Calloway Falls Welcome Wagon

Some language learning tips for you guys! What language are you trying to learn? How many languages do you guys know?

I know four total!💛

xoxo,

Dark Academia

Long Black coats, thunder but no lightning, red wine, blood, forests in winter, a single guttering candle, latin, bones, all of history in your hands, Tchaikovsky, piles of old books, the hour before sunrise, complicated cravats, Hozier, true crime, Donna Tartt, secret diaries.

Light Academia

Sunshine in shallow water, white cotton, lacy dresses, champagne, the plays of Oscar Wilde, summer rain, wind rustling the pages of a book, jacket over on shoulder, Maurice, frost covering new flowers, Florence + the machine, roses, bare feet, girls school, old books about species of plant or butterflies, biological Diagrams, flowers in your hair, perfect notes.

Chaotic Academia

Two top buttons undone, scribbled notes in pencil or biro, kill your darlings, untied laces, so much coffee, all nighters, crying in the library, Mozart, writing film scripts for fun, rain Storms, moorland, swimming in the dark, movie soundtracks while studying, procrastination, muddy boots, unsent letters.

Grey Academia

Jane eyre, sunrise, cold hands, perfect handwriting, beat gen, Edgar Alan Poe, crows, small animal bones, writing essays until 2am, Vivaldi, February or November, zodiacs, loving history and art, Leonardo davinci, Tamino.

Romantic Academia

Billowing pirate sleeves, Lord Byron, theatre, violets, achilles, reading poetry aloud, bloody cheekbones, love letters, doodling in class, doc Martins, long ball dresses, gothic churches, dead poets society, sword fights back stage, wind and mist and violent Storms, tea, long journal entries, wide brimmed hats, museums.

Spring Academia

Cotton shirts with large jumpers, celendines, maypole dancing, reading short stories, old traditions, Jane Austen, new term, beautiful notes, pastel colours, period dramas, magpies, 2005 pride and prejudice soundtrack, new leaves, cold feet, dancing.

Summer Academia

Flower crowns, studying late while the sun is still up, full moons, parties outside, sun dresses, warm rainstorms, exam season, bare feet, ancient Greece, herb tea, singing to the radio, lying in the grass, bird song, biology textbooks, the Lord of the rings, studying outside, mystery of love by sufjan Stevens.

Autumn Academia

Foxes, dead leaves, large coats and scarves, old stone walls, steaming black tea, mist, travel journals, forgetting to study until the last minute, frankenstein, old songs, nostalgia, carrying a book everywhere, rebel rebel, the picture of dorian gray, soup, studying in the morning as the sun rises.

Winter Academia

Long walks, misty breath, so much reading, shunning capitalist society, sad music, learning about witch hunts, philosophy, wuthering heights, mystery books, Dracula, black and white photos, transcribing music, old statues, silence.

Feral Academia

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Beloved

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (this was the only free version I could find, and it’s a downloadable thing, so do so with caution)

The Call of the Wild

Catch-22 (it was either this version or one where the entire thing was in comic sans font)

The Catcher in the Rye

Fahrenheit 451

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Gone With the Wind

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

Howl

In Cold Blood

Invisible Man

The Jungle (personally I don’t like this formatting, but the site doesn’t look sketchy so…) - there’s also this which is the proper book format in a pdf, but it’s directly photocopied so it might be hard to read some of the print

Leaves of Grass

Moby Dick

Native Son

Our Bodies, Ourselves (we learned about this one in APUSH!)

The Red Badge of Courage

The Scarlet Letter

COULD NOT FIND Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (the ebook is 47 fucking dollars??? and i can’t even find sketchy websites that’ll let me download a pdf. if anyone manages to find a link, lmk please)

Stranger in a Strange Land

A Streetcar Named Desire

Their Eyes Were Watching God

To Kill a Mockingbird

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Where the Wild Things Are (this is a slideshow!!!! how fun)

It's literally about "you vote for trump and continue to make this country unsafe for every single person that isn't trump and his immediate friend circle"

You vote for the Democrat because the Democrat isn't trump.

You vote for the Democrat because the Democrat isn't one of trumps friends and/or bought out by him and his friends.

You vote for the Democrat because they were not the party that condoned and supported a man thay actively put people and children in cages.

You vote for the Democrat because the Democrat isn't going to do any more damage than Trump already did.

You vote for the Democrat because not voting means one more chance of a vote against trump being taken away.

You vote because your lack of vote doesn't affect trump in any negative way and gives him a better chance of winning.

You vote for the Democrat because if you don't then we get 4 more years of a dictator-type man who gives so little care and value to human life that isn't his own thay he plays with dictators and spends most of his time playing golf on taxpayer money.

You vote for a the Democrat because the last one to get impeached did so because he had consensual sex, whereas our current president didn't get impeached and he's touched women sexually without their consent and got off because he has friends in high places and is using his wealth to get away with whatever he wants.

You vote for trhe Democrat because it's not a matter of oh this Democrat doesn't really vibe with my morals. You vote because it's either you do or we risk 4 more years of a man with little restraint who will only get more and more bold and do worse and worse things than he's already done and no one is safe from that kind of impulsive and selfish behaviour.

Do we let trump stay and only get worse or do we chance a Democrat that isn't exactly an angel in your eyes?

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

#StayHomeWriMo: An initiative to support and encourage you to stay well and find comfort in creativity in these trying times.

Image description:

A yellow and teal graphic titled “#StayHomeWriMo: Day 3 Self-Care Checklist”

1. Mental Well-Being: Take a few minutes to read a poem, whether an old favorite or a new one.

2. Creative Well-Being: Writing exercise: Set your text to white and try writing in invisible mode. No inner editors allowed!

3. Social Well-Being: Join our Virtual Write-In. Invite a friend to join, too!

Here’s my medium article addressing the problem of outlining your stories often, but not actually writing. I hope it helps!

Symbolism

“Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create a sense of artificial profundity.”

Having been an English major, I can’t even count how many times I’ve had to “analyze the symbolism” or “identify and discuss the themes” of a work. It seems that any classic, any “Good Book” must have themes and symbols. So how do we go about weaving those into our stories?

If you set out with a plot, it would be easy to calculate the best places to insert those symbols and build theme. But if you are like Stephen King and you don’t plot, what do you do? 

Rest assured, he’s explained his method to us. 

“Mostly I don’t see stuff like [symbolism] until the story’s done. Once it is, I’m able to kick back, read over what I’ve written, and look for underlying patterns. If I see some (and I almost always do), I can work at bringing them out in a second, more fully-realized draft of the story.”

I had a very similar experience with one of my own works. I started writing a story based on an idea and just let it take me where it wanted to go. It ended up being a bit over 200,000 words when it was all said and done, and when I read through it afterwards, I realized that the whole thing had essentially been about me trying to grapple with my identity and isolation as an outsider, being a white girl in Japan who is fluent in Japanese. There were certain symbols and themes that I had unknowingly sprinkled through the story. A second draft would help me hone and polish those. 

“Symbolism doesn’t have to be difficult and relentlessly brainy. Nor does it have to be consciously crafted as a kind of ornamental Turkish rug upon which the furniture of the story stands. If you can go along with the concept of the story as a pre-existing thing, a fossil in the ground, then symbolism must also be pre-existing, right? Just another bone (or set of them) in your new discovery. That’s if it’s there. If it isn’t, so what? You’ve still got the story itself, don’t you? 

“If it is there and if you notice it, I think you should bring it out as well as you can, polishing it until it shines and then cutting it the way a jeweler would cut a precious or semiprecious stone.”

So just go ahead and write your story. Don’t get too bogged down in having to create symbols and theme and deepness. Once you’ve put your pen down and the dust has settled, see what you can find within the story. Symbolism can help to focus both you and the reader, creating a more unified and pleasing work. So if you can find the hints of it within your first draft, during the second draft work on bringing it out more.

Theme

“When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.”

King approaches theme in much the same way he approaches symbolism in his works. He writes the entire book, reads it again, and asks himself why he bothered, why he spent all that time, why it seemed so important to him. 

“It seems to me that every book–at least every one worth reading–is about something. Your job during or just after the first draft is to decide what something or somethings yours is about. Your job in the second draft–one of them, anyway–is to make that something even more clear. This may necessitate some big changes and revisions. The benefits to you and your reader will be clearer focus and a more unified story. It hardly ever fails.”

Personally I balk at the idea of making big changes to what I wrote. It’s a reason why I never went back and revised the above story I mentioned. I knew that if I went back and changed a few things, I could have made the themes more evident and flowing, but…well. I was tired lol. And I had no intentions of publishing it anyways. Though if I really do want to publish something someday, big revisions are an unfortunate but necessary aspect of writing. 

A Caution About Theme

“Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story.”

Everyone has their own beliefs, interests, and concerns that have arisen from their experiences and adventures in life, and King encourages you to use them in your works. However, he does not believe that you should start out with a theme and build a story around it. 

To be honest, I’m not sure that I agree with King on this. (I know, who am I to disagree with him?) But hear me out. I’m a big Neil Gaiman fan, and during his MasterClass course, he spoke about how he had a particular experience that made him want to create a children’s story with the message of “Being brave means doing something even when you’re scared.” The story that was born of that theme was Coraline. 

I think that if you have a theme, even if it is a rough one, in mind when you set out to write a story, it could help direct you and your characters. Then again, I’ve never had a single book published, so I respectfully digress haha. 

Air/Wind

Aerokinesis -manipulate the air, wind, and gas.

Aeroportation - teleport using air/wind currents.

Air Mimicry - transform into a cloud of gas, fog, or mist.

Atmokinesis - manipulate the weather by mixing water, fire, earth, air, and lightning/electricity.

Deoxygenation - suck up all the oxygen from a place.

Lung Adaptation - breath anywhere

Wind Generation - create blasts of air.

Divine Winds Manipulation - create and control heavenly winds.

Dark Wind Manipulation - create and control eerie winds.

Earth

Geokinesis - control, manipulate, and reshape the earth at will.

Atmokinesis - control and manipulate the weather by mixing water, fire, earth, air, and lightning/electricity.

Crystallokinesis - manipulate minerals and crystals.

Ferrokinesis… manipulate metal at will.

Fraxikinesis - manipulate burnt matter.

Geo-Thermokinesis - manipulate, control, and create lava, magma and volcanoes.

Golem Creation - make golems out of inanimate materials like rocks, wood, plants, magma, etc.

Granulation… can turn things into sand.

Halokinesis - control and manipulate salt.

Hyalokinesis - control and manipulate glass.

Koniokinesis - manipulate and control dust particles.

Plassikinesis - manipulate and control all forms of plastic.

Psammokinesis - can control and manipulate sand.

Terrakinesis - control, manipulate and alter/reshape the surrounding terrain and landscape at will.

Terraportation - teleport via the earth and earth-based materials.

Sacred Earth Manipulation - Create, manipulate, control, reshape divine earth minerals.

Black Earth Manipulation - Create, manipulate and control tainted and evil earth minerals.

Fire

Pyrokinesis - create, control and manipulate fire, flame and heat.

Atmokinesis - control and manipulate the weather by mixing water, fire, earth, air, and lightning/electricity.

Fire Breath - breathe out flames.

Geo-Thermokinesis - manipulate lava, magma and volcanoes.

Heliokinesis - manipulate and control the sun and sunlight.

Hell-Fire Manipulation - Generate and control flames of hell.

Holy Fire Manipulation - Generate and control flames of Heaven.

Inflammation - burn things.

Melting - heat molecules to melt things.

Plasmakinesis - can control plasma.

Pyrotechnics - create fireworks.

Self-Detonation - explode self and reform.

Thermokinesis - create, control and manipulate heat.

Water

Hydrokinesis - manipulate and control liquid water and mold it into any desired shape or form.

Aquatic Adaptation - adapted to underwater living.

Aquatic Respiration - breathe underwater.

Atmokinesis- control and manipulate the various aspects of the weather by mixing water, fire, earth, air, and lightning/electricity.

Dehydration - absorb water.

Hydroportation - teleport across short or long distances through liquid water.

Water Mimicry - turn into liquid water.

Holy Water Manipulation - create, manipulate and control graceful waters.

Dark Water Manipulation - create, manipulate and control evil and dangerous waters.

Darkness

Umbrakinesis - can manipulate and control darkness or shadows.

Animated Shadow - Animate one’s shadow.

Light Absorption - block out light in an area.

Night Vision - see in the dark.

Sacred Darkness - create holy darkness.

Shadow Camouflage - be unseen in shadows.

Shadow Mimicry - become a shadow.

Umbrageous Teleportation - teleport via the shadows and darkness.

Electricity/Lightning

Quintessence Force -Can generate whitish-blue lightning that also contains pure life energy.

Electrokinesis - control, generate or absorb electric fields and shoot lightning bolts.

Activation & Deactivation - turn stuff on and off.

Positron Manipulation - control positrons, the antimatter counterpart to electrons.

Electrical Absorption - absorb electricity.

Electric Mimicry -transform entire body into a lightning-like being of pure electrical energy

Electrical Transportation - teleport with lightning.

Divine Lightning Manipulation - create and control the brightest lightning.

Black Lightning Manipulation - create and control the darkest lightning.

Energy

Dynamokinesis - manipulate existing energy.

Energy Blast - create blasts of energy.

Energy Emission - release energy.

Quintessence Force - create and manipulate unique form of electrical and life energy.

Mana Manipulation

Chi Manipulation

Electricity Manipulation

Energy Manipulation

Ice

Cryokinesis - control ice, snow and other forms of frozen water.

Freeze Breath - freeze things in solid ice.

Freezing - lower the temperature in kinetic atoms to freezing temperatures.

Frigokinesis - control snow either as precipitation or already on the ground.

Ice Beam - shoot beams of freezing energy.

Ice Generation

Light

Dark Light Manipulation - create the darkest light in existence.

White Light Manipulation- create sacred light from the divine.

Photokinesis - create and manipulate pure light.

Force-Field Generation - create protective shields of solid photons.

Invisibility - be unseen.

Laser Emission - bend light wavelengths to create lasers.

Light Absorption -absorb the light around you.

Light Generation - emit blinding light or glow in the dark.

Light Mimicry - take on the traits of light.

Photoportation - Teleport by using photons.

Projective Invisibility - turn other things invisible.

Evil Banish - Rid and banish all spirits of evil and black magic.

Light Manipulation

Weather

Atmokinesis - manipulate the various aspects of the weather by using water, fire, earth, air, and lightning/electricity.

Atmokinetic Resistance - immunity to all weather-based abilities and effects.

Atmokinetic Sensing - sense the future weather patterns.

Other

Aether Manipulation

Cosmic Manipulation

Gravity Manipulation

Nether Manipulation

Space-Time Manipulation

1) a fight in a parking lot, a flickering “open” sign, a rundown town of people who don’t want to be there anymore but would never dream of leaving 

2) a library of old books, a kooky professor, secret passages 

3) a letter that was never sent, a preserved flower, a dusty attic 

4) a holiday, a stranger from out of town, a clocktower 

5) a bookshelf, a candle, an open window 

6) stripes, a curse, a family rivalry 

7) a laboratory, an experiment gone wrong, the woods at night 

8) a house full of whispers, a small town that likes to gossip, a series of kidnappings 

9) an unfaithful husband, a famous scientist, a tragic fire 

To me, writing is quite an intuitive process. I basically just follow my gut. Nevertheless, throughout the years, I’ve been able to develop a pretty effective routine, and I’m going to share it with you now!

Writing circuits. I don’t know about you, but I’m super lazy, and I also love to procrastinate. So, instead of writing for three hours straight, I split this time into little circuits and plan them throughout the day. Let’s say I’ll write for an hour in the morning, then an hour and a half in the afternoon and so on. It’s also incredibly beneficial for your health – both mental and physical.

Have a plan.  I’m a discovery writer, and I don’t really outline that much. But as I go about my day – eg. when working out, or running, or cooking, or eating, or sitting and doing nothing because of this procrastination right – I think about what I want to accomplish. And I usually ask myself the following questions. What is the purpose of this scene? Which characters should appear in this scene? Should it be more visual or more internally-focused? What actually happens? How should I describe it? Thanks to this, I have a general plan, and I’m much more motivated to actually write instead of visualizing that scene in my head (we all know this, don’t we?).

Write. Then I write. I write whatever pops into my head. I don’t care if it’s logical. I don’t care how many times I use abruptly, saw, felt, etc. I just allow my imagination to create this story.

Notes. When I end my final little session, I usually leave some comments for myself. What’s going to happen next, what’s the next big thing I want for my characters, etc. Having these notes makes everything easier; I immediately know what I’m supposed to do.

Suddenly all those Hinterlands quests to go round up a random farmer’s druffalo don’t  seem so silly.

Dragon Age Inquisition - doing something right.