Color Synonyms

Yay, unsolicited advice time! Or, not really advice, more like miscellaneous tips and tricks, because if there's one thing eight years of martial arts has equipped me to write, it's fight scenes.

.

Fun things to add to a fight scene (hand to hand edition)

It's not uncommon for two people to kick at the same time and smack their shins together, or for one person to block a kick with their shin. This is called a shin lock and it HURTS like a BITCH. You can be limping for the rest of the fight if you do it hard enough.

If your character is mean and short, they can block kicks with the tip of their elbow, which hurts the other guy a lot more and them a lot less

Headbutts are a quick way to give yourself a concussion

If a character has had many concussions, they will be easier to knock out. This is called glass jaw.

Bad places to get hit that aren't the groin: solar plexus, liver, back of the head, side of the thigh (a lot of leg kicks aim for this because if it connects, your opponent will be limping)

Give your character a fighting style. It helps establish their personality and physicality. Are they a grappler? Do they prefer kicks or fighting up close? How well trained are they?

Your scalp bleeds a lot and this can get in your eyes, blinding you

If you get hit in the nose, your eyes water

Adrenaline's a hell of a drug. Most of the time, you're not going to know how badly you've been hurt until after the fact

Even with good technique, it's really easy to break toes and fingers

Blocking hurts, dodging doesn't

.

Just thought these might be useful! If you want a more comprehensive guide or a weapons edition, feel free to ask. If you want, write how your characters fight in the comments!

Have a bitchin day <3

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

As described by Selnick’s article:

Author and doctor of clinical psychology Carolyn Kaufman has released a one-page body language cheat sheet of psychological “tells” (PDF link) fiction writers can use to dress their characters.

Symbolism in Writing

Weather Symbolism

Rain: cleansing, sadness, renewal, obstacles

Sunshine: happiness, hope, clarity, energy

Storms: conflict, turmoil, dramatic change

Snow: purity, stillness, coldness, isolation

Fog: confusion, mystery, uncertainty

Wind: change, freedom, unrest, communication

Animal Symbolism

Eagle: freedom, vision, strength, courage

Lion: bravery, power, leadership, pride

Dove: peace, love, innocence, spirituality

Wolf: loyalty, cunning, survival, community

Snake: transformation, danger, temptation, wisdom

Butterfly: transformation, beauty, impermanence

Plant Symbolism

Rose: love, beauty, passion, secrecy

Oak Tree: strength, endurance, wisdom

Willow Tree: sadness, flexibility, resilience

Lotus Flower: purity, enlightenment, rebirth

Ivy: friendship, fidelity, eternity

Cactus: endurance, protection, warmth

Object Symbolism

Mirror: self-reflection, truth, illusion

Key: opportunity, secrets, freedom

Bridge: connection, transition, overcoming obstacles

Candle: hope, spirituality, life, guidance

Clock: time, mortality, urgency

Mask: disguise, deception, concealment

Number Symbolism

One: beginnings, unity, individuality

Two: partnership, balance, duality

Three: creativity, growth, completeness

Four: stability, order, foundation

Five: change, adventure, unpredictability

Seven: mystery, spirituality, luck

Season Symbolism

Spring: renewal, birth, growth, hope

Summer: vitality, abundance, joy, freedom

Autumn: change, maturity, decline, reflection

Winter: death, stillness, introspection, endurance

Light and Darkness Symbolism

Light: knowledge, purity, safety, enlightenment

Darkness: ignorance, evil, mystery, fear

Shadow: the unconscious, secrets, mystery

Twilight: ambiguity, transition, mystery

Element Symbolism

Fire: passion, destruction, energy, transformation

Water: emotion, intuition, life, change

Earth: stability, grounding, fertility, growth

Air: intellect, communication, freedom, change

Here’s an invaluable writing resource for you.

If you’re a writer, stop scrolling, and read this!!

I refuse to let anyone give up writing because they get discouraged. Be it because their story doesn't get enough notes, or because they think they're no good. Because that's completely up to perception. I look at my writing and think, "that's not too great." Especially when I compare it to certain others’, honestly. But that just tells me that I need to strive to be better. I need to strive to improve my writing style.

For those of you reading this that are thinking about quitting writing:

Don't!! Trust me, shit happens. I cannot tell you how many times I've lost things I was writing because of bullshit. Be it computer crashes, hardware glitches that destroyed all my files, or the entire fucking document becoming corrupt for no damn reason. 

Honestly?I've probably lost years of work in total due to bullshit. And yeah, it was discouraging! Sometimes, it made me take entire breaks from writing, ultimately leading to me losing interest in the project because I lost interest in the fandom. But in the end, I always came back to writing. And you know what I find? What I write the second time is sometimes better that the first. 

Once I rewrote something entirely because the file got corrupted. Well, I managed to restore the data, and reread it. I'll admit that there were some aspects that I forgot to put back in, but ultimately, I decided that the second writing was written better, had better word choice, and better story flow.

The worst thing you can ever do to yourself is write for numbers of notes.

You should write for your audience, yes, but you shouldn’t write something because people like it. Write because it’s fun! Write in order to improve! Writing is one of those things that always, always, always improves the more you do it, even if you're just rewriting the same thing.

But if you’re writing something that is uninspiring to you, it’s bound to come out lackluster to you, the creator, even if it doesn’t come off that way to your audience.

And if something doesn’t get too many notes, don’t get discouraged! Keep on writing! Write because it’s fun, not because it’s expected. Unless of course you have a school project, but I’m talking about fictional writing here.

Don’t let unfortunate circumstances or a measly four notes on your chapter discourage you from writing what you want. Because you will always improve your works! Make yourself better! Make that image in your brain better. Sometimes an artist must step away from the canvas to find more colors for their painting.

Showing 'Confusion' in Writing

Furrowing brows deeply.

Tilting head to one side.

Eyes squinting as if trying to see something clearly.

Biting the inner cheek in thought.

Scratching or rubbing the back of the head.

Asking, “What do you mean?” repeatedly.

Frowning and pursing lips.

Looking around as if searching for clues.

Running fingers through hair in frustration.

Sighing and shaking head slowly.

Muttering under breath, trying to make sense of things.

Rubbing temples as if to ward off a headache.

Staring blankly into space.

Crossing and uncrossing arms, unsure of what to do.

Shuffling feet awkwardly.

Pulling at their collar or fidgeting with clothing.

Glancing at others for confirmation or help.

Blinking rapidly, trying to process information.

Clenching and unclenching fists.

Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling.

For any writers: http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/SFTerms.html

For more facts, follow Ultrafacts

STOP DOING THIS IN INJURY FICS!!

Bleeding:

Blood is warm. if blood is cold, you’re really fucking feverish or the person is dead. it’s only sticky after it coagulates.

It smells! like iron, obv, but very metallic. heavy blood loss has a really potent smell, someone will notice.

Unless in a state of shock or fight-flight mode, a character will know they’re bleeding. stop with the ‘i didn’t even feel it’ yeah you did. drowsiness, confusion, pale complexion, nausea, clumsiness, and memory loss are symptoms to include.

blood flow ebbs. sometimes it’s really gushin’, other times it’s a trickle. could be the same wound at different points.

it’s slow. use this to your advantage! more sad writer times hehehe.

Stab wounds:

I have been mildly impaled with rebar on an occasion, so let me explain from experience. being stabbed is bizarre af. your body is soft. you can squish it, feel it jiggle when you move. whatever just stabbed you? not jiggly. it feels stiff and numb after the pain fades. often, stab wounds lead to nerve damage. hands, arms, feet, neck, all have more motor nerve clusters than the torso. fingers may go numb or useless if a tendon is nicked.

also, bleeding takes FOREVER to stop, as mentioned above.

if the wound has an exit wound, like a bullet clean through or a spear through the whole limb, DONT REMOVE THE OBJECT. character will die. leave it, bandage around it. could be a good opportunity for some touchy touchy :)

whump writers - good opportunity for caretaker angst and fluff w/ trying to manhandle whumpee into a good position to access both sites

Concussion:

despite the amnesia and confusion, people ain’t that articulate. even if they’re mumbling about how much they love (person) - if that’s ur trope - or a secret, it’s gonna make no sense. garbled nonsense, no full sentences, just a coupla words here and there.

if the concussion is mild, they’re gonna feel fine. until….bam! out like a light. kinda funny to witness, but also a good time for some caretaking fluff.

Fever:

you die at 110F. no 'oh no his fever is 120F!! ahhh!“ no his fever is 0F because he’s fucking dead. you lose consciousness around 103, sometimes less if it’s a child. brain damage occurs at over 104.

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS:

sluggishness

seizures (severe)

inability to speak clearly

feeling chilly/shivering

nausea

pain

delirium

symptoms increase as fever rises. slow build that secret sickness! feverish people can be irritable, maybe a bit of sass followed by some hurt/comfort. never hurt anybody.

ALSO about fevers - they absolutely can cause hallucinations. Sometimes these alter memory and future memory processing. they're scary shit guys.

fevers are a big deal! bad shit can happen! milk that till its dry (chill out) and get some good hurt/comfort whumpee shit.

keep writing u sadistic nerds xox love you

ALSO I FORGOT LEMME ADD ON:

YOU DIE AT 85F

sorry I forgot. at that point for a sustained period of time you're too cold to survive.

pt 2

also please stop traumadumping in the notes/tags, that's not the point of this post. it's really upsetting to see on my feed, so i'm muting the notifs for this post. if you have a question about this post, dm me, but i don't want a constant influx of traumatic stories. xox

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

Reactions to tragedy

In real life, pretty much everybody reacts to tragedy differently. So why is it that every author has their pet reaction to tragedy that all their characters use? Not only is it unrealistic, but it takes away the chance for the characters’ different reactions to reveal things about themselves.

Possible reactions to tragedy (not an exhaustive list):

Distracting oneself with mindless activities

Distracting oneself with others’ humor

Distracting oneself by making jokes

Distracting oneself by reading/watching/playing stories

Distracting oneself with hard mental work

Distracting oneself with hard physical work

Distracting oneself with creative endeavors

Distracting oneself by chatting with friends about normal things

Talking to friends about the tragedy

Talking to authority figures about the tragedy

Talking anonymously with strangers about the tragedy (if possible)

Getting wrapped up in others’ problems

Staying unusually silent

Screaming

Crying loudly

Crying silently

Doing everything possible not to cry

Pacing

Taking unhealthy risks

Going for revenge against whoever one can blame

Punching random objects

Throwing random objects

Lashing out against friends and family members

Trying to prevent a similar tragedy from happening

Eating more than usual

Not eating

Taking mind-altering substances

Getting in unhealthy relationships

Isolating oneself

Obsessing over routine

Numbness combined with apathy

Numbness combined with going through one’s normal motions

Trying to get things back the way they were

Denial

No reaction at first but a reaction hits later in greater force

No reaction at all. Emotions relating to the tragedy just fail to load. Note that this can happen to anybody and does not mark a character as a sociopath.

Characters can have more than one reaction at the same time, one reaction after another, or different reactions to different tragedies.