Byrappa

Essence of Hotel & Resort TycoonUpon drinking the essence inside this opaque bottle shaped like the Marina Bay Sands Hotel Building, containing a neon blue coloured liquid, which smells like the sea and tastes like lemonade you gain several effects:● You own a global corporation which has the potential to be an industry leader in the hotels and resorts industries. You have 100% share in your…

Essence of Real Estate Tycoon Upon drinking the essence inside this opaque bottle shaped like the Petronas Twin Towers Building, containing a brown and green coloured liquid, which smells like petrichor and tastes like apple you gain several effects:● You own a global corporation which has the potential to be an industry leader in the real estate industry. You have 100% share in your company…

Take frequent breaks (drink water too!) and do your goddamn wrist stretches

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. First Draft Pro, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a beautifully designed writing app for fiction writers. Today, they've partnered with Kelly Norwood-Young, former book editor for Pan Macmillan and Penguin Random House, to bring you some pro tips on writing your first draft:

In my career as a book editor, I’ve reviewed hundreds of manuscripts. I've seen the joy of authors creating compelling tales, but also how disheartening it can be to rewrite a disjointed story. I’m here to give you some strategies to address common pitfalls so that you not only reach your NaNoWriMo goal, but also lay the groundwork for a manuscript that truly deserves to be called a gripping novel.

1. Have a plan.

Even if you’re more of a ‘pantser’ than a ‘planner’, it's really helpful to have an outline. I have two favourite approaches for this: the structure-first approach, and what I call the ‘Phoebe Waller-Bridge approach’.  

Here's some tips on making sure you're all set for success these first few days:

1. Make sure you've set your goal for November! 

You can do this by clicking on your main dashboard. You'll see buttons to either join with a new novel or join with an existing novel.

2. Update your word count! 

When you're knee deep in writing, you might forget to update your word count! Remember to update it when you can, since it helps you track your goals for the month. If you need help updating your word count, check out our FAQ!

3. Connect with other writers! 

Find and join your local region on the NaNoWriMo website to connect with other writers in your area. You can even join multiple regions! You can also create or join a private writing group of up to 20 people. We've shared some tips on what makes a good writing group!

4. Join a NaNoWriMo event!

We're kicking off November 1st this year with a series of Write-Together-A-Thon livestreams where published authors share writing prompts and we all write together on YouTube. Plus, you can check out other virtual events happening through the rest of the month!

5. Have fun writing!!!! 

Created this essence (along with a few others) for a story for NaNoWriMo. Hope to hear your opinion on it. And if anyone uses this in a story, would love to read it. Essence of Landlord Upon drinking the essence inside this opaque bottle shaped like the Empire State Building, containing a grey and green coloured liquid, which smells like roses and tastes like honey you gain several effects: ●…

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. ButterDocs, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an all-in-one writing app built for productivity, collaboration, and a more joyful writing experience. Today, the folks at ButterDocs share a few tips on organizing your writing to meet your goals:

NaNoWriMo is about to start, and you're champing at the bit to get to 50,000 words. But that's no easy feat! Because life doesn't stop when NaNoWriMo starts.

You're still going to have climb a mountain of chaos to reach your goal: Chaos like not being able to find your notes and outlines when you need them since they're scattered across multiple apps, or the constant lure of internet distractions.

And of course, once NaNoWriMo ends, the writing process continues. You'll need to get feedback, be able to actually easily take advantage of that feedback, and make revisions (especially if your ultimate goal isn't just a rough draft, but a polished novel).

Here are five tips from ButterDocs to beat the chaos and make your writing workflow less work and more flow.

when you put an arrow on the string, the verb is called “nocking” i.e. eyes glued on the target, he nocked the arrow

also the part of the arrow that gets put onto the string is called the nock. depending on the type of arrow this can be a piece of plastic glued into the arrow, or with wood or bamboo arrows it can be carved into the shaft of the arrow itself

you do not close an eye when aiming or shooting; you see better with both eyes open.

everyone has a dominant eye that more naturally your brain focuses with. that determines whether you are right or left handed when shooting, and doesn’t necessarily correlate to whether the person is right or left handed in anything else

so if you’re writing a character who has difficulty seeing out of one eye, take that into account when they are shooting

if they are right eye dominant, they hold the bow with their left hand and draw the string with their right. if they are left eye dominant, they hold the bow with their right hand and draw the string with their left

if they shoot left, the quiver sits on their left side/hip/thigh. shoot right - right side quiver.

there are several different ways to draw, if you are writing something historical or in a specific region, then do research on that style of archery. but for a generic place to start that is a more universal way of drawing a bow, here are some things to include

the chin stays down. raising your chin will fuck up your aim

the pointer finger on your draw hand rests on the side of your chin/jaw, and the string of the bow will touch the tip of the archer’s nose

weight is on the balls of your feet, leaning slightly forward off your heels

if it is an older bow/barebow, there is not usually a place for the arrow to rest on the bow. this means the arrow rests on the archer’s hand. if they are not wearing a glove on that hand, the fletchings (that’s the feathers on the arrow) will more than likely slice their hand when firing. this scars.

so if you’re wanting to describe someone observing and archer’s hands (hands are hot, don’t @ me) they would see a silver scar about halfway between the pointer finger knuckle and palm of the person’s hand. (turn your hand vertical and trace down the length of your pointer toward your thumb and stop next to the knuckle. that spot there.)

most archers wear something to protect their fingers on the hand that draws the bow. even with that, they have callouses. without it, a lot of callouses, scars, and blisters.

most common draw uses three fingers on the string: pointer, middle, ring. the arrow sits between the pointer and middle. just like where the draw point is, this is not universal and do research if you’re doing something culturally important.

barebow means that the bow is bare of any instruments. no sight, no weights, etc. the most basic/traditional form of bow

a recurve bow is anything where the tips of the bow curve back around forward, away from the archer

a compound is what you think of as a modern hunting bow, and is recognisable by having wheels at the ends and three strings

arrows have three fletchings that form a triangle, the point faces the archer so that the flat of the arrow will pass the flat of the bow on release. the arrow sits on the side of the bow facing the archer

archers with a larger/raised chest will sometimes where a chest protect so that the string does not catch when firing (this is regardless of gender, i know several cis-men who need it as well)

string can also catch on the forearm that is holding the bow and creates bruises and welts if you don’t wear a protector. modern ones are small plastic and cover just the spot, with elastic holding it in place. traditional ones are leather and wrap all the way around, lacing up on the back of your arm like a corset.

Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

What character do you have the most fun writing?

What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

How would you describe your writing process?

What do you envy in other writers?

Do you want your writing to be famous?

Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)

Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)

Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

Would you say your writing has changed over time?

My cartoon for yesterday’s @guardian

#NFTGiveaway #NFTs

The category for relationships (Gen, F/F, M/F, M/M, a combination, something else)

The right category for ratings (is it for General Audiences, Teenagers, Mature, Explicit, R-Rated, Nc-17?)

The relevant warnings (violence, rape, underage sex, anything else you deem relevant)

The relevant tags on it (what relationships are covered in the fic? What characters? Is it light and fluffy fic? Funny? Sad? Dark? Does it have sex, and if so, what kind? Is there violence? Tags are used by readers to find fic and to avoid fic)

A summary that informs the reader of what kind of fic they’re gonna read.

Author’s notes for everything else. You can use the summary or author notes to explain certain tags, or add caveats, or thank your beta’s.

Things that are not a fanfic writer’s responsibility:

Kids stumbling across your fic and reading your fic and assuming that whatever is written about in the fic is 100% cool and normal.

They don’t seem to understand that “I’m opting out of the warning system” is a PART OF THE WARNING SYSTEM on Ao3 and even the DEFAULT Archive Warning according to their TOS FAQ.

To suggest I don’t post to Ao3 because I like using their default warning is…more than a little bizarre xD Again, it all boils down to “ONLY THE WAY I DO FANDOM IS RIGHT!” - while Ao3 instead explicitly offers authors several different ways of doing fandom/posting their fics, which aren’t inferior to each other. JUST DIFFERENT.

But then, far too many people don’t understand that “different” doesn’t mean “bad”, and even when the site specifically tells its users “We offer you different ways of doing this”, apparently some people think that those who actually take advantage of that offer should…leave? *lol* Also, I threw a fit after people told me how authors were “exclusionary” and “dicks” etc. etc. for using CNTUAW as if they were owed to be able to read every fucking fic. Which they are not. (Yet another fact this person doesn’t get.)

In short:

So there was so much debate over WHAT kind of content requires MANDATORY warnings?  And why?  This wasn’t how fic worked before AO3.  Yeah, many authors would warn for things like non-con or graphic violence but it was still very voluntary and up to each individual. 

Many authors at the time HATED the idea of including warnings or being forced to warn because they felt that putting a warning for things or a tag at all would ruin the suspense and surprise reveal of their plot.  And this wasn’t a fringe concern! 

That’s why there’s an opt-out option!  Because a community is about compromise and balancing the needs of authors and readers and people with very different feelings about how fiction should work.  So having mandatory requirements to warn for certain things AND an option that lets people opt-out of this requirement while still warning readers that these are DANGEROUS AND UNCHARTED WATERS is a fucking compromise.

I know a lot of younger people seem to have never heard of compromise because they’ve been raised by the extremes of online discourse and Fox News but when you’re literally building community infrastructure it’s the name of the game.

Basically, if the people who don’t want to do something come out of the argument able to behave exactly as they wanted before the argument began, you have not actually created a compromise, you have given them the win