Writerâs Block
A picture says a thousand words. Write them.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.
Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!
DEAR READER
sheepfilms
todays bird

Andulka
art blog(derogatory)
Monterey Bay Aquarium

romaâ

@theartofmadeline

â
will byers stan first human second

Discoholic đŞŠ
dirt enthusiast
noise dept.
d e v o n
hello vonnie
RMH
Sweet Seals For You, Always
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taylor price

seen from Russia
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@thefictiontree
Writerâs Block
A picture says a thousand words. Write them.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.
Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!

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SINGULTUS
[noun]
1. sobbing, speech interrupted by sobs.
2. (by extension) a rattling in the throat; clucking (of a hen); croaking (of a raven); gurgling (of water).
3. death rattle; the raspy or gurgling sound sometimes made by a person as he or she draws in or expels the final breaths in the moments before dying.
4. the final breath before death.
5. Â the medical term for hiccups.
Etymology: Latin.
[Jakub Schikaneder - Dead Girl]
Dyingggggg
Something for everybody
Word of the Day: skerry
n. A reef or rocky island.Â
Image: Coral reef ecosystem at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge by Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.Â

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Write with abandon and no constraints for first draft. Cut brutally and save in separate files on second draft. Add conflict; donât be afraid to make your characters suffer. Read what you love. Write what you love. Love.
Francesca Lia Block (via maxkirin)
For us, during revisions.
SUPRANUBILAR
[adjective]
above the clouds; beyond the clouds.
Etymology: from Latin supra, âaboveâ + nubes, âcloudâ.
[Christian Schloe - The Great Escape]
This is not a bio format template, itâs more of a character development writing template that I use when it comes to creating my characters. This format works for me personally but you can obviously add/remove anything you find relevant. You can download a formatted (.rtf) version here for easier use.
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Writerâs Block
A picture says a thousand words. Write them.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.
Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Write your way through a problem. Make pro/con list. Write out possible scenarios. Keep writing until your mind is eased.Â
Do you have any advice for writing the sense of smell? As a writer who was born without being able to, I find it very difficult to try and describe things that smell good/bad because I have no frame of reference. Some tricks that I've managed to is referring to the visual or taste if applicable, but I feel like I'm missing a key note of description of scenes because of the lack of scent as well. Thanks very much!
The poet William Wordsworth actually had no sense of smell, which is particularly interesting because as a Romantic he was a very sensory poet. Of course, he largely relied on visual imagery and sound to portray the worlds within his poems. This is what you will likely need to do as well.Â
Honestly, donât obsess too much over the fact that youâre lacking in one particular sense. You have four other senses to fill in the gaps. Itâs better for you to rely on those rather than use cliched descriptions of scent because thatâs all you really have to go on.Â
Your reader will probably not even notice that it isnât there. And fortunately, scent rarely packs as much of a punch as other types of sensory description in stories.
While I do encourage the use of your other four senses since you have experienced them, I would not lay smell entirely by the wayside! Scent is actually the most powerful link to memory out of all of the five main senses. Smell is so powerful that you donât even really need to describe it, per se, you just need to tell the reader what theyâre smellingâsimply saying âthe smell of pavement when it starts to rainâ will trigger strong memories, even emotional ones, in your reader. Smell can take the reader from a casual observer of your story, to a participant, and that is a handy tool for any author. You want the reader involved, and calling on their sense of smell is a good way to do that.Â
Since you canât detect scents yourself, you could ask a family member or friend if your smell descriptors sound cliche or donât make any sense, or you could google the simple phrase to see if too much or absolutely nothing pops up.
I still do think that richly describing the other four senses is a good way for you to write, too, but all the same, donât discount the sense of smell entirely.
I actually wanted to write up a post today to clarify my point since I wasnât as clear as I wanted to be last night, but I think you did it well enough that I can just add one more thing.Â
Sense is in many ways a different type of descriptor *because* it is so much more closely linked to memory than the other senses. When I say it doesnât âpack a punchâ I meant more so in terms of quickly and effectively setting a scene.Â
VOLUCRINE
[adjective]
of or relating to birds.
Etymology: Latin volucris, âflying creature, birdâ.
[Marc Burckhardt - Aviary]
I find it impossible to write fiction thatâs set after 2002. [âŚ.] Itâs just that itâs inconceivable to depict contemporary times authentically without including interludes where characters stare at their cell phones instead of advancing their plotlines â their lives â towards some conclusion. Which is, as a thing to read, mind-numbingly dull. Unless I write âand then his Galaxy 4âs battery diedâ no one can ever get lost, forget an important fact, meet a partner outside of a dating site, or do anything that doesnât eventually have them picking up a phone. So Iâm stuck writing about an era where Ethan Hawke was considered the pinnacle of manliness. Is
âYour Phone Is Ruining You For Us" - Robert Lanham, The Awl
It is just unbelievable how âold man yells at cloudâ neo-luddites come off when they go on rants about how technology is destroying everything interesting about humanity. I mean, leaving aside the bizarre circlejerk that is the second half of the article, which is its own trek into evidence-free weirdness, itâs just likeâŚhow much of a fucking dinosaur do you have to be to write paragraphs like this? And itâs not just this dude.Â
I mean, you canât throw a rock without you hitting some cranky middle-aged white-dude author whoâs been kind of successful (or really successful) for a while now going âKids these days with their Honeys Boo Boo and their feetball and their Pokemons and their cell phones and their utterly banal and uninteresting alienation that occurs even while theyâre simultaneously more connected than ever before.â
You, as a writer, honestly cannot come up with any way to either incorporate phones interestingly or a way to ignore them convincingly? None? To the point that youâre âstuckâ being unable to set your work past the â90s? You do realize that youâre self-identifying as less adaptable and clever than like 80% of sitcom writers in that case, yeah?
I mean, the only way you can come to the conclusion that this is just impossible to do is if you were either tragically unimaginative to begin with or if your refusal to engage with the technology is so complete that youâre left sincerely judging these things by their ad campaigns.Â
You donât want to engage with the technology? Fine. Leave it on the cutting-room floor. Nobody wants to read about somebody playing CandyCrush for half an hour on the subway if thatâs the only thing going on. (Other things nobody wants to read about: A character watching tv for half an hour, a character reading a book for half an hour, a character knitting for half an hour, a character spending half an hour doing nothing but plowing a fucking field, etc.) You canât come up with a way to make phone-use interesting and plot-advancing? Sorry, thatâs you sucking.
Technology isnât perfect. Technology isnât uniformly accessible. Technology is subject to user error, and outages, and sabotage, and theft.
Remember this?
[London tube announcement sign reading âFor the benefit of passengers using Apple iOS 6, local area maps are available from the booking office.â]
Yeah. GoogleMaps will quite frequently send you rabbiting through a loop of toll road for no reason, too. Or confidently insist that your new dentistâs office is in the middle of a highway, or that a patch of territory really belongs to the wrong country. GPS apps will cheerily direct you to make a left-hand turn where strictly prohibited, or instruct you to drive into the sea. You can absolutely get lost without your phone dying.
Careless accidents or casual misbehavior can take on horror-movie proportions given the right circumstances. Giving in to the temptation of a quick surreptitious Googling of your date or a new acquaintance while theyâre in the bathroom can cast a completely new light on things theyâve said and leave you spending the rest of the evening in a conversational Twilight Zone. An unlocked phone left unattended presents an opportunity for snooping previously unheard of without having access to someoneâs home. A lost or stolen phone presents the possibility of trouble in a similar proportion, only with added malicious intent and threats of damage. The immediacy of contact can be used to defuse or accelerate confrontations, or add new layers to previously-established inter-character tension.
As many interesting plot-device limitations as phones (theoretically) destroy, they provide that many more new opportunities. Or you just come up with new ways to retain the same limitations. When residential lines became the expectation, films started establishing that service was out, or the line was cut, or that the home didnât have one in order to explain why characters didnât just call somebody. Once candy-bar phones became de rigueur, stories started establishing that nobody had any bars. Smart phones are now sidelined by apps not working, or batteries being drained, or service being unavailable. Done and done. Hell, even in any area with perfect reception and functionality, emergency situations can still involve yelling at a 911 operator that youâre on the side of the fucking road being attacked by a fucking O-T-T-E-R, and no, you donât have a fucking address to give them.
If you donât want to bother with that, fine. If you prefer to write in a time when these things didnât have to be taken into account, thatâs fine, too. But donât sit there acting like it canât be done interestingly or intelligently or to the benefit of the plotline, if you care to take two seconds and consider how all that information, connection, and accessibility grits or greases the gears for your characters and your plots.
(via stuckinabucket)

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41 Emotions as Expressed through Body Language
Found Here x
41 Emotions as Expressed through Body Language UniqueÂ
This list, while exhausting, is soooo not exhaustive; it barely scratches the surface. And each entry could easily become clichĂŠ (if it isnât already). But, it should be enough to get you started. Want more? Start watching people (not in a creepy way), and take notes of what they seem to do when expressing different emotions. Your repertoire of expression will double in no time. PSâdo not use these for actual, real-life body language reading; you will fail. These are strictly novelistic.
Awed -Slack -jawed, raised eyebrows, staring -Frozen, slack body language (Self? What self? There is only Zuul.) -Take a step back and put a hand to his heart
Amused -Smiling and throwing back her head laughing -Slapping her thighs, stamping her feet, clapping her hands -Shaking her head (Thatâs so wrong!)
Angry/Aggressive -Sharp movements, like shaking a fist, pointing, slashing, or slamming a fist on a table -Flushed face, patchy red blotches -Tension in neckâchords standing out, veins throbbingâand jutting or tucked chin -Arms akimbo, or clenching fists -Entering someone elseâs space and forcing them out -Poofing up with a wide stance (I am big! Very big!), arms wide (Bring it!) -Lowered eyebrows, squinting eyes -Teeth bared, jaw clenched, snarling
Annoyed -Pressing lips together into a thin line -Narrowing eyes sometimes with slight head tilt (Why do you still exist?) -Rolling eyes, often paired with a long-suffering sigh
Anxious -Fidgeting, such as tearing grass into little pieces, playing with a ring, or chewing on a pencil -Biting lower lip, swallowing unnecessarily -Quickened breathing or holding breath -Darting eyes -Pallor, sweating, clammy palms -Unusually high-pitched, ânervousâ laughter -Hunched shoulders -Pacing
Attentive -Slow head nodding with a furrowed brow -Leaning forward, toward the speaker, and sitting up -Taking notes -Looking over the top of her glasses
Bored -Resting his head on his palm, peeking out between the fingers, maybe even slipping so his head âaccidentallyâ hits the table -Tapping toes, twirling pencil, doodling, and otherwise fidgeting -Staring out a window, or at anything remotely more interesting (Which is everything âŚ)
Confident -Arms clasped behind body -Head lifted, chest out, standing tall -Walking briskly and making firm, precise movements
Confused -Tilting head with narrowed eyes -A furrowed brow -Shrugging
Contempt/Superiority -Lifted chin (The better to look down the nose.) -Pursed lips, sneering, slight frown -Circling a shoulder, stretching her neck, turning awayâanything to indicate she doesnât see the person as a threat or worthy of her attention -Grabbing her lapels, or tucking her thumbs in her waistcoat (See this clothing? It is much nicer than yours.) -Dismissive hand-waving
Cynical/Sarcastic/Bitter -Twisted lips or a half-smile -Sneering, sometimes with shaking the head and other defensive body language -Pressed lips with a slight frown -Eye rolling
Defensive -Crossed arms, legs, crossed anything, really (Well, maybe not fingers ⌠or eyes âŚ) -Arms out, palms forward (Stop!) -Placing anything (sword, shield, book, backpack) in front of her body
Disgusted -Crinkling his nose -Curling his lip and/or showing the tip of his tongue briefly -Flinching back and interposing a shoulder or turning away -Covering his nose, gagging, and squinting his eyes shutâhardâfor a moment. (It assaults all the senses.)
Displeased -A plastered-on fake smile (You suck; but I canât tell you that. So here: a fake smile! Enjoy.) -Pouting or frowning (Iâll cry if you donât give me what I wantâdonât test me, I will!) -Crossed arms and other defensive/frustrated body language (I will not let that terrible idea influence me!)
Distressed -Wide eyes and shallow, rapid breathing -Beating the walls, or huddling into a corner -Clasping hands over his head protectively -Rocking himself -Handwringing -Running his hands through his hair
Earnest/Passionate -Leaning forward, nodding, wide eyes with strong eye contact and raised eyebrows -Hand on heart, or presented palms-up, or otherwise visible -A double-handed handshake (I really want to make sure you understand me!)
Embarrassment -Blushing -Stammering -Covering her face with her hands or bowing her head (Iâm so embarrassed, I canât look!) -Difficulty maintaining eye contact, looking down and away
Excited/Anticipation -Rubbing hands together (I canât wait to get my hands on it!) -Licking lips (Itâs so close I can taste it!) -A vigorous, pumping handshake (I canât wait to get started!) -Jumping up and down (Look at me being literal here! I am jumping for joy.) -A wide and easy grin
Flirty -Eye play, like winking, looking up through the lashes, over the shoulder glances, and eye catching  -Preening, like hair flipping or smooth, clothing straightening, spine straightening, etc. -Striking a cowboy pose, with his thumbs gripping his belt tight
Frustrated -Shaking his head (You are so wrong!) -Massaging temples (My brainâit hurts.) -Clasping his wrist in his opposite hand, behind his back (Bad arm! No biscuit.) -Running his hands through his hair (All this frustration is making my hair mussy. I can feel it.) -Grabbing onto something like armrests, or white-knuckled interdigitation (Restrain yourself!)
Happy -Smiling and laughing -Eyes and nose crinkling -Swinging her arms, spinning loosely, dancing, jumping
Impatience -Quick head nodding (Get on with it!) -Toe/finger tapping (Hear this? These are seconds. Wasted. Listening to you.) -Sighing, checking the clock/sundial/freckles (Time. It is moving so slowly.)
Jealous -Tight lips, or a sour expression -Narrow eyes locked on the perpetrator, to the point of a stare down -Crossed arms, and additional frustrated, angry, possessive, or bitter body language
Lying -Scratching their nose, ear, neck, miscellaneous part of face -Sudden change in behavior or demeanor, including shifty eye contact, lots of long blinking, shrugging -Ill-timed smiles or laughter (This is how I normally smile, right? Right???) -Additional anxiety body language -Shaking head no while saying âyesâ (I canât believe I just lied.) -Licking lips, covering mouth, touching mouth, etc.
Overwhelmed -Both palms to forehead, fingers splayed (This gives me a headache.) -Covering eyes with one hand (If I canât see the world, it canât see me âŚ) -Eyes wide and staring into space, hands gripping the table in front of her (âŚÂ Woah.)
Playful/Friendly -Winking -Waggling eyebrows -Tiny shoves or nudge
Pleasure -Head tilted back, lips parted slightly, eyes wide or closed -Slow, languorous movements, stretching (such as arching her neck or back) -Slight flush, quickened breath and pulse
Possessive -Handshake with arm clasp -Putting hands on or around someoneâs shoulders, neck, waist, back, or even just the wall near them -Standing in someoneâs personal space, body positioned toward that person -Any one-sided act of intimacy, like running a knuckle down someoneâs cheek -Staring down any who get too close
Proud/Dominant -Chin up, chest out, shoulders back -A painfully hard handshake that not only squishes the bones, but also forces his hand on top -Leaning back with his hands behind his head, and his feet up -Strong, unblinking, focused eye contact
Reluctance/Resistance -Arms crossed, sometimes with fists (Not happening.) -Dragging feet (But I donât wanna!) -Pinching nose (You want me to do what now?) -Clamping hands over ears (La la la la!)
Sad/Upset -Droopy body (and anything held, like a sword), bowed in shoulders, wrapping arms around self -Slow movements with hesitation -Bottom lip jutting out and/or quivering -Crying, sobbing, body shaking, sniffling, wet eyes
Secretive -A tight-lipped smile (My lips are zipped.) -Hiding her hands in her pockets (What has it got in its nasty little pocket?) -Looking away
Scared -Hunched shoulders, shrinking back from others (Donât hurt me!) -Wide eyes and lifted eyebrows (The better to see them coming.) -Shaking, trembling, or freezing -Rocking from side to side, sometimes holding self (Itâll all be okay, self, itâll all be okay.)
Shame -Slumped shoulders (Donât look at me.) -Trouble meeting your gaze, looking down and away -Burying her face in her hands or bowing her head (I canât face the world right now.)
Shocked -Hands covering her mouth, or mouth hanging open, sometimes with a gasp (If I had words, I would be saying them.) -Freezing and staring with wide eyes and eyebrows raised (Diverting all resources toward staring.) -Smacking a palm into his forehead (Clearly, my head isnât working right, or I wouldnât have seen that)
Shy -Avoids eye contact, or has only fleeting eye contact (Eye contact means you might speak to me.) -Keeps a fair distance from everyone, and will back away if someone steps closer (Space invaders!) -Folded arms, head down, and other defensive body language (If I make myself small, they canât see me.)
Smug -Slight, close-lipped smile (occasionally one-sided) and sometimes one raised eyebrow (I know something you donât know.) -Chin slightly tucked, Mona Lisa smile, raised eyebrows (I know better.) -Finger steepling (I am so smaaaht.)
Suspicious/Skeptical/Disbelief -Narrowed eyes, sometimes with a sidelong glance or raised eyebrow (Perhaps if I look at it out of the corner of my eye, I will catch it unawares.) -Rubbing his eyes (I canât believe what Iâm metaphorically or literally seeing!) -Shaking his head (IâI donât believe it.) -Blowing out cheeks (Well , I donât know âŚ)
Tired -Rubbing his eyes, eyes staring into space, raised eyebrows (Raising my eyebrows helps keep my eyes open.) -Yawning and/or stretching (I am tiredâsee? Tired! Too tired to care!) -Almost nodding off and jerking awake (Cannot. Stay. Awaâsnnnnurzzzz.) -Gritting teeth to stay awake (Cannotâyawnâdang it!)
Thoughtfulness/Thinking -Steepling fingers (I will think better if I center myself and focus.) -Pinching nose, sometimes with closed eyes (Focus, focusâI just need to focus.) -Tugging on an ear (This will help me remember!) -Stroking a real or imaginary beard (People with beards look smart.) -Furrowed brow, narrowed eyes, sometimes tilted head and pressing lips together (I canât see itâI will try harder!) -Resting his chin on his hand (Thinking makes my head heavy.)
Triumphant -Hands clenched and held above head while grimacing (She is invincible!) -Head tilted back with a yell (She is fierce!) -Arm pumping in the air, jumping (Woohoo!)
CAESURA
[noun]
1. a pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.
2. a pause or interruption, as in conversation.
3. in Latin and Greek prosody, a break in a line caused by the ending of a word within a foot, especially when this coincides with a sense division.
4. Music: a pause or breathing at a point of rhythmic division in a melody.
Etymology: from Latin caesura, âmetrical pause,â literally âa cutting,â from past participle stem of caedere, âto cut downâ.
[Wylie Beckert - Sword of Purpose]