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Emma- acrylic paint

how do u come up with ur comic ideas? they’re always so creative! i write fiction and honestly all my ideas start with random dialogue that i come up with when i’m driving or something but i can never sit down and come up with something on purpose lmfao

Thank you!

Well, I'm a visual driven person. I need to see photos so i'd be for about 1 hour just scrolling through pinterest, for instance, everyday.

bc I've been drawing for quite some time, I learned that I don't follow my initial plans completely. I need to have a basic idea, of course, then, while drawing, the idea may change completely.

I use an app called Notion to organize most of my thoughts and ideas while having all of them in writing (even the abadoned ones). I'll give you an example.

The "idea" board is where I drop EVERYTHING that comes to my mind or any plan I have to write (I say "write" when I want to create a comic, rather than "illustrate"). You can see on "completed" how I put there just a little preview of what I wanted my latest comic of Ginny and Lily to be.

And you can also see one of the ideas I have for a future comic (and a alternative universe fanfic about the holyhead harpies).

The thing is to NEVER erase your ideas, even if they seem silly or even bad. Just having a unique place where you can drop all your thoughts and organize them when you have the time, it's way better than going right into word/photoshop and try to write/draw.

is ginny and georgia any good? i’m looking for some netflix recommendations...

i’m sorry what—- 😂😂 how accurate

may i present you

penguin pingu classics

immensely eye opening words. EVERYONE CAN BE AN ABUSER.

Dear teen girls,

Stop abusing your boyfriends and yes what you are doing is abuse.

Stop:

Yelling at him in front of his friends 

Hitting or slapping him when he does or says something you don’t like

Telling him he doesn’t have a choice when it comes to decisions that involve both of you 

Telling him he can’t hang out with friends because you don’t like him

Telling him to not talk to other girls even if they are his friend

Forcing him to spend every moment with you 

Belittling him and pointing out all his flaws

Calling him stupid or making fun of him for making a mistake

Threatening to break up with him if he doesn’t do what you want

Being emotionally manipulative and crying until he does what you want

Accusing him of cheating every time he’s not with you

Blow up is phone if he doesn’t text you every five minutes 

Telling him you are the must thing that has ever happened to him and no one else will love

Physically attacking him when ever you are mad

Forcing him to have sex despite that fact that he said he didn’t want to

Invading his privacy by going through his phone

Getting mad at him for changing his password and demanding he tell you what it is

If a guy did any of these things to a girl it would be considered abuse but since its the other way around its considered normal. Throughout High school I saw many girl treating their boyfriends like shit. Sometime even physically abusing them in the hallways and no one trying to stop it because its a girl attacking a boy. 

Boys: If your girlfriend does anything on this list leave her. It is abuse and you deserve better.

Girls: if you find your self doing anything on this list to your boyfriend you need to knock it off because you are being abusive. 

Sankt Milo

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dialogue tags and action beats

i’m not gonna spend forever on dialogue tags because i feel like we all likely have a general understanding on them, but

a dialogue tag is a group of words that precede, succeeds, or interrupt dialogue to indicate who is speaking. it’s important to correlate them with what is being said (“‘i love you,’ she snarled” doesn’t make as much sense as “‘i love you,’ she sighed,” does it? unless you’re taking enemies to lovers to the extreme ofc)

they should be used sparingly!! why? because they’re interruptions. they remind the reader that this story is narrated and therefore just that — a story. it becomes less immersive and real every time the reader is reminded of this.

when they’re used, try to be specific (so don’t just use “said” over and over again), but don’t rely on dialogue tags to express all the emotion. if they’re the only source of emotion, writing can feel chunky and very tell rather than show. no dialogue tag > expressive dialogue tag sometimes. also, “said” isn’t that bad! if the rest of your writing, from the narration to the dialogue itself, is expressing emotions properly, then the tag can be simple as “said.”

fox, what’s an action beat?

if most of what you’ve learned about writing is from school, chances are, you haven’t heard of this before. it’s okay, though, because i would be VERY surprised if you’ve never used them before either.

action beats serve many purposes, but their fundamental purpose is to break up dialogue. they’re short sentences that precede, succeeded, or interrupt dialogue just like dialogue tags. however, without being redundant and obvious (ex: “he said” “she said” “he cried” “she cried”), they actually can add information and depth while at the same time reminding/informing the reader who is speaking.

action beats tell of a character’s emotions, actions, thoughts, intentions while speaking. they also make sure the reader won’t get bored, because there is nothing worse than just pages after pages of straight dialogue.

so one function is to break voice. and interruption in the midst of a lot of speech, whether it is one-sided or multi-sided. it adds rhythm so that the writing isn’t just a bunch of dialogue and some dialogue tags.

“Did you find the book?” Frida asks hopefully.

“No,” he mutters. After a moment of thick silence, he goes on. “It wasn’t there. I found all his other books, even the ones he never finished writing, but...”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure it’ll be at the next library.”

“You said that last time.”

“And I’ll say it next time.”

“So you don’t think we’ll find it next time either?”

She looks away and closes her eyes, knowing that Kevin’s frustrated and trying to get the same reaction out of her. One of them had to hold hope. “We’ll find it. Now sit down. Janet brought lunch while you were gone.”

another function is to convey emotion and indicate mood without using extraneous adverbs and dialogue tags that ultimately don’t add anything or progress the story.

“Can you stop?! Can you stop it with all the hopeful monologues and stupid, stupid empowering little speeches?!” Kevin throws his fork down on the table with a loud profanity. “Just... let me be upset for a moment!”

action beats can also solve what we like to call white room syndrome or talking heads syndrome. it places the conversation into a setting so that we can imagine what’s around them rather than two floating heads in a blank room.

Frida looks out the window of her room. “I hope you’re here to apologize.” She watches his reflection in the dark glass. He’s standing by her door, looking as pitiful as her meager attempt to decorate the walls.

action beats often say what the character won’t. they indicate when the character is lying by showing rather than telling.

“I promise I won’t.” Kevin crosses his fingers behind his back, giving her a sincere smile. “I won’t go looking for the book again until we figure out what to do about Mark.”

and, lastly, the most obvious function, dialogue beats tell us who is talking without using tags!

“You lied to me!”

“What did you expect?”

“I expected you to keep your promises!” Frida wipes away her tears with a furious scowl. “I expected you not to betray me. All of us!”

and that’s all!! idk who frida, kevin, mark, or janet are, or what this whole book is about, but i hope y’all enjoyed and took something away from this ;)

story outlining methods, pt. 1:

take off your pants!! (“take off your pants!: outline your books for faster, better writing” by libbie hawker)

this outline starts with a character — specifically their biggest flaw — and leads to five points that will make up the core of your story. it’s best for plots and subplots that focus on overcoming the flaw!

this outline doesn’t just have to be used for coming of age novels. it is just as important in your dystopian, fantasy, or thriller novels that the main character learns something or has changed by the end.

STEP ONE: think about your character

your main character — what is their name, and what are their important features?

what are your character’s flaws? what about their FATAL flaw? ex: hubris, overconfidence, stubbornness, etc.

STEP TWO: think about the end of the story

the story (whether the main plot, a subplot, or a facet of the main plot) is the journey lead to overcome the flaw. now that you know the character’s flaw, you know what lesson they need to learn.

the end of the story = the flaw mastered, the lesson learned.

STEP THREE: think about the external goal

the external goal is the plot, the outer motivation to push the character to the end of the story where the goal is mastered. if you remember my post on quests, you know that a quest has two reasons to be there: the external factor (shrek saving fiona for his swamp), and the real reason (the lesson learned)

the external goal should provide a chance for the character to recognize their flaw and begin to change. how does your plot tie into their character development?

STEP FOUR: think about the antagonist

thinking about the external goal should reveal who the antagonist is. the antagonist should want to achieve the same goal or a goal that impedes with the protagonist’s goal. the antagonist should be the biggest obstacle to the character.

STEP FIVE: think about the ally/allies

the character(s) that is capable of forcing the protagonist down the correct path. where your protagonist most likely will resist changing and confronting their flaw, the ally will help force them to do so anyway.

STEP SIX: think about the theme

so what’s the point of your book? if you are struggling to boil it down to one sentence, you might want to think about it a little longer. this is what keeps the story feeling coherent. what are you trying to tell us?

STEP SEVEN: think about the plot

each main plot element should somehow relate to the core of the book, aka the character’s development in overcoming their flaw

OPENING SCENE - set the stage. address the flaw or the theme

INCITING EVENT - what forces the character out of their everyday life and into the story?

REALIZING EXTERNAL GOAL - what makes the character begin seeking their goal?

DISPLAY OF FLAW - if the character’s flaw hasn’t been made blatantly clear, now is the time. make it known to the reader.

DRIVE FOR GOAL - what is your character’s first attempt to reach their goal?

ANTAGONIST REVEAL - how do you first show your antagonist’s opposition to your character?

FIRST THWART - what happens to your character that keeps them from reaching their goal?

REVISIT FLAW - show the character’s flaw again, even if they themselves aren’t aware of it yet.

ANTAGONIST ATTACKS - what does the antagonist do that makes things worse?

SECOND THWART - where your character fails most likely due to the attack

CHANGED GOAL - the character finds a new goal or focuses on the external goal in a different way

ALLY ATTACKS - what does the ally do to force the character to see the flaw?

AWAKENING - the character knows what they must do to reach the external goal. how will you show that the character has also awakened to their flaw? how will you show them changing?

BATTLE - the final showdown with the antagonist!

DEATH - the character’s flaw dies here. how will you show that the character truly is different now?

OUTCOME - show whether the character won or lost the external goal, reveal the theme of the story.

naturally, you don’t have to follow that outline exactly, but it can be a good place to start ;)

the transitional state between spring and summer; blooming to burning, rain dew to gold hue, stay with me through everskies and hellfires too.

Queen of Nightmares and Agony bahahahaha i’m dying 😂😂😂 hehe

i’m living for it though

QUEEN OF PAIN AND MADNESS BITCHES!!!!!!!!

(I’m really sorry this one only has one gender neutral option)

i can just imagine percy and annabeth sharing the poseidon cabin together after tartarus because they can stand to be away from each other. the trauma they dealt with is obviously the other person’s cure and everyone just knows they’re the only two who can understand what they both went through.

the fact that jesper’s bullet was able to help mal escape those handcuffs is like...gahhh. so detailed i’m actually gonna cry

Catherine Earnshaw is perhaps one of the most original female characters in classic literature. She is neither moral nor sexual, she is monstrous without being two-faced or deceptive. She is completely beyond and above the confines of any archetypes of female characters.

we need a gender neutral version of “fangirl” or “fanboy”. or is there already one and i haven’t found it yet

jesper and milo the goat 🥺

the darkling is such a mood

writing prompts for writers with no motivation

pick a topic you know nothing about and write about it like you’re the expert. just make stuff up. Tell us all about the complicated history of scissors or whatever and how left handed scissors were banned by the Catholic Church until 1978, or something

Create completely over-the-top self indulgent OC’s. Write about the magical half-unicorn witch with rainbow hair and sparkly purple eyes that you wanted to be when you were 14.

Write a negative review of a book that doesn’t exist. Just make stuff up off the top of your head to complain about.

Write smut, but like, intentionally bad smut. make it as unsexy/pretentious/purple/unrealistic as possible. Find the most convoluted metaphors for your characters’ genitalia that you can possibly conceive of.

pick two of any kind of work of fiction (movies, books, etc) and come up with an “X meets Y” style blurb for a hypothetical work of fiction that...in theory??...meets the two in the middle.

lists of names in a specific style, but they get progressively more ridiculous. examples: pirates, supervillains, Vikings, Fantasy(tm) taverns, puritans, settings on a Fantasy(tm) map, boybands, YA dystopian protagonists, warrior cats, any category you can find on a name generator website really

Make up some unhinged political opinion or conspiracy theory for a fantasy setting. spend a paragraph in the persona of some elf antivaxxer arguing that wizard staffs make you gay

make titles (and if you want, synopses) for books that don’t exist. you can base them on real books if you want

write fake sayings, inspirational quotes, fortune-cookie sayings. Make them sound almost like they mean something at first glance but they’re incomprehensible when you try to delve into them. Or make them just weird.

In a similar vein as the SCP Wiki’s Log of Anomalous Items, come up with magical or “anomalous” versions of everyday objects. You can start with stuff on your desk if you like. Water bottles that fill up with horseshoe crab blood if left unattended. or whatever. Include details on where they were found if you want.

write about questionable super heroes with weird or overly specific powers. Like the little known Blue Footed Booby Man

write a “horror” story or creepypasta but it’s like...as stupid and not-scary as possible. Dont just depend on “the twist/scary thing is super cliche and predictable” for it either, see how you can take an actually effective concept and make it unbearably dumb

invent swear words/insults, the more complex the better

plagiarize. By this I mean write something that’s completely made from sentences from other things and try to make it coherent

write one (1) scene from the most outrageously cool and epic hypothetical story you can imagine. just try to cram as many references to magical flying wolf bounty hunters and inter-dimensional dragon priests and time traveling samurai as you can with literally no regard for anything

Take a sentence or paragraph and replace every word you can in it with a synonym. either try to make it as weird and uncomfortable as possible, or just keep doing this in a telephone game sort of fashion until it’s no longer comprehensible.

seduce me with your knowledge of the wuthering heights plot

So, what do you recommend to encourage affection? Dancing. Even if one’s partner is barely tolerable.

Pride and Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright

Victorian ghosts in the noontide: women writers and the supernatural by Vanessa D. Dickerson

I feel like this is emblematic of 99% of discussions on Wuthering Heights - it feels like such a stereotype of the characters it’s almost deliberate and trying to be satire. Catherine as a “leader” and “controller” who starves herself to death…“scorned” Heathcliff…Edgar, who “recovers nicely” after his wife’s death…Of course this book isn’t solely about Wuthering Heights and covers a lot of literary ground but I feel like Dickerson (and many others) must have only read SparkNotes as research.

but why is it that when people talk about internalized misogyny it's always girls who hate on girls who are super feminine and never girls who mock other girls for not wearing makeup or having visible body hair? i dont think girls who think they're not like most girls are the #1 enforcers of patriarchy

Emma, 2020

ok so, emma woodhouse refuses to marry because it would mean her father would be alone. she wanted to care for him, she was a daddy’s girl.

she wasn’t like isabella, who didn’t mind experiencing and making a life away from highbury.

but i don’t think she NEVER wanted to marry. i’m sure she does. it’s all women could really talk about and depend on for their future.

but she insists on taking care of her ageing father.

so, to feed her natural emotional and romantic parts of herself, she starts to meddle in other people’s lives. a human matchmaker. making marriage predictions and setting harriet up knowing she’s a natural daughter - needing help.

she’s always doing things for other people. even if she’s not always right, and too meddling. she’s got her heart in the right place.

and mr knightley comes along and shows her, she doesn’t have to give up love to be who she really is, a confident girl with a heart of gold, always giving her time and attention to the people she feels most need it. he proves to her that she too can have a happy ending

EMMA (1815) • JANE AUSTEN

“i may have lost my heart, but not my self control.”