Yes, Yes, Its November, But I Didnt Have Good Photos Of These Until Sunday Night, So Youre Getting A

Yes, yes, it’s November, but I didn’t have good photos of these until Sunday night, so you’re getting a last taste of Halloween two days late.

We moved to a new house last year just after Halloween, and our new place has more than double the number of windows the previous one had. I had several of these pieces up in the windows at the old house as part of our Halloween decorations, and wanted to continue that, so I had to spend some time expanding the collection to fill the new windows. And that means a crafting post to share.

Here you can see a bit of the process behind making these window silhouettes. I didn’t take progress shots while I was working on the pieces themselves (I was busy trying to get these done in time), but I did snap a photo of my project notebook (a single-subject spiral notebook in which I plan out any number of projects in ballpoint pen before I try knocking them out in person).

I started with some basic notes on what I wanted to get out of this. Specifically, nine windows, and the most basic composition idea behind them. I’d already spent time prior contemplating the basic composition, but if I hadn’t, there’d be more lines of brainstorming as I worked out on paper how I wanted to do this.

Once that was jotted down, I drew out nine frames in which to doodle ideas. I knew what pieces I had already, so I drew those in (the three tombstones on the top row, the pumpkins on the bottom row, the hand with the skull, the owl and the raven), then doodled other ideas as I went along, including some additional basic tombstone shapes. You can see on windows 2 and 5 where I scribbled over one idea with another, and the cat on window 9 was an afterthought (I already had it, but had forgotten to include it on one of the windows until one of my kids pointed it out). There are also margin notes clarifying beyond my doodles.

Once that was done, I broke out the poster board. The additional elements ultimately took six sheets of black poster board, and the original silhouettes I had were probably another four or five (I don’t remember at this point). I had a tape measure from the tool box for comparing poster board against the windows themselves to make sure things were cut out at the correct size, and I used a ballpoint pen to draw on the poster board before cutting, as it wouldn’t show if the pen-drawn side had to be facing outward. Start with large pieces first, like tombstones, and remember that things can always be pieced together out of larger sheets as needed (the crypt on window 5 and the Celtic cross tombstone on window 2 are both pieced together, as is the Reaper and his scythe on window 6). The tree branches were the last thing done, and they were cut as a series of lots (and lots and lots) of single wiggly sticks that were then assembled like puzzle parts to create branching shapes. I also ended up making an extra raven at my younger children’s request. It’s important to remember to save any parts you cut out of larger pieces in case you can use it for something else—case in point: the skull in the hand is cut out of one of the tombstones, and the cross on top of another tombstone is cut from a tombstone. Exacto knives are helpful for this.

Once all the silhouette pieces were cut out, I made the backing panels for each window. In previous years, I taped the silhouettes directly to the window panes, and then added orange backing material on Halloween itself so we could have the silhouettes up for more of the month, without blocking our view. This was not feasible in the new house, since the windows are made up of small panes of glass in wood framing, and taping directly to them wouldn’t work so well, so I decided instead to tape the silhouettes to the backing material, and only put them up the day before Halloween. It’s fine. They look better lit up anyway.

The backing panel material is orange plastic table cloths from the dollar store. It’s thin enough to let light through, while still providing a pleasant orange look to the windows when backlit. It’s also very cheap, so you have to handle carefully or you’ll end up with nicks and tears in it. Ask me how I know. I used clear Scotch packing tape to affix the silhouettes to the backing material.

At the bottom of my diagram, you can see a house shape I drew with windows numbered. That was me planning out where the silhouettes would end up on the house face once they were assembled. That done, we put them up on the windows with packing tape, and left the curtains open so the light from the room could illuminate the silhouettes.

In the photos of the windows, you can also see where I put handprints in the small panes to either side of the front door. These were done in black cardstock, by tracing my children’s hands. The panes were already frosted with privacy material, but I’m thinking of using some of the extra orange table cloth material to help color the panels next time.

Maybe sometime in the future I’ll do a mini tutorial on how to make the cutouts themselves, at least.

Writing Tips Pt. 4 - Beta Readers

Since I just had a long post about commonly mixed-up words, many of which would escape a basic spellcheck, how do we handle that (and other writing gaffes that the most basic of tools will miss)?

You get a beta reader. Or hire an editor or proofreader. Or sign up with a publishing company that will assign you an editor.

Beta readers, editors, etc. can generally do a few different things for your writing, which is something you will need to discuss for whoever you sign on to help you out. Whoever it is, though, make sure they're someone you trust to actually know English well—or whichever language you'll be writing in—since the idea is for them to help you with your writing and catch the mistakes you make.

If English is not your first language, make doubly sure to get a beta reader who is fluent. Yes, Google Translate can be fairly decent, but you should still have someone fluent check it over, if only for the grammar.

Writing Tips Pt. 6 - Punctuation

Punctuation is another common trip hazard for beginning writers. The most common fault with punctuation that I see is the misuse of commas, whether it's including them where they aren't needed, forgetting them where they should have been used, or using them in place of more appropriate punctuation.

For starters, commas aren't sprinkles. You aren't dusting them onto your prose for flavor. They should be used to break up phrases within a sentence where one would naturally pause, but don't use them every place you pause if you speak like Captain Kirk. They also go between elements in a list (and while I'm a huge proponent of the Oxford comma, fight me, I won't force you to use it as long as you're consistent).

While they aren't sprinkles, they aren't poison either. Please don't give me a solid brick of text with absolutely zero punctuation whatsoever. Punctuation won't bite. It won't come to your house and beat up your dog if you use it. Promise.

And for the love of Pete, please don't use commas where other punctuation would be more appropriate. I've seen far too many sentences strung together with commas when they should have been broken up by periods, or at the very least semicolons. Are the two sentences related in thought? Semicolon. Are they just different enough? Period. You should not be using a comma to connect full standalone sentences.

For example:

His jaw clenched, she could hear the teeth grinding from across the room.

Bad comma use. Those are two distinct sentences. Much better to do the following:

His jaw clenched. She could hear the teeth grinding from across the room.

The two sentences are also related enough that you could connect them with a semicolon, like so:

His jaw clenched; she could hear the teeth grinding from across the room.

If you absolutely insist on the comma, you need to edit the sentences to work with the comma, like so:

His jaw clenched, and she could hear the teeth grinding from across the room.

While we're at it, be aware of where punctuation should be relative to quotation marks. In American English, which is what I use, commas and periods go inside the quotation marks, while exclamation points, question marks, and ellipses depend on whether they're part of what's being quoted or not.

And learn correct apostrophe use. It's used for contractions and possessives, but not, and I repeat not to make something plural. Apostrophes are not to signal "watch out, here comes the S!"

Don't be this guy:

And remember to go sparingly on the use of ellipses and hyphens to represent someone stammering. It's far too easy to fall into the trap of overusing them. I used to do it all the time myself. I'm not saying not to do it, of course. Just...be aware of how often you use them for that purpose.

Writing Tips Pt. 3 - Common Word Mix-Ups

People mix up words all the time. It happens. Even when you're checking with a dictionary, even when you're sure the thesaurus hasn't led you astray. Sometimes it happens that you just don't know how to spell a thing, but you're just so sure you spelled it right, so you ignore the spellchecker. Sometimes the spellchecker can't help you because the word you wrote instead is still a valid word.

I know, it's the worst.

There are, of course, the most obvious ones. The ones everyone points out. To/too/two, their/there/they're, your/you're, etc. Here are some others that have come up in things I've read. (This is long, I'm sorry.)

breath/breathe, loath/loathe, wreath/wreathe, bath/bathe, etc.

These ones are unfortunately extremely common, so here's a tip for you: if you add an 'e' to the end, it becomes a verb. That's all you need to remember to get these right every time. Loath is an adjective, breath, wreath, and bath are all nouns, but if you add an 'e' to them, that final 'th' becomes a softer sound, and the word becomes a verb.

You don't "take a breathe of fresh air" or "breath heavily after exercise," friends. (And ouch, that was painful to write.)

would have vs. would of, and related

This one really grinds my gears. I keep seeing "would of," "could of," and "should of" in writing that's meant to be taken seriously (fiction, articles, what have you), and it annoys me because it's just wrong. It's people not knowing what contractions are, or that those specific phrases are contractions, at the very least.

What you want is would've, could've, and should've. They're pronounced just like the typo, but are grammatically correct.

peeked/peaked/piqued

He peeked around the corner.

His physical prowess peaked at twenty, and only went downhill from there. (or) The meter peaked at fifteen, far too close to the red for his liking.

His interest was piqued.

Peeked relates to looking. It's a tiny look. Just a peek.

Peaked relates to something spiking, like a mountain peak. The topmost point.

Piqued relates to irritation or excitement.

In the case of interest, which is where I keep seeing the wrong word ("his interest was peaked"), you're exciting someone's interest, not causing it to reach its topmost point, though I can at least understand the mix-up.

pore/pour

Pore means to read or study with steady attention, to ponder intently.

Pour is what you do when you dump stuff out of containers.

I would much rather see you pore over your documents than pour over them. That just sounds sticky.

wreak/wreck

Wreak means to execute (as in to carry out).

Wreck means to smash and break things.

You wreak havoc when you wreck my stuff.

elude/allude

Elude means to escape, evade.

Allude means to refer casually or indirectly.

He didn't come out and say it, exactly, but he alluded to the method that allowed him to elude the authorities for years.

phased/fazed

Phased refers to stages or states of being.

Fazed on the other hand means "disconcerted, worried, or disturbed."

The change of venue didn't faze her in the slightest. The change of phase did, though.

If someone is unflappable in the face of unusual happenings, they remain unfazed.

weary/wary

Weary means you're tired. Exhausted. Just DONE.

Wary means you're apprehensive, nervous, untrusting.

Picture yourself on a bus, standing next to a guy who just won't stop talking. If you're weary of him, you're tired of his yammering and wish he would shut up. If you're wary of him, you're afraid his constant chatter is hiding something ulterior, such as a distraction from pickpocketing or angling to get your phone number so he can try to talk you into a date.

due time/do time

Due time means eventually.

Do time, on the other hand, means going to prison.

You will do time all in due time, my criminal friend.

wander/wonder

Wander means to roam aimlessly.

Wonder means to think or speculate curiously, or be in awe of something.

If you wander too long, you might wonder where you are.

lightning/lightening

Lightning is electrical discharge from the sky.

Lightening means to grow lighter.

It's a one-letter difference that the spellcheck won't catch, so I'm not surprised this happens so much. Still jarring, though.

Like lightning.

couldn't care less/could care less

Here's the short of it: if you could care less, that means you do care a bit.

affect/effect

This one could really be its own entire post, but I'll give it the short treatment here.

Affect is a verb.

Effect is a noun.

(Except when they're not; that's why it could use a whole post.)

Affect is causing change, while effect is what happens when change is caused, to put it simplistically. To remember the most common uses, just remember that Affect is an Action. (They both begin with A.)

loose/lose

Loose means not secure, not tight.

Lose means to misplace or get rid of something.

If your laces are too loose, you might lose your shoes.

canon/cannon

Canon is what is standard or fundamental within a body of work (such as the canon works of a religion).

Cannon is a very big gun.

Another one-letter difference, and I see this a lot in fanfiction when people refer to what is canon (meaning what is considered standard or fundamental in the original work) and what is not.

Let's just say that if you have a headcannon, we're not talking about what you believe about that work.

And I'll just drop this link here.

awe/aww/awh

Awe is an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc.

Aww is what you say when you see something cute.

Awh is an odd variant for aww I've only ever seen in fanfiction.

discreet/discrete

Discreet means not obvious, being circumspect, respecting privacy. It's where the word "discretion" comes from.

Discrete means separate and distinct.

If you aren't discreet in your dealings around cannibals, you might end up in discrete parts.

defuse/diffuse

Defuse means to remove the fuse (de-fuse) as of a bomb. To disarm something, like a bomb or a tense situation.

Diffuse means to spread out evenly.

If you aren't careful when you try to defuse a bomb, you may end up diffusing it instead.

shudder/shutter

Shudder means a convulsive movement, such as from cold or dread.

Shutter is the opaque, solid covering for a window or, sometimes, a door. It can also mean "to close up," as in those same solid coverings.

I shuddered when I closed the shutters over the window in preparation for the storm.

past/passed

This one's a tad trickier, because they're actually similar.

Passed is only ever used as the past tense form of the verb "to pass." I pass you now. I passed you a while ago.

Past, on the other hand, can mean a few things. It can reference time (before the present). It can also reference something spatial (run past something), and this is where it sounds very much like passed, unfortunately.

If you run past someone, you have passed them.

definitely/defiantly/definately

Definitely means certainly.

Defiantly means daringly or boldly in resistance.

Definately is just a typo. Your spellcheck will catch this if you haven't gummed it up with typos.

She definitely stood defiantly against typos like "definately."

bare/bear

Bare means exposed. Like naked.

Bear means to lift, hold up, or stand firm. It's also a furry woodland creature.

He couldn't bear to bare his soul to the shaved bruin. It was a bare bear, after all.

grisly/gristly/grizzly

Grisly means horrible, gruesome, grim.

Gristly means resembling or containing gristle, which is cartilage.

Grizzly means somewhat gray, or gray-haired (usually in the form of grizzled). It's also a furry woodland creature.

The grizzly bear came upon a grisly scene of carnage, thanks to his mate trying to cut up meat that was too gristly.

for all intents and/intensive

For all intents and purposes means, basically, "the same effect or result as something else."

For all intensive purposes just means that the purposes are intense.

free rein/free reign

Free rein means to let a horse have more control, to not pull back on the reins in order to direct them. This is the correct version.

Free reign sounds like it should be correct, given it relates to rulers, but it isn't. Kings don't have to ask if they're allowed to set the rules.

I know that was long, but hopefully it helped to demonstrate some of the word mix-ups in a way that will help anyone who struggles with them.

Writing Tips - Masterpost

From someone with a degree in this sort of thing (the writing and editing, that is).

I've had a list of tips kicking around for the longest time, from way back in my earliest days of hanging out on Fanfiction.net and reading fanfiction day in and day out. I've also read a lot (and I mean a lot) of published fiction in my time, as well as studying at college how to write better fiction and then edit it, for myself and others. So I can't help but notice things crop up in fiction I read online.

And, as usual, what is a Tumblr for if not throwing my opinion on the internet?

So I present to you my list of Writing Tips. Some will be geared predominantly toward fanfiction, but I will try to apply most, if not all, of the entries toward general fiction where I can.

And as with anything an editor tells a writer, ultimately it's up to you whether or not you take my advice. You do you.

The entries are now linked below, and this list will continue to be updated each time I add another writing tip in the future.

1. The Dictionary

2. The Thesaurus

3. Common Word Mix-Ups

4. Beta Readers

5. Google Can Help (checking foreign words)

6. Punctuation

7. Dialogue Tags

8. Show Don't Tell

9. Accents

10. Tense (past, present, future)

11. Points of View (first, second, third, limited vs. omniscient)

12. Purple Prose

13. Research

14. Keep Notes and Reread

15. Constructive Criticism

16. Breaking the Rules

which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?