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Lick.

David Cronenberg and Clive Barker

Child of Rage: A documentary about a young girl who was sexually abused when she was a year old. She has a desire to murder her entire family and carries out numerous disturbing tasks. 

The Scariest Drug in the World: Scopolamine is a drug that when taken keeps a person coherent but makes them open to follow commands. It’s been used to make people steal, as a rape drug and a way to humiliate people. It’s known as a “chemical hypnosis”. This film documents people’s experience with it.

Demonic Possession and Exorcism: The footage you are about to witness contains highly disturbing material. 

An Interview with a Cannibal: An interview with a man named, Issei Sagawa who committed a pretty horrific crime. He butchered and raped a young Dutch women because he wanted to absorb her “energy”. He spent 3 days consuming her flesh. 

The Bridge: A film on the Golden Gate Bridge, which captures the number of suicides. Many describe it as a powerful documentary, that leaves a lasting impression.

High on Crack Street: Shows just how badly crack ruins lives.  A great portrayal of the harsh, dark side of drugs. 

Aokigahara/Suicide Forest: A geologist walks through the forest and shows us what he sees. Definitly contains some depressing material.

Atomic Wounds: The effect of a nuclear weapon on a mass number of people. It’s disheartening, it’s horrifying, but it’s reality. 

Just Melvin, Just Evil: A documentary about a tormented family who suffered from sexual abuse and substance abuse because of one man. It leaves you wondering how can one man be so destructive?

Earthlings: One of the most intense documentaries made about animal abuse. Footage contains graphic material. 

Feel free to add to this list :)

5 frustrating workshop rules that made me a better writer

Throughout the 15 workshops I joined in college and grad school, I encountered two types of writing rules.

First, there were the best-practice guidelines we’ve all heard, like “show don’t tell.” And then there were workshop rules, which the professor put in place not because they’re universal, but because they help you grow within the context of the workshop.

My college’s intro writing course had 5 such rules:

No fantasy, supernatural, or sci-fi elements.

No guns.

No characters crying.

No conflict resolution through deus ex machina.

No deaths.

When I first saw the rules, I was baffled. They felt weirdly specific, and a bit unfair. But when our professor, Vinny, explained their purpose (and assured us he only wanted us to follow the rules during this intro workshop, not the others to come), I realized what I could learn from them.

1. No fantasy, supernatural, or sci-fi elements.

Writers need to be able to craft round characters, with clear arcs. While you can hone those skills writing any type of story, it can be more difficult when juggling fantastical elements, because it’s easy to get caught up in the world, or the magic, or the technology, and to make that the focus instead of the characters. So Vinny encouraged us to exclude such elements for the time being, to keep us fully focused on developing strong, dynamic characters.

2. No guns.

Weapons have a place in many stories, but when writers include a gun, they often use it to escalate the plot outside of the realm of personal experience and into what Vinny called “Hollywood experience.” He wanted us to learn how to draw from our own observations and perceptions of life, rather than the unrealistic action, violence, and drama we’d seen in movies, so he made this rule to keep us better grounded in our own experiences.

3. No characters crying.

When trying to depict sadness, writers often default to making characters cry. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, tears are just one way to show grief, and they aren’t always the most subtle or emotionally compelling. That’s why Vinny challenged us to find other ways to convey sadness — through little gestures, strained words, fragile interactions, and more. It was difficult, but opened us up to depicting whole new gradients of grief and pain.

4. No conflict resolution through deus ex machina.

This is the only one of the rules I’d say is generally universal. Meaning “God from the machine,” deus ex machina is a plot device where a character’s seemingly insurmountable problem is abruptly resolved by an outside force, rather than their own efforts. These endings are bad for various reasons, but Vinny discouraged them because he wanted us to understand how important it was for our characters to confront their struggle and its consequences.

5. No deaths.

Death is inherently dramatic and can be used to good effect, but many writers use death as crutch to create drama and impact. Writers should be able to craft engaging, meaningful stories, even without killing off their characters, so this rule challenged us to find other methods of giving weight to our stories (such as through internal conflict).

How these rules helped me grow as a writer

First things first, I’ll say it again: apart from #4 (deus ex machina), these rules were never meant to be universally applied. Instead, their purpose was to create temporary barriers and challenges to help us develop key skills and write in new, unfamiliar ways.

For me, the experience was invaluable. I liked the way the rules challenged and stretched my abilities, driving me to write stories I’d have never otherwise attempted. They made me more flexible as a writer, and while I don’t follow the rules anymore (I LOVE me some fantasy), I’ll always be thankful for how they shaped my writing.

My recommendation to you?

Give some of these rules a shot! Follow them temporarily while writing 2-4 short stories — but remember to always keep their purpose in mind, because the rules themselves will only help if you understand what they’re trying to achieve.

Write with purpose, and you’ll always be growing.

— — —

For more tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

some mini collections of tips for writers

(based on things that yours truly notices as a freelance editor. This list is in no way complete, and will probably be added to as I continue to find repeated mistakes) 

Dialogue

Use beats in your dialogue to break it up. Even “said” can make a very effective beat between lines. 

(No beats: “It’s not lethal. Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.” // Beats: “It’s not lethal,” he said. “Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.”)

Note how the break allows a bit of a pause for ~dramatic effect 

thinking of dialogue, use punctuation and distinct speech patterns! “Life, uh, finds a way.” is an iconic line anyway, but Jeff Goldblum’s signature verbal tic gives it character. 

It’s okay if characters stutter. Don’t let the condemnation of stuttering characters as “cringey” in fanfic put you off. (and on that note, fuck cringe culture. Seriously. It saps all the fun out of creativity and fun is important.)

Start! A! New! Line! Whenever! Someone! New! Speaks!!

DO NOT FEAR THE WORD “SAID” 

Setting & Blocking

 Use the landscape and settings around your character, and always, always remember a scene’s blocking. Where is everything in relation to your characters? Have you left someone holding a coffee cup for the last three scenes? Did you lose a character somewhere along the way? 

using the contents of a scene is also great for fight sequences. 

Similarly, large character casts are hard to keep track of so don’t be afraid to break them up. Sending someone off somewhere else can create some nifty little subplots. 

Keep a personal note of how time passes. Trust me, it’s incredibly helpful to you as a writer and also for future readers. 

Characters

Character growth does not have to be positive. Sometimes characters fail or suffer or get their motivations twisted up, and they finish the book as a villain rather than a hero. 

All that matters is that a character changes throughout the plot in a way that readers can see; the sort of change they go through is entirely up to you. 

scrap the idea that someone has to deserve a redemption arc. They probably don’t deserve it, which is the whole point. So don’t be afraid to make your villains seem completely irredeemable. 

and you don’t need to redeem your antagonists in order to make them complex, sympathetic villains, anyway. Sometimes people get so stuck in their beliefs that they can’t see another way and it goes too far. Not everyone comes back from that. 

Also, motivations and goals can absolutely change. That’s okay. You just need to have something that drives your character so that your readers are rooting for them. 

Protagonists don’t need to be heroic. How you define the protagonists and antagonists in your story is based entirely on the morality in your story-world, NOT the moral ideas in the real world. What counts as a complex protagonist in a world torn apart by biological warfare will be very different than one living in our world. 

Prose & Grammar

simple prose is just fine and you don’t need to fluff it up for pretty quotes.

Remember to vary your sentence structures and length. Start smaller and build it up, drawing your reader’s attention. 

“And” and “But” are very valid sentence starters that are great for communicating the tone of internal narrative. You’re allowed to tweak grammar if that’s helpful for telling the story, it just needs to be accessible. Test out what you’ve written on other people. 

Check that your tenses are consistent!! 

X-Man`s Training Doctrine

Toney Freeman

has several years of severe training under his belt, and he isn’t really stopping any kind of time soon. He has actually improved his training viewpoint for many years, and also has some training suggestions that he would love to share. Keep reading to see the X-Man’s Training Doctrine.

Xamine

Most individuals mimic what they see at the fitness center without comprehending why they’re doing it or exactly what advantage– if any kind of– they’re obtaining. This is an easily preventable training blunder. “ You can not just do exactly what a person else is doing and also anticipate to make gains,” he says. “ It’s experimentation, you do X amount of things for X period of time as well as reassess, then you take that data as well as reassess from that.”

Xplore

Skeptics claimed he was too high, as well slim and also his limbs were as well long. To battle those potential setbacks as well as to obtain the results– and also look– he looked for, he began utilizing even more supersets, trisets and also gigantic collections. “They weren’t lying,” he says of the skeptics, “however that’s why I educate with a lot range– the other ways just weren’t working. So I had to make every activity and every workout about me.”

Xhaust

Freeman’s totally free guidance: forget counting sets and reps. It’s a disturbance strategy that could interfere with the mind-muscle connection and prevent you from attaining topmost results from an exercise. “ When you’re counting in your head, you’re losing emphasis– regardless of just how great you are,” he says. “It does not matter the amount of reps or sets you do. It’s just a goal. If you’re doing a lot of representatives, include more weight. Go till you damage type.”

Xperiment

You won’t capture him doing the same workout two times. As a matter of fact, it’s challenging to obtain him to state the order and exercises from his last workout. Freeman prides himself on changing it up. “ I’m about variation,” he states. “I continuously keep my muscle mass guessing by not giving my body an opportunity to obtain comfy. This approach is component of what enables me to maintain making gains at my age.”

Train to obtain huge! See just what Steve Kuclo provides for size and also stamina.

KNOW YOUR ROLE

“You

waste your time attempting to contend versus one more rival, you’re giving him your power and also you can not afford to do that. You use those individuals to determine exactly how much you need to go. That’s why it is very important to obtain as compared to every person. State you’re the newbie that nobody knows– it is necessary to compete early on as well as get compared to the top guys to see where it is you got ta go.“

LOYAL TO THE GAME

” My roots are in body building. I was a slim kid and muscle building offered me the body that I desired, so I’m faithful to the sporting activity whether I earn money or otherwise. As an expert, what drives me is the possibility to be the ideal worldwide, even if it’s just for a moment.“

MAN UP

” I don’t range from the chore. I have actually accepted that it takes x quantity of food and also training to be the very best. Either put forth the initiative or expect nothing.“

THE THIN LINE

” I have a love-hate relationship with the gym. I don’t despise it while I’m doing it, it’s just that I despise that you have to continue to progress simply to remain the same– a lot less boost. In order to excel, damn, pet, you need to take apart the entire barn and also construct one more one. It’s crazy that every year you remain to make gains, and afterwards you have to identify how you can make them again. As quickly as you stop, it starts back in the other instructions.“

More about:

Toney Freeman

Low Carb Chocolate Coconut Protein Bites

For the recipe: https://mylifecookbook.com/low-carb-chocolate-coconut-protein-bites/

If you’re exodusing off Writeblr, I made a Writeblr Pillowfort community!

You can find it here!

It’s designed to be what basically amounts to the Writeblr tag, so you can post aesthetics, mixes, snippets, make friends etc and build a following. I’m still learning Pillowfort in general, but I made a couple of Discussions for people to talk about what they’re writing right now and post things like Patreon and Amazon links, too. 

Please reblog!

Ways to find a plot when you have characters and a setting

… but only characters and a setting. 

You have a world. A universe. A setting. Good! Describe what happens in it normally - describe your main character(s)’s daily life. Now, what would destabilize this routine completely? If many things could, write them all down. Pick your favourite idea(s). Plots are born from change: everything was going normally… until it wasn’t.

Make a list with all the goals/motivations of your main characters. Can the plot revolve around your characters going after these goals? 

Which goals are more important? Focus on those. 

Are different characters’ goals in conflict with each other? Conflict is usually what propels a story forward. 

What could go wrong in your character’s pursuit of their goal? Make it go wrong.

If you don’t know your characters’ goals, go back to the drawing board; they probably need more development.

If there’s not enough conflict of different motivations, make a new character who creates conflict!

How do you want your main character to have changed by the end of the story? Do you want them to be less selfish? To have come to terms with a part of themself? To have learned something new? Write down ideas that could accomplish this change. 

If you can’t think of any way your character could be changed (read: improved) by the end of the story, go back to the drawing board. They might be “too perfect”.

Notes: 

The change that triggers your plot can be anything. It doesn’t have to be the start of an epic war that will bring forth the apocalypse, it can be your character meeting a new person who shakes things up in their life, or anything you want!

Motivations can be anything. It doesn’t have to be something grand - if your character’s motivation is to just live a quiet life, you can still come up with a plot that will get in the way of that goal! 

Character development can be anything, as well - you don’t need a cliché moral to the story; your character doesn’t even need to change in a good way, if that’s not what you want for your story!

This is what I’ve found works for me, but if you try it and it doesn’t, or if it sounds way too sententious and strict for you - that’s okay! Take it with a grain of salt! Maybe you think your characters are just fine and don’t need more developing even in the situations in which I recommended you “go back to the drawing board”, or maybe you have better ways of coming up with a plot. That’s fine, the writing process can be very personal!

Motivated fitness

Sexy bear :)