Covering the World in Ink

Push through it. Try prompts. Back up and try writing it differently. Have someone bust in the door with a gun. What’s the worse you can do to your characters? Do it. Push through it. Jump to the interesting part. Freewrite. Push through it. Take a break. Push through it. Figure out what you dislike about it and change it. Push through it. 

NaNo is about doing a 50,000 word rush to December. Don’t worry about liking your draft or liking anything about it. Just get to the end. Just write the allotted amount of words a day. you can edit the rest later, or throw it in the trash. It’s all about getting the draft. So keep going!

Escaping Writer’s Block

Finish the Draft, then Worry

Rediscovering Enthusiasm

Keeping Motivated

Punching Writer’s Block in the Face

Overcoming Writer’s Block

Anonymous asked you:

If you’re not sure of the information, keep writing.

I’m aware that not many roleplayers pay too much attention to their character’s appearance. This a real shame because in way, we don’t let our characters see other character’s physical appearance for themselves. We do it ourselves. We know how their character looks like thanks to their face claim. But I think it would be very interesting to let our characters react to the physical appearance of other characters. Here are some links you guys can look through if you want to give it a shot.

Word Lists

List of Physical Appearance Adjectives from Fox Hugh

Character Description Resource from The Word Pool

How to Describe a Person’s Physical Appearance from WikiHow

Describing People: A Person’s Physical Appearance from ILU English

Words to describe Apariencia (Physical Appearance) from Learn Spanish

Descriptive Words for Characters: Physical Qualities from Kilgore Independent School District

Examples of Physical Characteristics from Your Dictionary

List of Descriptive Words for Appearance from Your Dictionary

How to guides

Creating Vivid Characters from Skotos

Describing a Person: Adding Details from WriteShop

How to Describe a Character’s Looks Well from WikiHow

Your Character’s Physical Appearance from Tim Vandevall

The Writer’s Bane: Describing a Character’s Physical Appearance from the Bookself Muse

I’m going to address this in fairly broad strokes, because the idea of “dragon” is a fairly broad one. Essentially, it seems to mean any kind of big supernatural snakelike creature.

             THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOR

and how to apply it to your character.

While personality and behavior typically work hand in hand with each other, they are in fact not the same thing. Going through the tags and looking at characters in roleplays, I have noticed that there have been several bios that talk about the personality of a character, but they describe the behavior of that character then their personality. This is a guide to help admins to distinguish the two and further enrich their character biographies for potential members.

So, I was sitting here thinking about what I could possibly write up a post about. Then it hit me: why not write about something personal/near and dear to my heart. Reading many stories that have dealt with the issue of eating disorders (mostly fanfiction), I have noticed that sometimes people don’t completely grasp what eating disorders are or the differences between them. So I’m here to help.

This was longer than I thought it would be, so I’ve placed it all under a ‘read more’.

A Beginner’s Glossary of Terms for Swords

Arms of the Hilt

Part of the sword hilt extending on each side from the cross guard (or quillons) toward the blade and having the form of a small arc. The arms of the hilt are known to have been in use from the 15th century but they had probably made their appearance in the 14th, protecting the forefinger when it gripped the ricasso. They represented an important step in the development of the guard. In the swords of the 16th and 17th centuries the arms of the hilt served as a support for loops and rings of the guard, as well as for bars of the counterguard. 

Basket

An arrangement of bars, plates, and rings that form a “cage” around the sword hilt, creating a protected guard (or “basket”) around the wielder’s hand. 

Blade

The cutting and/or thrusting part of edged weapons, excluding the hilt. 

Blade Length (BL)

A unit of measurement representing the length of a weapon’s actual blade; generally measured from the tip to the end of the guards.

Blunt

A term applied to an unsharpened sword or dagger that has had its edges rounded for safe sparring activities. 

Button

A raised piece on the pommel of swords, daggers and knives, to which the tip of the tang of the blade was peened. It usually formed part of the pommel, but could also be a separate piece; it was sometimes made of a different material. Since the 19th century the button on military weapons has had a threaded hole inside to be screwed onto the threaded end of the tang. 

Center of Gravity (CoG) or Point of Balance

The Point of Balance on a sword is simply the point on which the center of gravity is located. In other words, it’s the spot along the blade’s length that has equal mass on either side of it. The PoB will vary widely between sword types and their intended functions. 

Center of Percussion 

The Center of Percussion of a blade is the measured value along its length that produces the least amount of vibration upon hitting a target. It’s the area able to deliver the most efficient, powerful blow and is often called the blade’s “sweet spot”.

Counterguard

Also called inner guard, a system of rings, loops, and bars in a sword guard that was developed in c.1500 to protect the inner side of the hand and body. Bars or branches of the counterguard usually joined the knuckle-guard and arms of the hilt. 

Cross (Cross-guard)

A part of the furniture of edged weapons, positioned crosswise to the blade and the grip. As the simplest form of guard, it has been known since antiquity. In some swords of the 16th to 18th centuries, cross guards were extended forward and backward to form the fore and rear quillons. Cross guards can also be seen on some staff weapons, on which they served the same purpose of protecting the hand. 

Cruciform

A term describing a sword with a simple cross-guard, that when inverted point up, forms the profile of a crucifix. 

Edge

The sharpened cutting portion of a weapon’s blade.

False Edge

In single-edged weapons, a sharpened portion of the back near the point; it is also called the back edge. It served both for better thrusting penetration and for cutting strikes carried out from the same position of the sword (without turning the hand).

Ferrule

A ring or cap reinforcing the grip of an edged weapon or the shaft of a pole arm. The term is also often applied to scabbard bands.

Finger Ring (Finger Guard)

The portion of a sword’s guard that is a semi-circular bar laying in the plane of the blade, attached to the root of the quillons and curved round to touch, or nearly touch, the edges of the blade. Finger rings are also called the Arms of the Hilt.

Foible

The upper third of the blade, ending in the point. The division of the blade into forte, terzo, and foible is attributed to the Italian school of fencing, which enjoyed a fine reputation in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Forte

The lower third of the blade of a sword, nearest the hilt, which is the strongest section of a blade and does most of the parrying. 

Fuller

The grooves running lengthwise on some blades of edged weaponry, designed to both lighten and make flexible the weapon. Compared with the various other structural modifications made to blades, the fuller appeared relatively late and only after considerable technological advances had been made in metalworking. In the Bronze Age there were opposite forms, with various angling and ribbing methods designed to reinforce the blade.

During the “barbarian” migrations, we find swords with blades having a wide, shallow groove running down both faces. At a later stage the first signatures or marks of the craftsman appeared in these grooves. Through the centuries the fuller became an even more integral part of the blade until, in the 16th and 17th centuries, it also became a demonstration of the craftsman’s skill.

Furniture

A generic word used to describe the accessories and fittings on various types of weapons. It refers, in particular, to everything built onto the tang of any edged weapon to facilitate its use and any decorative mounts on the handle, blade, or scabbard. It is also used in a general sense, when referring to attachments, fittings, and accessories of armor.

Grip

The part of edged weapons that is gripped by the hand. In the Stone Age it was made by rounding off and smoothing the part held, then binding it with leather or fabric. In the Bronze Age, because of the greater possibilities offered by this metal, the grip became markedly different from the rest of the weapons and added some sort of protection for the hand.

From the late Middle Ages, the wooden shaft was predominately used, covered with colored fabrics, sheets of decorated precious metal, polished leather, or twisted and braided wire. In order to provide a firm hold, the grip almost invariably had a spindle-like form, was fairly rounded, and trimmed and grooved.

Guard

In edged weapons, a device or a part designed to protect the user’s hand.

Hilt

The whole of the grip and the guard in a bladed weapon, generally consisting of the pommel, grip, and cross guard.

Knuckle-guard (or Knuckle-bow)

An important part of the hilt of swords and sabers in the form of a bow extending from the cross guard toward the pommel. As can be adduced from several English swords, it appeared no later than the mid-15th century, first as an extension of the cross guard strongly bent upward to protect the hand from cutting blows. Later the knuckle-guard became a central piece of the sophisticated system of side bars forming the guard of swords and rapiers.

Although it gradually lost its importance with the introduction of light thrusting smallswords in the second half of the 17th century, some examples of this weapon preserved the knuckle-guard as a traditional pattern up to the 20th century. In most types of military swords and sabers, the knuckle-guard has always retained its role of protecting the hand from cuts, and it is still a feature of fencing sabers and of swords of historic form worn with full dress uniforms. 

Langet

In staff weapons, the langet consisted of an iron strap, usually straight but sometimes zigzag shape, extending from the socket down the wooden part of the shaft and attached to it by nails or screws. There were usually two langets, in line either with the cutting edges or with the flat faces of the head. They carried out the dual task of increasing the strength of the attachment of the head to the staff and of protecting the most exposed part from blows.

In hafted combat weapons, therefore, the other two sides of the wood were sometimes protected by “false langets,” with one end fitted into the socket or into a square ring under the socket, thus protecting the other two sides of the wooden staff. In sabers, and less often, in other swords, the langets are extensions of the cross guard going symmetrically from its center into the grip and over the shoulder of the blade, on both faces of the blade.

In most cases, there is a small space between the blade and langets, which tightly fit the locket of the mouth of the scabbard, thus preventing an accidental unsheathing. There is a possibility that strong langets were also used by experienced swordsmen to stop and catch an opponent’s blade at a sliding lateral strike.

Overall Length (OL)

A unit of measurement representing the complete length of a weapon from tip to end.

Pas D’ane

A term of French origin, used fairly widely but incorrectly since the 19th century to describe the arms of the hilt. In the 17th century, it was used to describe one of the oval shells forming the sword guard. 

Point

A term referring to the sharp tip or end of a sword blade at the opposite end of the hilt.

Pommel

The end of the grip in swords and daggers, which served either to give a better hold on the weapon or to balance it. 

Port or Side Ring

Also called ring guard or port, a part of the guard of swords and daggers for protecting the hand during parrying actions, first seen in the 15th century and particularly widely used in the 16th and 17th centuries. The side ring was positioned at the center of the cross guard, at right angles to the blade. It was made of a solid piece of steel welded or brazed to the cross guard and was sometimes fitted, for additional protection of the fingers, with an openwork metal plate.

Occasionally a smaller side ring was placed inside another, both meeting at the cross guard. In other types, one side ring projected from the cross guard and the other from below it, both being linked by the arms of the hilt. The latter construction is frequently found on rapiers and two-handed swords.

Quillon (or Quillon)

An extended cross guard of swords and daggers designed in the 16th century to parry or entangle the opponent’s blade. The quillons extended from a base, the quillon block, below the grip, and were either straight, recurved in S-Form, or bent toward the blade (especially in parrying daggers). In some types of hilts the forward quillon was curved toward the pommel, serving as a knuckle-guard.

Quillon Block (or Quillon Block)

Part of the guard of edged weapons consisting of a small block of metal with the tang passing through it, acting as a support for the shoulder of the blade and the base of the cross guard. This feature was absent throughout most of the Bronze Age, appearing in antiquity as an intermediate element between the grip and the blade, being slightly broader than the latter. With the appearance of quillons and other elements of the guard, its form and function became more defined; in fact, the quillons extended from it, as did the knuckleguard and the arms of the hilt. The quillon block was also called the ecusson. 

Ricasso

The unsharpend section of the blade near the hilt and usually within the guards in front of the quillons. One purpose of the ricasso was to allow a user to curl a finger over a quillon, allowing for better point control. Often times, longer swords would have an extended ricasso, allowing the gripping of an entire hand onto the blade past the cross guard for more leverage.

Scabbard

A rigid sheath made of wood, metal, or leather-often cuir-bouilli (hardened leather)—used to enclose and carry the blade of an edged weapon, both to protect the wearer and to keep the blade clean and sound. In the protohistoric period, it was often made with plaques of cast bronze; later it was made with small wooden plaques that were covered with leather or fabric and then fitted with bindings and metal mounts.

The edged weapon has always been something of a status symbol, and the scabbard was therefore of great importance to keep the weapon in good order. The ways in which scabbards have been made down the ages vary a great deal, but they have been generally simple for weapons of war, and richly decorated and ornate for weapons carried by leaders and royalty, and for presentation and ceremonial weapons. 

Shell Guard

A type of the sword guard, often round or oval in shape. It appeared in the early 17th century and was used in various swords, such as the Pappenheimer or the Walloon sword. By 1630 it had assumed the hemispherical shape and was widely used in Spanish and Italian swords. Shell guards were also fitted to smallswords and to various hunting and naval weapons.

Tang

The stem of the blade, which extends into the handle and serves to attach the hilt. Its form varies depending on the system that joins the handle to the blade. If pointed, the tang is driven in like a nail, a very simple system still used for tool handles (e.g., files, chisels, etc.). In order to achieve a stronger join, the tang is usually shaped like a tapering cylinder that slightly exceeds the length of the handle and is peened onto the pommel or button. In the 19th century the end of the tang was often threaded, and the button was screwed onto it.

Terzo

The middle section of a blade, between the forte and the foible. 

Turk’s Head

A modern nickname for rings made of twisted-wire braid sometimes used to finish off both ends of the grip of swords and daggers. It is so called because of its resemblance to a turban, a type of headdress typical of some Moslem peoples.

Wire-wrap

A form of covering and finishing the grip of a weapon, consisting of twisted or braided wire spun round the handle. Often the wire was of alternating types (iron, bronze, copper, etc.) or alternating patterns (twisted clockwise, counter-clockwise, straight, etc.), forming complex visual patterns. Wire wrapping was employed both to increase the security of a weapon’s grip as well as of a means of decoration. 

Research ~ Writing a Believable Psychiatric Ward

Definition: 

A hospital or ward for the care and treatment of patients affected with acute or chronic mental illness.

Also known as mental wards and psych wards, the scene of psychiatric wards are often featured as the main plot point of many Tumblr roleplays under a different name (dare I say asylum?), and tend to garner a large audience.

This highly controversial area of medical concern produces its fair share of stereotypes and miss-led connotations, and can be problematic when dealing with the discourse of mental illness, where depth and character development can be lost within the disarray of presumptions.

Below is an annotated list of resources that can help round out how a mental health unit functions, experiences from those who have been issued to such institutions, and other helpful information to create a well-informed and hopefully less problematic understanding of psychiatric wards.

WARNING: This post contains links that may be considered triggering.

General Information

The History of Mental Illness ~ Overviews mental illness and past treatment. Recommended source. 

Psychiatric hospital ~ wikipedia page

Psychiatric care: Working in a the Psych Ward ~ Small article on a nurse’s perspective of working in a psych ward.

Mental Health Services in Australia ~ An overview of the mental health services in Australia, section on hospital admittance. 

A History of Mental Institutions in America ~ A timeline of America’s mental institution history.

Early Psychiatric Hospitals & Asylums ~ Overview of psychiatric hospitals from 1752 - 1824. Part of a small series called Diseases of the Mind.

Sexual assault in psych wards show urgent need for reform ~ An overlook of problematic areas found in Australian psych wards.

A Brief History of Mental Illness and the US Mental Health Care System ~ A well-referenced and informative article. Recommended source.

The Changing Role of the State Psychiatric Hospital ~ An article on the evolution of health care services, provides good insight. Recommended source.

An Illustrated History of the Mental Asylum ~ Slideshow on the history of mental asylums and some early treatments.

Psych Ward Experiences

My Week in the Psych Ward ~ Laurie Kramer describes her week in a psych ward and the personal effects it had on her. Recommended source.

Inside a psychiatric ward ~ An overview of a woman’s experience after she chose to come off anti-depressants.

How to survive a psychiatric ward ~ Posts on a forum from those who have visited a psychiatric ward. Some humor is involved, as well as anecdotes. Recommended source.

How was your psych ward experience? ~ Posts on a forum about psych ward experiences.

10 Insights from an Acute Psych Ward ~ An interesting outlook from a woman admitted to a psych ward. Recommended source.

Experience of a Psychiatric Ward ~ A distraught account of a woman in a psych ward.

In the Nuthouse ~ An account of a forcible detainment in a psych ward.

My Mental Hospital Experience: Part 1 & Part 2 ~ A girl details her experience in a mental hospital.

Attacked and scared (my experience in an adult psychiatric ward as a teenager) ~ An article posted in a forum about a teenage girl’s disturbing experience.

The Mad Doctor ~ An extraordinary story about a man who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and later became a psychologist.

Medications

Depression Medications ~ webMD, large list.

Antidepressants to treat depression ~ webMD, annotated list. Recommended source.

Bipolar Medication Guide ~ helpguide, thorough list of information. Recommended source.

Schizophrenia Medication Treatment ~ schizophrenia.com, list of resources.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Treatments and drugs ~ mayoclinic, information on both psychotherapy and medication.

Eating Disorder Treatment ~ mayoclinic, no specific medication but information on eating disorder treatment.

Common Admittance Reasons

Sources on Depression: beyondblue, reachout, webMD, psychcentral, mentalheathfoundation, mayoclinic

Sources on Bipolar/Manic depression disorder: mayoclinic, sane, helpguide, healthline, webMD, bipolar.com.au

Sources on Anorexia Nervosa (eating disorder): eatingdisorders.org.au, healthguide, mayoclinic

Sources on Bulimia Nervosa (eating disorder): healthguide, mayoclinic, University of Maryland Medical Centre

Sources on binge eating (eating disorder): healthguide, webMD, womenshealth.gov

Sources on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: betterhealth, mayoclinic, sane, helpguide, beyondblue, apa.org

Sources on Generalized Anxiety Disorder: helpguide, mayoclinic, webMD, patient.co.uk, psychcentral, nhs

Sources on Agoraphobia: disabledworld, medicinenet, betterhealth, mayoclinic, nhs, medindia

Sources on Personality Disorders: mayoclinic, mentalhealth, 4degreez, nhs, mind.org.uk, mentalhealthamerica

Which element is more important right now? Why? The most common answer is because it plays an impact on the story, so you should give it a higher priority in that particular moment. Overall we should get a feeling however brief of each or most of them.

Why are settings important at all? Because the story is happening somewhere. Even if it’s happening in a void or in the middle of a nothingness, you could describe it. It helps making your story more memorable and your writing more vivid. 

How much should you describe? Again, there isn’t a rule. It is up to you. You’d not spend a page describing a room that plays no interesting or important part in the story, would you? If you do it, you’ll make the readers believe it is more important than it actually is, or bore them out. During the first draft you can spend as much as you want pointing out details of the environment and the space but know that during revision, they could and will get cut out if they’re not relevant whatsoever.

The relationship between world-building and the settings: they’re directly related. If you’re creating a new world you’ll have to work through a lot of describing, and that has to do with—you guessed it—the environment. The space, time and temperature. All of these have to do with the world you’re creating if they’re different from what we normally see or if they’re not.

Let’s say it, describing things is oftentimes quite fun and a great way to practice vocabulary and your use of metaphors and similes to show and not tell in a powerful way. 

The following links provide great advice on both settings and world building and I recommend checking them out.

Common Setting Failures

The Senses and World Building

Fantasy World Building Questions

Tips on Revealing Setting

The Rules of Quick and Dirty World Building

The Description Pyramid

Physical Descriptions Put Readers Into Place

Location, Location, Location

Creating Your Own World

Imagery

When is the best time to start revising a manuscript? Largely, usually, most of the time, after the last word of the story has been typed or written. Some writers need to edit as they write, and as long as it isn’t inhibiting actual progress of the word count, this is totally okay. Editing while writing can help more than hurt. But if you allow yourself to start revising before the story’s finished, and then consequently never finish, it might be because your stream of thought is being attacked by your critical eye. It’s similar to the difference between reading for pleasure and reading critically and analytically. Writing because you love writing should always come first. Writing because you want to write well comes after. Being hyper critical as you write instead of after you’ve already written can really hinder your writing process. It’s the difference between, “Everything I write sucks” and “I don’t even care if it sucks, I’ll make it better when I’m done,” and it can really get to you. This is why it’s important to keep the writing process and the revising process separate. Here are a few tips on how to tackle revising, whether you’re still writing or finished:

Take notes as you write. Instead of stopping your momentum altogether because a change needs to be made in a prior scene, create a new document or a take a notebook and list changes that need to be made during the revision process after the story’s finished. Be specific, mark the exact pages or scenes so you’ll come back and still remember what the heck you were talking about. Then, continue writing.

Annotate your outline in another color. As you make changes to your story during the writing process, mark your outline so you know exactly what you did and where, maybe even why. (Or, use differently colored post-its or notecards if you use those methods for outlining.) This is an awesome reference for when you come back during the revision process, but it’s also super convenient to refer back to as you’re writing, keeping you from falling into the trap of rereading and slipping into the critical editor mode prematurely.

If you have trouble keeping yourself from going back to reread, and it’s keeping you obsessed with perfecting those already written pages, consequently impeding your progress, find a way to put your story out of your immediate reach. If you handwrite your pages, stow them away in a highly inconvenient place, under heavy things, or give them to a trustworthy and respectable friend to keep away from you. If you type up your pages, stow them away on a travel drive and do the same. Maybe email it to them. Always have multiple copies, just in case.

Once you finish, put it away. No matter how tempting it is to reread all your awesome accomplishment, don’t. It’s all still fresh in your brain. Letting yourself forget about it first will sharpen your revision power later and allow you to see your writing and your story with fresh eyes. How long should you wait? I always recommend at least four weeks, so if you finish your NaNoWriMo novel in the month of November, stash it out of reach for the entire month of December. Don’t look at it again until after the new year.

Separate yourself from the story. Be critical of the story, but not yourself as a writer. Try as much as you can to separate yourself from what you’ve written, to remove your attachments to your writing and the scenes and the characters. For sure, this isn’t an easy process, but training yourself to think this way over time helps you look at the story more objectively, to see it as a story and not an assessment of your weaknesses. Remember that you’re not even the same writer you are at the end of the story as you were at the beginning.

Before you start revising, create a new copy of the file. Don’t revise the original if you’re new to the revising process. Create a copy and make all changes to the copy, that way you always have the safety net just in case you delete something that you maybe should have kept.

When revising, show no mercy. First drafts are not perfect.  Neither are second drafts. That awesome metaphor you made doesn’t fit in with the mood of the scene? Slice it. That character with the sly wit doesn’t carry their weight enough to be a main character? Cut them, or merge them with another character. A scene isn’t working out? Drifting from the point or running too long or plagued with too much dialogue? Come down hard on it. Rewrite it if you have to. Identify parts of the story that can be improved or expanded or cut, then show no mercy.

Feeling down about the story? Go to your writing buddies. Have them read and tell you everything they liked about it. It’s completely normal to feel like the story isn’t working, or isn’t good enough, or is too much like other popular books already on the shelves. These thoughts are normal, they happen, even to published authors. Finding supportive writing buddies and asking them to inflate your ego is absolutely okay. Working on one story, spending so much time on it that you’re sick of it like an annoying roommate, can get you down, but don’t let it defeat you.

Frustrated? Ready to delete everything? Put it away for a while. At this point, you won’t be able to look at the story objectively, and you may do more harm than good during the process. So, stick it out of sight for a while and work on something else in the meantime.

Additional stuff and stuff:

You’ve finished your manuscript! Now what?

Understanding Editing: Revising vs. Proofreading

Editing Checklist

Revision sucks but doesn’t have to suck

Five quick steps to get into revising that manuscript

25 Steps To Edit The Merciful Suck Out of Your Story

When to say you’re done revising

TWC’s Beta List

Tips on taking critique

Tips on giving critique

What to do with bad writing advice

Additional insight on bad writing advice

'Cause forensics is some cool stuff. Don't use this to kill someone, you hear? For those writing crime, take a look at how to write crime as well.

FYF -  A Great Tumblr Blog. 

Velocities of Blood Splatter.

American Forensic Association.

Arteries/Veins/Capillaries. 

Bullet Information.

True Forensics: Drowning (Mechanical Asphyxia).

Geneticist - Tumblr blog with useful images of cells.

Little Known Facts and Common Misconceptions about Forensics.

Black Powder Processing. 

Myths and Facts of TV.

Forensic Entomology.

Quick Soap Lady Info. 

Crime and Clues: Trace Evidence: Hair.

Splashes, Spatters, and Blots.

Bloody Mess (Infographic).

Forensic Outreach.

Image on Bullets Going In and Out.

Digital Forensics: Defining a Research Agenda.

Will Washing Clothes Really Destroy Blood Stains?

Fishy Forensics.

Forensics, DNA Fingerprinting, and CODIS. 

Super Glue Method to Develop Latent Fingerprints.

Digital Evidence Collection and Use.

Forensic Scientist Interview.

Bite Mark Analysis.

Forensic Science Center.

An Interview with Dr. Henry Lee.

EXTRA: Anatomy of a knife.

EXTRA: Epic forensic portraits.