aphelios & alune with the eclipse
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aphelios holding the moon like how atlas held the world
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5 editorâs secrets to help you write like a pro
1. Sentences can only do one thing at a time.
Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? I edit a lot of sentences that work the same way. You need a noun, you need a verb, you might need an object. Give some serious thought to stopping right there.
Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; theyâre not meant to be stretched to the limit. Iâm not saying you necessarily want a Hemingway-esque series of clipped short sentences, but most writers benefit from dividing their longest sentences into shorter, more muscular ones.
2. Paragraphs can only do one thing at a time.
A paragraph supports a single idea. Construct complex arguments by combining simple ideas that follow logically. Every time you address a new idea, add a line break. Short paragraphs are the most readable; few should be more than three or four sentences long. This is more important if youâre writing for the Web.
3. Look closely at -ing
Nouns ending in -ing are fine. (Strong writing, IT consulting, great fishing.) But constructions like âI am running,â âa forum for building consensus,â or âThe new team will be managingâ are inherently weak. Rewrite them to âI run,â âa forum to build consensus,â and âthe team will manage.â Youâre on the right track when the rewrite has fewer words (see below).
(If for some insane reason you want to get all geeky about this, you can read the Wikipedia article on gerunds and present participles. But you donât have to know the underlying grammatical rules to make this work. Rewrite -ing when you can, and your writing will grow muscles you didnât know it had.)
4. Omit unnecessary words.
I know we all heard this in high school, but we werenât listening. (Mostly because itâs hard.) Itâs doubly hard when youâre editing your own writingâwe put all that work into getting words onto the page, and by god we need a damned good reason to get rid of them.
Hereâs your damned good reason: extra words drain life from your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has. Therefore:
Summer months
Regional level
The entire country
On a daily basis (usually best rewritten to âevery dayâ)
She knew that it was good.
Very
(I just caught one above: four-year-old little girl)
You can nearly always improve sentences by rewriting them in fewer words.
5. Reframe 90% of the passive voice.
French speakers consider an elegantly managed passive voice to be the height of refinement. But here in the good old U.S. (or Australia, Great Britain, etc.), we value action. We do things is inherently more interesting than Things are done by us. Passive voicemuddies your writing; when the actor is hidden, the action makes less sense.
Bonus: Use spell-check
Thereâs no excuse for teh in anything more formal than a Twitter tweet.
Also, âa lotâ and âall rightâ are always spelled as two words. You can trust me, Iâm an editor.
Easy reading is damned hard writing.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
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thinking about how when you experience a lot of shame in your formative years (indirectly, directly, as abuse or just as an extant part of your environment) it becomes really difficult to be perceived by other people in general. the mere concept of someone watching me do anything, whether it's a totally normal activity or something unfamiliar of embarrassing, whether I'm working in an excel spreadsheet or being horny on main, it just makes my skin crawl and my brain turn to static because I cannot convince myself that it's okay to be seen and experienced. because to exist is to be ashamed and embarrassed of myself, whether I'm failing at something or not, because my instinctive reaction to anyone commenting on ANYTHING I'm doing is to crawl into a hole and die. it's such a bizarre and dehumanizing feeling to just not be able to exist without constantly thinking about how you are being Perceived. ceaseless watcher give me a god damn break.
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The older you get the funnier anon hate gets. Like I do not have time for this I have to figure out what a 1099-K form is.
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i want 60 thousand votes by next thursday
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Top Drawer
A/N: this is just a scene lacking a story.
©
The apartment was oddly quiet after she inserted her key and stepped inside the front door, toeing her boots off on the welcome mat. She knew he would be home; he had told her as much before she left work, knowing sheâd be coming straight for him. She called his name, and heard a faint response. His voice was coming from his bedroom.
She moved to the living room and dropped her bag onto the couch, pulled the tie out of her hair to let it drop to her shoulders and slipped the tie onto her wrist. She smiled when she saw one of his t-shirts, along with a pair of soft sweatpants, waiting for her on the back of the couch. He knew she always liked to be comfortable after a day at work, and there was nothing more comfortable than his clothes, worn warm and soft to the touch.
She changed and tossed her work clothes into the washing machine on her way to the bedroom, noticing the closer she got the stronger the smell of fresh paint. Confused, she pushed the bedroom door open, only to see him standing excitedly in front of his chest of drawers, a small bucket of paint over in the corner of the room, brush sticking out the top.
âHeyâŠâ she said slowly, drawing it out, still puzzled. âWhatâs going on in here? Did you put a hole in the wall or something?â
He rolled his eyes, but still looked no less excited as he shook his head at her.
âNo. If Iâd done that, there would be plaster and spackling, not pink paint.â
Her eyebrows lifted curiously.
âPink paint? What for?â
Wearing a wide grin, he stepped away from the chest of drawers, and her gaze was drawn to it instead of him for the first time since entering the bedroom. Her eyes widened when they landed on the newly painted pink top drawer, pulled open a little to make sure none of the paint sealed it closed. She stepped closer until she could peek inside it; the top drawer was empty. Well, empty except for a pair of her socks, laundered and folded neatly, the way she did it.
She looked up at him with wide eyes.
âI get a drawer?â she asked, heart thumping.
He nodded.
âYou get the top drawerâ he repeated, emphasising.
She stumbled over the words, trying to get them out.
âWhy?â
Finally, a word that made sense.
âBecause I love you.â
She flew to him and he caught her out of the air, laughing and staggering back a step as her weight hit his body.
âYouâre welcomeâ he chuckled in her ear.
She pulled her head away from his shoulder and kissed him, bracketing his head with her palms.
âI love you, tooâ she said softly.
Tagging: @writingmysanity @elizabeth-karenina
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Beginner's luck
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Ideas of fatal character flaws? :3
Hi :)
Fatal character flaws
Aristotle calls this âHamartiaâ - a tragic flaw or error. It can be anything happening to good or bad characters, even otherwise good character traits and with good intentions that ultimately lead to the characterâs demise. They are often traits that donât neccessarily lead to someoneâs downfall, but can if theyâre done to an extreme. So think of these otherwise normal âflawsâ as extremes.
ignorance - not seeking helpful knowledge
selfishness - not thinking about others
curiosity - getting involved in things they shouldnât get involved in
impetuousness - being too passionate/ not thinking before acting
pride - not giving in/ not taking help from othersÂ
hubris - exaggerated opinion of oneself/ thinking nothing can get to them
lack of self-control - canât help/stop themself
indecisiveness* - not being able to make decisions
confirmation bias - only taking in information that supports oneâs own beliefÂ
arrogance -Â thinking they are superior
Have fun!
- Jana
*Interesting example: Chidi from The Good Place. A morally great character who is so extreme in always trying to make the right choice and therefore not being able to make a decision until it is proven to be right, it basically lands him in hell.
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I am a WHORE for âthe love is requited, theyâre both just idiotsâ
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idk smth about kayn pls perceive my lover boy
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to you, itâs a shitty sentence. to some random bitch 500 miles away, itâs a fire line thatâll haunt them for the next 17 years.
you donât know how impactful your writing is because itâs been in your brain for far too long now. youâve stared at it for hours and repeated âthis sucksâ over and over again to the point that you killed your capacity to feel anything about your work.
but trust me, once you get your shit out there, someoneâs gonna go over that paragraph you hate and go âjesus fucking christâ and put the book down to have an existential crisis.
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