I’m Right And I Should Say It

41 Emotions as Expressed through Body Language

Found Here x

41 Emotions as Expressed through Body Language unique  This list, while exhausting, is soooo not exhaustive; it barely scratches the surface. And each entry could easily become cliché (if it isn’t already). But, it should be enough to get you started. Want more? Start watching people (not in a creepy way), and take notes of what they seem to do when expressing different emotions. Your repertoire of expression will double in no time. PS—do not use these for actual, real-life body language reading; you will fail. These are strictly novelistic.

Tense Change

I have a tendency to switch between tenses because I write some present-tense stories and I wonder if you have any tips to combat that. - srngdrgn

The first bit of advice I have for you is to focus more on writing now and then worry about your tense use in the revising stage. When re-reading your work, use a highlighter to mark all the places in which you strayed for your desired tense. Then you have visual representation of how much you need to re-work (which isn’t usually that difficult to do) and you may find yourself adding extra plot devices in.

How to Avoid Tense Change in Fiction Writing [there’s advice from Stephen King in here]

How to Avoid Tense Switches

I think the best thing for you to do is be aware while you’re writing. It’s not a huge deal if you mix up tenses so long as you’re prepared to go back and fix it in the editing and revising stages.

The word frequency counter allows you to count the frequency usage of each word in your prose. Also try the Phrase Frequency Counter 

Dear writers

You’re not a bad person for:

Saying no to requests that make you uncomfortable/you get no inspiration for

Taking a small break every now and then

Changing up your writing style to better suit you

Not posting as often or posting more than other writers

I can’t be the only one that needs a reminder of these things sometimes.

The Five Stages of Decomposition

Found a little summary of human decomposition primarily used for writing, but an interesting read for everyone else. 

Following death, the human body progresses through five basic stages of decomposition. The duration and degree of each stage is largely influenced by the environment (temperature, humidity, etc.), body mass, any wrappings or coverings of the body, and obviously scavenging or other post-mortem disturbances. Additionally, submerged or buried bodies will decompose much differently than bodies left on the ground. This is what I will be referring to below. Here are the general descriptions of the five stages of decomposition:

Fresh

The fresh stage begins immediately after death when the circulatory system (heart beating/pumping blood) stops functioning. It is during this stage that the blood will settle with gravity creating a condition known as lividity. After several hours the muscles will also begin to stiffen in a process known as rigor mortis.  The body temperature will also begin to acclimate to the environment.  Cells will begin to break down and release enzymes during a process called autolysis which can cause blisters on the skin. The anaerobic organisms in the digestive tract will begin to multiply, producing acids and gases (the source of the bad odors). This process is often referred to as putrefaction.

Bloat

As the name implies, the gases being produced during putrefaction begin to build and will give the body a distended appearance. Gases and fluid will eventually escape through the natural orifices as the pressure builds.  As the gastrointestinal bacteria multiply and can lead to conditions like marbling which is a discoloration pattern seen in the skin. You may also see green discoloration in the abdomen areas and eventually a darkening (blackish) coloring of the skin overall as the process advances. Interestingly enough; I remember one time I was giving a lecture on forensic entomology at a college campus and after the lecture a serious looking young black student approached me. She asked me why I only showed pictures of black victims in my presentation. I was a bit taken back and briefly confused as I ran through a mental recap of the cases I presented. I finally told her that all of the victims were in fact white (Caucasian) in life but due to this process their skin darkened. It was an eye-opening experience and I made sure to describe this process more effectively when lecturing the public.

Active Decay

During his phase the body begins to lose much of it’s fluids and mass (tissue) through purge and insect and/or vertebrate scavenging (coyote, fox, lion, etc). During this phase you may see very large maggot masses and notice a considerable increase in foul odors.

Advanced Decay

This phase is the end of the active decay process. Temperatures can either speed up (heat) or slow down (cold) how quickly a body reaches this phase. The body has very little body mass and soil staining of the surrounding soils is still evident. This soil staining (from body fluids) may actually kill some of the surrounding vegetation temporarily. Maggots will migrate away from the body to pupate and flies will cease laying eggs.

Dry/Skeletal

This phase is the last measurable stage of decomposition. The timing of this stage varies widely by environment. For example, a body in Florida in July (hot/humid) may reach this stage in a week while in the Winter in the Rocky Mountains (cold/arid) it might take months. If there is any skin left it will be leather-like and very tough. Mostly the body is reduced to bones and connective tissue. There is no biomass available for diverse insect colonization. Some beetles and adventitious insects may colonize a body for shelter or feeding on other insects and connective tissue. Over time the bones may “bleach” (turn white) with exposure to sunlight and eventually will begin to exhibit cracks after several years. These weathering cracks are distinctive and would not be confused with a fresh break (injury) unless by an inexperienced analyst.

Smut Thesaurus [18+/NSFW]

By request of the discord! Here’s the smut thesaurus I’ve been building to help me write. It’s even longer now because I included some extra words from The Ultimate Guide to Writing Smut Fic by  QuinnAnderson on AO3. 

How many words are there for “penis” and “thrust” (that aren’t completely cringey)? Here are all the ones I’ve gathered so far 😂

It’s going under the read-more cut because it’s over 1,000 words in bullet-point form so it is loooong. 

EDIT: Here are some additional pointers!

Keep reading

13?????????????

13. What is the best writing advice?

I think there are two extremely important pieces of advice for writing: one I learned from my creative writing professor at college, and the other I learned from Stephen King in his novel On Writing.

> From my creative writing professor: Keep a journal and don’t think about what you’re putting in it. Just create. Doodle, scribble, quote, write things down people sitting beside you say, etc. Do this for a few weeks and then look through it again. I guarantee you’ll find something interesting in there for inspiration. Or it will just encourage writing/creating every day.

> From Stephen King: You’ll never been a good writer if you don’t read. Read a lot. Read novels, short stories, whatever; but make sure you’re reading while you’re writing or you’re going to fail.

Both of these are very obviously paraphrased! But that’s the gist of them. I think they’re super, super important.

send me writer asks!

a list of soft, pretty words 🕊💐

astral (adj.) of, connected with, or resembling the stars. paradisaic (adj.) of or belonging to heaven or god. empyrean (adj.) belonging to or deriving from heaven. seraphic (adj.) characteristic of or resembling an angel. sublime (adj.) of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe. svelte (adj.) slender, graceful and elegant. (describing a person)

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

Not all character development is positive. Characters can, and in my opinion, should, develop both negative and positive traits throughout the course of their story. As the story goes, they shouldn’t be perfected, they’re people, not artpieces, and so there shouldn’t be a stage where they’ve improved/changed exclusively for the better, to the point where they have no negative traits at all.