SFW Tickle Blog

I'm going to try it.

"Writing Advice": by Charles Palahniuk- In six seconds, you’ll hate me.

But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

The list should also include: Loves and Hates.

And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”

You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her ass. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.

Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later) In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them.

For example:

“Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”

Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it.

If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline.

Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.

Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.”

Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example:

“During role call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout: ‘Butt Wipe,” just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.

For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take..”

A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”

A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.

Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.

No more transitions such as: “Wanda remember how Nelson used to brush her hair.”

Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”

Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts.

Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You -- stay out of their heads.

And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone.

For example:

“Ann’s eyes are blue.”

“Ann has blue eyes.”

Versus:

“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”

Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.

And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”

some of the following tropes/prompts are from other lists, such as these: x, x, x, x, x

“how much does this tickle from 1 to 10?”

“wait! wait! i didn’t have enough time to prepare!”

“aww, you’re blushing!”

“that’s not fair! you’re cheating!”

“you asked for it…”

“are you…? oh my god. you are.”

“say it!”

“can you stop laughing? i’m trying to talk to you. how rude!”

“you have such a cute laugh!”

“you’re doing that on purpose!”

“…doing what on purpose?”

“come on, let me see that smile!”

“you’re usually so tough…”

“it’s too embarassing!”

“what did you just say to me?”

“i’m gonna get you!”

“apologize!”

“i’m gonna count down from 10.”

“i’ll never talk to you ever again.”

“can you… do the thing?”

“i know other ways to make you talk…”

“your hands are freezing!”

“i thought that you said you weren’t ticklish.”

“it’s nothing! just… forget that that happened.”

“you’re being really bold for someone within tickling distance.”

“what’s so funny?”

“wow. you are super ticklish.”

“does this even count as tickling? i’m barely touching you.”

“someone told me your little secret…”

“it’s been forever since i’ve heard that laugh!”

“was that a snort?”

“what’s with the bad mood? i think that may need to be remedied…”

“i am not even touching you yet!”

“i’m not falling for that!”

“how did you know that?!”

“i didn’t tell you to stop…”

“i didn’t hear a ‘stop’…”

“shut up!”

“oh, you’re not ticklish? i remember differently…”

“come on, quit being stubborn and admit it!”

“i’m gonna tickle the sadness out of you!”

“if you laugh, you lose.”

“i didn’t know you snorted when you laughed!”

“…have i ever heard you laugh before?”

“you don’t seem like the ticklish type, is all.”

“this is all super new to me.”

“i think that i like this. can you do it some more?”

“can you show me how to do that?”

“be quiet! other people might be able to hear you, you know!”

“i have no weaknesses.”

“i’m not going to be taken down by something as childish as tickling.”

“not there!”

“you wouldn’t.”

“oh, i would.”

“whoa! i didn’t expect that much of a reaction.”

“this is gonna be fun.”

“hey! this is a serious matter!”

“this is amazing.”

“you’ll never live this down.”

“i’m gonna get you back!”

Spectra can be a biiiit of a mean ler 😅 Poor Dan has to handle the brunt of that. (Their brotherly rivalry is my favorite, and I love them dearly)

(My art don't repost but please reblog)

speaking words of wisdom:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Like at first this already makes the Pokémon part of your brain go a tad insane, but it gets crazier.

Some digimon have evolution charts that just look like an unreadable mess because of how complex their evolutions are and no one is quite sure how to even organize them.

Another fun fact? There’s such an absurdly large number of digimon that you can literally type a random English or Japanese noun and add —mon to it and I can almost guarantee there is a fully canon divining named that. Sometimes adjectives too. Here, let’s try owlmon?

There’s an owlmon. What about moonmon?

Yep.

You also get pretty insane names like ChaosBlackWarGreymon or MaloMyotismon or MegaMusoKnightmon or NoblePumpkinmon.

Hi everyone, after suddenly losing my account with main blog + sideblogs last week, I would like to share the following warning with y'all. Not to scare you even though it is shitty, but to raise awareness. If this somehow results in me getting kicked off the platform again, so be it lol.

If you post anything fandom* related on your tumblr blog**, whether that's gifs, screenshots, videos, cosplay pics or even fics (?), you may risk getting a copyright strike (up to 3 in 18 months) or even immediate account termination. The chance is still rather small, but just know that it can happen.

*I say fandom in the broad term, so blogs that post about movies and series, anime/manga, games, celebrities, models, sports/olympics, etc. and it goes for gif and fic creators too. Not just accounts that post music or videos for example.

**I say tumblr blog, but this goes for all of the internet ofc. People have been getting this problem on any platform, from insta to etsy, youtube and twitter.

Disclaimer: I am no legal expert, just an unlucky blogger who lost her silly multifandom fic blog after 7+ years.

This will be a bit long and detailed so I proceed under the cut!