When you accidentally delete the first writing playlist and need to reissue it. Sorry!
50+ songs to get your writing juices flowing!
✩ canon in d johann pachelbel // the riders of rohan howard shore // fantasia on greensleeves ralph vaughan williams // symphony no. 9 in e minor op. 95 “from the new world”: ii. largo antonín dvořák // feast of starlight howard shore // he’s a pirate klaus badelt // welcome to jurassic park john williams // canceling the apocalypse ramin djawadi // psychological recovery … six months hans zimmer // enterprising young men michael giacchino // test drive john powell // davy jones hans zimmer // sandstorm darude // thrice welcome howard shore // battle without honor or humanity tomoyasu hotel // strength of a thousand men two steps from hell // carnival of the animals, zoological fantasy: aquarium camille saint-saëns // hymn to the fallen john williams // captain america henry jackman // mithril howard shore // jupiter, the bringer of jollity gustav holst // crime and punishment senju akira // 528491 hans zimmer // swan lake waltz pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky // lumos (hedwig’s theme) john williams // loud pipes ratatat // run boy run (instrumental) woodkid // danse macabre camille saint-saëns // a window to the past john williams // pacific rim main theme ramin djawadi // i am the doctor murray gold // promontory trevor jones and randy edelman // axe or sword? howard shore // xing symphony senju akira // star trek into darkness: end credits michael giacchino // heart of courage two steps from hell // courtyard apocalypse alexander desplat // 7th symphony 2nd movement ludwig von beethoven // house of cards main title theme jeff beal // the winter soldier henry jackman // jerall mountains jeremy soule // the wings of icarus celldweller // olympic fanfare and theme john williams // irene’s theme (bbc sherlock) michael price // james brown is dead l.a. style // james bond theme monty norman // ride of the valkyries richard wagner // avengers theme alan silvestri // game of thrones theme ramin djawadi // tokyo revisted tomandandy // blackheart two steps from hell // what shall we die for? hans zimmer ✩
General Resources
Academic
Art
Characters
Clothing
Crime
Crime Fighting/Legal
Conworlding
Death
Global
History
I tend to think in too many metaphors. In this case, building a character = baking. Enjoy all the metaphoring from here on in.
Step 1: Where Do They Come From?
Find a general biome that fits what you envision for this culture. If appropriate, make up your own. You want to focus on how plentiful the water is and where it is, what food sources there are, and what natural resources (wood, iron, reeds, etc.) are available. You’ll also want to look into natural structures like caves or cliffs, and common weather phenomenon like hurricanes or droughts.
If you’re writing a premodern culture with few outside influences, you could stop here, since location pretty much gives you everything you could want. The local vegetation and weather patterns will dictate how they build houses. The natural phenomenon will be explained by religion. The availability of water and food/arable soil/animals that could be domesticated will determine if they are nomadic or not. Their natural resources will determine how quickly technology progresses.
They need to know their target. A phlegmatic pawn isn’t going to rush headlong into a trap, but they might be overcautious when they should be pressing ahead. The MB might accomplish this by befriending their pawn, reading their works/watching them constantly, or planting a spy close to the pawn.
Deception, deception, deception. A MB is rarely truthful to anyone about the gambit they are running — in part because the plan relies on secrecy and in part because the target of their gambit isn’t likely to play nice if they knew. To that end, the MB should spend half of their time planning and half deflecting blame away from them. The MB will probably be a master at compartmentalization and lying.
Manipulation. The whole point of the Magnificent Bastard is that they use other people to do their dirty work. The MB has to convince people to do their work to begin with. This means they need to be likable — even sociable — or at least have people on their payroll who have those traits. If befriending someone to accomplish your ends isn’t apparent, use bait. MBs often suggest to the pawn that their path leads to the fulfillment of desires. This serves as bait to obscure the pawn from the MB’s true ends, e.g. Loki satisfied Thor’s need for justice by bringing him to Jotunheim to piss off the Frost Giants, which made Thor an exile and put Loki in line for the throne.
Contingencies. A MB cannot rely on just one plan. Plans often go wrong. A Magnificent Bastard need several plans that will correct any issues that disrupt the main plan. The sacrifice dies? Have their blood relative. You’re infected with the virus? Use yourself as a walking pathological weapon to escape alive. Not all of these plan need to be planned. MBs can often come up with them on the fly, although on the fly plans should be less likely to succeed than premeditated ones.
Luck vs. Skill. You as an author need to tip the scales in favor of skill. No one likes a MB whose success runs entirely on luck. Luck can be involved, but it cannot play a significant role in a victory. That goes double if your MB is the protagonist. Your protagonist(s) must succeed through their own efforts. Villains are allowed to have more luck, especially during the first half of the story, but even a hero duped by a MB should have had something to do with their own downfall. If you absolutely must use luck, make it a side plot or a minor victory, not the climax of the work.
Spanner in the works. So far, it seems like being a Magnificent Bastard is all about capitalizing on people’s flaws and desires, and waiting until they mess up in your favor. IRL, it’s a lot more complicated than that. People, nations, animals, and whatever else the MB is manipulating change. The MB cannot possibly foresee every single interaction or experience their pawns will experience or predict how it will change them. They cannot possibly foresee trillions of tiny details like someone half-filling their tank or choosing to wear a necklace that can disrupt their plan. Ergo, if you’re writing a really realistic MB, I suggest you let them mess up a lot more than many authors allow them to.
Another holiday season has come and passed, and it’s time to thank all the people who inspired me and made valuable posts to fill my tags.
I Look Up to You
elumish ♦︎ fictionwritingtips ♦︎ maxkirin ♦︎ rphelper ♦︎ slitheringink ♦︎ thefictiontree ♦︎ thewritershelpers ♦︎ thewritingcafe ♦︎ writing-questions-answered
You Brighten My Dash
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I Don’t Usually Reblog Stuff From You, But I Follow You and Think You are Gr9
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- Look at this list. Pick out 3-6 adjectives you think especially describe you. All the adjectives are positive. The point of the college essay is to write about what makes you the good kind of special.
- Come up with a few stories you could tell with each adjective. The stories should exemplify why/how you are that adjective. If you’re really good, you can write a story about several adjectives. The story is often personal experience, but you can also discuss your personality or why you are this way in an abstract form.
- Choose the story you think you could write best. If you have that kind of time, you can choose a few stories. Your essay’s only going to be ~650 words.
- Write (Part I)! Remember that the story is supposed to be about you and your good qualities. You can acknowledge your faults and you can talk about other people, but ultimately it must come back to you and your goodness. Try to stay within 150 words under and 100 words over your limit.
- Write (Part II)! Basic structure: title, cool intro sentence, intro paragraph, body paragraph(s), conclusion that links back to the introduction. If you have humor, use it (appropriately). Self-deprecating humor is always appreciated and it makes you look humble. You can fudge your story a little bit, but don’t make the whole thing a lie. Have a strong voice! This marks you as an individual!
- Find a beta reader. The beta reader should be someone who knows you well and isn’t afraid to constructively criticize. That way, they can best advise you on how to play to your strengths. (You can even get a beta at the beginning of this process.) The beta will give you criticism and check over any issues.
- Rewrite. You’re going to need to. No one pops out the perfect essay on their first go.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 as many times as you need to before you and your beta(s) is satisfied. It took me three repeats on my first essay before I completely rewrote it - that took me four repeats.
- Copy and paste. Copy the final document that you and your beta have agreed has no errors and paste it into whatever box the college has provided. Make sure the formatting is OK. Hooray! You’re done!
Some Pointers
- If you’re writing about another person/animal/event, talk more about how they impacted you than how great they were/are.
- Do not write the “I am so unique in this world of shallow Barbie clones!” essay.
- You can write a reflective essay (e.g. I am looking at this globe and that makes me think about how much I want to save the planet) or you can write a fictional story (e.g. If I were a dragon I would burn the wicked with hellfire and that is why I want to be Frollo in Disneyworld) or any other genre except poems and picture books. Personal essays are often easier and therefore more common.
- Dark does not equal deep
- Start writing +3 weeks before your college’s deadline
- If you can, write inductively, not deductively
Update 11/07/14: Hey yeah writers! This is another old post that I thought would be good to bring back. If you were an English major who’s now out working in the world, send us an ask telling us about what you do for a living now, and I’ll add it to this post!
tales-of-creativity asked:
What jobs can you get with an English or communications degree? I’d like these jobs to let me be a bit imaginative/creative. Sorry if this isn’t really writing related. I can’t picture a better job than being a writer, but I know I should have a back up plan.
The whole idea that your major dictates what your profession will be post-grad is like, the biggest sham ever. Grad school, yes, but undergrad? The head of the web development team at my company studied musical theatre in college. My friend who works at Penguin studied theatre and neuroscience. Heck, I work at a tech company and I studied English (though some stuff is relevant to what I do). My point is, you can basically do whatever you want with an English degree—what’s important is what you learn/teach yourself outside of school.
Yes, you get a lot of English majors in publishing, but that’s another sham: Studying English prepares you for working in publishing about as much as it prepares you for working in a cat food factory. Publishing is a business, and I’d bet a business major would go into a publishing job with a lot more knowledge than an English major. The only correlation is that English majors are likely to have a heightened interest in the product. (More on being an English major here.) I think the last couple of paragraphs might be helpful to you.
If you want to know more about my experience of being an English major and getting into the working world (I graduated 2.5 years ago and have an awesome job!), you can read this big ol’ post.
So, I thought I would ask some yeah writers who are former English majors about their current professions, and this is what they’re up to:
callingvoicemail: In response to your post: I graduated a few months ago with a degree in English literature. I started out as a copywriter. Now, I’m being trained to become a brand assistant for a growing local retail brand, and I’m currently handling marketing and communications.(Don’t believe people when they say you won’t go anywhere with an English degree. We turn up everywhere!)
serraltascribbles: English Literature and current role is Operations Coordinator the University’s Alumni Relations Office.
heresto4ever: Majored in Writing Intensive English in college and am now a librarian. (Had to go to grad school though!)
darlenec91: I’m a writing tutor for a local community college and a freelance editor for a healthcare company :)
thevolatilemolotov: Hi! I majored in English at UC Berkeley and I have a job! I work for a non-profit that runs two wikis devoted to political reporting. I’m a researcher and staff writer.
thejejunejesuit: In response to the post about English majors and jobs: After I completed my MFA, I began working as an adjunct professor in two humanities departments.
hisbookgoblin: I am an English major, and I have a job in the communications department of a Fortune 500 company, and I’m up for a job in the training department to create eLearning courses for the company’s employees.
anarttoeverything: I’m a private investigator. I work for a firm based in NYC with offices around the world. I’m not the skulking in alleys and spying on cheating husbands/wives type of PI—it’s so much more complex and nuanced and global and interesting than that. I was hired when I was 23. It’s been 3 years, and I’m still excited to go to work every day—and no one has ever, ever wondered what I—an English major (gasp!)—was doing there. So, English majors: the world is yours!
thebeautyisme: I majored in English as an undergrad. I worked in publishing for a little while and then got my MA in Education. I also write freelance articles and fiction on the side. I HATE when people say you can’t get a job w/ an English degree. Not true. It shows employers that you write well and are a good critical thinker and communicator.
alainawaagner: I graduated with an English degree in 2011 and secured my first job as a marketing assistant at major publisher Macmillan by the end of that year. I’m now a marketing coodinator at HarperCollins, working with books and authors every day.
starvingrobotartist: English major and creative writing minor. I’m now an editor for a literary journal, a freelance editor, and an acquiring editor for a fiction publisher. Took me two years, but I’m in a place where my college education helps me in the job I love.
ariseosleeper: Hey! I majored in English and minored in creative writing in college, and right now I’m doing technical writing (product descriptions and editing content for search engine optimization, etc) for a small online retail company. I also do customer service, too (typing, communication, and grammar skills are a must for online chat help and emails).
lalunetteprismatique: I majored in English for my BA. I’ve been a supplemental instructor and performed other p/t work. But, I’ve finally acquired fulltime employment as an office assistant. I still freelance and will be applying for grad school this fall.
bluewookiee: I didn’t major in English, but my big sis did and she is now a high school English teacher.
siestas: I was an English major at a state university in Florida. I graduated in May and I’m now working for a growing indie fashion magazine in NYC. I’m a marketing assistant. I got my job after working an unpaid internship with the magazine. I also did a six week publishing course at NYU right after graduating, which definitely helped get the internship and the experience to impress my boss so much she wanted to hire me. I also work freelance in blogging/marketing for a start up brand
blackcrowcalling: I have a BA in English Literature, and I am currently teaching at a 1st tier university in Beijing, China.
audioexistentialism: About the English Major jobs post: I currently work as an audio engineer in a recording studio. I graduated last year with a degree in English.
heartofoshun: I am old. Semi-retired, Now do freelance writing and am writing fiction. Most of my working life has involved writing in one form or another, technical editing, copy checking and fact checking on various published books and articles; worked as a journalist on-staff for newspapers and at a wire service, and free lancing. Also worked in law firms, and research and development as a copy checker and technical editor. Most of it was not glamorous, but it paid the bills. Now I write what I want.
sarahthereseshep: Work in the rights department at a book publisher.
vig0rous: Hey! I just graduated in May with a degree in English. I’m now an Editorial Assistant at a publishing company!
floerian: With regard to English Major jobs — I have arguably an even less useful degree, a BFA (Bachelor of F—- All) in Creative Writing. I’m a writer and narrative designer on two video games, and starting my own company to create interactive/transmedia stories and develop my own story world franchise. (In other words, there’s nothing stopping you from achieving your dreams. I’m 24.)
amateurwords: I graduated in 2010 with a degree in English and I am an Associate Producer for a Documentary Company in Boston, Northern Light Productions. I get to do all my favorite things, read, write, research, learn and work with wonderful people.
redthumbletters: In response to the question what English majors have as current professions, I am a TEFL teacher in South Korea at an all girl’s middle school. It’s really great!
blaze029: I have a BA in Political Science and English (Creative Writing) and am now in law school! We do a lot of writing and a major part of a trial lawyer’s job is getting the narrative across. Similarly, many types of lawyers must tell their client’s stories and act as their legal voices. I’ve also been able to help people already in my first year and met lots of interesting people!
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This post will be indexed on our Advice page, under the heading “The Writer’s Life”.
sweet tolkien it’s a country research masterlist provided by the library of congress
Daily activities like going to the bathroom, bathing, eating, and sleeping should only be described when they are significant.
You can see this in practice by how authors treat breathing. Breathing is such a common occurrence that authors only mention it when a character sighs, inhales in surprise, is sleeping for a tender moment, etc. – all things that are not “normal breathing”.
citydata and census.gov are great places to look if you’re writing about an area of the US
If you’re doing NaNo, you’re probably realizing that the details and plots you wanted aren’t translating well on the page. That’s fine. NaNo isn’t the time or place for consistency.
When you come across something you want change, start writing your story as if you had been writing your new idea all along. Leave yourself a small footnote to explain to your future self what you intended from this point on and why you made this change.
Then keep writing!
Forescent instead of foresight. The character can smell into the future: ash where there will be a fire, the first flowers a few weeks before spring, the food they will have next week, the scent of someone important who has yet to come into their life.
If you’re writing a story in New York State, there is a very real and very serious debate about what constitutes Upstate and Downstate New York. This is important because each half despises the other.
Proposed boundaries include: