To Tired Writers. To The People Out There Whose Hearts Very, Very Much Want To Write And Work On WIPs,

So apparently last year the National Park Service in the US dropped an over 1200 page study of LGBTQ American History as part of their Who We Are program which includes studies on African-American history, Latino history, and Indigenous history. 

Like. This is awesome. But also it feels very surreal that maybe one of the most comprehensive examinations of LGBTQ history in America (it covers sports! art! race! historical sites! health! cities!) was just casually done by the parks service. 

Writing Help Masterlist (Part 2 of 2)

this is too much pressure

title???? a TITLE????? is it not enough that i wrote the damn thing IS THAT NOT ENOUGH WORDS WRUNG FROM MY VERY FLESH AND BLOOD

the song lyrics have abandoned me, no number of parantheses and lower cased words can save me from this hell

Emotional Manipulation Starters

Trigger warnings apply. Requested by anon. (Disclaimer: not all of these sentences are manipulative in a different context, and some can be used jokingly as well.)

“If you really cared about me, you’d do what I’m asking.” “Don’t you trust me?” “I wish I never met you, honestly.” “You’re the reason I’m upset.” “It’s all your fault.” “I guess you just don’t love me enough.” “You have to keep it a secret. I’ll find out if you tell anyone.” “Whatever. It’s not like I care.” “I could just leave, you know.” “Do you like them more than me?” “Who have you been talking to?” “I would do anything to make you happy, I just want you to do the same for me.” “You have to tell me. Not telling me is just as bad as lying.” “It would be so easy for me to find someone else.” “If you loved me, you’d tell me.” “It’s like you don’t even care about me.” “One day I’ll be dead and you’ll regret not being there when I needed it.” “Nobody really cares about me, not even you.” “No one will ever love you the way I do.” “If you leave me, I don’t want to even think about what I’ll do.” “I’ll just tell everyone you were abusing me.” “You have to. You owe me.” “I’ve made sacrifices for you, now you have to do the same.” “I’ll never forgive you.” “No, it’s fine. Just do whatever you want, I guess.” “Am I upset? Why, should I be?” “If you don’t come over tonight, I’m going to hurt myself.” “I never said that. You’re trying to confuse me.” “I think you hate me.” “I would do anything for you, so why wouldn’t you do the same?” “If you don’t do this, it’s because you don’t love me.” “You were there for them, but not me?” “Yes, if you love me, you would change for me.” “I’m wasting my time with you.” “Well, I guess I’m just useless, aren’t I?” “I know you didn’t say it, but you were thinking it.” “You hate me. I know you do.” “You can’t convince me I’m not just a burden to you.”

Hi! Your blog is wonderful and is so helpful. I was just wondering if you have any tips on writing dialogue.

I wasn’t sure what you were looking for specifically, so I’ll just supply you with links that I think would help you.

10 Tips for Writing Impactful Dialogue

Dialogue Dos and Don'ts

10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Dialogue

WriteWorld: Dialogue

25 Things You Should Know About Dialogue

I might write up a post in dialogue a bit later (I probably will), but right now the biggest piece of advice I can give you is this: make sure your dialogue is realistic.

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. 

also seriously if a character isn’t white, i promise your only descriptive options aren’t food words and varying degrees of tan. it’s okay to say brown. pale brown! light brown! golden brown! medium brown! dark brown! deep brown! so many kinds of brown!

BROWN BROWN BROWN BROWN BROWN

Okay I'm not sure if you've posted something like this before but how do I go about designing a character that I have the foundation of in my head but nothing else? Where do I start? How do I keep momentum going?

Hmm. I think I have the perfect set of resources for you:

Giving Characters Bad Traits

Having Trouble Connecting To Your Characters?

Writing People Of Color

Writing Children

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Creating Characters

Ways To Fit Character Development Into your Story

Writing Good Villains

Interview As Your Character

31 Days Of Character Development: Wordsnstuff May Writing Challenge

Let me know if it helps, and if there’s still some things you need some extra input on!

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I’d also really appreciate it if you would check out my separate blog dedicated to my current work in progress. I also run writing sprints over on snapchat.

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.

Some idioms and phrases you should know about part I :

Salt of the earth: a very good or worthy person.

Gut-wrenching: making you feel very upset or worried.

Make a spectacle of yourself: to do something that makes you look stupid and attracts people's attention.

Pass muster: be accepted as adequate or satisfactory.

Putty in someone's hands: easily influenced by someone else, excessively willing to do what someone else wishes.

Look before you leap: carefully consider the possible consequences before taking action.

Set the wheels in motion : to do something that will cause a series of actions to start.

Off the books: without being included on official records.

A long Haul: something that takes a lot of time and energy.

An end in itself: a goal that is pursued in it's own right to the exclusion of others.

Night owl: a person who prefers to be awake late at night.

Kick the Bucket: to die.

Alter Ego: a person's secondary or alternative personality immediately or extremely quickly; at once.

Freak of Nature: something or someone that is unusual, rare, or abnormal in some way / To avoid attracting attention to yourself.