(source)

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Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

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Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own.

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

Short Story Challenge 2020: January- Coffee with Love

December 3rd There is a new barista at my coffee shop. She has the most amazing eyes I ever saw. I mean I know ember colored eyes exist but I have never seen some in real life. Hers glow like the sun and sparkle like the stars. Sadly I had no time today because of this stupid essay. I really like to know why we need to finish it before Christmas. Like December isn’t already busy like hell and a good month to kill someone and go free because of acute mental incapacity. December 7th I hate deadlines! Especially when they suddenly are earlier than the professor said at first. How shall I finish this in three days? At least I ran into the new barista again. It seems like she works only part-time there. I guess she is my age? So maybe she works to pay for college? Anyway, she was so nice to not put the extra shot espresso on the bill. I must have looked like a zombie. I actually feel like one. Beware of the Walking College Student! December 10th I either kill my professor or my roommate, whoever happens to cross my path first. Now we are back to the old deadline and my fucking stupid roommate managed to kill the electricity for the whole dorm. I am sure she made it on purpose to have an excuse to ask for more time for her own essay because she is the master of not planning. So I had to sit at the coffee shop to work on this stupid essay I like to burn right now. Or burn down the professor’s office? Could it help? But I now know the new barista is a student because I sat there when she came in for her shift and still wore one of the college sweaters. Damn, these hips can kill, I am sure off. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has to fend of idiots multiple times a day. Men can be so damn stupid sometimes. December 12th I managed to remember to look at the new barista’s name tag. Her name is Allison! Okay, that is so not creepy, right? I think I spend too much time at the coffee shop. My caffeine intake doubled the last weeks like I am made of coffee. But on the other side, it gives me a chance to go to the coffee shop more. I think I can blame my professors for this when mom starts to nag about it. I mean how shall a normal person with a 24 hours day manage to get all this shit done without coffee?

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yourwriters

5 years ago

Isn’t “complex, nuanced, morally gray villain” and “villain who is just evil with nothing more to it” a false dilemma?

I contend that villains don’t have to be morally gray to be complex. Your villains can have complex reasons for what they do, and internal conflicts, and still be completely vile. Their motivations can be nuanced and still be fundamentally twisted. Their internal conflicts can be between multiple awful, fucked up, selfish sides of themselves. Villains can be complicated by differing drives and motivations and viewpoints even if none of them are good.

Give me a villain who is like...for example, conflicted between killing his son to eliminate a threat to his power, and keeping him alive so he can continue to exercise his abusive, fucked up control and twist his son into what he wants. He’s stuck between hating his son and desiring him as a possession and puppet, but neither of his conflicting motivations are The Good One.

Give me a villain who has to choose between the ideology of the violent, corrupt organization that groomed and trained him and the desire to betray everyone, strike out on his own with no support, and begin his own genocidal terrorist group. There can be a lot of complicated, shifting emotions over this, but it’s far from being a battle between an evil path and a good path.

Idk. “purely, disgustingly evil villain” is not the same as “one dimensional villain”

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yourwriters

5 years ago

Hello I Changed My Nano Wip Pls Support My Terrible Decision And Equally Terrible Characters

hello i changed my nano wip pls support my terrible decision and equally terrible characters

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yourwriters

5 years ago

Writing Masterpost

Character Help

MBTI Personality Test

MBTI Personality Descriptions

123 Character Flaws

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

List of Personality Traits

Character Virtues And Vices

Underused Personalities

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Character Name Resources

Surnames Masterpost

Write Real People Generator

Types of Voice

55 Words to Describe Someone’s Voice

Showing Character Emotion

Character Motivation

Writing Characters Of Colour

How to Handle Blocking in Your Story

Hopefully by now you know that in most of your scenes you need to have a character in a setting with tension, but there is an area of writing where I don’t feel like we spend enough time talking about, which is blocking. And I’m not talking about writer’s block. The term “blocking” is borrowed from play performances. Blocking is just about anything an actor does that isn’t dialogue: where they stand, where they look, how they interact with the setting, how they move across the stage, how close they are to what, how they interact with props. Often audiences pay little attention to blocking, or rather they don’t think about it enough to appreciate it. But if a play has little to no blocking, well, that’s a tough play to sit through as an audience. They may not always have an eye for great blocking, but they’ll notice if it’s not there. Blocking is just as important in fiction writing. And like with plays, it’s likely the reader won’t appreciate great blocking, but they’ll get antsy and annoyed if there is no blocking, and they’ll get confused if there is poor blocking. If you don’t use blocking, not only does it make it difficult for the audience to imagine where your characters are relative to the setting, but you’re selling your story short by not using it to your advantage. As an editor, I see blocking problems crop up from time to time, usually in dialogue scenes. The writer will tell me where the characters are (for example, cooking in the kitchen), but then as I read the scene, I get no sense of specifically where each character is in the room, what each one is doing, if they are standing at an island or sitting at the table, chopping lettuce for a salad, or loading the dish washer. Next thing I know, not only are they done cooking, but they are done eating and are outside getting in the suburban. Sure, some scenes don’t require much, if any, blocking. But in most scenes, you need some sense of blocking. Likewise, you can over-block a scene–putting so much blocking in, that it becomes unnecessary, sucks up the scene’s focus, and slows the pacing. A great narrative hand knows how much to guide the reader and when to back off. So let’s get to some tips about blocking:

Watch out for:

- Continuity Errors. One of the main problems I see with blocking in unpublished fiction is continuity errors. In one line, a character is sitting on a couch in the living room, and a few lines later, she’s sitting on her bed, in the same scene with no sense of motion. Often it can happen with objects characters are holding. Misty is knitting a scarf, but then a few lines later, it says she’s knitting a blanket. It can happen with food. Zack has a cup of orange juice, but later it talks about how he’s enjoying the taste of coffee. Watch out for when characters’ hands are full or when you have them doing something they aren’t capable of. For example, say it’s been recently established that Sandra glued back together two broken figurines and she’s holding one each hand. While she’s waiting for them to dry, she doesn’t dare put them down , and then suddenly she’s buttoning up the jacket of her little boy. What happened to the figurines? In some cases, motions can be assumed–but make sure they can be, or that you imply them somehow, so that it doesn’t read like a continuity error. Watch out for having characters sit down, who were already sitting, or characters standing up who were already standing. Characters who put on their shoes twice, or turn off the fan twice.

- Spatial Vagueness. I’m trying to decide if I see this one more than continuity errors … and I have to say probably. Another one of the most common problems with blocking, is vagueness. This usually happens because the setting, objects, or characters’ distances from one another or other things haven’t been properly established. I might get a line that says, “Joey walked down the street”–and as the scene goes on, I get no sense of what street, what city, what it looks like, what season it is, or where or why he is walking in the first place. Sometimes I don’t get any sense of setting and only conversations and body language, and next I know, I read the line “Tiff walked inside.” What? They were outside that whole conversation? And what did she walk into? When blocking is vague, the audience has to fill in the blanks, which can be a problem if it’s not what the author actually pictures. As an editor, this often happens to me. I’ll be picturing the characters sitting in opposite places in a living room, and then suddenly I’m reading how one put her arm around the other. In my head, they weren’t close enough to each other to do that. Use:

- Specificity. Being specific isn’t necessarily the same as being detailed. Details can help make something be specific, but they aren’t the same thing. And with blocking, in some cases, the more detailed it is, the more it hurts the story because it slows the pacing and changes the story’s focus. In my example above, “Joey walked down the street,” the sentence can be more specific by adding and changing a few words. “Joey walked down Mulberry Street, autumn leaves crunching under his feet.” In certain kinds of action scenes, it can be very important to be specific in word choice, and not in details. “Joey leapt for the fire escape.” “Margaret hit Lolly in the jaw.” But if you try to put too much detail into action, it can slow the moment way down. In some cases, it’s helpful to establish the setting before the characters start interacting with it. This makes the setting or “stage” more specific in the reader’s mind. They know there is a pool table and pinball machine in the room, so when one character slams the other into the pool table, it makes sense. Be specific, not vague. How much detail you include depends on pacing and the focus of the scene. - Blocking to contribute to or emphasize points. This is especially true for conversations. As an argument gets more intense, a character may invade the other’s personal space. If one character suddenly says something that makes the other uncomfortable, the latter may take a step back. If one character is vulnerable, whether the second draws closer or steps away can convey a lot. Of course, you can use setting and props to do the same thing. As an argument gets intense, one character throws something at the other. If someone is uncomfortable, she might put something (an island, a couch, a car, a teeter-totter) between them. If she’s feeling vulnerable, she might “hide” or “block” herself by getting a blanket, picking up a book to look at, or turning away from the speaker to pretend interest in a rose bush. When Sherlock gets frustrated, what does he do? He stabs the mantle. He puts a bullet in the wall. This is blocking that emphasizes and contributes to the situation or point at hand. Even in a scene where blocking is the primary focus (building an invention, competing in America Ninja Warrior, forging a sword, hunting), how the character interacts with the setting and objects can emphasize points–how tightly he holds a screwdriver, how sweaty her hands are against a climbing wall, the way he beats the metal, how many shots she shoots. You can also use blocking to heighten tension. “He picked up a knife and concealed it under the table,” immediately adds tension and anticipation to a scene.

- Blocking to Convey Character. Similar, yet different from, the last section, you can use blocking to convey character, rather than just the moment at hand. The fact that Sherlock stabs the mantle whenever he gets frustrated is something specific to his character. It helps establish who he is. And actually, that fact becomes specifically important in season four–when we understand that he, someone who is supposedly not driven by emotion, sometimes manifests more raw emotion than any one else. A character who sees litter at a park and picks it up is much different than one who adds to it. A character who comforts a crying stranger is different than one who ignores them. A character who always makes sure she’s near an exit is different than one who could care less. Blocking is great to show character and their feelings, rather than tell them. - Blocking to give motion to still or stagnant scenes. You may sometimes have scenes where all that really matters is the conversation between two of your characters, or maybe you need to have your character delve into a moment of introspection to solve a mystery. It might not matter even where this moment takes place. A lot of beginning writers will open a story with a character sitting and thinking. One of the reasons this is a problem is because there is no motion, there is nothing happening in the present moment. Use blocking to add motion. Instead of having your character sit and think, maybe you can have her catching insects for her bug collection while she thinks. Not only does this create more motion and interest, but also gives you material for the two bullet points before this one, so that it can actually add to the introspection and characterization. The fact she just caught a monarch butterfly might not be important to the main plot, but it tells us more about her, and in fact, you can even use that event and butterfly as a type or symbol of whatever she’s thinking about for added emphasis and tone. With that said, some conversations are very important, interesting, have high tension, or natural draws–they may have incorporeal motion–and already carry the audience, and sometimes when you put in blocking, it actually takes away from that, instead of contributing to it, by drawing away the audience’s attention. Their attention to the conversation is competing with the blocking. So watch for that. - Blocking for natural pauses, lulls in conversations, and for beats in dialogue. On the topic of dialogue exchanges, when there is a natural pause in dialogue or a lull in conversation, instead of saying “There was a moment of quiet,” you can put in a bit of blocking to convey that. “Forget it,” Fred said. “I didn’t want your help anyway.” Nancy looked down at the scarf she was crocheting and realized her hands had stopped moving. She put the scarf down on the coffee table, and flattened it out as she tried to find her words. “You like her, don’t you?” she asked. You can also use blocking for beats in dialogue. Rather than always using dialogue tags, you can use a beat to imply who is speaking what line. “Cedric Diggory was murdered,” Harry said. “Whatever you’ve been told,” Professor Umbridge said, “that. Is. A. Lie.” Harry shot up out of his desk. “It’s not a lie!”

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yourwriters

5 years ago

Science Fiction Subgenres from A to N

So, to start this blog off with something fun, I thought I’d do a series of big ol’ masterlists covering sci-fi and fantasy subgenres! There is a heckin’ large amount of them, so I’ve split it up into four sections with about five or six posts- this one right here is for, you guessed it, science fiction, from A to N. *cue distant cheering*

First up, a little recap:

Science Fiction: This can be considered a difficult genre to define, simply because it can encompass nearly anything- but the best definition I’ve heard is that it’s “the literature of change”, particularly in areas of scientific advancement and technological growth. According to Wikipedia, this is a genre of speculative fiction “typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.” (x) Science fiction generally encompasses imaginary worlds and universes bound to laws of physics (although not necessarily the laws we know of or follow) that are advanced in some way by science and technology, and experiencing some form of change because of that. To put it very simply, science fiction can be viewed as fiction based upon science. Science fiction tends to evoke thoughts of aliens, spaceships, robots, AI, new planets, futuristic cities, flying cars, high-tech things made of shiny metals, lightsabers and phasers, environmental sustainability, and far-future social themes. Examples include Dune (Dune series) by Frank Herbert, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley, 1984 by George Orwell, Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series) by James A. Corey, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and Parable of the Sower (Parable series) by Octavia E. Butler.

With that refresher in mind, let’s begin! (I’d apologize for the word count, but we’re all nerdy writers here.)

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yourwriters

5 years ago

About Conflict by Sacha Black

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yourwriters

5 years ago

— The Pinnacle of Art; a wip intro

[a wip by @ambrosichor | wip tag | other writings]

general

genre: dark academia

pov: first-person; vincent northwood

status: first draft; ongoing outlining bc i don’t know how to plan

concepts: good ol’ murder, aestheticism, classicism?, elitism?, homoeroticism? all the -isms?, love irregular polygon, unrequited love, pining, yearning, longing, discussions of art and philosophy, the meaning of life, ‘luxury’ crimes, life imitates art

inspiration: the secret history, the talented mr. ripley, the story of notorious art thief stéphane breitwieser (which you should read bc it was delightful and eye-opening)

the cast

i. vincent northwood - our narrator; the outsider

“I tell this story not because I want to but because I have to — to honour he who died at my hands”

our sad and brooding, incredibly insecure and lonely, narrator. heartbroken and abandoned, fresh from a breakup with his highschool sweetheart, vincent runs away from home in a quest for independence and ‘soul-searching’, in an effort to forget his first love and perhaps find a new one? life comes to a surprising turn when he finds teary eyed alexander in the middle of an empty art gallery.

ii. alexander donadieu - the leading man; inspired by stéphane breitwieser + dickie greenleaf

“the pleasure of having is stronger than the fear of stealing”

the everso suave and debonair alexander donadieu. easily bored by life and people as shown by his short attention span and selective nature. it’s a wonder how he manages to stay friends with nate and delia even afer all these years. although, he never fails to be the centre of attention while being adored by many. always intellectually starved and seeking a thrill in his life — will jump at any opportunity to wreak havoc.

iii. nathanael laurent - the right-hand man; hopelessly in love

“i just want to be loved delia.”

a part of the laurent family, nathanael is well known on campus for his old money connections. studies law and doesn’t mind it though he wishes to study the arts. at least he’s making his father proud, right? alexander’s right-hand man and best friend — will do anything for him, makes alex’s idiotic ideas into reality. is madly in love with alex but represses his feelings as he cares too much for him and cordelia. just wants the freedom to have his own desires.

iv. cordelia waldorf - alex’s girlfriend; hates the reputation

“but you’re his…” / “i’m not anyone’s”

is the only reason this group hasn’t fallen apart. alex’s girlfriend of an odd number of years. loves alex and nate with all her heart but desperately wishes for a female friend in her life. too understanding for her own good, a quality which alex constantly exploits. often lonely due to alex’s flighty nature. eager to meet and make people feel welcome — is glad to have met vincent. trying to separate herself from the reputation of ‘alexander donadieu’s girlfriend’. trying to carve her own path.