Useful Writing Resources

Coming into a fandom late

Hello! A lot of you have been asking me where and how I’ve learn multiple languages and well, after a few hours of digging through my browser history and bookmarks, I was able to collect all of these resources. I have personally used all of these, so I can assure you they are useful! If there is something wrong with a website or a link, please let me know. Also, if you have any questions or if you want a learning buddy, my ask box is open. (I speak English and Spanish. I’m learning Korean, German, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, and Esperanto)

Note: Learning a new language requires a lot of dedication, more than you actually think! Especially if you’re learning multiple languages at the same time. It isn’t impossible, but it will take time. And by time I mean months and/or years! So please, be patient. Take your time. Don’t rush. Keep in mind that you will mess up and that’s okay. Practice as much as you can. Practice out loud. Talk to yourself if you can. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re crazy. They won’t be thinking the same when you become a polyglot, so don’t mind them. This is for you and your future.

Get started:

Everything listed below is FREE! Some sites do require you to sign up, but that’s for you to keep track of your own process.

Tips to get you started

Language Hacking tips (blog)

More language hacking tips (blog)

The Polyglot Project (Library with foreign books that lets you translate while reading)

How to Learn Any Language

Effective Language Learning

Ankidroid (flashcard maker)

Multiple languages, one website

Duolingo (Latin American Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Ukrainian, and Esperanto)

BBC Languages (40 languages)

Learn A Language (18 languages)

Conjuguemos (French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish)

L-lingo (21 languages)

101languages (167 languages)

Languagepod101 (31 languages)

Foreign Services Institute (44 languages)

My Languages (95 languages)

Surface Languages (43 languages)

Lingualia (Spanish)

Linguanaut (16 languages)

OmniGlot (All languages [basic info for some of them])

Memrise (Various languages) (flashcard system)

Livemocha (Various languages)

Polyglotclub

Sharedtalk

Interpals (specify in your profile you only look for language exchange because there can be some creeps in this one)

Couchsurfing

Babbel

Specific Languages

Korean:

Learn to read Korean in 15 minutes! - Really helpful as well

Learnkoreanlp - Focuses on grammar

k-is4korean

Talktomeinkorean

Learn-korean

korean-flashcards - Focuses on vocabulary

Easytolearnkorean

Korean.go.kr/ - Focuses on pronunciation

Lang-8 - Community to correct your entries

Dongsa - Conjugations for verbs

Howtostudykorean- EXTREMELY helpful when it comes to learning hangul and writing structure!

hangulpractice - This blog has some useful posts.

letstteok-korean

Talktomeinkorea (YouTube channel)

fluentkorean

sweetandtasty

seoulistic - For culture lessons

GenkiKorean

Korean Word Game

English-Korean Vocabulary Quizzes

Hangul Keyboard - This is also EXTREMELY helpful with Hangul/romanization. It also converts any romanized syllables into hangul

Korean - Reddit threat

Chinese/Mandarin:

Hackingchinese

Chinese-tools - Pretty helpful with pronunciation.

Chinese Open courseware

Chinese Language - Reddit threat

Chinese Textbook

Chineasy

Learn Mandarin

Chinese Hacks

yoyochinese

How can I learn Chinese

Why is Chinese so damn hard?

Japanese:

Learn Japanese I / II - YouTube

Guidetojapanese

Free Japanese lesson

Japaneseclass.jp

thejapanesepage

Japanesepod101

Tofugu

Erin’s Challenge!

Jplang

Yesjapan

Marugoto - Includes culture lessons

Kana Invaders - Fun game for learning Kana

Another great masterpost for Japanese - So many resources!!!

Esperanto:

Note: I did a research and supposedly Esperanto is an easy-to-learn language that helps you with other languages.

Esperantofre

Esperanto “library”

Esperanto Grammar

Esperanto (Duolingo)

German:

Learn German Online

German Language Guide

Mission Berlin - Mystery adventure game

Basic German

Deutsch Lernen

Slow German

Kids’ Games - For vocabulary

Italian:

MIT Open Courseware

Italian Language Guide

Italian Grammar

Italian For Beginners - YouTube

Latin:

Some Latin grammar

Latin Course - YouTube

Portuguese:

Oneness

Ta Falado

Portuguese (Duolingo)

French:

Learn French Guide

Coffee Break French

University of Texas: Francais interactif

Podcastfrancaisfacile

French Language Guide

Lingopolo/french

Le Journal en français facile

News in Slow French

Francolab

Cliffs Notes

Native French Speech

French Podcast

Spanish:

Spanish - About.com

@spanishskulduggery

Study Spanish

Cliffs Notes

Destinos

One Minute Spanish

One Minute Spanish (Latin America focused)

Thai:

Learn Thai Podcast

Woman Learn Thai

Let’s Talk Thai

Thai 101

Lingopolo/thai

Arabic:

Books to Learn Arabic

Mandinah Arabic

Arabic Verbs (PDF)

al3arabiya

Arabic Pronouns (PDF)

Arabic Alphabet / Also Here / And Here!

Arabic For Language Exchange

Peace Corps

Hindi:

A Door Into Hindi

Learning Hindi

NYU Hindi Course

Quillpad - Great for typing

Namaste Dosti

SU Hindi Course

ispeakhindi

Hindi Script

Vietnamese:

VietnamesePod101

Survival Phrases

seasite.niu.edu

Learn Vietnamese Online

Greek:

Some Greek Grammar (New Testament)

Romanian:

Rolang

One Minute Romanian

Welsh:

Say Something in Welsh

Welsh Vocab

Dutch:

Lingopolo/dutch

Learn Dutch

Russian:

Speak Russian

Russian Alphabet

Taste of Russian

Master Russian

Russian Open Courseware

Russian Handwriting

Swedish:

Klartext

SwedishLingQ

Survival Phrases

That’s it. That’s all I have right now. I’ll try to search for more and will keep updating this list! If you have a request for a specific language, just send me an ask. Have fun and good luck! 

The Untamed + text post memes | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10

click on image for better quality

mdzs art that will haunt me for the rest of my life:

to the words never spoken

"I've kept them waiting far too long"

pride

the ghost general wen ning

a brothers vow

a sisters heart

would you be proud of who I've become?

You Were Never Really Alone

growth

Lan Wangjis Bloody Back

you are a bit late, aren't you?

core transfer

And The Little Prince Feels Lonely

your brother loves you

"it's perfect, obviously"

Haunted By The Ghost Of You

well I bled blue blood from my back last night

"why didn't you tell me?"

memories

"魏婴，回来吧。"

A Swordsman Without A Sword-Hand

jiang cheng made a reach for wei wuxian

the victory is that I could not stomach it

and you can watch me give

kept apart

"when I couldn't even honor his gift"

What They Sacrificed For Each Other

The Yiling Patriarch Has Died

"jiujiu!"

jiang cheng and suibian

golden core/sandu

all I could give still wasn't enough

dream part one, dream part two

the fallen sun

I saw your meta on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan's relationship - it was fantastic, by the way - and was wondering if you'd read the Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan extras and what you thought about them.

Hi!

I actually didn’t know there were extras on them until you mentioned them…I wish I had known about them before writing my initial response on their relationship. Thank you for your compliment about my meta btw!

Overall, after reading those extras, there’s only a few major tweaks I would make to my thoughts on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan’s relationship. Delving more deeply into Shen Jiu’s perspective was essential to gain a keener sense of just how cynical and self-loathing he is…and just how attached he actually was to Yue Qingyuan until the very end. 

For starters, when it comes to Shen Jiu himself, what’s emphasized throughout his origin story, is that he arguably hates himself most of all. Be it as “Shen Jiu” or as “Shen Qingqiu”, his hatred of both his names is symbolic of his deep-seated self-loathing. He hates his past as Shen Jiu because he was a poor, abused slave. And he hates his present as Shen Qingqiu because he wound up inheriting both a name that’s the same as the family who caused him so much pain AND a disposition that’s similar to Qiu Jianluo’s, the man he hated most. 

Shen Jiu’s experiences made him see everything through jade-coloured glasses. The few occasions he tried to do something positive, he always wound up suffering. He tried to help Yue Qingyuan save Shi Wu, but only got betrayed and captured. He put all his hopes into being rescued by Qi-Ge to the point of enduring abuse for years, but that came too late and with no explanation. And here’s where we get to the part from the extra that changes a bit what was presented in the main story. Initially, from what was shown to Shen Yuan, Shen Jiu’s attachment to Yue Qingyuan seemed severed after he burned down the Qiu household and left with Wu Yanzi. But we see that’s not true here. Shen Jiu obviously still cared for Yue Qingyuan and tried to think of excuses for him not being able to save him until the latter’s inability to communicate honestly when they met again made him think that he was simply abandoned. 

Keep reading

ok i’m backwards sometimes and tend to read fanfic before consuming the source media but i finally read mdzs so i can make this post now

so. i’ve seen some canon divergence fics where the ambush at qiongqi path does Not go as planned in several ways - wwx avoids it entirely, wwx manages to stop wen ning before he gets to jin zixuan, wwx takes the hit for jzx and gets hurt himself… anyway it’s all good but i would like. to propose another option, this time optimized for Sheer Chaos

the ambush starts the same as canon; there’s archers, there’s jzx showing up fashionably late and with 0 idea what’s happening, there’s wwx and wn absolutely losing it

wen ning attacks jzx.  wwx notices this in time, pulls jzx out of the way, gets hurt instead.  listen i KNOW this is done before.  wait for it

IMMEDIATELY after this happens, jzx gets hit by a stray arrow or two, aimed at where wwx was just standing

it’s not, like, an immediately fatal wound, but it’s serious enough

wei wuxian is currently hyped up on adrenaline and paranoia, and also losing blood fairly quickly

he sees jin zixuan, unconscious or close to it, with an arrow stuck in, idk, his chest or something, and the conclusion he jumps to is “oh, they want him dead too”

“i can’t let shijie become a widow”

so he grabs jzx, and wen ning grabs him, and they all go Straight Back To The Burial Mounds

wwx passes out before they get home, so wen qing is greeted by the sight of her brother, obviously upset, holding two (2) unconscious bleeding cultivators, one of which is The Actual Heir To The Lanling Jin Sect

wen qing: “i don’t get paid enough for this”

Keep reading

saw a fic the other day where Yanli was like "my husband's half-brother is creepy and horrible and I'm never letting him hold my baby" and I was just like ??????? umm ding dong you're wrong ???? like she wouldn't see this bundle of deeply familiar traits and traumas and just go "I'm going to take care of that small tired man whether he likes it or not :) :) :)"

story outlining methods, pt. 1:

take off your pants!! (“take off your pants!: outline your books for faster, better writing” by libbie hawker)

this outline starts with a character — specifically their biggest flaw — and leads to five points that will make up the core of your story. it’s best for plots and subplots that focus on overcoming the flaw!

this outline doesn’t just have to be used for coming of age novels. it is just as important in your dystopian, fantasy, or thriller novels that the main character learns something or has changed by the end.

STEP ONE: think about your character

your main character — what is their name, and what are their important features?

what are your character’s flaws? what about their FATAL flaw? ex: hubris, overconfidence, stubbornness, etc.

STEP TWO: think about the end of the story

the story (whether the main plot, a subplot, or a facet of the main plot) is the journey lead to overcome the flaw. now that you know the character’s flaw, you know what lesson they need to learn.

the end of the story = the flaw mastered, the lesson learned.

STEP THREE: think about the external goal

the external goal is the plot, the outer motivation to push the character to the end of the story where the goal is mastered. if you remember my post on quests, you know that a quest has two reasons to be there: the external factor (shrek saving fiona for his swamp), and the real reason (the lesson learned)

the external goal should provide a chance for the character to recognize their flaw and begin to change. how does your plot tie into their character development?

STEP FOUR: think about the antagonist

thinking about the external goal should reveal who the antagonist is. the antagonist should want to achieve the same goal or a goal that impedes with the protagonist’s goal. the antagonist should be the biggest obstacle to the character.

STEP FIVE: think about the ally/allies

the character(s) that is capable of forcing the protagonist down the correct path. where your protagonist most likely will resist changing and confronting their flaw, the ally will help force them to do so anyway.

STEP SIX: think about the theme

so what’s the point of your book? if you are struggling to boil it down to one sentence, you might want to think about it a little longer. this is what keeps the story feeling coherent. what are you trying to tell us?

STEP SEVEN: think about the plot

each main plot element should somehow relate to the core of the book, aka the character’s development in overcoming their flaw

OPENING SCENE - set the stage. address the flaw or the theme

INCITING EVENT - what forces the character out of their everyday life and into the story?

REALIZING EXTERNAL GOAL - what makes the character begin seeking their goal?

DISPLAY OF FLAW - if the character’s flaw hasn’t been made blatantly clear, now is the time. make it known to the reader.

DRIVE FOR GOAL - what is your character’s first attempt to reach their goal?

ANTAGONIST REVEAL - how do you first show your antagonist’s opposition to your character?

FIRST THWART - what happens to your character that keeps them from reaching their goal?

REVISIT FLAW - show the character’s flaw again, even if they themselves aren’t aware of it yet.

ANTAGONIST ATTACKS - what does the antagonist do that makes things worse?

SECOND THWART - where your character fails most likely due to the attack

CHANGED GOAL - the character finds a new goal or focuses on the external goal in a different way

ALLY ATTACKS - what does the ally do to force the character to see the flaw?

AWAKENING - the character knows what they must do to reach the external goal. how will you show that the character has also awakened to their flaw? how will you show them changing?

BATTLE - the final showdown with the antagonist!

DEATH - the character’s flaw dies here. how will you show that the character truly is different now?

OUTCOME - show whether the character won or lost the external goal, reveal the theme of the story.

naturally, you don’t have to follow that outline exactly, but it can be a good place to start ;)