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"the early 2010s were better" no they weren't. "hey soul sister" was on the radio.

#this is always interesting to ne because all the songs people compassion about bc they heard it on the radio/some store #is something i always have to find myself. like what station were you listening to... and are you black. #feel like that plays a big part #i had to find out about Rude on my own so like ..i loved it lmao. never heard it on any station #oh my god the typos. the songs people COMPLAIN about

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18th Century Italian Blue Celestial Geode Hearts

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𝐎𝐡𝐥𝐬𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐟 𝐂𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 ♰ [𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠, 𝐆𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲]

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

#why are people in the comments so distraught its a hypothetical question 😭😭 pls #'is anon okay' im sure theyre fine. some people like to ask questions like this #does not mean theyre mentally unwell. just answrr it LMAOOOO #me personally no

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Ballysaggartmore Towers by Bob Goudy

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cemetery flowers after the ice storm photography: Peter Fricke

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decorated sketchbook with random trinkets i found on the ground this week

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Pomp Charivari, southern Germany, 19-20. century

Tapered, heavy silver chain with side closures carabiner and twos. hooked coins. mostly encased in silver parts. Among  then, raccoon, stag beetle, eagle claw, Rehgehörne, various animals and tools made ​​of silver, etc., width 55 cm.

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Waiting on a miracle

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gold + art

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#LMAOOOOO STOP #😭😭

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leave the answers in the tags

#sharks!!!

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

#see but like how good of a thief is my friend. #like are they really good...bc i dont need police at my door. #but im taking it

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how to go from daydream to draft:

begin by daydreaming as you normally do, or just after you've finished doing so. write down every thought you have. one after another. do not reread. do not stop for spelling mistakes. just dump out every thought. this is called stream of consciousness writing. you can do this for every scene you need a first draft for.

struggling to draft the scene? try to daydream about it. start thinking about how it would look, feel, what the characters would say, act it out in your head and then write out the stream of your thoughts as they arrive.

by now you have a few scene dumps. you may be tempted to go back and edit. do not do this expect for obvious spelling mistakes. do not read closely and start thinking "i need to rework this sentence." that is for later. now you're in the zone. draft more scenes. or work out what the next scene needs to be, scaffold it with a few comments. this will be the inspiration for your next deliberate thought stream that you will write out. repeat this process until you have the whole draft.

now that you have a draft or part of a draft you get to do this very fun thing called revise until you're happy. sweep through your draft with specific goals each time. one sweep to fix spelling/grammar. another for character voice. another for plot. repeat until you're happy with it.

leave it alone. just leave it for a bit. at least a few hours or days or even weeks. forget it exists. this will allow you come back with fresh eyes. then you can do your revisions with an eagle eye. now you may realize you need to add/remove scenes. you know how to get the first version down. close your eyes and daydream at your desk if that's what takes!

remember that fiction writing is persuasive writing. you are trying to persuade the reader to care about what happens next, the character's, the world, the feelings. as you're revising, consider whether you are persuaded. is the feeling/thoughts you wanted to provoke being felt by you when you read it? when working with beta readers, be sure to communicate what you're trying to convey so they can tell you if you've been successful or not.

this got a bit beyond getting the first draft done. hope you found it helpful.

bonus tip: check the spellings of names and places and other nouns that are not typically used, like the name of a magic tool!

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Foreshadowing Ideas

• Character themes/motifs. I’ve heard of one writer who tries to give each character their own theme for similes, metaphors, descriptions, etc so there’s like a theme to the way they’re portrayed. You could use that to foreshadow notable secrets about the character that will later be revealed, or if at any point they’re disguised then you can use that to tip off the reader that they have the same motifs and so might be related/the same person

• Tiny details hidden in lists. Say the MC was trying to work out the identity of a bad guy, who we know was wearing a red shirt on the day of a big bad event. A few chapters later, MC is checking around their best friend’s room to find them, with the place its usual mess with discarded takeaway boxes, the bed unmade, a red shirt left on the floor that could use a good sweep. The red shirt might not click with all the readers, but those who register it upon their first read will eat it up

• Inconsistent behavioural patterns. Once we have a good idea of what a character is like, having them act out of character can set off alarm bells and make us question what’s occurred to make them act this way. Let the other characters register it too, if it’s reasonable that they would, but let them ultimately brush it off quite quickly to keep it subtle. Or just call it right out, whichever you prefer

• Unreliable narrators. Let one character say one thing and a second character say another, even if they both ultimately agree on the same thing but get one or two small details wrong. Ideally do this two or three times in order for the reader to know it’s not just a mistake in the plot but an intentional inconsistency, but even if it’s only done once and it’s taken as a mistake it’ll still slot together like puzzle pieces in the end and they’ll be kicking themself for dismissing it

• In-universe red herrings. If you’re going to add red herrings as foreshadowing, it’s helpful if the red herring aligns with the intentions of someone person aware of the upcoming plot twist who’s trying to control the narrative. Say the plot twist was the reveal of a mysterious character’s identity to be the best friend of the MC, the best friend might have deliberately thrown the MC off their scent by planting suspicions in the MC’s mind that a different character was the mysterious character’s identity all along. This is less about foreshadowing the actual reveal, of course, but rereads will be a punch to the gut when everyone realises that all this misinformation and red herring business came from someone trying to cover their own ass rather than coming from misunderstandings or multiple other random sources