Fiction=Life

One of the most common pieces of writing advice is to read. Important, but vague. An easy way to analyze novels to become a better writer is to sort what you read into what you don’t like and what you do like. Spend some time thinking–whether alone, in writing, or through conversation–about what makes you like or dislike the writing, and brainstorm ways that the writing could have been improved or changed.

Here are some possible dislikes and likes that you might notice when reading:

What You Don’t Like: 

Boring spots that you skim through

Unnecessary scenes that don’t advance the plot

Confusing sub-plots

Chunky dialogue 

Characters acting outside their character

Poorly done tropes 

Too much telling, not enough showing

Too much showing, not enough telling

Overly flowery prose

Big words for the sake of big words

One-dimensional villains

Lack of distinctive voices

What You Do Like: 

Twists on tropes 

Scenes where you felt like you were a part of that world

Characters you think about after the book ends

Clever plot twists

Good information reveal

Villains and antagonists that keep you on your toes

Characters that know what they want

Characters forced to make sacrifices 

Side-characters that have personalities of their own

Scenes so intense that you find yourself peeking at the next page

Protagonists with flaws that hold them back

Think like a reader. Be brutal. Were you bored? Excited? Did you find anything confusing? Chances are, if you spot these, your readers will as well.

Apologies for the delay!

May’s Theme of the Month: May Flowers

[inspired by this]

“actually… i just miss you.”

“alright, i’ll leave you alone.”

“and slowly… i was forgotten.”

“and then everything just disappears.”

“and where do i go?”

“anyone could tell from here.”

“are you finishing that or…?”

“are you stupid or stupid?”

“anything, just call me, okay?”

“bitch better have my money.”

“bro… that’s so… not cool…”

“but did you do it?”

“call me now. it’s urgent.”

“can’t you listen to me?”

“cross that. don’t answer that.”

“don’t even think about it.”

“don’t you dare walk away.”

“do it. i dare you.”

“did you think i forgot?”

“eventually… you just move on.”

“even if you still do.”

“everything will fall into place.”

“fight me, you attractive stranger.”

“for once, i need you.”

“for once… i was right.”

“for once… i was wrong.”

“forget i even asked you.”

“forget it. you fucking suck.”

“fuck’s sake, what’s your problem?”

“fuck off. i mean it.”

“give and take. that’s life.”

“great. perfect. nice. fuck this.”

“have you lost your mind?”

“hello? it’s me. i was-”

“hey… that wasn’t so nice.”

“here’s a glass of whatever.”

“how about a hug, hm?”

“how about you make me?”

“i haven’t forgot you yet.”

“i can’t be around you.”

“i don’t need you, really.”

“i don’t need this now.”

“is this your first time?”

“it’s just a cut, really.”

“it wasn’t me, i swear!”

“i said i love you.”

“just don’t fuck it up.”

“just… come back alive, okay?”

“just make sure you’ve eaten.”

“kick his ass for me.”

“killed him? wait, what, literally?”

“life really sucks. feel better.”

“letting go hurts… a lot.”

“let me live, will you?”

“no, i don’t need you.”

“nothing can hurt me now.”

“nothing matters anymore to me.”

“okay it was me… so?”

“people lie all the time.”

“pipe the fuck down, asshole.”

“please, you can’t die now.”

“please don’t leave me alone.”

“quiet. they can hear us.”

“quick! give me your phone!”

“quicker, you freaking piece of-”

“quit it or i’ll bite.”

“quit staring! they’ll notice us!”

“really? do i look stupid?”

“real smooth, tripping over air.”

“rise and shine, sweet thing.”

“rise and fucking shine, motherfucker.”

“seriously? give me a break.”

“so… what are we now?”

“so… did you miss me?”

“so… can we go eat?”

“so… when’s the next flight?”

“so… how did everything go?”

“sometimes, i wish you died.”

“so what? you did it.”

“time passes slower without you.”

“then what do you suggest?”

“the fuck? who are you?”

“then you tell me why.”

“this is not working out.”

“this isn’t what i wanted.”

“this is all a fucking disaster.”

“when did it all happen?”

“who knew you’d be here?”

“why do i even bother?”

“why do i love you?”

“why didn’t you tell me?”

“you’re just… so, so stupid.”

“you can’t be here now.”

“you look like an accident.”

“you really need to go.”

“you know who to call.”

Stunning Fine Jewelry Inspired by Space

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View similar posts here!

Best of spring: Under $30

Easter gifts & decorations

Personalized and custom jewelry

Mother’s Day gifts

Mother’s Day jewelry

Jewelry shop

Gifts for her

Home gallery

Want to create a religion for your fictional world? Here are some references and resources!

General:

General Folklore

Various Folktales

Heroes

Weather Folklore

Trees in Mythology

Animals in Mythology

Birds in Mythology

Flowers in Mythology

Fruit in Mythology

Plants in Mythology

Folktales from Around the World

Africa:

Egyptian Mythology

African Mythology

More African Mythology

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

The Gods of Africa

Even More African Mythology

West African Mythology

All About African Mythology

African Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

The Americas:

Aztec Mythology

Haitian Mythology

Inca Mythology

Maya Mythology

Native American Mythology

More Inca Mythology

More Native American Mythology

South American Mythical Creatures

North American Mythical Creatures

Aztec Gods and Goddesses

Asia:

Chinese Mythology

Hindu Mythology

Japanese Mythology

Korean Mythology

More Japanese Mythology

Chinese and Japanese Mythical Creatures

Indian Mythical Creatures

Chinese Gods and Goddesses

Hindu Gods and Goddesses

Korean Gods and Goddesses

Europe:

Basque Mythology

Celtic Mythology

Etruscan Mythology

Greek Mythology

Latvian Mythology

Norse Mythology

Roman Mythology

Arthurian Legends

Bestiary

Celtic Gods and Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic Lands

Finnish Mythology

Celtic Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

Middle East:

Islamic Mythology

Judaic Mythology

Mesopotamian Mythology

Persian Mythology

Middle Eastern Mythical Creatures

Oceania:

Aboriginal Mythology

Polynesian Mythology

More Polynesian Mythology

Mythology of the Polynesian Islands

Melanesian Mythology

Massive Polynesian Mythology Post

Maori Mythical Creatures

Hawaiian Gods and Goddesses

Hawaiian Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses

Creating a Fantasy Religion:

Creating Part 1

Creating Part 2

Creating Part 3

Creating Part 4

Fantasy Religion Design Guide

Using Religion in Fantasy

Religion in Fantasy

Creating Fantasy Worlds

Beliefs in Fantasy

Some superstitions:

Africa:

Ancient Egypt: the Mythology

Egyptian Gods

Legendary Monsters of Africa

The Americas:

Aztec Mythology

Incan Mythology

Haitian Mythology

Mayan Mythology

Asia:

Chinese Mythology

Japanese Mythology

Korean Mythology

Hindu Mythology

Japanese Folklore and Mythology

Chinese Mythology

Europe:

Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology

The Olympians

Women in Greek Myths

Greek Mythology

More Greek Mythology

Even More Greek Mythology

Greek/Roman Mythology

Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas

Norse Mythology

The Muse

Creepy Irish Creatures

Irish Folklore

Norse Mythology

Arthurian Mythology

Celtic Mythology

Latvian Mythology

Norse Gods, Goddesses, and More

A Celtic Pantheon

Welsh Gods and Goddesses

Celtic Deities

Werewolf Legends from Germany

Welsh Deities

Celtic Gods and Goddesses

Oceanic:

Australian Mythology

Polynesian Mythology

General:

Ancient Myth and Magic

Massive List of Mythological Creatures

Mythical Creatures

Hairy Hominids

Cryptozoology

Mysterious Beings, Monsters, and Creatures

Amulets and Good Luck Charms A - Z

Modern Monsters

Myths and Legends

Folklore and Mythology (2)

More Links

Folklore, Myth, and Legend

Names of Gods and Goddesses

Prompts for the week of 3/12/17

Nightmare or memory hurt/comfort is the theme

Nightmares:

One has a nightmare and the other hears them and goes to comfort them

One has a nightmare and goes in search of comfort

One has a nightmare and gets up because they can’t sleep and the other finds them

One wakes up with a nightmare when they’re already sharing a bed

If you’re wondering what the nightmare could be of, the memories prompts might help.

Memories:

Rose or the Doctor remembering an adventure when the other was badly hurt or in danger

Rose starting to remember Bad Wolf

Rose or the Doctor remember the other post Doomsday

The Doctor remembering Gallifrey and Rose comforting him

Rose remembering Jimmy Stone and the Doctor comforting her

Post Journey’s End Rose remembers seeing the Doctor just before he regenerated in End of Time

Rose thinking back on the Time Lord Doctor after beginning her life with the part-human Doctor

AUs:

Person A is a ghost and Person B can see them

A human Doctor who’s lost his family in parallel circumstances to the canon Doctor having nightmares or getting lost in his memories of them, and being comforted by Rose

Words to use instead of “very” . Useful in a polish among other things.

So many prompts are about the meet-cute. So this list is meant to go straight to the good parts. Please use, prompt, share, add to, etc.

I have you shoved against the wall but now I can’t stop looking at your mouth

We were dancing but all of a sudden it’s a slow song and we’re standing here awkwardly staring at each other

I just told you I liked you but now I’m shy and say “never mind, forget it” and why are you looking at me like that?

We slept in the same bed for space reasons but now we’re just waking up and there’s something about your bleary eyes and mussed hair

It’s time to fight the boss and if I don’t tell you now, I might not live to tell you

Congratulations! One of your dreams has finally come true. Let me give you a big hug and wow, you’re warm…

I’ve never seen anything like the way you handled that. I’m just so moved.

Oh, my God, I thought you were going to die. Please don’t ever scare me like that again.

We’re hiding from the authorities and it’s very close quarters in here, I can feel your body against mine.

Wait, my hero’s secret identity is… you? To be honest, I’d always kind of hoped…

You’ve said you’re going to leave, but I don’t want you to go and if I don’t say something now…

We were pretending to be lovers but I’m not pretending anymore and I have to know if you feel the same way

First, I would like to start this post with a little bit of a disclaimer. Burns are absolutely horrific things. They can destroy our sense of self, of even being able to see ourselves as truly human. They inflict pain in such types and amounts as to be mind-boggling, perhaps even debilitating. This series comes with content warnings for burns, childhood burns, pain, critical illness, ICU stays, and comparisons of human flesh to that of animals. Ultimately, it’s what we are.

A quick image search will turn up horrendously graphic images of people whose lives have been completely changed–some might use the word “destroyed”–by burns. I’m endeavoring to keep the images to illustrations, rather than actual photographs. I may succeed, I may not. I strongly recommend you do NOT search for these images. They’re absofuckinglutely horrific.

For my own part, I’ve collected people out of fires, and not all of them have lived. I’ve done my best to keep them alive and deliver them safely to the burn unit. I’ve also spent a brief amount of time rotating through the burn unit at a major, world-known medical center and have been fortunate enough to get lectures from their staff on a  couple of occasions.

Being exposed to people who’ve been burned like that changes you.

It changes the way you’re willing to perceive human lives. We are no longer indestructible. We are knit of flesh, and we roast, just like any other. We are so very, very fragile.

In this series of posts I will do my best to keep these memories out, to stick to the medicine and not the experience. But it may creep in around the edges.

So this series is dedicated to burn victims, to their families, and to the godsdamned courageous Burn ICU nurses and doctors who care for the most-badly burned. Thank you for all that you do.

Burn Depth and Degree

There are multiple ways to classify burns. However, I’ll use the two most common ones, which classify burns based on depth.

Burns are typically classified into degrees, which talk about how far into the skin burns go. I’ll go into detail after this handy illustration, courtesy of Medscape (WARNING: That linked slideshow contains graphic images).

Courtesy of Medscape.

First-degree burns are the least serious. They damage only the top layer of skin (the epidermis), and tend to come from the coolest sources around. The skin may turn red, and be painful, but won’t be permanently damaged. Humans can develop first-degree burns from thermal (heat) sources, or from UV radiation, such as a sunburn.

Second-degree burns are more serious. As you can see above, the dermis, the underlayer of the skin (which contains things like sweat glands and certain nerve endings). Burns like this may blister – this is a relatively reliable indication of a second degree burn.

I cannot overstate this enough: second degree burns are extremely painful, especially across large areas of the body.

Third-degree burns are burns that have made their way through the entire layer of the dermis and into the subcutaneous tissue. These are the burns that destroy underlying blood vessels and cause them to coagulate, that destroy nerve endings.

The tissue itself may look waxy and white in color, or it may char over or turn brown. It may gain a leathery appearance.

Third-degree burns may also continue to burn deeper, causing damage to the underlying muscle and even bone. Burns, under the right circumstances, can cause amputations, though these are rare.

One other thing  worth noting about 3rd-degree burns: the center of them doesn’t hurt, because the underlying nerves have been burned away. However, no 3rd-degree burn is isolated. Because that tissue retains heat, it will always burn the area around it. A third degree burn will always have a circumferential a second degree burn around it, and that second degree burn will hurt all to hell.

4th-6th degree burns: You may sometimes see people referring to burns as “4th degree” burns, all the way up to 6th degree burns. This is an older nomenclature; these numbers indicate burns below the depth of the skin, into the muscle tissue and underlying organs. But this is, at least in my service area, outdated terminology. Burns this deep are still categorized as 3rd degree.

Partial- and Full-Thickness Burns

This is an easier way of classifying burn depth. Partial-thickness burns only involve the epidermis and potentially part of the dermis layer – 1st and 2nd degree – while anything worse involves all of the dermal layers (3rd degree). The burn unit I’ve worked most closely with actually prefers this nomenclature, but the other is so well known I had to include it as well.

Common Burn Sources

Burns can come from one of several sources. They may be because of direct heat, such as in a house fire, or from a hot liquid splashing on someone. Critical burns have come from coffee cups and frying pans, especially in small children, who love to grab at things without understanding why grabbing the pot handle on the stove may be a terrible idea.

This blog does not give real world advice. However, if there are small children near you, turn your godsdamned pot handles IN on the stovetop. Childhood burns are preventable. Prevent them.

Yes, I’m willing to break a very strict blog policy I’ve had since day one for this. It’s that important, and it’s that simple. Don’t give them anything to grab.

The Rule of 9s

Estimating burn size is an inexact science, but we’ve sure tried! The Rule of 9 gives a quick estimate of “percent” of the burn – specifically, the percentage of the patient’s Body Surface Area that’s burned (%BSA in medslang).

The chart looks like this:

Image courtesy of WebMD

As you can see, each aspect of the body accounts for 9% of total body surface area, except for the genitals, which account for 1% of BSA regardless of configuration or size. As my EMS instructors like to say, even Ron Jeremy’s 1% is still only 1%.

So a person with complete circumferential burns of one leg would have burns over 18% BSA (Anterior: 9, posterior: 9; 9+9=18%). Meanwhile, if the burns encompassed the abdomen and anterior right forearm, their %BSA would be 13.5 (9% + 4.5%). A burn over the entire lumbar area, half the upper back, and entire left arm would have (9% + 4.5% + 9% = ) 22.5% BSA burns.

For smaller areas, the area of the patient’s palm is equivalent to 1% of BSA.

For writing, %BSA is only important as a throwaway comment, but it’s worth the quick math to figure out how much the character is burned so a medical character can sound like a smartypants. (“Mister Rogerthorn has full-thickness burns over 36% of his body” sounds quite official!)

That’s It for Part 1!

This post is running long, so we’re going to stop here for now. Next time on this series we’ll talk about burn first aid and field care, along with co-morbidities we might see (including inhalation burns and carbon monoxide poisoning).

Thanks so much for your time, and for your attention, and I’ll see you in Part 2!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

disclaimer

How would you feel about a free eBook destroying BS tropes that need to die?

Blood is thicker than water The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

I am an impatient writer. I get up most days and feel furious with myself and the universe that my book isn’t done.

I’ve been writing it for a long time. And, nothing I do makes it good. It isn’t living up to its potential. Which infuriates me. 

I don’t want to write it anymore. I WANT IT TO BE DONE.

But, it’s not done. And, I have to face that fact. It upsets me that every day it seems like books very similar to mine or being picked up, or published and I’m once again going back to the drawing board.

It’s frustrating, especially, when I know that I am a good writer. That my book is a good idea and that it’s relevant and would probably be welcomed. But, right now it just SUCKS. My book sucks and it makes me angry.

I’m impatient for what’s in my head to be clear on the page. But, it’s not there yet. And, I have to learn patience. I have to remind myself that at my core, I am a screenwriter. I have been trained to write movies and TV shows. Which is why I work in TV and not in the publishing industry.

I have to remind myself that writing a book is actually a challenge because it’s writing outside my comfort zone. I have to remind myself that some people spend years, decades even on their first book. I have to remind myself that many published authors are older than me by a lot. I have to remind myself that my craft gets better with age because my knowledge of the world gets wider with age.

I have to remind myself that having the best possible book is the goal. Not just being published. Not just being a paid writer. But, the best possible story. The best possible draft. The best possible book.

That is really what I am in it for. I’m in it for the one reader out there who will get it on a visceral level. Not for the fame, and movie deals and big paychecks. Bu, for the story I have wanted to tell for a long time for the characters who whisper their tales to me deep in the middle of the night.

Coexisting With The Fair Folk Who Have Taken Up Residence In/Around/Beneath Your University: A How-To Guide

See more of my comics here, and my art here!

Whole bunch of lore/things I couldn’t fit/everything I love about the overlap in superstition and General College Weirdness below the cut-

I’m imagining your general Freshmen Orientation warnings to never accept a drink at a party from a stranger. Or food. In fact, if anyone ever offers you anything, make sure you have a cleverly polite way to confirm it’s a gift, not a trade for something you’re not prepared to give up.

A pair of Fashion & Design majors who figure out how to make glasses frames to function as mood rings and discreetly sell them to students who want to “see” without being caught.

Do the returned musicians come back with the gift to enchant with Faerie Music? Theatre and Vocal majors returned with the gift of siren songs?

On that note, Faerie bands in disguise. Parties in people’s houses where everyone inexplicably dances all night, some until they faint, others until their feet blister and bleed. When the band packs up and leaves at sunrise and people start coming to, no one who threw the party can remember even inviting a band to play.

There’s a tree in the quad with notes and trinkets tied carefully to the branches. If you want something and leave a note and an offering in it, you may get what you asked for in return. But it’s not reliable. Often you get nothing, sometimes nothing would’ve been better than what you end up with. It’s better to ask out loud at twilight, chance favors the bold.