Which One Of U Was Going To Tell Me That Tea Tastes Different If U Put It In Hot Water?

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

I have definitely gotten hung up on character names before, spending goodness-knows-how-long hammering out ideas until I hit the perfect one because if I don’t have the name right, I have a difficult time actually writing them.

I have also had instances of looking over something I wrote back in high school or college where I clearly went, “[Unusual Name]? Oh, yeah, that fits perfectly in this setting.” (Spoilers: it didn’t.) Names that were either just really awkward to say—often because I picked several random consonants and then just jammed vowels in between, or because I was trying to do a deep “Aragorn, son of Arathorn” thing with them but was starting with a much stupider name—or were far too “fantasy” to fit into a modern real-world setting. I’ve got note files where I made changes to various character names to make them better, so I would remember what changes happened to those stories.

Does anyone else have a mental roadblock when it comes to giving a character an unusual or unique name? I mean this within the context of this character being a twenty-something woman and the work being more along the lines of general/realistic or literary fiction, yet the name almost coming across like something in a young adult “not-like-other-girls” tale.

Names can really impact a character, and I’m one of those writers who gets stuck until the name is perfect for that character.

Writing Tips Pt. 7 - Dialogue Tags

First and foremost, "said" is not dead. Let me just get that out of the way.

Of all the things that will trip readers up when reading dialogue, the use of "said" and character names are at the bottom of the list. These are safe. By all means, use them.

"But wait," you say, "my dialogue still feels stilted and forced!"

Well then, let me bring up a few other common mistakes that might be the cause of your woes, friend.

Are all of your dialogue sections structured the same way?

"What are you doing?" Diana asked. "Catching fish," John said. "But it's not fish season," Diana said. "The fish don't know that. I'm going to catch them by surprise," John said. "The fish aren't even there," Diana said. "Oh, you're right." John said.

The problem with this section of dialogue is that every line is paced the same way. Someone says something, and then there is a dialogue tag. The novice writer (myself included, once upon a time), would think the solution to this was to change what tags were used (he replied, she queried, he interjected, she retorted), or add a bunch of adverbs (she said testily, he questioned confusedly, she responded sarcastically) to try to spice it up, and consider that good enough. But that just highlights how stilted the dialogue is.

Instead, vary the pacing of the lines. Change up the structure a bit. Also, include actions in lieu of dialogue tags, so that not only are you not saying "said" almost every line, but the reader also gets to see what's going on during the scene besides just a conversation. And if you want to use an alternate tag to "said," that's just fine and it stands out less glaringly if its sparing in its use. It's also worth noting that you don't need to identify each speaker in a conversation every single time if they're the only two people in the conversation. Your readers can infer who's saying what as long as you properly put each person's dialogue on a separate line.

"What are you doing?" Diana asked, sitting beside John on the lakeside bench. John adjusted his grip on his pole. "Catching fish," he said. "But it's not fish season." "The fish don't know that." John smirked. "I'm going to catch them by surprise." Diana rolled her eyes. "The fish aren't even there." "Oh." John's eyes widened as he really looked at the lake, and his shoulders sank. "You're right."

Same dialogue, but now the reader has some visual context for the scene, and the pacing of each line is varied, so nothing feels stagnant.

Just remember that each new speaker gets a new paragraph for their dialogue. Don't lump them together in the same paragraph, as that's how readers get confused.

Also, make sure you identify new speakers near the start of long dialogue segments, not at the end. This:

"May I just say that you look quite lovely this evening? The glitter on your dress really brings out your eyes, and you've done a marvelous job with your makeup. Quite stunning, really. No one else in the room can compare to you. I would be a fool not to bask in your beauty this evening," Bob said.

Is poorly done. It takes too long for the reader to figure out who's talking so if they were imagining the wrong person speaking, they're jarred out of the story when they get to the end of the dialogue and realize the wrong person was speaking. Instead, move the dialogue tag near the beginning of the dialogue so we know who is speaking early on, like so:

"May I just say," Bob said, "that you look quite lovely this evening? The glitter on your dress really brings out your eyes, and you've done a marvelous job with your makeup. Quite stunning, really. No one else in the room can compare to you. I would be a fool not to bask in your beauty this evening."

This goes for action as dialogue tags as well.

On the topic of using adverbs to spice up the dialogue tags, the best advice I've heard is that you should avoid adverbs entirely unless they drastically change the tone of the sentence. And with dialogue tags, if there's a better, stronger word or action to use instead of "said + adverb," then use it.

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.

This is me far more than I’d like.

Reading a draft of your own fic chapter and l o v i n g it is great up until you get to the point where you just stopped fucking writing

Hey there!

So I’ve had this account kicking around for a while. Guess it’s high time I actually drop something in here.

So here are some of the highlights about me, and an idea of what this blog is for.

I’m a mother of four, which keeps me pretty busy

I like to read, write, draw, play video games, and do crafts in my spare time. Really, I’m a jack-of-all-trades, with definite emphasis on that whole “master of none” part.

While I do draw a lot (and like to think I’m pretty good at it by this point), my actual college education went into creative writing and editing.

I enjoy fanfic—both reading and writing it—but don’t post it that often online. When I do, you’ll find it on Fanfiction.net or AO3 (username: Kogarashi on both sites).

My favorite genre is fantasy, though I like to occasionally dip into sci-fi and horror. Give me a novel, movie, TV show, or video game along those lines and odds are I’ll enjoy it, especially if it has top-notch writing.

I have a decent list of grammar/spelling pet peeves, but my main hill to die on is the Oxford Comma. It’s necessary. Fight me.

As far as this blog goes, I plan on mostly using it as a place to drop things related to my creative pursuits, kind of like a digital sketchbook of sorts. Snippets I write, drawings in progress, writing tips, the occasional crafty tutorial...if it involves creativity, it may very well end up here.

Sorry not sorry.