Moola-of-hula - ~ Menni ~

Watercolour magic

What were the main court cases we need to know? I know ones like Brown VBoard, RoeVWade, MarburyVMadison and that SupCourt Justice John Marshall from the late 18th to early 19th century was v impt. Anything else about judiciary stuff?

dred scott v. sandford (1857): establishes that slaves are property and have no rights (now viewed as a horrific mistake)

miranda v. arizona (1966): established rights of the accused (“you have the right to remain silent,” etc., also known as the miranda rights)

korematsu vs. u.s. (1944): ruled that japanese interment was legal (like the dred scott case, now viewed as terrible)

reynolds v. sims (1964): redistricted voting districts so that higher-population areas (read: areas more likely to have poor people/immigrants/poc) were equally represented in state legislatures, rather than being represented based on land area. the theory behind this is “one man, one vote”

gideon v. wainwright (1963): established that all accused have the right to a public defender

plessy v. ferguson (1896): ruled “separate but equal” things for black people were legal. overturned by brown v. board of ed

also, you definitely need to know that earl warren was the supreme court chief justice from 1953-1969 and that he was the force behind all those important ones during the 50s and 60s. very progressive dude. thurgood marshall was the first black justice, sandra day o'connor was the first woman. that’s all the major supreme court stuff i can think of!

Drawing reference

A quick Hot Tip for drawing shoes from me; a man who enjoys looking at shoes maybe too much

It’s good to draw some kind of foot looking shape before you draw shoes so they’re like the right size and shape but sometimes I see people draw soles as like flat things hovering under the feet but if you look at your own shoes you’ll see that the inside of your shoes are not flat, they’re bottom of your foot shaped and your feet sink into them a bit so they’re comfortable and not like slapping an oval block of wood to your foot

So the outside band on shoes is usually somewhere higher than you might think

Of course in many real shoes there’d be a bit of an arch from a raised up heel or something, so I probably should have drawn some feet instead of lazying out, but hopefully you get the idea.

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.

Basicly either you understand blm or you are a lil stupid. Go get an education.

To help move away from summary and toward ANALYSIS, it’s important to incorporate strong verbs into your writing when discussing the writer’s rhetorical choices. Below is a list of verbs that are considered weak (imply summary) and a list of verbs that are considered strong (imply analysis). Strive to use the stronger verbs in your essays to help push yourself away from summary and toward analysis: ex “The writer flatters…” NOT “The writer says…”

Weak Verbs (Summary):

says 

explains

relates 

states 

goes on to say 

shows 

tells 

this quote shows

Strong Verbs (Analysis):

Argues, admonishes, analyzes, compares, contrasts, defines, demonizes, denigrates, describes, dismisses, enumerate, expounds, emphasizes, establishes, flatters, implies, lionizes, lists, minimizes, narrates, praises, processes, qualifies, questions, ridicules, suggests, supports, trivializes, vilifies, warns       

Powerful and Meaningful Verbs to Use in an Analysis (Alternatives to Show): 

Acknowledge, Address, Analyze, Apply, Argue, Assert, Augment

Broaden

Calculate, Capitalize, Characterize, Claim, Clarify,Compare, Complicate, Confine, Connect, Consider, Construct, Contradict, Correct, Create, Convince, Critique

Declare, Deduce, Defend, Demonstrate, Deny, Describe, Determine, Differentiate, Disagree, Discard, Discover, Discuss, Dismiss, Distinguish, Duplicate

Elaborate, Emphasize, Employ, Enable, Engage, Enhance, Establish, Evaluate, Exacerbate, Examine, Exclude, Exhibit, Expand, Explain, Exploit, Express, Extend

Facilitate, Feature, Forecast, Formulate, Fracture

Generalize, Group, Guide

Hamper, Hypothesize

Identify, Illuminate, Illustrate, Impair, Implement, Implicate, Imply, Improve, Include, Incorporate, Indicate, Induce, Initiate, Inquire, Instigate, Integrate, Interpret, Intervene, Invert, Isolate

Justify

Locate, Loosen

Maintain, Manifest, Manipulate, Measure, Merge, Minimize, Modify, Monitor

Necessitate, Negate, Nullify

Obscure, Observe, Obtain, Offer, Omit, Optimize, Organize, Outline, Overstate

Persist, Point out, Possess, Predict, Present, Probe, Produce, Promote, Propose, Prove, Provide

Qualify, Quantify, Question

Realize, Recommend, Reconstruct, Redefine, Reduce, Refer, Reference, Refine, Reflect, Refute, Regard, Reject, Relate, Rely, Remove, Repair, Report, Represent, Resolve, Retrieve, Reveal, Revise

Separate, Shape, Signify, Simulate, Solve, Specify, Structure, Suggest, Summarize, Support, Suspend, Sustain

Tailor, Terminate, Testify, Theorize, Translate

Undermine, Understand, Unify, Utilize

Validate, Vary, View, Vindicate

Yield  

because it’s been too long since I’ve posted pictures of my cat

:^ ) 

Do you have a book masterlist? Because I want to read everythingbthat I hear mentioned on your entire blog.

I’m touched, and I actually do! Someone previously asked that here. It is in need of an update though so here are more.

Books I have drawn fanart for:

Heroes of Olympus

The Raven Cycle 

Carry On 

The Diviners 

The Palace Job 

Discworld 

Graceling 

Prisoner 

Griffin & Whybourne

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda 

The Lunar Chronicles 

A lot of things by Tamora Pierce. 

Everything by Gail Carriger.

A lot of things by Megan Derr

The Darkest Part of the Forest

A Darker Shade of Magic

Seraphina

Natural History of Dragons

Six Of Crows

Good Omens

Swordspoint