advice that somehow works #i really just keep doodlin ballad's guys huh? i wanna draw the rest of the cast tbh they're all fun

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fizoda · 3 months

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Ok you’ve seen “Jason adopts Tim “ now get ready for “Dick adopts Tim” *jazz hands*

Jason and Tim duo are all cool and snazzy but I feel like they would have “siblings who mess with eachother energy” and dick would be much more big brotherly energy to tim

Both are good tropes but everyone sleeps on the dick and tim duo

#Jason and Tim are the two siblings in every public place where the parents have to scold for fucking around too much #or being too rough on eachother #whereas dick and tim is where the younger wants to impress the older #and like the older will be the one to give advice #tim drake #dick grayson #jason todd

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lyraeon · 10 months

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A while back I learned something important from my therapist, and since I was trying to recount it anyway to share with a friend, I thought I would bring it to y'all as well.

We have all had at least one of those days where we've stayed up way too late doing something fun but we just don't want to stop doing it. Logically I figured that's just because "well yeah I don't want to stop, I have to go to sleep then to work and those suck compared to it."

Except then that starts happening often and you feel bad about always staying up every night, but then you feel worse and get more stressed because you know you're doing something you're "not supposed to", but because you're more stressed you want more fun time... endless cycle.

But as I was talking about it all and told her I thought I was self-sacrificing, the therapist had a very useful question for me:

"How do you normally know it's time to stop having fun? Like you know it's time to finish work because your shift's over, you know it's time to stop doing the dishes when they're all done or the washer's full, what is your signal to stop having fun?"

And I had to search for a while to answer.

"When the activity is done" - okay sure, but many games and books and series, or doing your own creative thing, "done" may take days upon days or even be non-existent.

"When I had to pass the controller" - obvious and easy one! If you knew you had a finite turn then the defined end is readily there, and you're also prepared for it! But requires pre-arranging the limits.

"When I got in trouble for it" - ding ding ding, we found the big problem.

When you grow up with "fun" being a forbidden activity you're only allowed to do after everything else is done to 100% perfection, then you learn to sneak it in where you can fit it. And you need that shit, seriously - you cannot get through life without some source of enjoyment, some tiny glimmer of joy among the tedium.

Many of us learned to read under the covers, or to play our gameboy in the bathroom and hide it under the sink, or that we could get away with running around the backyard for another 20 minutes if we just learned which intonation of "come inside" was the actual trouble line, or whatever other ways to cram in as much joy as we could before the hammer came down, for whatever severity that meant in your house.

And so that feeling of "I shouldn't be doing this, I'm going to get caught, but if I'm going to get in trouble anyway I might as well get as much out of this as I can" becomes part of what you expect to feel when you're having fun. And you only know how to stop having fun when you feel that way when you get in trouble for it - and in absence of anyone else controlling your behavior, that means the bad guy becomes either whatever task pops up to remind you responsibilities exist, or your significant other pointing out it's really late and they wish you'd come to bed, or your boss yelling at you for being tired all the time... or it becomes you.

If you don't learn that fun isn't a forbidden activity, if you stay stuck in the mindset that it's something you have to cram in in secret and hide that you're even doing? It becomes so so easy to hate the voice of reason in your head that's trying to encourage moderation and we're going to regret this tomorrow.

And that escalates. You keep being too tired the next day. You keep feeling even worse when you sit down to enjoy yourself the next night because now you're already tired, so stress gets to you faster, and now you feel guilty about how late you're staying up so you're not really enjoying playing your game or scrolling Tumblr or whatever anymore, you're just nervously glancing at the clock, "have I spent too long yet? How much longer can I do this before I get in trouble?"

Even though now you're in your 20s or 30s and it's been a decade since the last time anyone else told you it was bed time.

Learning that you're allowed to have fun isn't easy; guilt and shame are emotions that run very, very deep. And neither is learning to have a healthier relationship with saying "okay, that's enough for today".

For one, you have to stop threatening yourself. "Tomorrow is gonna suck" and "You're going to regret this" and "we're going to get in trouble at work" don't work. You already feel bad, you already know it's gonna suck, so why wouldn't you try to cram in one more hour now while it's not the day that's going to suck yet? Punishment is not incentive.

Because by now you're in a situation where sleep is a horrifying punishment that ends any fun, but you're not enjoying your fun anyway because you're tired all the time on top of feeling ashamed for doing something fun, and you're spending the entire time beating yourself up for being an idiot with no self control who can't even handle going to bed on time like a normal human being...

etc etc etc.

You will hear a lot of people give advice on how to get rid of the idea of having to "earn" sleep or fun or happiness by doing "enough" other things. To learn to accept that just being alive is enough reason to "deserve" to do those things. That will work for some people, but for others it just ends up one more thing to scold yourself about, especially when you're already in the habit not of denying yourself entirely but instead of doing it and feeling guilty the whole time.

But learning to set limits ahead of time, so that you're not anticipating some unknown time that a nebulous authority figure is going to finally have their horror monster timer run out and leap out at you but instead know when and what to expect? Holy shit it helped.

Don't get me wrong, it hella felt like depriving myself at first, like I was being grounded, and I looked at my phone beeping saying it was bedtime quite often and got annoyed.

But then I stopped treating fun as something that had to wait until the end of the day and everything else had to be done first. It is way easier to stare down sleep and go "I don't need you", especially if you have any kind of insomnia making the idea of being in bed a dreadful one on top of it. It is harder to say that about dinner, or calling a friend, or walking the dog. Plus then the day isn't over yet, so giving up on your fun isn't also accepting that as the defining moment of the end of your day!

So you have to start practicing looking for places to squeeze in a little more fun - "I've got an hour before dinner, that's perfect to make some tea and watch two episodes." "My favorite youtuber just put up a new video, why don't I take a break to watch it before I finish this homework?" "I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow anyway, and if I leave an hour early I could go kick around the bookstore first."

And once you do, fun starts to feel less shameful.

Don't get me wrong, if your issues run deep enough it still does sometimes. But when you get to have these moments of joy that you don't feel the need to hide or apologize for and where punishment isn't part of the routine, then fun stops feeling like something you have to dig your claws into for fear of having it taken away from you once someone catches you with it. And that means that finishing a level and glancing over at the clock is something you do because it actually managed to click a satisfaction switch in your head and you wondered if it was a good note to end on for now, instead of something you do with your breath held and the berating words already cycling in your mind.

I am not offering this advice expecting it to work for everyone or be easy or anything like that. I am someone with Depression, ADHD, and pretty severe PTSD sharing a technique that one therapist told me that really happened to click for and help me specifically, in case it might help someone else be a little nicer to themselves today, too.

#mental health #PTSD #child abuse /#abuse /#depression #insomnia #long post #unsolicited advice #don't mind me just journaling in public

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femmefatalevibe · 6 months

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hey femme, I have two questions for you.

1. How can I get over my fear of public speaking? For context, I have been missing this class that I have a presentation for because 1. I am super nervous of going up in front of people and talking and 2. A guy that I used to talk to is in there. So I’m super nervous://

2. How can I gain confidence for my everyday life?

Thank you🩶 appreciate you tons!

Hi love! Thank you for your support xx

For public speaking, I would say these tips could help you out:

Outline your talking points beforehand and revise them to the point they come almost naturally to you. It's easier to present yourself well when you're nervous when you're thinking on autopilot

Slow down your speech. Take your time to enunciate your words and comprehensively articulate your thoughts. This practice helps you appear more calm and confident while also giving you the brain space necessary to think

Try to find a place to look in the distance (not at someone directly) and talk to that spot on the wall/ceiling like they're your friend or someone you know well. Pretend the other people aren't even there. It takes away of a lot the anxiety and allows you to focus on presenting yourself well

For tips on gaining confidence in general, I recommend checking out my guide on How To Build Unshakeable Self-Confidence (hyperlinked).

Hope this helps xx

#public speaking #social anxiety #presentation skills #self improvement #self confidence #self love #self awareness #self reflection #personal growth #people skills #life tips #life advice #femmefatalevibe #q/a

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finnieforkys · 1 year

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First page of a new sketchbook

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danskjavlarna · 5 months

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Source details and larger version.

#advice #public speaking

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reasonsforhope · 9 months

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I’m scared, and I’m sad. I look at positive news every day, but sometimes things happen that make me derail. What can I do?

It's natural to be scared and sad about this stuff. We live in a world that gives us more information about more people than we were ever designed to handle. And a lot of that information is about really upsetting, tragic, or horrific things.

What I try to do whenever I start to feel like I'm falling into despair, I try to remember to take a long view of history.

Change isn't often visible in the short term because change is so chaotic. But in physics - and I would argue therefore for organisms and humanity as well - chaos at the micro level creates stability at the macro level.

The fact is, statistically, this IS the best time to be alive. It really doesn't feel like it a lot of the time, but it is.

But a lot of things still suck, and sometimes it feels like all the reasons in the world are slipping through your fingers. It can be very easy, sometimes, to give into the despair in the face of all the things humanity has done, to ourselves and to each other.

Here's the one fact I hold on to with all my strength, when all else fails. The one thing that is too powerful to slip through my fingers:

For almost all of human history, until the past roughly 200 years, the child mortality rate was about 50%.

Sure, it varied based on location and century and the hygiene practices of the dominant culture. But overall, it was about 50%, with child morality defined as any infant or child who dies before their 15th birthday.

That means that half of all people born died before their 15th birthday.

Most of human history, as famous journalist and nonfiction author Bill Bryson puts it, was "overwhelmingly a place of tiny coffins."

Imagine how fucking awful that would be to live with. Imagine all the extra grief and pain and suffering flooding the world.

That fact alone basically guarantees that ever single person who ever lived, until very, very recently, was traumatized, or died before they could be. And that's leaving out the rampant trauma of famine, nonfatal disease, exposure, violence, and everything else that can come from a lack of resources or just the brutal vagaries of nature.

But we don't live in that world anymore. We live in a world where we have reduced child mortality from 40% to 3.7% in just two hundred years.

And those rates are going to keep falling as developing nations with higher child mortality rates get access to better infrastructure, medical care, and resource distribution.

So this is what I cling to, when I can cling to nothing else: no matter how bad things are, no matter how much technology fucks things up, technology and progress have freed us from the hell of half of all our children dying.

We have already done so, so much to free ourselves from one of - if not the - absolute worst curses of human existence

The world has improved so, so much more that most people can even imagine - more than our ancestors could have ever expected - just from that one fact. In just a couple of centuries.

What isn't that worth? Very, very, very little, I'd argue.

The challenges we're facing are formidable. Just a few years ago, they looked insurmountable. From child mortality to climate change, we still have so much more to do.

But if we can save ourselves and our children from a mortality rate that was, for almost all of human history, an inevitable part of the human condition...

Then what can't we do? What won't we be able to achieve, in the end?

Again, I'd argue: very, very, very little.

#toastedsmoreo #ask #hope #hope posting #child mortality #cw child death #cw death #cw infant death #children #infants and toddlers #public health #global health #progress and development #good news #hopeposting #hopepunk #faith in humanity #me #advice

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dollsome-does-tumblr · 7 days

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#this poll brought to you by another day of: ugh here i am staring at this dumb thing all day again even though it only makes me feel bad!!!!#they really did a good job making these tiny miracle computers addictive as heck #but maybe other people are better at it than me???#dollsome does polls #i just. i hate it so much but i can't stop staring at it.#even though i've read all the advice on how to try.#i think all the time about how free i was from the internet back in the day when all i had was my laptop #it would simply be weird to be looking at your laptop constantly in the car at the store out in public etc.

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briarpatch-kids · 2 months

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I'm having a good day and a fun time. It turns out finally talking about my experience with [redacted] so people know he's a serial scammer was really healing. He keeps trying to get it taken down, by reporting it as harassment.

Fun fact though: the moderator of the reddit page he's reporting it on is me :)

#plus exposing a scammer is not harassment #i havent even shared his current (public) blog on it just deactivated ones #i really want to though because it appears he took reddits advice: to (literally) go fuck himself #tay dont look

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nevarroes · 3 months

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Tbh I never understood why some people give unsolicited advice, I get that some artists have no issue with it but I never was a huge fan of it. I always figured that if an artist wanted to change something on their style or needed help with something then they'd ask? I mean I also get that some people just want to help but i always thought that this way of helping was somewhat rude idk

yeah exactly I agree☝ There's many personal reasons why an artist might not want unsolicited advice and most other artists I know do not want it ever so honestly... even if you might mean well just don't do it, it's not generally a well-received thing

I don't have an issue with criticism at all like I'm not sensitive to it however that is for when I asked and from people that I trust to know what was an active choice/know what I'm capable of and stuff like that

#blakemail #heres the thing #just think abt how its giving “guy that randomly walks up to you in public to give you “advice”” and thats weird as hell as well

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who-is-page · 4 months

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What are your thoughts on the use of "ΘΔ", and where do you see it as appropriate/inappropriate to use? Thanks!

This question might be better directed at my partner system House of Chimeras (@liongoatsnake), who wrote and published Symbols Found In The Alterhuman & Related Communities. I'm afraid that while I know about the theta-delta's general history, I'm actually not very well-informed of the history behind "ΘΔ" separately as a character set used by the therian community. I want to say it was started by Ember (@synanthropic) on Twitter in late 2019 or early 2020 (the earliest use of it I can find on Twitter through its search bar is here, when a polytherian mentioned it in a reply to a suspended account, and I know Ember's account was suspended sometime during the Naia debacle in 2019-2021, which makes me feel like I'm right about this timeline?), but beyond that, I'm afraid I don't know enough to say much on it besides things that are already obvious (i.e. that people shouldn't combine the symbol with known hate symbols/movements). If there's a major controversy connected to "ΘΔ," then I am entirely unaware of it and have no knowledge of such. Sorry anon!

#ask #-intense shrugging- Ask one of the other scholars in the polycule on this one. I don't know enough to really get what you mean here.#Unless you're asking me for advice on when you shoudl use the theta delta in public?#Which is something I'm still not... especially qualified to answer.#I can give you my advice on being publicly alterhuman #but where you draw the line for how public you are is your own decision to make.

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theneighborhoodwatch · 9 months

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welcome to the neighborhood by brian david gilbert is dhmiscore but it is not WHcore bc if anybody tried to establish an HOA in home the righteous fury of frank frankly would come down upon them with the force of a thousand suns once he got to the gardening rules

#public notice #welcome home #frank frankly #'THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO GIVE THESE BOZOS GARDENING ADVICE IS /ME/'

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