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verso books has made books on palestine, mass protests, and student rebellions free to download on their website

#free books

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“The fact that colonialism is so central to science-fiction, and that science-fiction is so central to our own pop culture, suggests that the colonial experience remains more tightly bound up with our political life and public culture than we sometimes like to think.”

— The Atlantic discusses the link between science fiction and colonialism. (via ceeturnalia)

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Nice consequences, did your actions pick them out for you ?

#: (

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Character Agency

Your characters should have agency. That means they have the power to influence what’s happening around them. We talked a bit about agency last time, revolving around how many female characters get agency stripped away from them. But overall, agency is important for any character to make them active participants in their own stories and feel necessary to the plot.

              So here’s how you enable your characters agency:

1. They make active decisions

Okay this is the obvious one in theory, but still manages to sneak by in stories undetected. An active character with agency makes things happen through their decisions, instead of just their reactions. Take these two examples of a scene plan:

John is walking home when he is caught by a sudden storm. Looking to hide from the rain, he ducks under the cover of a bus shelter. Inside is Mya, and they strike up a conversation about their shared sucky situation.

Vs.

John is walking home when he is caught by a sudden storm. Luckily he brought an umbrella in his bag, and draws it out. Then, he sees Mya getting drenched by the rain ahead of him. He jogs to her, offering to share the umbrella. They strike up a conversation.

In the second example John isn’t just reacting but making a choice that’s changed something in the world. He may just happen to run into Mya, but it was his decision to run up to her, to offer her his umbrella. This action is a great indicator of his personality—he’s kind, trusting, and thoughtful even towards strangers.

That’s the most important part. A character who just reacts to everything doesn’t show off any personality, whereas action lets you demonstrate who your character is at their core (especially in difficult situations that call for difficult decisions).

2. Their actions have consequences

Similarly, the decisions your active character makes aren’t really decisions if they don’t impact any part of their world. For good or for bad, every decision your character makes should have a consequence. This could be shown through their relationships with others, their environment, or even their own mental, physical, or spiritual state.

If we’re going from the example above, John sharing his umbrella with Mya maybe starts their friendship, but her jealous, toxic boyfriend sees them through his window, making her and now his life difficult.

It’s a decision that has multiple consequences throughout his life—a new friendship, and also a new enemy. And Mya is also facing consequences—from her decision to walk with him, and his decision to offer her the umbrella.

Make sense? How do you ensure your character has agency?

#writing advice

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fascinating that when you tell people "you have to learn the rules to break them" when talking about drawing/painting etc everyone nods and agrees but the second you say "you have to read books if you want to write better" there's a horde of contrarians begging to be the wrongest people ever all of a sudden

#yeah. #it's wild that a post like this will go around #and then there will be 10000s of posts from ''big'' writing blogs #reassuring people that you can be good and ''valid'' writers without ever having to read #the whole valid discourse aside like ... come on.

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"goddess" "matriarchy" "female wisdom" girl your civic rights

#words #ursula k le guin #book tag: smasftm #insp

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Everyone go read the novelette Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh now!!!

[ID: the book cover of the book Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh. It is light teal with a wave design in the background and the title, in black, is written vertically in the middle of the cover. On the very top left, white text reads, “a fairy tale,” On the lower right it says, “‘A work of utter genius.’ —Eva Wong Nova, author of The House of Little Sisters,” and in the lower right corner is the author’s name. In the middle, a snake drawn in grayscale curls and twists behind the title. end ID]

#book recs #nan.text #bookblr #seriously it’s SOOOO GOOD #indie books

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some advice I got a long time ago about making your characters more realistic:

If you can’t imagine your character in silly or embarrassing situations without feeling very personally offended; take a step back, kick your character off their pedestal and let them breathe.

Let them feel and react in the same way you and others do. Let them laugh at dumb things, let them trip and fall on their face a few times. Let them experience life.

Don’t take your characters so seriously that all the fun qualities are removed in the process.

#actually really good advice here #so many people only want them to be MISERABLE FOREVER ALL THE TIME ONLY #but come on #let them live #don't let them become wooden #or a caricature (of misery/trauma/literally whatever) #writing advice

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#LMAOOO #video #flashing #/ #in the book margins too little stickers or emojis

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Things to bring back in books:

Chapter titles

Actually having a synopsis on the back instead of reviews no one will read

#yessss all of this #and YES I adore chp titles

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I want to write a book called “your character dies in the woods” that details all the pitfalls and dangers of being out on the road & in the wild for people without outdoors/wilderness experience bc I cannot keep reading narratives brush over life threatening conditions like nothing is happening.

I just read a book by one of my favorite authors whose plots are essentially airtight, but the MC was walking on a country road on a cold winter night and she was knocked down and fell into a drainage ditch covered in ice, broke through and got covered in icy mud and water.

Then she had a “miserable” 3 more miles to walk to the inn.

Babes she would not MAKE it to that inn.

#omg #to read #save

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In case you haven't heard yet Trans Rights Readathon is this month!

It's set during March 22nd to March 29th in preparation and support for Trans Day of Visibility on March 31st!!! The goal is to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, genderqueer, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and 2Spirit authors and characters.

There's a huge list of books with trans characters and/or trans authors available on their carrd here as well as places to donate for trans causes.

Happy reading!

#noooo why did I already start priory of the orange tree

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will always be super annoyed with the implication that art delving into an evil person’s conscience or internal conflict is bad because it is being overly sympathetic towards them. that is not exoneration. the whole point is that regardless of their humanity (that, yes, evil people ultimately have in real life) they continue to make the choices that render them irredeemable. it doesn’t turn into less of a condemnation. depicting complexity ≠ manipulating the audience into feeling compassion or forgiveness. i keep seeing the accusation of the latter being thrown at media that is very clearly only doing the former

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I used to only be able to read 1 book at a time, and now it’s like I can’t stop starting more. But, like, this one’s nonfiction! This one is an ebook, this one is an anthology, etc.!

#or maybe the one book I’m reading is just TOO DAMN LONG #nan.text

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(Big sigh)

Okay. Time to get to work.

#made my favorite tea and have a playlist of piano + violin concerti going #I’m READY LETS GO #45mins working and 15min breaks let’s see if I can do it #nan.text

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“don’t go where i can’t follow” is literally the most romantic thing anyone has ever said. it’s like. i’ll let you bring me anywhere—far from home, far from the places and people i love, so long as you stay with me. i’ll let you walk into danger and through hell, but i will not let you go where i can’t go with you. that is where i draw the line. 

#yeah

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Does anyone need something written or edited? I'm already freelance so I'm flexible. Hell, I'd do someone's goddamn homework at this point if they needed an essay written.