☀ Pluck the Pearls From Your Bones ☾

Apr 13th

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writing

source: imgfave
via: themoonsavedme

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aerophonophiliac:

I have a story to go along with this.

My 6th grade English teacher was insane. Like, certifiable, I’m fairly certain. She was nice enough, but she was crazy as shit.

One day, about February-ish, we come to school and she’s standing outside of her classroom (like she did every day between classes) wearing all black and sobbing into a kleenex.

Naturally we were worried.

I had her 3rd period, I think, and I remember all of the classes were sworn to secrecy about what the fuck was going on. When we got there, she had candles all over (against the school rules, but hey, who gives a flying fuck, right?), all the lights were out, and there was a tiny coffin up at the front of the room, right in front of the blackboard. (Yes, that classroom had a blackboard. Cower before my antiquity, younglings.)

Okay, so that ruled out any of her family members being dead.

Once we’d all gotten settled into our seats, she came striding in, still tearful and noisy, to announce:

“S-s-s-said is DEAD!”

What the ever-loving shit, Mrs. Hester. What the ever-loving shit.

The rest of class was a dramatized funeral (read: we had to write essays and read them in front of the class) and the announcement, heralded by these sheets, that we were not allowed to use the word “said” any more, as it had passed away.

Apparently she does this every year.

I fucking love this woman

Mar 16th

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source: wordsinfire
via: alan-ku

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100 Exquisite Adjectives

wellatleastyourenotahipster:

transvestitesemicolons:

Adamant: unyielding; a very hard substance
Adroit: clever, resourceful
Amatory: sexual
Animistic: quality of recurrence or reversion to earlier form
Antic: clownish, frolicsome
Arcadian: serene
Baleful: deadly, foreboding
Bellicose: quarrelsome (its synonym belligerent can also be a noun)
Bilious: unpleasant, peevish
Boorish: crude, insensitive
Calamitous: disastrous
Caustic: corrosive, sarcastic; a corrosive substance
Cerulean: sky blue
Comely: attractive
Concomitant: accompanying
Contumacious: rebellious
Corpulent: obese
Crapulous: immoderate in appetite
Defamatory: maliciously misrepresenting
Didactic: conveying information or moral instruction
Dilatory: causing delay, tardy
Dowdy: shabby, old-fashioned; an unkempt woman
Efficacious: producing a desired effect
Effulgent: brilliantly radiant
Egregious: conspicuous, flagrant
Endemic: prevalent, native, peculiar to an area
Equanimous: even, balanced
Execrable: wretched, detestable
Fastidious: meticulous, overly delicate
Feckless: weak, irresponsible
Fecund: prolific, inventive
Friable: brittle
Fulsome: abundant, overdone, effusive
Garrulous: wordy, talkative
Guileless: naive
Gustatory: having to do with taste or eating
Heuristic: learning through trial-and-error or problem solving
Histrionic: affected, theatrical
Hubristic: proud, excessively self-confident
Incendiary: inflammatory, spontaneously combustible, hot
Insidious: subtle, seductive, treacherous
Insolent: impudent, contemptuous
Intransigent: uncompromising
Inveterate: habitual, persistent
Invidious: resentful, envious, obnoxious
Irksome: annoying
Jejune: dull, puerile
Jocular: jesting, playful
Judicious: discreet
Lachrymose: tearful
Limpid: simple, transparent, serene
Loquacious: talkative
Luminous: clear, shining
Mannered: artificial, stilted
Mendacious: deceptive
Meretricious: whorish, superficially appealing, pretentious
Minatory: menacing
Mordant: biting, incisive, pungent
Munificent: lavish, generous
Nefarious: wicked
Noxious: harmful, corrupting
Obtuse: blunt, stupid
Parsimonious: frugal, restrained
Pendulous: suspended, indecisive
Pernicious: injurious, deadly
Pervasive: widespread
Petulant: rude, ill humored
Platitudinous: resembling or full of dull or banal comments
Precipitate: steep, speedy
Propitious: auspicious, advantageous, benevolent
Puckish: impish
Querulous: cranky, whining
Quiescent: inactive, untroublesome
Rebarbative: irritating, repellent
Recalcitant: resistant, obstinate
Redolent: aromatic, evocative
Rhadamanthine: harshly strict
Risible: laughable
Ruminative: contemplative
Sagacious: wise, discerning
Salubrious: healthful
Sartorial: relating to attire, especially tailored fashions
Sclerotic: hardening
Serpentine: snake-like, winding, tempting or wily
Spasmodic: having to do with or resembling a spasm, excitable, intermittent
Strident: harsh, discordant; obtrusively loud
Taciturn: closemouthed, reticent
Tenacious: persistent, cohesive,
Tremulous: nervous, trembling, timid, sensitive
Trenchant: sharp, penetrating, distinct
Turbulent: restless, tempestuous
Turgid: swollen, pompous
Ubiquitous: pervasive, widespread
Uxorious: inordinately affectionate or compliant with a wife
Verdant: green, unripe
Voluble: glib, given to speaking
Voracious: ravenous, insatiable
Wheedling: flattering
Withering: devastating
Zealous: eager, devoted

source

I challenge you to use five of these in your NaNo word count for today.

(Source: )

Feb 14th

1,705 notes

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source: writrs
via: fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment

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writrs:

I wanted to talk about using visuals to help organize your writing. It is something I find really helpful, and hopefully you can take some of these ideas and use them as well! These are things you could plan ahead of time, or add to as you go along.

Bulletin Boards

Whether these are actual cork boards with pushpins, a binder and a hole puncher, a notebook you carry around to jot down notes, a pinterest account or a tumblr page… one thing I find helpful is collecting pictures, poems, lyrics, etc. Anything that I see that inspires a story.

You can do this in general throughout your daily life to keep you thinking about writing, but you can also do this specifically for whatever story you are currently writing.

Character Mapping

There are two different strategies I’ve found helpful for doing this. First being the “family tree” method and second being the web method that they used to make us do in middle school for “brainstorming” an essay.

Basically character mapping is just an interactive way of making a list of all your characters. The main reason it is helpful to mark down relationships, friendships, coworkers, etc for you characters is continuity. I find generally that it is easier to do it this way than it is to have pages of notes to flip back and forth from.

Geographical and Other Maps

When I’m writing a story that takes place in a fantasy world or another planet, or even sometimes on earth in a real place it helps to draw or use an actual map. Mark down important places your character goes, mark down areas they will meet other important characters, if it is an adventure-type story chart the path your characters will take.

If you have a clear picture of the layout of someone’s house make a quick map of the floorplan! That way when your character needs to snoop in a friend’s backpack if they ask to use bathroom your character can say “first door on the left” and it will be continuous with that time you said they woke up hungover and stumbled down the hallway and took a sharp left before vomiting on the bathroom floor.

Quick Sketches

If you have a clear idea of what your characters look like, and you have any drawing ability above stick figures, make a quick sketch of what they look like. Especially if you are stuck on a description. Pay attention to their height in relation to other characters, eye color, hair color, the type of clothes they wear. If you are very talented maybe event body language and facial expressions, but I wouldn’t spend TOO much time on it, you don’t want it to take away from writing time.

Being able to visualize you characters can help you better describe them verbally, it helps them become more real. This also works for locations. If you can’t draw another good idea if you get stuck might be to open up The Sims or any other avatar creator and try to combine ready-made elements into something that resembles the character you have in your mind!

Progress Posters

I made myself a poster with all of my personal goals and rules for NaNo, as well as a daily schedule with certain times blocked for writing. I also added little activities to the bottom to keep track of my daily word count and my overall progress.

Block Box

This is your one stop writer’s block cure. It’s not necessarily a visual aid but I felt like it still sort of fit with the theme of this post. Have your friends give you a word, phrase, image, or lyric. Write down a list of short writing prompts or directional questions. Collect all of these things on scraps of paper and put them in a jar or shoebox. When you’re feeling stuck, take an idea out and try to incorporate it into your story!

You can find our virtual Block Box here: http://writrs.tumblr.com/tagged/block+box

Some of these may take a bit of time, but it might be a good consideration if you find yourself stuck or distracted. An hour spent working on something novel-related is better than an hour spent on Tumblr or watching TV!

Happy Writing,
-Camille