kay

names that have specific meanings

meanings of any names

popular baby names

upper class names

common last names

fancy last names

aristocratic/royal names

random name generator

random place name generator

list of latin words

english to latin translator

english to greek translat

or

greek mythology database

the culture of ancient rome

list of legendary creatures

fantasy name generator

here you go:

Medieval (9th-15th century):

10th century and earlier

Romance (1000-1250)

11th century

12th century

13th century

more 13th century

14th century

more 14th

15th century

and more 15th century

Gothic (1150-1550)

Renaissance (1520-1650)

16th & 17th century

16th century

more 16th

Tudors (1500-1550)

more Tudors

Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)

Jacobean Era (1603-1625)

17th century

more 17th century

and again

and even more

this won’t stop

Baroque (1600-1750)

Georgian Period (1714-1830):

18th century

more 18th century

18th century women’s fashion

18th century men’s fashion

Rococo (1720-1770)

Classicism (1770-1790)

children 18th-19th century

Regency Preiod (1811-1820)/ Empire (1800-1820s):

1790-1820s

more stuff on regency and georgian era

even more

that’s not enough regency

and more

how is there so much

early 19th century men’s wear

early 19th century women’s wear

Victorian Period (1837-1901):

Romantic Era (1820-1840s)

Civil War Era/1850-1860s

1870-1890s

more victorian

Edwardian Period (1901-1910):

1900-1910s

Belle Epoque (1880-1910s)

more edwardian/belle époque

Modern:

1910s-1920s [Fashion between the World Wars]

1920s

more roaring 20s

so much 20s

1920s hairstyles

1930s

1930-1940s

1930-1950s

1950s

more 50s

1960s

1960-1970s

1980s

lots of periods in one spot/fashion through centuries:

here, here, and here is almost everything (and properly ordered)

also here with lots of historic fashion magazines

100 years of beauty (includes lots of other cultures too!)

historic fashion

costumes of antiquity

more historical clothing

history of fashion

more history of fashion

“vintage” clothing

historic costumes

children’s historical fashion/toys

details

historic wedding dresses

historic assecoires (hats, shoes…)

hats

masks

parasols

lots of embroidery/jewlery

it indeed is western/european centric, I’m sorry for that, but for other cultures I simply don’t have so many references

Anonymous said:

I know you are not back for a few days. But I’ll just leave this here. Could you please write up a list of character traits that compliment each other? Like for romantic relationships? Thank you.

Hey Nony! Before I start, thanks so much for your patience with me. I was out for about a week longer than I initially said and I really appreciate it.

So these are definitely a bit of a challenge to come up with someimtes; it’s hard to figure out which ones would go well together without creating too much conflict between your characters. 

The dictionary defines complementary as “combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another”, so that’s how I’m interpreting this. The qualities on the left side of the list were taken from The Positive Trait Thesarus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (but that doesn’t mean that those on the right are definitively positive or negative).

You’ll find some tips for incorporating these qualities into your characters beneath the cut. But without further ado! Behold, the big ol’ list of complementary character traits:

Adaptable vs. Rigid

Affectionate vs. Withdrawn

Alert vs. Oblivious

Ambitious vs. Unmotivated

Appreciative vs. Ungrateful

Bold vs. Timid

Calm vs. Energetic

Cautious vs. Reckless

Centered vs. Scatterbrained

Charming vs. Antisocial

Cooperative vs. Independent

Creative vs. Unimaginative

Curious vs. Indifferent

Decisive vs. Indecisive

Diplomatic vs. Rude

Discreet vs. Inattentive

Easygoing vs. Strict

Efficient vs. Sluggish

Empathetic vs. Callous

Extroverted vs. Introverted

Flirtatious vs. Modest

Friendly vs. Antisocial

Funny vs. Serious

Generous vs. Stingy

Gentle vs. Rough

Honest vs. Dishonest

Honorable vs. Cowardly

Humble vs. Proud

Idealistic vs. Realistic

Industrious vs. Lazy

Innocent vs. Dirty-minded

Just vs. Partial

Kind vs. Cold

Loyal vs. Unreliable

Mature vs. Immature

Meticulous vs. Careless

Obedient vs. Rebellious

Optimistic vs. Pessimistic

Organized vs. Messy

Passionate vs. Indifferent

Perceptive vs. Ignorant

Philosophical vs. Shallow

Private vs. Sociable

Proactive vs. Stagnant

Professional vs. Inept

Protective vs. Negligent

Quirky vs. Conventional

Responsible vs. Irresponsible

Sensible vs. Foolish

Sentimental vs. Pragmatic

Sophisticated vs. Unrefined

Spiritual vs. Irreverent

Spontaneous vs. Deliberate

Spunky vs. Apathetic

Thrifty vs. Extravagant

Traditional vs. Modern

Trusting vs. Wary

Uninhibited vs. Careful

Whimsical vs. Serious

Wholesome vs. Indecent

Wise vs. Unaware

Choosing Traits

So, that’s a pretty long list of traits to choose from. As you’ve probably guessed, though, there are any more to choose from; what’s above is just a fraction of all the possibilities. But if there are so many, how do we know which ones to choose?

If you’re just starting off, choose two or three pairs to work with. Create your characters and develop these traits, building off the ways that would separate them. Then, find some traits that they would have in common, traits that would actually give them a reason to stay together. Maybe Character A is more perceptive while Character B is a bit more on the ignorant side, but they’re both extremely creative and loyal. In this case the reasons for these characters to stay together outweighs their differences, so that would be a good goal to start with.

A general guideline that’s worked well in the past for me has been to choose differences that you know can be balanced out by shared traits. I don’t want the characters in my pairing to have six complementary traits and only two shared ones; that could create a lot of conflict and would make the relationship more work than necessary. You want them to complement each other, but don’t overdo it.

Creating “Complementary Characters”

Well, my first response is this: You shouldn’t create a character based off of the traits of another. If you do this, there’s an extremely high chance that your readers will be able to tell. Another thing you’ll probably want to avoid is adding these traits into a character you’ve already created. If that character has already been rounded off, throwing more traits into the mix might mess with the balance.

Instead, I would advise choosing your traits and developing a character around them. If we’re using the character example from above, I know that I want A to be perceptive, creative, and loyal. These aren’t the only three traits they might have, but those are the three I want to start with. The same goes for B; they’re a little ignorant, really creative, and loyal, but those aren’t their only three traits. I find it easiest to start with things like these and develop the characters more from there, letting things evolve naturally to create the characters I want.

Something to Remember: These traits don’t all follow the same path, based on the character’s entire personality. Keep this in mind; chance are it’ll help you vary your characters’ personalities during development to really make them stand out.

Hello, dear. I get asked this often and 4/5 times it’s about New York City, so you’re getting a resource list so I can just direct people to your ask from now on!

Writing Real-Life Locations

How To Write About A Real Location If You Haven’t Been There

7 Tips for Writing About Places You’ve Never Been

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Place

How To Write About Place In Creative Nonfiction 

Misplaced: why do novelists disguise real locations?

Basics of Describing Settings

How to Describe the Setting in a Story

Discover The Basic Elements of Setting In a Story

How to Write Descriptions and Create a Sense of Place 

How to practice location descriptions

Fictional vs. Real Settings: Which Are Best?

Writing About New York [City]

my list of NYC writing links & tips

Humans of New York (for local character/lifestyle examples)

Google, bro. everyone and their grandma has written about NYC.

Have fun researching! Consider taking a trip, if you can!…I’ll be jealous…

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

At first the topic of this article may seem weirdly specific … well … because it is. But guys. As human beings, we eat. A lot. And I’ve read a lot of scenes that involve food (probably more of them than I should have). If you are writing a novel, food is naturally going to come up, as it should. But there are dos and don'ts about how it is handled.

So yes, this is a post dedicated solely to food scenes.

(You might want to have a meal already planned that you can eat once you finish reading this.)

Let’s talk about food in fiction.

Be Specific

Meals are often (too often, in fact) used as backdrops for character conversations. This makes perfect sense. Cause that’s what people do. They eat. And they talk. (Hopefully not at the exact same time.) And it’s better than having people talk with nothing to do.

But sometimes what happens, when the food is really the backdrop for a dialogue scene, is the writer forgets to mention what the food is. The characters are just “eating dinner” or what have you.

When working with food in a scene, be specific. Often the more specific, the better (well, okay, to a degree–use common sense).

If they are eating breakfast, what are they eating for breakfast? Cereal? Oats? a protein shake? Muffins? Fruit and yogurt? That’s more specific than “breakfast.” But, you can get more specific still. What kind of cereal? Or oats? Or shake? Or muffin? Or fruit and yogurt? Maple and brown sugar oats? A chocolate protein shake? Strawberries and raspberries? You can be specific in only a few words, so for most scenes, that shouldn’t ruin the pacing.

If the food is more than just a backdrop, you can get more specific, which leads me to the next point.

How Much Description You Include is Proportional to How Important the Food is in the Scene (Or How Unfamiliar it is to the Audience)

If the meal is literally a backdrop to a dialogue scene, you don’t need to get too carried away describing the food. Be specific. But probably be brief. If this is an intense or heated conversation, you probably shouldn’t spend several paragraphs describing in detail what the chicken cordon bleu is like.

On the other hand, if the food itself is part of the experience and point of the scene, it should get more detail. If this is the first time Katniss Everdeen has tasted Capitol food, then we should have that food and experience described more fully. If this is Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, I need to taste every flavor of the gobstopper. If this is a novel about a chef trying to succeed, the reader should visualize and touch and taste every key meal.

The more important the food, the more description it merits.

But whatever the case, taste is one of our five senses, which we should be appealing to regularly in our stories. Since we literally can’t appeal to taste in every scene, we should take advantage of moments when we can. (Also, don’t forget to describe food’s smells, textures, or temperatures.)

Readers love experiencing delicious food.

But it’s okay to describe the gross food when it’s necessary.

Also, how familiar the food is to the audience also plays a part in how much description it deserves. We’ve probably all had potato chips, so it’s going to take less words to create that experience for the audience. But a lot of us haven’t had octopus salad, so that may require more description to capture the experience.

When Appropriate, Mention Your Character’s Likes and Dislikes

We all have preferences when it comes to food–even me who is known to like literally almost everything. Mentioning your character’s likes or dislikes or preferences can add an element of authenticity to the story. Katniss loves the Capitol’s hot chocolate. Violet Beauregarde loves chewing gum. Ron Weasley hates corned beef sandwiches. Buddy the elf loves maple syrup. On everything.

And part of what we do, is compare what we are eating to other things we have eaten. I can tell you right now, that the Cafe Rio in my hometown (*cough, cough* the original *cough*) has the best taco salad I’ve ever tasted, and I compare it to every other taco salad. Heck, when I order, I even compare it to past orders of the same dish (sadly, as Cafe Rio expands over the U.S., I have noticed the quality in my hometown start to diminish). If we are eating something new, we’ll compare it to other foods, tastes, or textures. Have you ever noticed how shrimp kind of pops in your mouth when you bite into it? If you’ve never been around cooked liver, I can tell you the smell reminds me of something like gym socks.

Don’t Make Food Your Only Backdrop

Food as a backdrop to a scene gets overused. A lot. It’s sorta how writers start stories with characters waking up in the morning. It just feels like a natural concept to grab when you haven’t given the scene much thought. It takes less effort than brainstorming a different backdrop. But the reader doesn’t want to read about meals every time there is a conversation (well, most readers don’t). Give us some variety. What else do people do while they talk? Can they be playing a game? Working on a hobby? Cleaning? Exercising? Shopping? Doing homework? Playing with the dog? Take a few minutes and consider what else could be used as a backdrop. Everyone eats. But what your character does besides that can tell us more about him or her.

if you’re a writeblr like me, who doesn’t do a whole lot in the graphics or aesthetics department, you’re still a valid writer.

you don’t have to have a mood board or pretty wip pages or a fancy book cover for your work to be considered a “writeblr.” there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that - i admire people with that talent - but there’s also nothing wrong with not having any of that.

i’ve been around long enough to see that writeblrs who do have graphics and things sometimes tend to get more attention, and i’m here to tell the rest of you who maybe don’t make those as much, that you’re still cool. you’re still valid, it’s fine, you don’t need it if it isn’t something that jives with you. you’re gonna find your circle of admirers and you’ll be all right. even if you’re disorganized like me and don’t even have so much as a tag page or any finished story arcs, you’ll have people drawn to your writing regardless. don’t worry about having to have wip intros or moodboards, just find what works for you, and keep plugging away at it, and don’t forget to interact with others. what goes around, etc.

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

Characters are essential. They drive the plot. You have to know your characters in order to see their motivations-i.e, why they do what they do. While writing, you have to love your characters.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t have them go through bad things. Writing is all about conflict. However, it means that the bad things make sense. They grow the character and they change them. The conflict is supposed to mean something to them, to match their weaknesses. The conflict moves the story to where the characters need to be. The impact is not watered down or contrived, but working towards a purpose for the character.

Then you get to bring your character back out. You get to watch them rage and cry and mourn, and then you get to bring them to happiness, light, and love. Love your characters. Make their conflicts count. Don’t drown them in an endless pit of sorrow-that will make it all meaningless. They need range to feel real.

Love your characters. Love their flaws, their conflicts, their emotions. If you love your characters, you write them how they are meant to be written-no personality changes, but natural growth.If you love your characters, you can write every shade of them as needed. If you love your characters, you’re going to make their feelings matter and that is going to be an essential core of whatever you are writing.

But I’ve been at the starting line dozens of times and goddamn, it really is that simple. There’s no other way to word it. To begin a story, you have to let go of the need to keep preparing, accept that you can’t keep delaying it, and fling yourself into those first few sentences. 

You don’t know how your creative choices are going to look until they’re on the page. 

One character’s sweet personality might be cloying if it acts as their dominant trait chapter after chapter. Another might be known for their sarcasm, but come off as an inappropriate asshole when their default response is to be cocky in most situations. 

The thing is, you can’t change or control how it comes off when it’s just a line in their character profile. You have to let it happen on the page, in the story, so you’re able to step back and see how well it works.

So why not just start? 

Worst case scenario, you’re under-prepared and have to think on the fly, or you figure out what you don’t want to do and what doesn’t work, so your next draft has a stronger chance of being what you want. 

Best case scenario, you get some words finalised, you have somewhere to put all your neat ideas, and you have your masterpiece finished a lot sooner than you thought.

Followers on social media, success of your self-published book, email subscribers, website traffic, etc. Anything that shows the publisher that your book will sell increases your chances of being published dramatically. Many times, writers are approached by the publisher!

I have had this conversation with many of my writer friends, and some of them think this is unfair. What you often see is famous people writing a mediocre book and using their fame to have it become a best-seller. Except I don’t think it’s unfair. It’s business. As a writer, you are your own business. Many writers seem to forget this fact!

Let’s take Lang Leav as an example. You might have heard of her as she was dominating the poetry section on Tumblr in ‘13 and ‘14. She amassed many followers on Tumblr by sharing her poetry. She then self-published her book ‘Love & Misadventure” and promoted it on Tumblr.

“How did you get published?

​I self-published my first book, Love & Misadventure. As soon as it was listed for sale, my book began to top best-seller charts and caught the attention of two literary agents in New York. I signed up with Writers House and was promptly offered a publishing deal by Andrews McMeel.” (source)

My honest opinion about her work is that it’s poetry for the masses and that she is not necessarily an astounding or great poet. However, her first book has 38,943 ratings on Goodreads (source)

Key to success? Posting her work online, good branding, nice poetry, building a loyal following.

Let’s take fifty shades for example. (YES)

E.L. James used to write twilight fanfiction. Many people loved her Twilight fanfiction so a publisher called The Writer’s Coffee House contacted her, they changed all the names in her work, and the rest is history.

First of all, if you have a lot of reach (audience), meaning that you have a few thousands of followers on social media, and a publisher contacts you, you always want to ask them if you can self-publish first! Always! If they refuse, you really want to think twice about signing their contract. Why? Because publishers are using your followers to sell your own book to. Self-publishing gives you around ~70% profits. Publishers often offer you a contract giving you 20%. Shady af. I don’t like that shit and I so often see small authors being used like that. Yes, publishers do help with editing etc., but depending on your reach, it’s up to you to decide if hiring an editor yourself isn’t a much better option. So, always SELL to your own fans first self-published if you can. THEN, if the publisher thinks your book has potential beyond your followers, work with them and sign the contract. Don’t let them profit off your fanbase and then leave you hanging. 

If you are going to write a book, you need to talk about it! A lot. At least 6 months in advance. Preferably two years. You need to build up some anticipation among your followers. You need people to be aware of it and WANT it. It’s like a book. You don’t just tell your readers the plot in 5 sentences and that’s the book. You need to build up the story. And then BOOM, Karen just turned page 170 and she doesn’t know what’s coming for her, but she’s gonna be shook and love it. Same with promoting your book. Nobody is gonna give a shit if you say: “oh hi, you didn’t know but I wrote a book. You can buy it here”. You gotta talk about it long before you publish it.

Chances are, you don’t have a following at all. In this day and age, social media is all the hype. There is this misconception that you need millions of followers to make a living online. Not true. Let me introduce you to 1,000 True Fans, an article written by Kevin Kelly in 2008. Read it. It’s eye-opening and practical!

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”

How to get 1000 fans as a writer (also works for artists)

Your main focus should be on creating content and growing your reach (audience). Focus on building an email list and a simple website. Why an email list? For the same reasons everyone else always asks for your email when you sign up for something: so they can reach you.

Many content creators struggle with two things: algorithms and platforms dying. Instagram’s algorithm makes it so that if someone doesn’t hit ‘like’ on your content for a while, your content gets pushed all the way to the bottom of their feed. Why? Because IG wants you to stay on their app as long as possible and thus shows people the content they interact with the most first. The second reason is, at some point people are not going to use their Myspace, Tumblr, Wattpad, or Instagram account anymore. Someone might have a million followers on Myspace, but right now, if they update their profile, maybe a thousand people will see it if they are lucky. So, how do you keep reaching the people who followed you in the first place? EMAIL.

Email is fantastic for two reasons:

There are no algorithms. People see your email based on the time you sent it.

People do not change their email as much as they do social media.

So, if you ever shoutout your book or art store, you are guaranteed that everyone on your email list sees it.

I recommend MailChimp for sending batch emails. It’s free for up to 1,200 email subscribers, and that’s plenty for small businesses.

But how do you get people to sign up for your email list? Well, there are a million ways to that, but first, we need our website and we need to actually reach people!

Let’s first focus on reaching people

Create a social media account on each platform that makes sense to you. Opt for the same username everywhere to strengthen your brand. Then post your content to each and every single one of these platforms, but add in a call to action. Write a personal caption on Instagram, or write things in the tags on Tumblr. The best advice I can give to writers on Tumblr is to reblog writing prompts and write a story and include a ‘READ MORE’.

Many people don’t like to make the commitment to read something long without knowing what it’s about. A writing prompt is the perfect intro and increases the number of people reading your story.

By including a ‘read more’ people have to visit your Tumblr blog. Have a nice bio, and end your story with something personal and a call to action, this skyrockets the number of followers you will get.

Now the problem is: getting people to reblog your story. You could try DMing bigger blogs, but chances of them reblogging your story are slim. DM your followers instead and ask them to reblog your story if they want. If you don’t have followers, go through a tag of your choosing. Filter on ‘recent’ and DM those. You need to hustle a bit. It doesn’t matter if you wrote the story today or two years ago. If you think it’s good content, then you can self-promote it until it gains traction.

For Instagram: Never use popular tags. Avoid them like the plague. I would even go as far as to not use tags at all. But if you use them, only choose niche tags. Why? Bots. There are so many of them. You NEVER want bots following you on Instagram. Every time you post something new, your post gets ‘tested’ in batches of followers. 20% (this is not proven, but I feel pretty confident about this number) out of the first few people who see your post need to like it, or else Instagram stops pushing your content out to more people. Bots never like your posts. If your post fares well and stays above the 20% it gets pushed out to more people, and it will eventually land on the explore page. I don’t have much experience using tags, but if you use them, make sure bots do not target them.

Post your content everywhere. Writing on Wattpad. Art on DeviantArt etc., and always link to your website! All your socials must link to your website, this is key to build your email list.

Also, quick tip for IG, if you want to grow really fast, make sure your content is well received. Most of your post should have a like/follower rate of 20%. In the beginning, the increase in followers is barely noticeable. But once you have 1k followers, it snowballs! Furthermore, some Instagram pages, often businesses, have a terrible like/follower ratio. Less than 1% of their followers like their content. Why do they even bother with Instagram? Only a small portion of their followers see their content since so few people like it, and so it doesn’t get pushed to the feeds of the rest of their followers. Why do they bother? Email. Many businesses, big or small, use their Instagram account as a funnel to get email subscribers. Email is always more important to a business than followers for email lasts much longer and isn’t subject to algorithms, except the spam filter. However, if you are on Instagram as an artist or writer, strive for both: high engagement and collecting emails.

Now that you are having your email list, website, and your social media accounts are growing, it is time to promote your newsletter (email list) beyond the links to your website on social media. We are striving for 1k email subscribers. It’s not a lot. My advice is to message all your followers. Copy paste the same message asking them if they want to subscribe. Make it personal. I want to know who the artist or writer is. I always enjoy someone’s content more if I know the person behind it. I want to know who you are.

But, at this point, you might be wondering: why would people subscribe to my email list? What to send emails about in the first place? Think long and hard, put yourself in your follower’s shoes. If you asked me:

If you are a writer, I would love to have some bonus material send to my inbox.

Updates about your WIP.

An occasional blog post about your life.

Early bird discount on your book when it comes out.

If you are an artist:

I would love to know about the art process and what inspires you.

Read your blog and learn more about you.

Know when you are open for commissions again.

Get updates about your art store.

Obviously, not everyone is going to sign up for your email list. But try your best to make something special. The goal is to:

Build an email list. You will always reach those people. No algorithms or platforms dying (unless email dies, but not in the foreseeable future)

You can build a relationship with your email subscribers. This is important. By reading about your life, I will become more invested in your writing or art.

You are not selling the cheapest shoes or pens in the world. You sell art and books. Build a relationship with your audience!

I am against using extra incentives that have nothing to do with what you do to have people subscribe to your list. If you do giveaways, then make sure it’s something you sell yourself. Don’t give away a bunch of books you didn’t write or a laptop. You will get people signing up because they want the laptop, not because they are interested in you. Instead, as an artist, do a commission giveaway (people who want your art will sign up) or give a discount for your Esty shop etc., Writers: out of the people who sign up, one person can give you a prompt for a short story, for example. Or give away your book if you have already written one!

(By the way, I see some artists doing amazingly well with commissions on Tumblr already! My advice would be, if you want to keep doing this for a long time, go start your website and email asap. So that ‘if’ Tumblr dies, (at this point I am not sure if it’s even possible for this site to die) you can still reach your audience and keep doing commissions.)

Prioritize your website and email list over your Patreon

Patreon is great. As a creator I love it. However, when does someone become a Patron? For me: first, the rewards need to be good. But second, I need to care about you as a person. You can’t promote everything at the same time. It’s best to focus on one thing for a period of time. I suggest you first build up relationships with your email subscribers, so they get to know you better and give an f, then plug your Patreon.

Email subscribers are more likely to become Patrons compared to the rest of your audience because they already showed you they want to hear more from you by signing up to your newsletter/email list.

You get to collect VALUABLE email addresses first. Those are easier to obtain then having someone become a Patron. People need to pay to become a Patron, your newsletter is free.

This might look a bit counterproductive to some of you. After all, you want to go from A (content) to B ($$$) as fast as possible. But I highly recommend you implement this extra step if Patreon is one of your sources of income. You will end up with more Patrons.

Starting a website and collecting emails

You need a domain name. Preferably a .com. Name it after yourself or your brand/store. There are many ways to go about starting your website.

Here are three:

Bluehost: Bluehost uses WordPress. Take the cheapest package. You don’t need more than that yet. Might be difficult to set up for computer illiterate folks. Though GEN Y and Z should have no problems with it. 

FastComet: Also uses WordPress. They claim to be the fastest. Might be hard to set up but it’s very cheap.

Wix: You probably have heard of this one. I suggest you choose the Combo package. It’s free to use, but you do want to upgrade in order to get rid of the blabla.wixsite.com at the end of your domain name. Also, do not buy straight away. They send you a ‘50% discount’ by email after you created a website within 2-14 days. Easiest to use in my opinion.

There are plenty of others out there, but these I have used and are reputable. Feel free to add your hosts to this post.

For email marketing automatization I recommend MailChimp. There are many options, but MailChimp is by far one of the most used and has therefore many one-click-install website integrations, making it is easy to set up. By the way, sending 2-4 emails a month to your list is more than enough.

Hope this helps some of you out. It’s simple but not easy. Also, give it time. You don’t get 1000 email subscribers overnight. The sooner you start the better. And, yeh, you have to put in some time and energy. In my opinion, it’s worth it. Spend 90% of your time creating, the other 10% doing the less fun stuff. If you want to increase your chances of success, being published etc, this is a good way to start. My advice would be: Don’t rely on being discovered or going viral. Rather, increase your chances of being discovered or going viral by strengthening your foundation for success.  

Reading material

https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-vs-social-media-performance-2016-2019-statistics/

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/why-email-marketing/

https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

1. Let Wix build a website for your first with ADI. Play around with it and publish your website. Then edit it again. Go to ‘site’ and select ‘Go to Wix editor.’ Now you have full control over how your website looks.  2. There is a small learning curve. It might be complicated in the very beginning but don’t give up. Get some snacks and work on your website. It’s actually fun. It took me around 3 hours to create mine.

3. Wix has a built-in email sign up form and email marketing tool called ‘Shoutout’. So you don’t need mailchimp. You can still connect mailchimp to Wix if you prefer.

4. Do wait with upgrading your website until they send you the 50% discount coupon to your email.

The war has been called, your characters will have to fight their enemies with an army. But an army isn’t just magically raised over night. A king can’t just snap his fingers and an army appears ready for war. So how can you build your army in realistic fashion?

Conscription

Conscription or the draft is when a kingdom/country/establishment enlists its people in the military. Conscription is on old system of raising an army and it is still used in some parts of the world. Conscription is a surefire way of raising an army but it has its downfalls as the people may not agree with it and it can be devastating to many small families.

Babylonian Empire: used a system of conscription called Ilkum. Under that system those eligible were required to serve in the royal army in time of war. During times of peace they were instead required to provide labour for other activities of the state. In return for this service, people subject to it gained the right to hold land.

Norse/Medieval Scandinavia: Conscription or the leiðangr, in old Norse, in this case involved the levying of farmers to sail fleets for summer raiding excursions and the defense of their lands.

Anglo-Saxon England: The fyrd as it was called was the drawing of men (non-serfs) from the different counties. It was common to fine those who wouldn’t show up when muster was called.

Ottoman Empire: The Sultan Murad I raised a slave army called the Kapıkulu, which was made from conscripted from the children of conquered Christian lands. The most skilled of these soldiers were called Janissaries.

United States, WWI: The Selective Service System ensures that men were drafted for service during the war in the age range of 21 to 30 but after losses and other issues the army had to widen the gap, instead drafting men between 18 to 45.

Also think of child soldiers. Some war torn countries in Africa or the middle east rely on hiring child soldiers. These children are ripped from their homes and given weapons to fight in wars they may not understand. This is a tactic to break the enemy and also offers the army a large pool of soldiers.

Mercenaries

A mercenary fights for money. These are loyal to nothing but the coin and wages.

The Medjay: These were a primarly Nubian force, mostly a mixture of scouts and light infantry who served as the guard of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

Anabasis: The “Ten Thousand” were a Greek company hired from Cyrus the Younger during the war for the Persian throne. The company fought valiantly, despite the death the mercenaries’ generals were double-crossed and murdered while trying to negotiate a retreat.

The White Company: This was one of the most was one of the most famous mercenary companies in Mediaeval times. During the tumultuous 14th century in Italy, the company was at the forefront of the battles. It was formed by an English knight but made up of a mixture of German, Breton and Hungarian adventurers. The company was famous for their skills with archery and lancers and famous for their ability to fight in any weather, day or night.

Varangians: These were the Norse guards of the Emperor in Constantinople. They were well paid to leave their raiding excursions to live with the Emperor to protect him. They were famous for their fierceness and also their strange appearances, making them highly desired.

Tribute

When conscripting soldiers, each town, village, holdfast and place must offer up a certain amount of bodies/monies for the war effort. The demand was often made by herald, reading from a pre-prepared letter sent by the crown or the noble in charge of the region.

In Mediaeval France, each town, city or village was required to make a donation equal to their size. The amount of homes in the region and prosperity were taken into account. So let’s say that if Mediaeval Ireland went to war, the crown would charge Dublin for more bodies and more money than let’s say Doonbeg.

China charged by family rather than city. Every family in a region was required to give up a father or a son to military service in time of war.

England charged by landowner. If you were a landowner worth with £5 you gave an archer or soldiers that made up the archer’s strength. A £10 landowner was to give a spearman mounted or not, £20 gave two spearmen, and £25 had to offer up a knight or a squire.

Training and Armouring

Knights and skilled mercenaries would not be trained. They would be considered to have basic training and bring their own armour and weapons. Knights would often bring a retinue to serve their needs.

Basic conscripts and volunteers would be less equipped or trained. Some elder soldiers may have fought in other wars so may rise in ranks but the youths would begin in basic training. Some armies may provide armour but not all soldiers would be armoured by the leader and may have to pillage bits of armour from dead men.

Incentives

How they smile

What their “tell” is for lying

Posture

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

Nervous tics

How much eye contact do they make

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc

The sound of their footsteps

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

Hospitals and injury are always such a staple of angst fics, but 9 times out of 10 the author has clearly never been in an emergency situation and the scenes always come off as over-dramatized and completely unbelievable. So here’s a crash course on hospital life and emergencies for people who want authenticity. By someone who spends 85% of her time in a hospital. 

Emergency Departments/Ambulances.

Lights and sirens are usually reserved for the actively dying. Unless the person is receiving CPR, having a prolonged seizure or has an obstructed airway, the ambulance is not going to have lights and sirens blaring. I have, however, seen an ambulance throw their lights on just so they can get back to the station faster once. Fuckers made me late for work.

Defibrillators don’t do that. You know, that. People don’t go flying off the bed when they get shocked. But we do scream “CLEAR!!” before we shock the patient. Makes it fun.

A broken limb, surprisingly, is not a high priority for emergency personnel. Not unless said break is open and displaced enough that blood isn’t reaching a limb. And usually when it’s that bad, the person will have other injuries to go with it.

Visitors are not generally allowed to visit a patient who is unstable. Not even family. It’s far more likely that the family will be stuck outside settling in for a good long wait until they get the bad news or the marginally better news. Unless it’s a child. But if you’re writing dying children in your fics for the angst factor, I question you sir. 

Unstable means ‘not quite actively dying, but getting there’. A broken limb, again, is not unstable. Someone who came off their motorbike at 40mph and threw themselves across the bitumen is. 

CPR is rarely successful if someone needs it outside of hospital. And it is hard fucking work. Unless someone nearby is certified in advanced life support, someone who needs CPR is probably halfway down the golden tunnel moving towards the light. 

Emergency personnel ask questions. A lot of questions. So many fucking questions. They don’t just take their next victim and rush off behind the big white doors into the unknown with just a vague ‘WHAT HAPPENED? SHE HIT HER HEAD?? DON’T WORRY SIR!!!’ They’re going to get the sir and ask him so many questions about what happened that he’s going to go cross eyed. And then he’s going to have to repeat it to the doctor. And then the ICU consultant. And the police probably. 

In a trauma situation (aka multiple injuries (aka car accident, motorbike accident, falling off a cliff, falling off a horse, having a piano land on their head idfk you get the idea)) there are a lot of people involved. A lot. I can’t be fucked to go through them all, but there’s at least four doctors, the paramedics, five or six nurses, radiographers, surgeons, ICU consultants, students, and any other specialities that might be needed (midwives, neonatal transport, critical retrieval teams etc etc etc). There ain’t gonna be room to breathe almost when it comes to keeping someone alive.

Emergency departments are a life of their own so you should probably do a bit of research into what might happen to your character if they present there with some kind of illness or injury before you go ahead and scribble it down.

Wards

Nurses run them. No seriously. The patient will see the doctor for five minutes in their day. The nurse will do the rest. Unless the patient codes.

There is never a defibrillator just sitting nearby if a patient codes. 

And we don’t defibrillate every single code. 

If the code does need a defibrillator, they need CPR.

And ICU. 

They shouldn’t be on a ward. 

There are other people who work there too. Physiotherapists will always see patients who need rehab after breaking a limb. Usually legs, because they need to be shown how to use crutches properly.

Wards are separated depending on what the patient’s needs are. Hospitals aren’t separated into ICU, ER and Ward. It’s usually orthopaedic, cardiac, neuro, paediatric, maternity, neonatal ICU, gen surg, short stay surg, geriatric, palliative…figure out where your patient is gonna be. The care they get is different depending on where they are.

ICU.

A patient is only in ICU if they’re at risk of active dying. I swear to god if I see one more broken limb going into ICU in a fic to rank up the angst factor I’m gonna shit. It doesn’t happen. Stop being lazy. 

Tubed patients can be awake. True story. They can communicate too. Usually by writing, since having a dirty great tube down the windpipe tends to impede ones ability to talk. 

The nursing care is 1:1 on an intubated patient. Awake or not, the nurse is not gonna leave that room. No, not even to give your stricken lover a chance to say goodbye in private. There is no privacy. Honestly, that nurse has probably seen it all before anyway. 

ICU isn’t just reserved for intubated patients either. Major surgeries sometimes go here post-op to get intensive care before they’re stepped down. And by major I mean like, grandpa joe is getting his bladder removed because it’s full of cancer. 

Palliative patients and patients who are terminal will not go to ICU. Not unless they became terminally ill after hitting ICU. Usually those ones are unexpected deaths. Someone suffering from a long, slow, gradually life draining illness will probably go to a general ward for end of life care. They don’t need the kind of intensive care an ICU provides because…well..they’re not going to get it??

Operations.

No one gets rushed to theatre for a broken limb. Please stop. They can wait for several days before they get surgery on it. 

Honestly? No one gets ‘rushed’ to theatre at all. Not unless they are, again, actively dying, and surgery is needed to stop them from actively dying. 

Except emergency caesarians. Them babies will always get priority over old mate with the broken hip. A kid stuck in a birth canal and at risk of death by pelvis is a tad more urgent than a gall stone. And the midwives will run. I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as a midwife with a labouring woman on the bed heading to theatres for an emergency caesar.

Surgery doesn’t take as long as you think it does. Repairing a broken limb? Two hours, maybe three tops. Including time spent in recovery. Burst appendix? Half an hour on the table max, maybe an hour in recovery. Caesarian? Forty minutes or so. Major surgeries (organs like kidneys, liver and heart transplants, and major bowel surgeries) take longer. 

You’re never going to see the theatre nurses. Ever. They’re like their own little community of fabled myth who get to come to work in their sweatpants and only deal with unconscious people. It’s the ward nurse who does the pick up and drop offs. 

Anyway there’s probably way, way more that I’m forgetting to add but this is getting too long to keep writing shit. The moral of the story is do some research so you don’t look like an idiot when you’re writing your characters getting injured or having to be in hospital. It’s not Greys Anatomy in the real world and the angst isn’t going to be any more intense just because you’re writing shit like it is. 

Also, unrelated to the lights and sirens issue, lemme add a detail about us asking a lot of questions. If you want verisimilitude in your story, remember SAMPLE:

Signs and symptoms

Allergies

Medications

Past illness/injury/disease

Last food, drink, and medication taken

Events leading up to the injury or illness

These are the questions EMTs are trained to ask every patient, though they rarely end up coming out in that order. Also, you can totally add a W to that, which is inevitably “Why did you wait so long to call us?” *sighs forever*

And for some more basic on-scene emergency care, remember CABC: C-spine, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. This time, actually in that order (except for cardiac arrest, in which case remember CAB: Compressions, Airway, Breathing). 

The long and short of CABC is: if the patient fell or was in a car accident or had any other potentially traumatic injury, start with stabilizing the C-spine (typically via cervical collar and head blocks and backboard), because if there is a fracture in the neck and you don’t manage it and end up severing the spinal cord that high up, your patient’s probably going to die, and if not, will probably be paralyzed from the neck down. 

Once C-spine is stable, make sure the patient’s airway is clear (this includes both foreign obstruction and the patient’s own tongue). Yes sometimes this actually involves sticking your finger in their throat to clear shit out, and yes it’s gross. It also means positioning an unconscious patient’s head in a certain way (assuming there is no chance of C-spine damage) to keep the airway open. EMTs also carry little plastic hook things called oropharyngeal airways in a bunch of sizes that keep the patient’s tongue from blocking their airway. And of course if needs be you can intubate, although this is not a skill EMTs have (paramedics do, though, and in some states there’s a certification called EMT-I [the I for intermediate] that also teaches that skill). If someone’s just come across an unconscious person and doesn’t have an airway to use, and you’re sure their C-spine is fine, you can roll them onto their left side and gently curl them; that’ll help keep the airway clear and also helps the heart pump blood a little more efficiently than if you’d rolled them onto their right side. 

Anyway, once the airway’s secure, you move on to making sure the patient is actually breathing. If they’re not, you do it for them with an ambu bag. If they are but are struggling, or aren’t struggling but may for any reason potentially go into shock or have compromised circulation (broken leg, high fever, etc.), you give them supplemental oxygen, typically through a nonrebreather mask, though the flow rate depends on their symptoms. 

Okay so once we’ve secured the patient’s C-spine, airway, and breathing, only then do we worry about circulation (unless the patient’s in cardiac arrest, remember, in which case we secure circulation first). Which in the case of trauma is generally first aid for serious open wounds and preventing or treating shock, and in the case of medical issues may be getting an ECG reading or administering medication or, if the patient does go into cardiac arrest, chest compressions and defibrillation.

Okay, that’s the end of the CABCs, but you’ll note that in the last para I said treating serious open wounds. Because a minor open wound is going to wait until after the next step after the CABCs, which is a full-body assessment wherein we meticulously assess a trauma patient using palpation from, basically, head to toe, looking for broken bones, soft tissue damage, internal bleeding, etc. Some of those things can be pretty serious, so before we treat a shallow cut, we check for, like, broken ribs that might puncture a lung.

So obviously not all of these things happen all the time. A patient presenting with an asthma attack needs neither a full-body assessment nor C-spine and circulation management. So we just jump straight to airway and breathing and forego the rest. (And then ask anyone with them our SAMPLE questions if the patient is too distressed to speak, because we still need those answers, but also if the patient is too distressed to speak you can bet we’re asking their companion in the back of a moving ambulance.)

Sometimes you spend a Long Fucking Time at a scene, either because the patient is resisting transport (this happens a lot, especially with the uninsured; we stick around and do everything we can to help them while simultaneously trying to encourage them to go to the ER anyway), or because the patient’s trapped in a smashed car and we’ve got to cut the door off and peel the roof back and get a cervical collar and a backboard on the patient while they’re still in the damn driver’s seat and lemme tell you that is a goddamn game of Jenga and can take half an hour, or because the patient isn’t critical but you want to minimize discomfort and damage so you take the time to meticulously package them while also getting all your questions answered on scene to make sure you haven’t missed anything, or because … well, you get the point. Sometimes shit just takes forever.

Other times, we do what’s called a scoop-and-go, typically with patients in critical conditions that can’t really be managed without surgery or medications we don’t carry. Like, patient bleeding out while giving birth? Not a whole lot we can do about that, so we get them in the rig as fast as fucking possible and race to the hospital while trying to get the most critical questions answered. These kinds of situations are very rare, though; it’s much more common to be on scene for 15 or 30 minutes than 5 minutes. 

OH AND, another thing. Listen. EMTs do not approach a scene that is not secured. If there’s an active shooter, or a hostage situation, or a raging fire, or a potential for something to explode (or for something that’s already exploded to collapse), or a flash flood, or a hazardous materials spill, or whatever else, we do not go in until the unstable situation has been resolved. It sucks waiting 100 yards away while a critical patient is maybe dying and you can’t get to them yet, but listen, the first thing they teach you is don’t make new patients. IOW, don’t become a victim yourself; you can’t help anyone if you get wounded in the crisis too, and in fact then you’ve just become an additional burden on the personnel remaining.

I’ve never heard of the lights-must-be-on rule. It’s gotta be one or a few specific states. Generally speaking, lights and sirens increase accident rates, and most states are actively trying to REDUCE their use, not increase them, but I don’t know where she lives, so that’s accurate in her part of the country (I’m assuming the US). But it’s inaccurate in most of the country. 

So I work in a real crowded city and, luckily, I don’t need to go lights and sirens since I’m primarily non-emergency. But in the few times I’ve had to make that decision, I tend towards not using lights/sirens or at least not sirens.

Because once you turn those suckers on, drivers become unpredictable as fuck. They freeze, they slow, they swerve, at least one car is guaranteed to move to the left instead of the right.

I drive safer and get to a hospital faster when I go with the flow as much as possible and am able to predict what the cars around me will do.

Secondly, i used a scale called OPQRST which I use to quantify pain.

Onset (were you hit? Why pain?) Provocation (does it fade? Heighten?) Quality (dull or sharp?) Radiation (Where?Does it move?) Severity (pain scale) Time (how long has it been going on?)

If you ever want to heighten the drama and imply something is seriously wrong in your fic, try something like this:

EMT: so what happened? Where does it hurt? Bystander: X and X happened and got hit in the stomach really hard! Patient: ow! My right shoulder hurts! EMT: Fuck.

Writing about fear isn’t just about writing a scary scene or working on a horror novel. Writing about fear is about understanding your characters and what really terrifies them. Since we all don’t share the same fears, it can be difficult to get your readers to understand what your characters are going through. You need to write in a way that convinces the reader that your character is really scared by using all the senses—without flat-out telling them.

Showing fear through your writing is a very effective way to reach your audience and to write an intriguing scene. First off, let’s start off with some body language that shows fear.

Someone who is afraid might not might eye contact with whoever they’re afraid of. On the other hand, in a more intense situation, they might have a wide-eyed stare. For example, if someone is hiding their fear of another person, that’s when they might avoid eye contact. If something scares them suddenly, they might have the wide-eyed stare and have unwavering eye contact.

A scared character might be breathing heavily (maybe through the nostrils) and might have a clenched mouth. It’s likely that most of their body will be clenched, think tightened muscles and clenched fists, and they might be stuck in one spot.

They might be sweating or shaking as a result of excess adrenaline. Their feet might be turned away from the person they’re afraid of, subconsciously ready to get away. Some people might hunch or slouch and other people might stand taller and become more aggressive. It all depends on the situation.

Nervous behaviors such as tapping legs, crossing arms, or fidgeting might indicate fear. Rocking back and forth might also be from fear.

All of these body language suggestions should help you shape your character and how they experience fear. However, this is just one part of writing fear. Explaining why someone is so afraid could be just as important. Creating a back story, even if you don’t reveal it for a while, will help YOU and your readers understand why your character is so afraid. Knowing the intricacies of your character’s fear is important and it will help you translate it into your novel.