P O I S O N;

006. PATRONUS

I put in a whole load of research, and this is as extensive a masterlist of patronuses I could make. This works for Harry Potter use, patronuses, but also animagi, I suppose. Either way, for all your animal symbolism needs.

Anonymous asked you 

Eh, this is a bit of overly general question, but I was wondering if you have anything on superheroes/superhero-type characters? Maybe some cliches to avoid or just some tips or even a list of superhero powers would be wonderful. Dankeschön.

What a wonderfully unique question! 

Definition of superhero: A benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman.

By definition a superhero should have something quite unique about them, whether its a man made suit of armour or spider powers. Something about a superhero must set them apart from ‘normal’ people. 

What you need to think about as well is making your superhero relatable to your readers. Their negative traits will help with this whether it be confidence, anger ect. 

How to create a superhero

Joss Weldon on writing a superhero

Characteristics of superhero film genre (forum)

What makes a hero

NaNoWriMo What makes a hero heroic (forum)

List of Superpowers

Clichés are cliché because they have been proved again and again to work. I will list the most common clichés below.

Orphans/ dead parents/ live with auntie and uncle

Bad childhood

Unpopular

Traumatic event normally involving loss of parental figure forces them to become superhero.

I wouldn’t shy away from using some of these as backgrounds for your character, after all your character has to have a reason to become a superhero. 

  Hope this all helps, good luck with your story!

Your journal is a safe place to try new techniques and to succeed – or fail miserably. That’s how you grow.

A Mary Sue is a female character who is so perfect that she is annoying. The name originated in a very short Star Trek story that mocked the sort of female characters who showed up in fanfiction. It usually refers to original female characters put into fanfiction, but can refer to any character. 

Mary-Sues are characters who are usually extraordinarily gorgeous, amazingly talented, unusually powerful, and exceedingly attractive to whoever the author has a crush on. They often possess ridiculously fancy and pretentious first names — Angel, Raven, Jewel, Lorelei Bianca Julia Marizza Snape — and are very, very annoying. 

Mary-Sue is often abbreviated to ‘Sue.’ The male equivelant is either Marty-Stu or Gary-Stu.

Mary Sue Litmus Test totalrewrite’s How To Avoid Mary Sues Common Mary Sue Traits Avoid Writing A Mary Sue fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment’s Compiled Mary Sue Questions Encyclopedia Dramatica’s Mary Sue Page Mary Sue Generator Les Miz Mary Sue Generator Mary Sue Problems

If you read nothing else, read this:

Made rebloggable per request.

Anonymous asked: Can you do a how to play a rebellious character guide?

This has been sitting in my inbox for obnoxiously long a time, and I apologize for that. I was going to get back to you much sooner, but there were some obstacles in the way. I hope you might still have some use of this, however.

I suppose we must first define “rebellious”, correct? According to the dictionary, being rebellious means defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition; insubordinate; inclined to rebel.

In my experience, rebellious characters tend to have no sympathy for authority figures of any sort—not to mention how they tend to come with their own moral compass, a solid idea of “right” and “wrong”, which may or may not differ from the rest of society’s. Rebellious characters march to the beat of their own drum rather than someone else’s, so to speak, and are not inclined to take orders from others—especially not without asking questions and raising a little hell first. They don’t like the rules and traditional values set up by society for some reason, and thus break them or refuse to conform to them instead.

I also find that rebellious characters, while defiant and not abiding by norms, also tend to be willing to fight for what they believe in. Sometimes rebellious characters also come with trust issues, which lead them to work alone, rather than with other people. The source of the character’s rebellious streak can be, but is not limited to, them being subjected to oppression or some sort of suffocation of freedom in their past.

When you take on a rebellious character, I would recommend you start by pinpointing the source of the character’s behavior, which most likely will be found in their backstory or upbringing. Some characters are so-called rebels without a cause, but for most, there is an underlying reason. Perhaps the character’s parents or guardians were unnecessarily strict or overprotective as the character grew up, leading to them rebelling once they got older, in an attempt of gaining some sort of freedom. Maybe the character has ran into a lot of trouble with law enforcement, bullies, or other authority figures, and is now rebelling against them as a result. Or, perhaps the character is part of an oppressed minority or group of people, perhaps in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian setting of sorts, and is rebelling in order to gain control again. These are all very valid, but very different, types of rebellious; and your character’s motives as well as actions would depend on the underlying cause for it. Always begin by identifying the why, and then move on to the how.

When people ask me for advice on portraying a character with a certain personality trait, I also tend to remind them not to build the entire character on that one trait. Yes, it might be their most dominant characteristic, but don’t forget to focus on their other traits as well, both positives and negatives. Just because your character is described as rebellious, that doesn’t mean they have to rebel 24/7 either; basically, be careful not to overdo it. Perhaps your character only has a problem with a certain type of authority figure, rather than all of them—and perhaps there are people in the character’s life they trust enough to take “orders” from, even though they might not listen to other people. It depends entirely on your character, really, and is something you will need to evaluate on a case by case basis.

There are plenty of characters who could be described as rebellious in popular culture—books, television, films—so, if you want some further inspiration, you could try to read up on a few of them. Some well-known rebellious characters from pop culture I could think of right on the spot include Harry Potter from Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Dean Winchester from Supernatural, Faith Lehane from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mal Reynolds from Firefly, as well as Wolverine from the Marvel Universe.

I’ve also gathered some links for you where you can do additional research or find more inspiration, aside from the things I’ve already said. Check these out, for instance:

Rebel Character Types on NaNoWriMo

Top Ten Rebels in Fiction

Rebellious Spirit on TV Tropes

Icon of Rebellion on TV Tropes

Cool People Rebel Against Authority on TV Tropes

Rebellious Princess on TV Tropes

TV Tropes Monday: Rebellious Spirit

How to Be a Rebel in 6 Steps

Words Used to Describe Rebellious People and Actions

Characteristics of a Rebellious Spirit

RESEARCH FOR PLOTS

This is a guide that applies to all aspects of the roleplay community from groups to 1x1 and everything in between.

What is a denouement?

The word is from French and means ‘untying’. 

It is the final part of a work of fiction where strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved. The denouement occurs after the climax of the plot. Secrets are revealed and loose ends tied up.

Only use a denouement if it adds to your story, or if your plot requires one.

Three Examples of Effective Denouements

Romeo and Juliet: The climax is the death of Romeo and Juliet. The denouement comes when the families find their bodies and they are told their deaths are a result of the family feud. 

To Kill a Mockingbird: The climax of the story is the attack on Scout. The denouement includes the Sheriff and Atticus trying to cover up Boo Radley’s stabbing of Bob Ewell, and Jem coming to terms with the injustice of the trial. 

The Silence of the Lambs: The climax is the capture of Buffalo Bill. The denouement is Hannibal’s phone call to Clarice Starling telling her he’s having a friend for dinner. 

Source for Image

I’m currently finishing up a university degree in journalism, and I’ve been doing journalistic work for newspapers and radio alike for some years now. It’s a line of work wherein proofreading is essential. People are paying to read a piece you’ve written, which means you simply can’t allow for an article to be printed while it’s still half-finished; sans proofreading.

Even though proofreading might seem like a tedious task to some, I tend to think of it as the icing on the cake when it comes to creative writing as well—that final touch to perfect a piece of writing in order to make it even better. However, I’ve found that some roleplayers and writers seem to lack the tools to do so, perhaps as a result of not knowing what to look for.

So, here are a few tips on how to go about proofreading something you’ve written.

Use a spell-checker

If your text editor doesn’t have a built-in one, you can find ones online as well, such as here, and here. Tumblr also has its own spell-checker, located between the link and read more buttons above your post editor. Keep in mind that a spell-checker will only reveal typos and errors in spelling, and while this is a good place to begin, more often than not you will have to go further than that.

Double-check your punctuation

Make sure you’re using commas, apostrophes and other forms of punctuation marks correctly, and beware of double or triple spacing (when someone types   like this, it tends to  be annoying and leaves  ugly holes in the running   text), as you should only use one space after each word or punctuation mark.

Double-check your word use

This is where a thesaurus and a dictionary come in handy. Make sure the words you’ve chosen have been use in the right context; seeing as you may sometimes think a word means something it actually doesn’t. Some synonyms may also have slightly different connotations or nuances, in spite of the meaning being essentially the same. It’s especially important you double-check more difficult words, or words you don’t use that often. Commonly confused word pairs can also be tricky, so pay specific attention to those.

Look for missing words and odd sentence structures

Sometimes I will come up with a specific wording only to change my mind mid-writing; and once I proofread, I come to realize I’ve used half the original sentence combined with the ending I thought up for the new sentence. When changing one’s mind about a particular wording, some words can also get lost in the process, or become jumbled up. This can sometimes be difficult to spot (especially since spell-checkers don’t pick up on it), but the only thing you really can do, is to make sure all of your individual sentences make sense, and that no important words have been left out.

Check your grammar

This bit goes hand in hand with checking your word use and punctuation, and is perhaps the most difficult part of proofreading, especially if you don’t have a good eye for spotting grammatical errors. Luckily this is something you will most likely become more skilled at once you become more well-versed at proofreading, but until then, there are online grammar checkers available for you to use: such as here, and here.

Beware of repeats

Repeating certain words or phrases can be a highly effective rhetorical tool when it’s done on purpose; however, when you do it unconsciously, it can become highly annoying to the reader, and also makes the text seem less fluent as it tends to introduce a pause. It’s not as big of a deal when it happens with words that are used all the time to form sentences or bind them together, but less commonly used or longer words can be problematic when repeated, as they are more noticeable to the eye. So, be careful of using the same word several times in sentences following one another, or even in the same paragraph. Use synonyms or a thesaurus check if you must, but an even better way of going about it is probably rewriting some of the sentences in order to avoid that choice of words entirely.

Check your sentence lengths

This quote by Gary Provost probably best describes what I’m trying to go for here. If you keep piling several sentences of about the same length after one another, your writing tends to become slightly monotonous and dull; not to mention how pauses are introduced where you might not intend for them to exist, in turn making the text more difficult to read. Try to vary the sentence lengths, and using long, short, and medium-length sentences mixed with one another.

Read, read, and read

I sometimes read through a piece of writing up to five times or more when proofreading. During the first read-through I spot maybe a few errors, and during the second, I spot such errors I missed during the first read-through. The risk of becoming blind to your own writing is rather prominent (which can be helped by asking a friend to read it, too), but don’t be afraid or too lazy to read your own writing more than once.

And finally; read aloud

I have found that the most effective way of noticing if something is amiss, is reading the piece I’ve written aloud. It might seem a little ridiculous while you’re doing it, but it really does help you spot incomplete sentences, odd or difficult sentence structures, and pauses in awkward places.

1. Reframe The Problem or Phrase Question Differently 

When we phrase a question or problem in a different light, we are more likely to find more solutions. We often look at things from a single angle preventing us from seeing all the possibilities.  Some ways to think more creatively for this are  to phrase the question differently or to put the problems in a different scenario. 

2. Avoid Logical Thinking

Logical thinking can prevent us from innovative thoughts, because when we think logically we only use what we know. Creative ideas are built from what we do not know. To facilitate this process, you can look for inspirations from music, arts or people. Or you can use your dreams to come up with solutions. Studies show that dreams help us problem solve and one advantage is that dreams do not follow logic, but instead give us insights. 

3. Avoid Following Rules 

This point relates back to point 2, because we usually stick to rigid ideas or beliefs about how things work or should work. Instead, we should become more flexible and ask ourselves the question ‘what if?’ What if we tried? 

The 4 Most Common Mistakes Fiction Editors See

Wouldn’t it be great if nobody ever needed an editor? If all of our stories and novels appeared in readers’ minds just as beautifully and vividly and succinctly they do in our own?  Wouldn’t it be great if the story we think we’ve told were, in fact, the story we’ve told?  There are more aspiring writers producing more manuscripts now than ever before history, and the writing-advice industry is keeping stride with totally conflicting instructions.  The result: everybody’s doing it, but nobody knows what the heck is going on. 

Anonymous asked: How would someone role play British? Like the way they speak and act or such.

First of all, you might want to be aware of the fact that certain expressions and words are different in British and American English, and that certain words hold different meanings in the two. You can find lists of such words here and here, for instance.

When I write British characters, I also often switch (both in dialogue and in running text) to British spelling. Here are some examples, American spelling first, and then British:

harbor → harbour

color → colour

neighbor → neighbour

center → centre

theater → theatre

realize → realise

characterize → characterise

When it comes to behavior and speech, it kind of also depends on what “type” of British person your character is; how old they are, how much money they have, what their social status/background is, and where they’re from. Customs and speech kind of vary throughout the islands, and between various regions and cities. Here’s a useful link about British culture, traditions, and customs; so you could just give it a look and see if you manage to pick something up.

One of my favorite things about the British, though, is their use of slang, and some of their curse words. My friend, who is originally from Northumberland near Scotland, taught me a bunch of fun expressions when I visited her in London last year. My favorite was probably ‘tosspot’, haha. In any case, the slang also varies in various parts of Britain, but here are some links you might find useful:

The Best of British – British Slang

Dictionary of English Slang and Colloquialisms of the UK

Top 100 Most Beautiful British Slang Words and Phrases

Losing inspiration on a character, a story, a plot is no new discovery— it happens to the best of us; but a question remains of why.  Sure we know it didn’t just come out of the blue (let’s be honest here, you don’t just suddenly lose inspiration), but if you’re really observant you can probably pin-point it back to a moment in time when you began to lose a grip on your character. So what steps can be taken to re-kindle that flame? I don’t know. Let’s find out together.

It’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad deed to ask someone for an “in-character” para-sample!  Oh, Lord.  It isn’t, but sometimes, it feels as if people hate it.  I’ve been the admin of a variety of roleplays where I get messages asking, “Does the para-sample have to be in character?  Can it be from another roleplay?” and once, someone even asked, “Why do you want it to be in-character?  It’s too hard!”

Kind of makes you sit back, scratch your head and say, “Whaaaa—?”