Writer’s Rambles

You as the author know where the story takes a breath and starts gearing up for the next arc, but the readers don’t.  So leave a little “this is a good place to stop and come back for more later”.

It will also get you 1 of 3 types of comments:

1. (appreciation) thank you so much it’s 4am and i have work

2. (sass) yeah sure right *clicks next chapter*

* I might use it in a story someday.

Whereas a poetic "form" defines the way a poem arranges sounds, rhythms, or its appearance on the page, a poetic "genre" is something like the poem's style. Many poetic genres have a long history, and new poems almost always seek to explore a new aspect of the traditional style and thus to redefine the genre in some way. The following list is a selection of the major genres of poetry.

allegory A narrative with two levels of meaning, one stated and one unstated.

aubade A song or poem greeting the sunrise, traditionally a lover's lament that the night's passion must come to an end.

ballad Broadly speaking, the ballad is a genre of folk poetry, usually an orally transmitted narrative song. The term "ballad" applies to several other kinds of poetry, including the English ballad stanza, which is a form often associated with the genre.

blason A Renaissance genre characterized by a short catalogue-style description, often of the female body.

cento A poem composed entirely of lines from other poems.

dirge A funeral song.

dramatic monologue This might be called a "closet soliloquy": a long poem spoken by a character who often unwittingly reveals his or her hidden desires and actions over the course of the poem. The "I" of the dramatic monologue is very distinct from the "I" of the poet's persona. Robert Browning was a master of this genre.

eclogue A short pastoral poem; Virgil's eclogues are one of the first examples of this genre.

ekphrasis Originally a description of any kind, "ekphrasis" is now almost exclusively applied to the poetic description of a work of art.

elegy This genre can be difficult to define, as there are specific types of elegiac poem as well as a general elegiac mood, but almost all elegies mourn, and seek consolation for, a loss of some kind: the most common form of elegy is a lyric commemorating the death of a loved one. Greek elegiac meter, which is one source of what we know as the elegy today, is not normally associated with loss and mourning.

epic A long narrative poem that catalogues and celebrates heroic or historic deeds and events, usually focusing on a single heroic individual.

epigram A brief and pithy aphoristic observation, often satirical.

epitaph A tombstone inscription. Several famous poems end with the poet writing his own. (See, for example, Thomas Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" or W.B. Yeats's "Under Ben Bulben.")

epithalamion A song or poem that celebrates a wedding.

fable A brief tale about talking animals or objects, usually having a moral or pedagogical point, which is sometimes explicitly stated at the end. Aesop and la Fontaine are perhaps the most famous fable-writers.

georgic The agricultural cousin of pastoral, a georgic is a poem that celebrates rustic labor.

hymn A song of praise.

invective A personal, often abusive, denunciation.

lament An expression of grief.

light verse Poetry that is mostly for fun: this can mean anything from nonsense verse to folk songs, but typically there is a comical element to light verse.

lyric This genre encompasses a large portion of the world's poetry; in general, lyrics are fairly brief poems that emphasize musical qualities.

masque Courtly drama characterized by elaborate costumes and dances, as well as audience participation.

occasional verse Poetry written with reference to a particular event.

ode A long, serious meditation on an elevated subject, an ode can take one of three forms.

paean A song of joy or triumph.

palinode A recantation or retraction, usually of an earlier poem.

panegyric Poem or song in praise of a particular individual or object.

parody A comic imitation.

pastoral Originally a poem that depicted an idealized singing competition between shepherds, "pastoral" has come to denote almost anything to do with a rural setting, although it also refers to several specific categories of the genre. Associated genres of varying synonymity are idyll, bucolic, eclogue, and georgic.

psalm A sacred song.

riddle A puzzling question that relies on allegory or wordplay for its answer. Riddles are often short, and often include an answer to the question posed, albeit an unsatisfying one. The riddle of the Sphinx, which Oedipus solved, is a particularly famous example: "what walks on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and three in the afternoon?"

romance An adventure tale, usually set in a mythical or remote locale. Verse forms of the romance include the  Spanish ballad and  medieval or chivalric romance.

satire Ridicule of some kind, usually passing moral judgment.

tragedy This genre originated in ancient Greek verse drama and received extended treatment in Aristotle's Poetics, which made the downfall of the main character one of the criteria for tragedy. The genre has since expanded to include almost anything pertaining to a downfall.

verse epistle A letter written in verse, usually taking as its subject either a philosophical or a romantic question.

If these writing notes helped with your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

The most obnoxious thing my writing teacher taught me every story needed, that I absolutely loathed studying in the moment and that only later, after months of resisting and fighting realized she was right, was something called the causal chain.

Simply put, the causal chain is the linked cause-and-effect that must logically connect every event, reaction, and beat that takes place in your story to the ones before and after.

The Causal Chain is exhausting to go through. It is infuriating when someone points out that an event or a character beat comes out of nowhere, unmoored from events around it.

It is profoundly necessary to learn and include because a cause-and-effect chain is what allows readers to follow your story logically which means they can start anticipating what happens next, which is what is required for a writer to be able to build suspense and cognitively engage the audience, to surprise them, and to not infuriate them with random coincidences that hurt or help the characters in order to clumsily advance the author's goals.

1) it's not

2) it's going

a zookeeper

a librarian

a solo traveler/Chinese voice actor

an IT specialist/mechanic

me, a criminal attorney/group-designated Final Girl

She really couldn't figure out how we all knew each other, because we're such a random assortment of people. Which is fair!

guy who disappears into the woods every weekend

teacher

they/them (correct)

gamer/car guy

plant and animals person

Fics I want to write

Fics I want to read

There is just One Scene and I could write it but it would be waaaay more cool if I had all the build up to the scene but unfortunately. I can only figure out the Scene

I keep changing my mind. Where am I going with this

This has been done a million times before. But. Hear me out

I will 100% Never Write This. This is just my Emotional Support Idea no one can ever know about bc it makes sense only to me

Would be better as a comic...

This will be my magnum opus if I can just get my 50 pages of ideas into a coherent narrative

All I have are vibes

And, of course

concepts to help with your story/poem

All-or-nothing Thinking - In cognitive psychotherapy, a common thought distortion in which the individual irrationally evaluates everything as either wonderful or terrible, with no middle ground or “gray area”

Burnout - A state of exhaustion that relates to engaging continually in emotionally demanding work

Congruence - In humanistic psychotherapy, consistency between the real self and the ideal self; the source of mental health

Dodo Bird Verdict - A nickname for the common research finding that different forms of psychotherapy are roughly equally effective; derived from the line in Alice in Wonderland, “Everybody has won and all must have prizes”

Exception Questions - In solution-focused family therapy, a technique whereby therapists ask families to recall situations when the problem was absent or less severe

Fluid Intelligence - The ability to reason when faced with novel problems

Introspection - The process of looking inside the mind for evidence of mental processes or therapeutic change, rejected by behaviorists for its lack of objectivity

Microaggressions - Comments or actions made in a crosscultural context that convey prejudicial, negative, or stereotypical beliefs and may suggest dominance or superiority of one group over another

Negative Punishment - A form of punishment in which the individual “loses something good”

Negative Reinforcement - A form of reinforcement in which the individual “loses something bad”

Neurosis - Along with psychosis, one of the two broad categories of mental illness used in Europe in the 1800s; refers to disorders such as anxiety and depression in which the individual maintains an intact grasp on reality

Overpathologizing - Viewing as abnormal that which is actually normal; can be reduced by increasing cultural competence

Positive Punishment - A form of punishment in which the individual “gets something bad”

Positive Reinforcement - A form of reinforcement in which the individual “gets something good”

Social Support - Relationships with others who can provide support in a time of crisis and who can share in good fortune as well

Source: Clinical Psychology: Science, Practice, and Diversity (5th Edition) by Andrew M. Pomerantz

to include in your next poem/story

Apathēs - Literally, “without suffering.” Concept frequently applied to God or the gods, who, being immutable, do not experience emotions, particularly anger.

Asebeia - “Impiety”; show of disrespect to religious images or rituals. Punishable by death in Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries C.E.

Daimōn - Greek word for god, sometimes synonymous with theos, at other times indicating lower divinities, or intermediaries between gods and mortals. Can be benign or malicious; note Christian treatment of daimōn as an evil being—whence “demon.”

Demiourgos - Plato’s term for the creator who first designed the cosmos according to the forms, then created a physical world that accords with the design.

Eleusinian Mysteries - Yearly ritual in honor of Demeter and Persephone. The ceremonies, involving initiation into the cult of the goddesses, were regarded as mysteries, and were supposed to be kept secret on pain of a charge of impiety.

Epistēmē - “Knowledge”; for Plato the objects of epistēmē were the ideas/ forms; the sensible world was not knowable in the true sense, as it was constantly changing.

Golden Age - Motif of an age at beginning of time when humans lived a life of ease and bliss.

Katabasis - Literally, “a going down, descent”; motif of the descent of a living hero into Hades.

Mimēsis - “Imitation, representation.” Process used in art and literature of rendering a subject as lifelike as possible.

Psychē - Greek for “soul.” In Homer psyche refers to the shades of the dead in Hades. In Greek philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus, psyche refers to soul of living person. Encompasses both mental and emotional aspects of the human makeup; often identified with the self.

From "The Anatomy of Myth: The Art of Interpretation from the Presocratics to the Church Fathers" by Michael Herren

Determine the type of signal you need.

Select from that signal group the word which is most appropriate to the meaning of your sentences.

Note: The same transition word or phrase can sometimes serve different purposes.

To signal an addition:

in addition, furthermore, moreover, also, equally important, likewise, another, again

To signal an example:

for example, for instance, thus, in other words, as an illustration, in particular

To signal a suggestion:

for this purpose, to this end, with this objective in mind

To signal emphasis:

indeed, truly, again, to repeat, in fact

To signal granting a point:

while it may be true, in spite of this

To signal a summary/conclusion:

in summary, in conclusion, therefore, finally, consequently, accordingly, in short, in brief, as a result, on the whole, thus

To signal the development of a sequence:

Value sequence: first, second, secondly, third, thirdly, next, last, finally

Time sequence: then, afterward, next, subsequently, previously, first, second, at last, meanwhile, in the meantime, immediately, soon, at length, yesterday

Space sequence: above, across, under, beyond, below, nearby, nearer, opposite to, adjacent to, to the left/right, in the foreground, in the background

To signal a relationship:

Similarity: similarly, likewise, in like manner

Contrast: in contrast to, however, but, still, nevertheless, yet, conversely, notwithstanding, on the other hand, on the contrary, at the same time, while this may be true

Cause and Effect: consequently, thus, therefore, accordingly, hence, as a result

To signal an argument:

accordingly, as a result, at the same time, besides, equally important, in fact, otherwise, therefore

To signal a comparison:

also, at the same time, in like manner, in the same way, likewise, similarly, so too

To signal a contrast:

but, however, in contrast with, instead, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, otherwise, yet

Synonyms for "Touch"

Brush: light, fleeting contact, almost accidental; skin barely meeting skin. 

Graze: unintentional, passing touch, like two people moving around each other in tight

space.

Stroke: slow, gentle motion meant to comfort or soothe; hand gliding with intention.

Trace: fingertips following a line or pattern on skin, fabric, or surface.

Press: firm, steady contact, often used to give reassurance or emphasis.

Clutch: grabbing tightly with urgency or fear, fingers digging in. 

Grip: controlled but strong hold, used for stability or command.

Tap: small, quick contact to get attention or signal something subtle.

Pat: soft, repetitive gesture meant to comfort or encourage.

Squeeze: warm pressure around a hand or arm; reassurance, affection, or grounding.

Caress: intimate, tender touch that lingers; conveys deep affection or desire.

Run fingers through: slow movement through hair or fabric, affectionate or soothing. Trail hand: hand sliding along someone's arm, back, or side; often flirtatious or sentimental.

Hook arm: linking elbows or wrapping arms, symbolizing closeness or support.

Thumb over: small, repetitive brushing motion with the thumb; calming gesture.

Brush knuckles: subtle, tentative contact usually signaling nervous affection.

Hold: steady, meaningful contact; offering emotional or physical support.

Pull: drawing someone closer, either urgently or affectionately.

Grab: sudden, firm hold, often driven by instinct or alarm.

Synonyms for "Pain"

Aching: dull, constant pain that lingers like a bad memory.

Stabbing: sharp, sudden pain that feels like being pierced.

Throbbing: rhythmic pulses of pain that sync with a heartbeat.

Searing: hot, burning pain that spreads fast.

Stinging: sharp, surface-level pain like a slap or cut.

Cramping: muscles tightening painfully, curling inward.

Pounding: heavy, forceful pain, often in the head or joints.

Splintering: pain that feels like it fractures through the body.

Twisting: internal pain that coils and tightens like a knot.

Gnawing: slow, persistent pain that eats at nerves over time.

Radiating: pain that spreads outward from one point.

Sharp: fast, pointed pain; no buildup, no warning.

Dull: mild but constant; background suffering.

Shooting: pain that travels quickly along a nerve.

Raw: sensitive, exposed pain, like a wound touched too soon.

Burning: fiery, consistent pain that intensifies with movement.

Piercing: deep, precise pain in one focused place.

Wrenching: emotional and physical pain mixed together, twisting the chest or gut.

Synonyms for "Fear"

Dread: heavy, slow-building fear of something inevitable; sits in the stomach like a stone.

Panic: sudden, chaotic fear that overwhelms logic; breathing quickens, thoughts scatter.

Terror: intense, paralyzing fear that makes muscles lock and mind freeze.

Unease: subtle, nagging discomfort, like something isn't right but you can't name it.

Anxiety: persistent background fear, a mental buzz of worry that never fully quiets.

Alarm: immediate fear response to danger; sharp intake of breath and wide eyes.

Horror: fear mixed with shock or disgust; something deeply wrong.

Apprehension: nervous uncertainty about what's coming; cautious, hesitant movements.

Fright: quick hit of fear, an instinctive flinch or gasp.

Paranoia: fear intensified by imagination; convinced something or someone is watching.

Nerves: jittery stomach, shaky hands, restless movements.

Shock: sudden, overwhelming fear or surprise that numbs the senses.

Tension: fear living in muscles: clenched jaw, stiff posture, tight shoulders.

Cold sweat: physical fear response where the body panics faster than the mind.

Jitters: small trembles, tapping fingers, bouncing knees; anxious energy leaking out.

Startle: involuntary jump or gasp; body reacting before the mind catches up.

Dismay: fear mixed with disappointment or helplessness.

Pale: fear draining the color from the face, leaving them ghost-like.

Shiver: trembling from fear or dread, often uncontrollable.