The Unwritten

THIS SHIT WORKS OKAY, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.

The last time I saw this on my dash, I didn’t think it would happen, so jokingly I wished I could go to a fun. concert.

AND GUESS WHAT, I WENT TO A FUCKING FUN. CONCERT.

I SAW THIS ON MY DASH THE OTHER DAY AND THOUGHT “ITS WORTH A TRY” SO I WISHED I COULD GET A 3DS

LITERALLY LIKE 4 DAYS LATER MY DAD SENT ME A PICTURE OF THE 3DS XL HE BOUGHT FOR ME WHILE I WAS AT SCHOOL

GUYS.

HE FUCKING CALLED ME 20 MINUTES LATER

20 FUCKNG. MINUTES. LATER.

Lately I’ve been struggling regarding my fears of posting my work, in this case my fiction writing. I lamented the loss my childhood days when I would just come up with ideas without a care about how “stupid” it would be or how people would react (if at all).

It seems like I’m not alone, since I found quite a few inspiring articles and posts regarding the subject. Some are more specific to writing, and the articles may overlap in the points they make, but I hope you find them helpful.

The One Fear that Will Destroy Your Art

How to Overcome Fear & Let Your Creativity Flourish

Creative Block: Is Fear of ‘Getting It Wrong’ Blocking Your Creativity?

How Fear Chokes Creativity and What to Do About It

Susan Cain: The power of introverts (TED Talk)

5 Strategies for Dealing With Fear

Creativity: Moving Beyond Your Doubts and Fears

The Four Fears That Stop You From Writing

How to Put Your Writing in Public

Are You Too Scared to Write? Stop Thinking and Just do it

Confession: I Fear Sharing My Stories

think about these things when you’re making a fictional place; even a developed city has its roots in how easy it was to settle in the first place!

this site has additional info, diagrams, worksheets, and models, as well as information on things like coasts, volcanoes, and populations

look at real life sources for climates. Consider the way that your continent(s) lay in relation to their equator, and the weather and types of flora and fauna and peoples that adapted to it.

think about pangea. If you have multiple continents, do they fit together like a jigsaw?

when in doubt, look at the natural world around you and think about what would change if something was drastically different. Look at the reactions between parts of our world and change them.

Good writers share many qualities, but simplicity and clarity are two of the most important. This infographic highlights some of the most commonly misused words in English. If you want to appear competent, try not to make these mistakes.

Creating a White Male Character from a Japanese Supernatural Creature 

Let me see if I understand this. You have a futakuchi-onna in your work (that is, a two-mouthed woman, or a cursed Japanese woman with a mouth on the back of her head and prehensile hair). Someone casts a spell on her to remove this mouth, and this spell creates a person from this mouth.

So the person created from your Japanese supernatural creature is a white male. (Please remember that Caucasian =/= white. You can be a white person from the Caucus region, but Caucasian is *not* a blanket term for white!!!)

Rather than ask us if you should change this, I think it might be better for you to ask yourself why you defaulted to a white, male character.

~mod Stella 

100 Beautiful and Ugly Words

by Mark Nichol

One of the many fascinating features of our language is how often words with pleasant associations are also quite pleasing on the tongue and even to the eye, and how many words, by contrast, acoustically and visually corroborate their disagreeable nature — look no further than the heading for this post. Enrich the poetry of your prose by applying words that provide precise connotation while also evoking emotional responses

Beautiful Words

Amorphous: indefinite, shapeless

Beguile: deceive

Caprice: impulse

Cascade: steep waterfall

Cashmere: fine, delicate wool

Chrysalis: protective covering

Cinnamon: an aromatic spice; its soft brown color

Coalesce: unite, or fuse

Crepuscular: dim, or twilit

Crystalline: clear, or sparkling

Desultory: half-hearted, meandering

Diaphanous: gauzy

Dulcet: sweet

Ebullient: enthusiastic

Effervescent: bubbly

Elision: omission

Enchanted: charmed

Encompass: surround

Enrapture: delighted

Ephemeral: fleeting

Epiphany: revelation

Epitome: embodiment of the ideal

Ethereal: celestial, unworldly, immaterial

Etiquette: proper conduct

Evanescent: fleeting

Evocative: suggestive

Exuberant: abundant, unrestrained, outsize

Felicity: happiness, pleasantness

Filament: thread, strand

Halcyon: care-free

Idyllic: contentedly pleasing

Incorporeal: without form

Incandescent: glowing, radiant, brilliant, zealous

Ineffable: indescribable, unspeakable

Inexorable: relentless

Insouciance: nonchalance

Iridescent: luster

Languid: slow, listless

Lassitude: fatigue

Lilt: cheerful or buoyant song or movement

Lithe: flexible, graceful

Lullaby: soothing song

Luminescence: dim chemical or organic light

Mellifluous: smooth, sweet

Mist: cloudy moisture, or similar literal or virtual obstacle

Murmur: soothing sound

Myriad: great number

Nebulous: indistinct

Opulent: ostentatious

Penumbra: shade, shroud, fringe

Plethora: abundance

Quiescent: peaceful

Quintessential: most purely representative or typical

Radiant: glowing

Redolent: aromatic, evocative

Resonant: echoing, evocative

Resplendent: shining

Rhapsodic: intensely emotional

Sapphire: rich, deep bluish purple

Scintilla: trace

Serendipitous: chance

Serene: peaceful

Somnolent: drowsy, sleep inducing

Sonorous: loud, impressive, imposing

Spherical: ball-like, globular

Sublime: exalted, transcendent

Succulent: juicy, tasty, rich

Suffuse: flushed, full

Susurration: whispering

Symphony: harmonious assemblage

Talisman: charm, magical device

Tessellated: checkered in pattern

Tranquility: peacefulness

Vestige: trace

Zenith: highest point

Ugly Words

Cacophony: confused noise

Cataclysm: flood, catastrophe, upheaval

Chafe: irritate, abrade

Coarse: common, crude, rough, harsh

Cynical: distrustful, self-interested

Decrepit: worn-out, run-down

Disgust: aversion, distaste

Grimace: expression of disgust or pain

Grotesque: distorted, bizarre

Harangue: rant

Hirsute: hairy

Hoarse: harsh, grating

Leech: parasite,

Maladroit: clumsy

Mediocre: ordinary, of low quality

Obstreperous: noisy, unruly

Rancid: offensive, smelly

Repugnant: distasteful

Repulsive: disgusting

Shriek: sharp, screeching sound

Shrill: high-pitched sound

Shun: avoid, ostracize

Slaughter: butcher, carnage

Unctuous: smug, ingratiating

Visceral: crude, anatomically graphic

Notice how often attractive words present themselves to define other beautiful ones, and note also how many of them are interrelated, and what kind of sensations, impressions, and emotions they have in common. Also, try enunciating beautiful words as if they were ugly, or vice versa. Are their sounds suggestive of their quality, or does their meaning wholly determine their effect on us?

By Mark Nichol

Source for Article 

Figuring out the right way to end your novel can be difficult and it can make or break your story. If you’re stuck, try to understand that your ending should match the tone of your story. Here are a few common ways to end a novel to keep in mind:

Happy

There’s nothing wrong with a happy ending. If you want your novel to end on a joyful note with everyone getting what they want, that’s perfectly fine. Just make sure it’s in line with how your characters have behaved throughout your novel.

Sad

Writing a sad ending depends on how you built up your novel. A sudden, sad ending shouldn’t come out of nowhere. It should tie in with the tone of your story. If you want to write a sad ending, make sure it makes sense in the world you’ve created.

Open

Sometimes due to the nature of your story, your ending will remain open. Maybe your audience will have to come to conclusions themselves or maybe you’re leading into your next novel. If you’re writing a sequel, writers will often end with it open or a cliffhanger.

Complete

Happy or sad, some writers tend to complete their novel. These means they’ve tied up all loose ends, plots, and subplots, and created a solid ending. Usually this leaves no room for a follow-up and the novel can stand complete on its own. 

Twist

The twist ending can be hard to pull off, but if done correctly it can really blow your readers’ minds. This is when you lead up to one conclusion and then reveal that an assumed truth was false the whole time. Study up on twist endings if that’s something you want to do in your story.

Tie-back

This is when the ending ties back around to the clues in the beginning. Stories with a tie back ending sometimes have a full loop and give the story a feeling of completeness. They make readers feel as if everything is connected in some way.

Epilogue

An epilogue often gives readers details beyond the perceived ending. Writers will sometimes use epilogues if there’s a lot to sum up. Just make sure the epilogue fits your novel and it’s not something you can explain in the main sections of your story.

Okay so personally, I do not live in the desert. But let’s say I’d like to write about someone who does one day… and lets say that I don’t have the time/money to go to the desert for a bit and feel out the environment.

What do I do? Scour the internet trying to put the pieces together. I have done this. And, picking out & putting together various sources of information (including forums) I have put this together to share. So please keep in mind, these are other people’s experiences and opinions on living in desert conditions (and also general facts/information). Thank you :)

I also figured we could use this information to apply to possible extraterrestrial desert-like environments.

Enjoy!

—-

—“All the plants seem to have stickers and poison and thorns. I’m injured by everything I touch.”

—“While in AZ the skin on my face actually began to crack in the winter.”

—“Not a drop of rain in the four months that I have lived here and back home they are getting rain and thunderstorms often. I miss the rain and thunderstorms and the green! Even when there is a breeze out here in the desert, it feels like a hair dryer blowing in your face. And the sandstorms suck, too.”

—“I’ve heard it described as 10 months of Paradise and 2 months of Hell (summer rainy season). It’s a great place to escape allergies and many people love it. Deserts can be cold (Gobi) or hot (Sahara). They do get rain (most do, anyway), some of it very heavy, and cars of the unwary can get swept away. The only thing they have in common is that they effectively get less than 10” of rain per year, on the average.”

[x]

—-

"The temperature fluctuates enormously between the heat of the day and the coldness at night. Rainfall is low and water is found deep below ground. Small communities live in the area and life in the desert is slow and tough." [x]

—-

In truth, the deserts are some of the most intact and biodiverse ecosystems North America has to offer. New desert species are discovered all the time, and our arid lands have suffered relatively little of the human disruption that has so thoroughly changed places dearer to the typical Green’s heart, like San Francisco Bay or Yosemite Valley. North America’s deserts are one of our last remaining large repositories of wild lands. So why the disdain? [x]

—-

The burning sun, set in a cloudless sky, beats down relentlessly on a dreary expanse of sand, gravel and clay, broken only by the seared walls of barren desert ranges. The picture is made more weird and the way fraught with greater danger by the mirage-breeding alkali beds that warn the experienced traveller of impending danger; but hundreds of venturesome explorers, pushing on until crazed with thirst, have been overtaken by despair and death… [x]

—-

10 Reasons To Live In The Desert

The Taklamakan Desert

Why Would Anyone Choose To Live In The Desert?

Tips For Living In The Desert

California Driving: Desert Driving

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Most Common Desert Plants in Arizona

Saguaro cactus The saguaro cactus only grows in the Sonoran desert, and the blossom of this desert plant is the state flower of Arizona. Some of these plants grow for over 150 years. 

Burroweed It grows to around 3 feet tall and features grey and green leaves with a yellow flower. It contains a chemical called tremetol that makes this desert plant poisonous to horses, livestock and humans. Occasionally, humans become sick after drinking the milk made from a cow who fed on burroweed.

Creosote bush The young plants struggle to survive in any drought conditions, but mature plants thrive by stealing water from neighboring plants. You can find creosote bush growing in large clusters and rings throughout the Arizona desert. Recognize it by its small yellow flowers and distinctive aroma.

Velvet mesquite Because it is hardy and needs little water to thrive, it grows easily in the Sonoran desert. Arizona residents often choose it as an ornamental tree to grow in their yards because of its attractive appearance and simple maintenance. It drops mesquite pods from its branches, which can be toasted, dried and ground into mesquite flour for cooking and baking.

—-

—“I live in the upper Mojave desert. Low humidity most of the year. 347 days of sunshine a year. I had breakfast on my patio this morning, while admiring my swimming pool. The view from my front lawn, to the east, is one of Frenchman’s Peak and Sunrise Mountain. The view to the west is that of the Spring Mountains. To the north lies the Sheep Range. Nevada is the state of basins and ranges. We have over 300 mountain ranges in the state. The most of any state in the Union. About a week before Easter I will make my annual “pilgramage” south of Boulder City to the town of Nelson on the Colorado River. In the box canyons one can view an absolute riot of color from the desert wild flowers. There is life in the desert and there is beauty. Wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”

—“I like the way the sunlight play’s on the Mountains, and you can see for miles and miles. I love the Sunsets against the Mountains also. I love the Cacti. And I love the open spaces that allow you to look up and see all the stars at night without any light from cities interfering . I love it during a lightning storm and you can watch the bolts flash across the sky. The high heat is a bummer, as are the dust storms But pretty neat otherwise. “

—“We spent about a month in Arizona when my daughter husband was in the service. I had never seen a real Cati and I truly enjoyed it. He also took us up on a mountain over Phoenix at Xmas time. It was so beautiful. Yes it was very dry but not humid. Loved everything about the visit but no I wouldn’t want to live there all the time.”

[x]

—-

Characteristics of Deserts

There are different types of deserts ranging from hot and dry deserts to cold deserts. 

Deserts have wide variations of plant and animal life from desert to desert.

One of the main characteristics of a desert is that a desert receives very little precipitation throughout the year.

Deserts will often be extremely hot during the day and at night the temperature will fall 40 - 50 degrees or more. The reason for this is that there is little evaporation in the atmosphere to block sunlight during the day and at night allows heat to escape easily.

—-

Images | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Videos (a couple of these are admittedly a little silly, but informative)

"My life as a Mojave Desert hermit"

"Hunting Turquoise in East Mojave Desert"

"Living in the desert"

"Desert Living: Slab City & Salvation Mountain"

"The Sahara Desert" (pic video)

"Desert of Skeletons" (full documentary)

"Desert Proofing the Ford Raptor! Dirt Every Day ep 2"

—-

I hope this was somewhat informative and put a more ‘realistic’ perspective of what desert life is probably actually like, as opposed to looking at a bunch of charts and climate information sheets and trying to make it up from there! Happy writing!

Judaism is not just a religion, it’s an ethnicity. It’s often referred to as an ethno-religion for this reason. 

There are a ton of different Jewish groups that fall under the Jewish ethnicity. The groups, from my knowledge, are grouped under three “main groups” known as Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi. Main Groups probably isn’t the best way to refer to it but i’m at a loss for words.

Ashkenazi Jews tend to hail from Central and Eastern Europe.

Sephardic Jews tend to hail from the Iberian Peninsula so Spain and Portugal. Because many were expelled in the 1400’s, there are quite a few Sephardic descendants in places like Greece, the Middle East, and North Africa. 

Mizrahi Jews are often grouped in with Sephardic Jews and some choose to identify as such. That needs to be respected. Mizrahi Jews are those from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Others groups are often lumped in under the title of Mizrahi such as the Maghrebi Jews of North Africa. 

These are not separate ethnicities. There are certain cultural differences and lived experiences based on location and such, but all are still ethnically Jewish.

A big topic is whether or not “Jewish” is a race. And the answer is yes. And the answer is also no. It is an extremely complicated matter and I will attempt to break it apart to the best of my ability and knowledge. First of all, the mind frame that Jewish=white needs to be destroyed. Not all Jews are white. There are black Jews and as I said before, there are Middle Eastern Jews. There are Jews all over the world and not every Jew has white skin so that idea needs to go away. You also can’t say that all Ashkenazi Jews are white because that is also wrong. There are non-white Ashkenazi Jews, Drake is a prime example. I feel like the real question, at least on Tumblr, seems to have to do with whether or not someone’s Jewishness negates from their whiteness. Meaning should someone who would usually be considered white not be considered as such because of that Jewishness. I think it’s important to note that the idea of any Jew being white is a very recent concept and pretty much confined to the U.S. and maybe Canada. That’s not how it is in much of the world. It’s not even completely believed everywhere in the states. Someone like me, who has white skin and a completely eastern European ethnicity (ignoring my genetic links to the Levant) would not actually be considered white in most of Europe and much of the rest of the world as well. Even in New York, I filled out a form with Jewish listed for race. For this reason, whether or not someone identifies as white or as Jewish, is up to them. I don’t I.D. as white, I I.D. as conditionally white or white-passing. My whiteness depends on where I am and who I am talking to. My parents don’t I.D. as I do and that’s okay. It’s personal identification. I need to also point out that a Jew saying that they’re not white is not them saying that they’re a POC. These binaries completely fall apart when it comes to “white” Jewish groups. It’s also important to acknowledge that I have more privilege than a Jew of Color, a Person of Color, or even a “white” Jew who cannot pass as I can based on stereotypical Jewish features or clothing such as a yamaka in public. A Jewish character may find themselves dealing with these personal identity issues. 

So, for casting reasons, please do not just write off someone who is Jewish as being whatever their other ethnicity is. If an actor is an Egyptian Jew, don’t just put him in a family with other Egyptian faces, first try to match him with other Egyptian Jews. Try to figure out how a faceclaim identifies. For example, as far as I know Drake identifies as being black and Jewish(x). Therefore a sibling should also be black and Jewish. My opinion on the matter is that unless the actor has specifically said that they identify as white, do not erase that they’re Jewish. If you can’t make the match you can’t make the match, but I think it’s 100% better to try to incorporate their Jewishness before erasing it. 

Do not fall into stereotypes when portraying Jewish characters. We’re not all money obsessed, stuck-up lawyers and doctors. This might come as a shocker but we don’t actually control the government, economy, and media so please don’t portray us as characters who do. (We are magical wizards though, that’s fact. I mean, despite there only being like one Jew at Hogwarts.) For more information on what to avoid, please check out this post from Writing with Color. It covers more than I could here. 

While i’m not particularly religious, my Jewishness is a very big cultural aspect of who I am. Now, i’m an Ashkenazi Jew so the cultural aspects of my Jewishness probably differ from someone who is Sephardic or Mizrahi. (I’ve been trying to find the singular form of Mizrahi and I can’t so i’m just going with it for now until I figure out if it’s correct or not, excuse me.) It’s impacted the foods I eat, it’s impacted the way I view the world and other people, and it’s impacted how I view myself because being Jewish was such a big part of my upbringing. I am a person like anyone else but my Jewishness is always there. There is not a minute of any day that my Jewishness is not a part of my life. It does not define who I am but it cannot be ignored. Because it is a part of my background it has helped shape who I am. Every Jewish person is different and not everyone had the same Jewish upbringing that I did. Explore that when you’re writing, don’t ignore it, think about what kind of impact it has on your character.