moved to @wynze

H-eonno’s Printable Study Guide!

Hello everyone! Today we bring you this specially designed printable. This guide has been designed to be used on a month by month basis. By completing the weekly templates, you’re setting yourself an attainable goal without overwhelming yourself. Plus, by keeping them documented you’ll have your own study folder in no time, perfect for learning and revision. You can print as many as you like, but we’ve  There is even a DIY test yourself page!

14 words a week = ~728 words a year. 

The sentencing sheet allows you to re-write words so you don’t forget the spelling, and also provides you with lines to write your own practice sentences!

White

also: pale; blanched; sallow; pallid; waxen; spectral; translucent; albino; 

Grey

also: dust; stone; pepper;  

Black

also:  coal; slate; dusky; ebon; shadow; murky; 

Tan

also: flesh; khaki; cream; tawny; 

Brown

also:  henna; russet; sepia; chestnut; cocoa; drab; bronze; 

Red

also: terracotta ; rouge; carmine;  fire-engine; ruddy

Orange

also:  pumpkin ; rust ; 

Yellow

also: sunny; amber; saffron; hay; straw; platinum; 

Green

also: viridescent; grass; jade; forest; 

Blue

also: turquoise; cyan; ultramarine; royal; aqua; aquamarine;

Purple

also: berry;  amaranthine;

Pink

also: flushed; candy; cherry blossom; petal pink ; 

—– source: http://ingridsundberg.com/

– Here’s a quick guide to punctuating dialogue in your story, since quite a few of you have expressed confusion surrounding the subject. A question about this subject was asked by @sakurahiwatari and I decided to make it into its very own post. Happy grammar-ing!

New Speaker ~ When there is someone new speaking, start a new paragraph. Always.

Multiple Paragraphs Of Dialogue From One Speaker ~ Sometimes there are multiple paragraphs of dialogue without a pause from a single speaker, so to punctuate these paragraphs, end each one with a terminal mark before continuing onto the next. Start the next paragraph of continuing dialogue with a new quotation mark, but don’t add one to the end of the last to let the reader know the speaker isn’t finished, or they’ll assume it’s somebody else and get confused.

Paragraph With Multiple Lines Of Dialogue ~ Insert your dialogue tag of choice or description of action following the first sentence, then continue with what the current speaker is saying. There are exceptions, but this helps the reader keep track of who is saying what.

Names In Dialogue ~ If there is a name in a piece of dialogue, or a nickname for that matter, enclose it with punctuation. If it is at the beginning or end of a sentence, put a comma between it and the rest of the line. If it is in the middle, put a comma before and after it.

Elipses ~ Use this when a character trails off. Don’t overuse this though. It truly shouldn’t show up very often and get’s quite distracting to the reader’s own narration when it keeps popping up.

When The Speaker Is Interrupted ~ Use an em dash where the speaker is interrupted, then where they continue their line.

When The Speaker Is Cut Off ~ Use an em dash, then close the quotation. This is mostly used when the speaker is cut off right in the middle of a word, such as “help m—” or “enou—”.

Quote Inside Dialogue ~ When a speaker is quoting someone or something else, the part they’re quoting should be enclosed in single quotation marks (”He is weak. ’Stop it son, stop it!’ Right, not doing that.”). When the single quotation marks end or begin next to the double quotation marks, put a space between them.

Dialogue Stopped By Action Or Thought Instead Of Dialogue Tag ~ When dialogue is interrupted to describe what a character is doing or narrate what a character is thinking, you pause the dialogue without a terminal mark, enclose the action or thought between two em dashes, then continue. For instance: “You wanted a ring”—she played with the little loop on her finger—”but you never cared enough to ask for one.” This rule applies to narration interrupted by action or thought as well.

Questions In Dialogue With A Dialogue Tag ~ The question mark is enclosed in the quotation, the dialogue tag is not capitalized because it is part of the same sentence.

Dialogue Interrupted By Dialogue Tag ~ Commas go at the end of the first quotation and at the end of the dialogue tag. This applies to splitting the dialogue into two sentences, but the dialogue tag would end with a period and the second sentence would begin with a capital letter.

One Line With A Dialogue Tag And Action ~ Dialogue is within quotation, tag follows and is separated from the action by a comma. This is also the case when the action and dialogue tag come before the dialogue, but the dialogue tag is always between the action and dialogue.

When A Dialogue Tag Is Before The Dialogue ~ A comma is put outside the quotation, between it and the tag.

Dialogue Tag After Dialogue ~ Line ends with a comma, then quotation mark, then dialogue tag, uncapitalized. This is because it is all one sentence.

Single Line Of Dialogue, No Tag Or Action ~ Line ended with terminal mark inside of quotations.

Direct & Indirect Dialogue ~ Direct dialogue is when someone is speaking, indirect dialogue is when someone is described as saying something. Indirect dialogue doesn’t require quotation marks, and an example would be: She told him that she was sorry.

If you want to learn more and get more detail about punctuation in dialogue, here is a helpful article where I got a lot of my information.

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It’s been so long I haven’t posted anything related to writing, but now that I have my posts planned and everything set (not really) I’m back with a little something related to my favorite bit about writing a story—character development. Today’s all about jerk characters who starts off with the baddest vibes but glow at the end with goodness; these types of characters often impress me because they are super hard to nail but if done well, it’s always amusing. So, hopefully, this five step process would help anyone get a slight idea of what to aim for when outlining such jerks’ arcs.

This post majorly highlights jerk protagonists, though it can be twisted and used for a secondary jerk character, too.

Step 1: Let charisma blind the readers.

Jerks are jerks in the first place because they don’t sound, talk, or socialize in a manner that others often follow. They won’t weep in front of you; in fact, they would zip up their lips or change the topic when anything related to their personal problems is gaining a potential spotlight in a conversation. In such cases, you can often use their charismatic appearances to make your readers take their side, even if for a short time. I mean, sharp jawlines have this charm to them…

However, it isn’t possible that every jerk character has physical features to die for (and that shouldn’t be the case, either) so let’s switch to an alternative step one. In this case, let your jerk use their charisma in the form of wit or the evergreen sarcasm and win the readers’ attention. Nope, we’re not wining readers’ hearts yet, be patient. After all, your character is a jerk.  

Step 2: Let them stand opposite to vile antagonists

This is kinda similar to what the world keeps doing with politicians. You vote for the one that’s less bad. Same here. Your jerk can climb up the first step in a ladder by being comparatively less obnoxious than the official bad guy. One way to do this is to let your jerk protagonist question the antagonist’s motives, thereby making your readers realise they would be rooting for a person who might take the right decision at some point.

Step 3: Let them be vulnerable

Now comes the part where your jerk’s being peeled off one by one and will be showing their true self to the readers, or at least hints of it. You don’t want to give away everything at once, right? A few tried and tested methods with a good success rate are: crying when drunk, freaking out in darkness, or writing poems. For anybody who questions: yes, writing poems or practising any form of art makes you vulnerable and in a good way. This is the first step to show a normal, yet imperfect, side of this person and thus make them more relatable.

Step 4: Let them have a compelling backstory

Everything happens for a reason, even if it’s fiction. While the without-a-reason bad attitude is great to despise a villain, we’re not aiming for that here. We want this jerk to get all the support of their readers while the climax is right around the corner. So how about giving them a backstory that would resonate well with their personality? This step follows the idea of garnering the readers’ sympathies and giving them a good enough explanation. Anything from the parents’ death to a lost love, plot a flashback that would peel off the last layer of this jerk and allow them to show their true self—the one that deserves to be a protagonist of your story.

Step 5: Let them grow

The last step is so much like cutting out all the leaves of a tree in winter so it grows back as a more greener version in the spring.  They haven’t actually grown, they’ve shredded through this journey. As a conclusion, craft their actions almost opposite to what they would’ve done in their first-step version. The story was winter where the leaves kept falling one by one and your jerk is now stepping into spring with a newer version of themselves—they changed for good. Make it evident enough to actually get your readers’ to applaud this jerk of a hero.

So that’s about it! Like any character’s arc, there aren’t any well-defined lines to mark the steps but the entire process should be gradual enough with an apparent change.