Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!

Heads up that this is a very extensive questionnaire and might be daunting to a lot of writers (myself included). That being said, it is also an amazing questionnaire and I will definitely be using it (or at the very least, some of it).

Bookmarking this…

This inspired me to see if Patricia C. Wrede’s Worldbuilding Questions are still online, and not only are they, they’re on the exact same page I saw them on in 1998. Somewhere there’s a binder of the Word doc I made of all of them and the answers I filled in for Baby’s First Fantasy World

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

I couldn't remember the word "doorknob" ten minutes ago.

ok but the onelook thesaurus will save your life, i literally could not live without this website

REBLOG TO SAVE A WRITER'S LIFE

LIFE SAVED

REBLOGGING TO SAVE ANOTHER WRITERS LIFE

I use this every time I sit down to write. It's the best tool in the world and I would be lost without it!

Me in history class: Wow, humanity has been through some fascinating times!  I wonder if I’ll ever live through major historical events!

Me now: NO NO NO NO NO I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE

it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space tr

I imagine this post sees a significant surge in attention every time something New And Horrible happens, but I’d wager a bet that Covid-19 has caused the biggest surge yet.

This existed BEFORE the Coronavirus?

Yes

Last time I reblogged this was 2020. . .I am REALLY tired of living through major historical events

hey im free later if you wanna like get married or merge souls or something

executive dysfunction is telling yourself for two and a half hours that you need to shower bc you smell like your workplace and you absolutely Cannot do Anything Else until you shower, doing Any Other Thing before showering is illegal!!! but you still haven’t for some reason??? you’ve just been sitting on your bed in a towel scrolling tumblr for 2+ hours thinking “I need to shower right now immediately” and growing increasingly frustrated that you are still not clean and you haven’t eaten or done your laundry either

ok actually no I’m reblogging this because a) I am clean now (and I smell amazing, thank you), and b) I had a heckin Realize and I wanted to share it with y’all in the hopes it’ll help someone else with a brain like mine.

I figured something out about myself a long time ago– it’s only just now occurred to me that I was in fact solving a problem caused by executive dysfunction, and I haven’t been implementing this solution lately because my brain went “that’s a relatively new term to me and therefore a Different problem that requires a Different solution”. thanks a lot, brain.

anyway, long long ago, before I knew these fancy schmancy Official words, the problem, as I phrased it to myself, was such: 

sometimes I get Stuck. I was doing something, or on my way to doing something, and then… I just. got stuck.

“Stuck” looks like refreshing my feed or dashboard repeatedly. or it looks like staring at a spot on the wall. or chewing my fingernails. or picking at a stubborn sticker. all the while, my brain drifts through various unrelated topics I wouldn’t be able to recall if asked. sometimes I can get Stuck for hours before realizing I am Stuck. sometimes I get so Stuck that I go to bed that way (feeling especially bad for being unproductive) and I have to just reset everything by sleeping.

one day I asked myself, “why is this happening? why am I stuck, right now, at this moment in time?” the answer, as it turns out, was pretty simple: I was trying to make a decision, and I got distracted. I haven’t moved forward because I haven’t answered that one question or made up my mind.

let me rephrase this in terms of executive dysfunction: many people have expressed that it feels like knowing you need to do a thing but not feeling “ready” to do it. many with ADHD may also be familiar with the feeling of needing things to be “just so” before you embark on a task- you need your setup to look a certain way, or you need to set a timer, or have the right music playing, etc.

when I get Stuck it’s often because I got lost somewhere in that setting-up process, and my brain took the opportunity to nyoom off into Distraction Town.

getting myself Unstuck is solved, 95% of the time, by tracing my steps back to the original decision I was trying to make- often something small and inane- and then troubleshooting from there. (out loud! verbal processing is totally punk.) 

so!!! in the case of my first post, where I hadn’t showered for 2 hours? turns out I had been trying to decide what music to listen to in the shower. (another hack: my chances of getting Stuck while showering decrease by 75% if I have music playing to help me keep track of time.) I couldn’t immediately make up my mind, got lost in thought, got distracted, and drifted. once I stopped and asked- “why am I stuck?”-  then I remembered- “oh yeah! I wanted to listen to music”-  and then decided- “I want to listen to Daft Punk’s Discovery album”- I was finally heckin able to shower. and also eat, and also throw my clothes in the dryer.

and may I add I only zoned out once, during the slow part of “One More Time.” :P

I’m not saying this is a foolproof method. sometimes I don’t have a reason for being stuck, and that’s okay! I’m also not saying this is how every adhd brain works. it’s just how my brain works, and I’m sure there’s at least a few who can relate. for those few, I hope this helps!!

a lot of people are reblogging the original post without the update and leaving frustrated comments and that makes me sad! if I can find ways to hack my brain than so can you! executive dysfunction is a real and frustrating challenge, but don’t buy the lie that there’s no way to work with it or around it!!!

!!!!

reblog if you’re okay with people writing fanfics of your fanfics and/or fanfics inspired by your fanfics

writers are creatures that feed on comments by the way. if you want more of your blorbo from them, give them lovely comments. they love that and will most likely give you more fics about your blorbo

Writer Jargon 101 ✨

To those readers who became writers, we intuitively know what works and what doesn’t, but just in case I’m putting it out here so writing becomes easier!

no but really, like 

i know that some folks love telling creative people that “you should be doing it for fun because you love it not for the compliments” but creative people thrive on feedback whether it’s critical or just complimentary

so when i write fanfiction and don’t get any actual feedback i feel like i spent all that time and energy doing it for nothing because i’m not getting feedback from the people i wrote it for 

doing something you’re proud of and then presenting it to the sound of utter silence is like the worst feeling on earth 

I know the feeling of this.

i like to think: what if you were in a play and you spend all that time learning your lines and your cues and going to rehearsal for hours and hours and being bone tired and then getting up on stage opening night and giving it your all only to be met with silence from the audience at the final curtain call. No one would question why that upset them.

An art instructor in my childhood said something to me I’ve never forgotten - that a work of art isn’t complete until it has been experienced - seen, heard, etc.  That this wasn’t just some abstract concept, but a visceral truth for the artist - that the work wasn’t DONE until the end result had been witnessed, appreciated, critiqued - whatever, it didn’t have to be positive negative knowledgable, it just had to happen as the concluding event, the final brush stroke.

Some folks who don’t get it go about thinking we make art or write fic because we crave praise or attention or fans, or even that some writers/artists thrive on negativity and drama (and to be sure, all of these things are true some times!).  But that’s too narrow an understanding of why we art. I think my art teacher was telling a fundamental truth about the psychology of creativity - that art is a communal experience, that until we share our creative work and see how people respond, we do not have closure on that work.  

Art is communication - and communication shouted into the void is frighteningly isolating. We need our readers our viewers our audience. We need to hear what you think. We need to converse in comments, answer your counter thoughts or thoughtful critique, we need the conversation - that’s what art is :)

Never feel bad for desiring feedback - it’s not some extra frill that exists outside of the creative process. It is a critical part of the creative process - and if you cannot find your audience in one venue, don’t give up.  Keep putting your art out there until your audience finds you :)

Boosting signal

This is true btw

the podcast If Books Could Kill has a really great episode on the original book and its legacy! just a bunch of misogynist evangelical bullshit really

I want to clarify something kind of important because this kinda used to be my field. The concept that people express and feel love in different ways, and that this might lead to misunderstandings, IS something with scientific merit. The idea that there are just five and we know what they are is NOT. The idea that people have a primary love language is NOT.

In science, we have a saying. All models are wrong, but some are useful. That’s how I see the love languages framework. It is inherently flawed, but some of its concepts are useful. Communicate with your partner what makes you feel loved and understand what makes them feel loved. Understand how your partner shows love. There is immense value in that. But don’t over-index on which one of the five you are. That part doesn’t matter.

#love languages#really reblogging for that last comment though#“all models are wrong but some are useful”#the concept is sound but the specifics are uhhhh not (via @mad-madam-m)

Love expressions are real, and varied. Love languages aren't.

Texas gave up that land so they could keep slavery:

“When Texas sought to enter the Union in 1845 as a slave state, federal law in the United States, based on the Missouri Compromise, prohibited slavery north of 36°30' parallel north. Under the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its lands north of 36°30' latitude.”

Tell me more about how critical race theory shouldn’t be taught in school.

I am a grown ass man and I just learned about this 5 minutes ago.  Fuck everything about trying to hide the sins of our past.

Sociology Masters student here with a bachelor's in the field-

Critical race theory is not the learning of American History the way it happened. That's just. . .history. Critical race theory is an incredibly complex subset of conflict theory. It's only taught at the graduate level for, like, law school and only Sociology students learn it in undergrad AT COLLEGE. It discusses at a much deeper level the social and societal implications of structural racism.

Learning about the Missouri Compromise and its broad affects on the shaping of the states and country should be taught as history. It's not actually critical race theory, that's a complex sociological theory. I do agree that we need to learn the REAL history of this country-IE the Civil War was fought because of slavery, natives died gruesome deaths from White Europeans, and much more, but not from the CRT perspective, since that's more complex.