Let's get writing!

The etymology for Mbabaram “dog” has been reconstructed back to Proto-Pama-Nyungan, which was spoken “as recently as about 5,000 years ago”:

From *dwog(a) < *udwoga < *gudwaga < Proto-Pama-Nyungan *gudaga. Related to Dyirbal guda, Yidiny gudaga.

While the etymology for English “dog” has been reconstructed confidently only back to Olde English, which was spoken from about the 5th to the 12th centuries:

There’s other instances of people randomly punching slaves that they didn’t even know because they got in their way or something. This was just normal behavior.

And slaves didn’t rebel en masse because if even one slave committed an act of violent rebellion it was common practice to kill every slave and former slave in the household.

People only took notice for posterity when these mass executions got into the hundreds of people. One of the few recorded for the history books is of over 400 people being killed because one guy stabbed his enslaver.

While no one member ventured to controvert the opinion of Cassius, he was answered by a din of voices, expressing pity for the numbers, the age, or the sex of the victims, and for the undoubted innocence of the majority. In spite of all, the party advocating execution prevailed; but the decision could not be complied with, as a dense crowd gathered and threatened to resort to stones and firebrands. The Caesar then reprimanded the populace by edict, and lined the whole length of road, by which the condemned were being marched to punishment, with detachments of soldiers.

How many siblings does your character have?

Where does your character fall in the birth order?

What is the age gap between each sibling?

Are they full siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings, or adopted?

Do they all live together? If not, why?

Who does your character connect with the most?

Were they raised together from early childhood, or brought together later?

What is your character’s earliest memory involving a sibling?

How did they feel when each sibling was born or arrived? (excited, jealous, confused, or indifferent?)

Who did they bond with first growing up?

Were they compared to a sibling often as a child?

Who took the role or a mentor?

Who got into trouble first, and who got blamed?

Who does your character struggles with the most?

Is the affection between siblings openly shown or mostly unspoken?

Do they trust their siblings with secrets?

Who do they go to when in a crisis?

Is there love mixed with resentment?

Do they feel responsible for any sibling’s happiness or safety?

Which traits do the siblings share?

Which traits clash the most?

Who is more responsible? More reckless?

Who is more emotionally expressive?

Which ones are complete opposites? Do they fight over it?

Does the character define themselves by not being like a sibling?

Do others mistake siblings for each other in behavior or reputation?

What “role” does each sibling play? (protector, peacemaker, rebel, golden child, outsider….)

Was this role chosen or forced onto them?

Who parents the others when the adults fail?

Who gets away with the most?

Who is expected to succeed?

Who is underestimated?

Who usually “wins” arguments?

Has your character ever taken punishment for a sibling?

Who steps in when things go too far?

Would your character lie to protect a sibling?

Have the siblings ever failed to protect one another?

Do they believe family should always come first?

How do the siblings usually hang out together?

I was trained in the dark arts of the cover letter by my mother, who is a hiring manager. And her training has paid off: I've been consistently told my cover letters are excellent. Let me pass on the wisdom.

The job of a cover letter is to give a prospective employer strictly more information than is on the resume. This is where you take the resume contents and put them into context. You look at the job requirements (you are looking at the job requirements before applying, right?) and look at your resume and ask the question (in your head) "why would a person think this candidate would be good for this job?" and your cover letter is the answer to that question. If you don't answer that question, the hiring manager is going to have to do it themselves, and you have way more information to work with than they do.

This is especially important if you're moving from one industry to another, because then the relevant connections aren't obvious. It's also very important if you're overqualified, because then you can use the letter to say "I know it looks like this job would be too entry-level for me, but I'm interested to pursue it for reasons x, y, and z". You can also use this space to explain away something that might otherwise be disqualifying, like job-hopping or a long break in employment. The tone to strike here is always matter-of-fact and constrained to topic - don't go into detail about health stuff or personal tragedy, just tell them what they need to hear: that this period of your resume was affected by [bad thing] but that it's now in the past and you're looking forward to the next chapter. Remember, one of the things they're trying to learn is whether you'd be content in this role, or whether you'd be miserable and leave after 2 months, which would force them to do all the work of hiring again. You're trying to establish that you will fit right in and not cause problems. Knowing what drew you to this job in particular (and don't just say 'money', that's true for everyone) helps with that.

No. Just NO.

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy

happy writing!

**no need to credit the list if it helps you with writing. but reblogging/sharing it with your writer friends is definitely appreciated!

** because of the massive size of the list, it will crash horribly. idk if it's any bettter on the sheets forms, but i wanted to include it just in case its easier.

***I placed the GSheets Forms into separate categories for easy picking!

Been seeing some posts circulating about popular websites/apps and wanted to make my own version. These are apps I’m way too addicted to. Am I missing any?

Edit: Sorry for all the time I’ve taken away from your life.

Love Nikki- my favorite dress-up game

CharacterHub- make beautiful wikis for your characters and art

Date My Music by the Shelf app- find out how dateable you are based on your Spotify

Hangout.fm- music with your friends, ultimate music discovery engine

Ellipsus- because f*ck google docs

Hinge Cheater - check if your boyfriend is still on Hinge

Shroomy - Therapy but from a talking mushroom

Party In My Dorm - college simulation game!

Terrarium - build the ultimate garden empire

Rise - really helpful self-care sleep routine

Breathwrk - this app will help you get rid of social anxiety

Phone Case DIY - design your phone case

Idle Human - build a human from scratch. for reals.

Pocket Styler - build a dream closet you want

Stadium Live - sports, games, and friends - all in one

Dragon Mania Legends - breed the cutest dragons

Sweatcoin - you can literally walk and get paid

BitLife - a life simulator

Fabulous - best daily routine planner

"Published (number of works on ao3) written works spanning (lowest word count) to (highest word count) to a nonprofit international digital archive dedicated to preserving and maintaining society's reactions, impressions, and culture regarding various forms of fictional media."

You can also simplify it to "Creative Writer - Archive (dates) and then put "Wrote for a nonprofit digital archive as a volunteer."

Plus, if you have a lot of hits or kudos on your works, you can say, "I reached (number of hits) people and (number of kudos) of those people signified to the Archive that my work resonated with them."

Because, technically, we are all volunteering our time and donating our writing to AO3's cause of preserving the fandoms and the culture around them. And people do sometimes just call it "Archive". So nothing I just said was a lie.

Me: Hey, I’m really struggling to find a job and a part of it is my resume. I was depressed & psychotic during highschool so I didn’t do anything to gain skills or achievements to put on my resume. I also don’t have anyone to put as a reference. What can I do?

Them: You can add your skills, hobbies, clubs you’re in, and different volunteer work you’ve done! You can also get your teacher as a reference.

Me: I already know what to put on a resume, my issue is that I don’t have things that I can use. Also, I’m in my mid 20s so I don’t know if I can put my highschool teacher as a reference.

Them: Well if you’re a part of a church or an activity group, you could add that. Also, think of any projects you’ve worked on in the past.

Me: I already know you can put these things on a resume. I’m not looking for suggests of things I’ve already done, I’m looking for what I can do now if I haven’t done anything.

Them: There’s no way you didn’t do anything during highschool?? What about some odd jobs you definitely did for extra money, like babysitting or mowing the lawn?

Me: I spent all of highschool either in modified classes or in bed doing nothing - not even hobbies, what about that do you not understand?

And then you talk to someone who’s also disabled and they’re like “Here’s a bunch of jobs you can do from home that don’t pay much but look good on a resume, here’s some free online courses that also look good on a resume, here’s how you can be making small amounts of money in the meantime, here’s some things you can put besides a professional reference, and here are your rights if your future employer tries to take advantage of your disability - which you probably shouldn’t tell them about unless you need accommodations.”

Freelance Jobs You Do From Home That Look Cool On A Future Resume

Please research any company before sign up with then. So many companies are scams and pay you way less than you deserve for your work. Go to r/freelancers and search to make sure nobody has had some horrid experiences. There’s also usually reviews of a company on YouTube as well.

Transcribing - adding subtitles to videos for deaf and other hard of hearing people. You usually read a big instruction manual, do two or three tests to see how well you can follow the instruction manual, and then get an e-mail if you can work with them or not. Depending on where you sign up, you can also fill out which topics you’re knowledable on and less likely to make mistakes on when transcribing.

Translating - same as transcribing, but now you’re translating one language into another. I have not done this before, so I’d suggest talking to people who have.

Article Writing - there are different websites you can sign up to work for where someone sends in a request for an article about a certain topic, you can write that article, and if they like it they can purchase it from you. Some websites have a ranking system where the more good reviews your article gets, the more money you’ll get paid.

Article Editing - you can also get payed to fix typos and reorganize an article (or list) if writing isn’t your thing.

Top 10 Lists - There are different sites that will pay you to write 10 ten lists. They usually require a specific amount of words and have an author’s guide on their site.

Graphic Designer - if you go to different generic freelance websites, you can often find people who are searching for someone to design logos for their company or banners for their websites. It helps if you have a portfolio as well.

Virtual Assistent - scheduling appointments, answering calls, and managing email accounts from your own home. I haven’t done this one so again, do more research.

Small Amounts Of Money

Qmee - I’ve been using this app for awhile called qmee where you do surveys for money. Surveys usually pay anywhere in between 30 cents and 2 dollars, and they have a feature where if the survey asks you anything sketchy then you can report them. You can also cash out whenever, like you don’t have to build up a certain amount. (If you aren’t American, you may only get a couple surveys per day.) An extra 20 dollars a month isn’t much but it’s nice.

Fiverr - A website where you state your talents and you can take on other people’s smaller projects for small amounts of money. A funny example is this YouTube skit where someone paid some people on fiverr to come up with a break-up letter. I believe you can also keep a portfolio for any projects you make during your freelance jobs on fiverr too.

Redbubble - this is where you can put different designs onto different types of clothing, notebooks, mugs, hats, etc. It helps if you have a design that’s from a fandom, references a meme, or fufills a niche. You can also go to TeeSpring if you want to put multiple designs on one item, but you’d have to promote your items yourself as TeeSpring has this issue where you can’t search for new stores who aren’t already popular.

Test Products - once again, please research any company you’re going to do this for. There are companies that will send you products for a week or two and ask for a report on how well it works, what you like/dislike, etc.

If You Don’t Have Anyone To Put On Your Resume As References

Volunteer Somewhere - animal shelters, tutoring, soup kitchens, summer programs, public libraries, etc. If you’re able to volunteer somewhere, you can ask the people there if you can use them as a reference.

Volunteer Online - you can also do online volunteer work if you’re unable to do physical volunteer work. Here’s a list of examples of online volunteer work which includes things like creating a large amount of thank-you cards, transcribing books into digital form, or answer texts or calls on a crisis line. This may be a better option due to covid.

Add Personal References - friends and family members do work (just don’t list them as professional references). It’s especially helpful if you’ve done a project for/with them as well.

Or don’t add references at all - references look good on a resume, but unless you’re writing a federal resume you kind of don’t need them? If someone is interested in hiring you, they may ask if you have any references. You can just say “no, this is my first job” (if it is). They might ask why you haven’t worked before, but you can just say that it’s personal or private information. Or you can give a vague answer like dealing with family matters.

Once you have some, this is how you would format your references.

Other tips for cheaper books is checking amazon and scrolling down to the “buy used” or “other sellers” section and then checking to see if those sellers have storerfonts off of amazon.

There is also a good chance that you might have a local, indie book store that likely also has a used book section! Indiebound might help you find those book stores!

Also, check out your local library, sometimes, they have a for sale section or might have certain times of the year where they do massive used book (dvd, cd, etc) sales to fundraise!

It’s tempting to follow the latest genre craze or try to mimic a viral writing style for the engagement, but chasing trends rarely leads to authentic storytelling.

Readers can feel it when a story is crafted to fit a mold rather than from genuine passion.

Instead, write the stories that excite you. The ideas that keep you awake at night, the characters you can’t stop thinking about, the worlds you wish existed. When you write what you love, your enthusiasm shines through. It makes your voice distinct, your characters real, and your story memorable.

Trends come and go, but authenticity lasts.

The story that only you could tell is always worth telling. Forget what’s popular right now.

Write for yourself, and the readers who need your story will find it.