25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters « terribleminds: chuck wendig - Waterfox As storyteller, you are god. And to be frank, you’re not a particularly nice god — at least, not if you want your story to resonate with readers. A good storyteller is a crass and callous deity who treats the characters under his watchful eye like a series of troubled butt-puppets. Put differently, as a storyteller it’s your job to be a dick. It’s your job to fuck endlessly with the characters twisting beneath your thumb. And here’s 25 ways for you to do just that. 1. Gods have avatars, mortal or semi-mortal beings that exist on earth to embody the deity’s agenda. 2. The audience and the character must know the stakes on the table — “If you don’t win this poker game, your grandmother will lose her beloved pet orangutan, Orange Julius.” 3. Impossible odds are a powerful way to fuck with a character. 4. Drop the character smack dab between two diametrically opposed choices. 5. Give the character an untenable secret life: a forbidden romance, a taboo, a transgression. 6. This one? 7. 8. 9.
10 More Words That You've Probably Been Misusing Two weeks ago, I wrote an article titled 10 Words You’ve Probably Been Misusing that a very surprising number of you seemed to enjoy. Because you can only write so much in an Internet article before people get distracted, I had to limit the original piece to a mere ten words. Luckily, today is a new day, and this is a new post, so behold! However, after reading a small chunk of the 600 comments on the last piece, I feel like I need to preface this sequel by saying a few things. A) A more accurate title for this article might be “10 Words That May Not Mean What You Think They Mean” but I’m keeping the original title simply so that people realize it’s a follow-up to the original. B) Many of these words have developed new definitions over time. Anddddd, BEGIN! 1) Plethora: What you may think it means: a lot What it actually means: superabundance, an excess 2) Forego What you may think it means: to bypass What it actually means: to go before This one is a matter of spelling. 3) Poisonous 7) Alas
Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction | Open Culture - Waterfox Image by Lloyd Arnold via Wikimedia Commons Before he was a big game hunter, before he was a deep-sea fisherman, Ernest Hemingway was a craftsman who would rise very early in the morning and write. His best stories are masterpieces of the modern era, and his prose style is one of the most influential of the 20th century. Hemingway never wrote a treatise on the art of writing fiction. 1: To get started, write one true sentence. Hemingway had a simple trick for overcoming writer's block. Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. 2: Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next. There is a difference between stopping and foundering. The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. 3: Never think about the story when you're not working. 7: Be Brief.
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10 Mythological Creatures and Shapeshifters - Listverse - Waterfox Creepy Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore. Many legendary creatures have this ability, which is represented in a full body transformation. It enables the creature to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. The Leshy is a male woodland spirit in Slavic mythology believed to protect wild animals and the forests. Selkies are creatures found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish mythology. Berserkers were a group of Norse warriors. In Japanese folklore the Kitsune is an intelligent and magical being. The púca is a legendary creature of Celtic folklore, most notably in Ireland, the West of Scotland, and Wales. The Wendigo is a creature appearing in the mythology of the Algonquian people. An encantado is a Brazilian legendary creature. An aswang is a mythical creature in Filipino folklore. Vampires are legendary creatures said to feed on the blood of humans and animals. Jamie Frater Jamie is the founder of Listverse.
FREE Rhyming Dictionary: Find Rhyming Words in Seconds - StumbleUpon Cliche Finder - Waterfox Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase... Over 3,300 clichés indexed! What exactly is a cliche? This is Morgan, creator of the Cliche Finder. Or, you might like my crazy passion project: Spanish for Nerds: Learning Spanish via Etymologies! Back to cliches... if you would like to see some other Web sites about clichés? © S. Special thanks to Damien LeriAnd to Mike Senter Morgan's Web page
30 Challenges for 30 Days Did you know that it takes 30 days to form a new habit? The first few days are similar as to how you would imagine the birth of a new river. Full of enthusiasm it gushes forth, only to be met by strong obstacles. The path is not clear yet, and your surroundings don’t agree. So, take a moment to reflect on the question ‘Who do I want to be in 5 years?’ Check out this short TED talk first to get inspired: Now pick one or more challenges and stick with them! However, be cautioned, picking too many challenges at the same time can easily result in a failure of all of them. #1 Write a I-Like-This-About-You note/text/email each day for someone (Easy) This is the perfect way to let someone else know you care. #2 Talk to one stranger each day (Hard) This is a great one to cure approaching anxiety. #3 Take one picture each day (Hard) This one gets harder nearing the end of the challenge because at one point you will run out of the easy shots. #5 Take a 30 minute walk each day (Easy) We recommend:
Written? Kitten! - Waterfox How One Man Is Using Fungus to Change the Violin Industry A Stradivarius is the best violin a player could ask for thanks to a very specific biological reaction in the wood used to construct them during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But a new study reveals that fungus might be the trick to making new violins that sound nearly identical. Science Daily reports Professor Francis W. M. He discovered two species of fungi (Physisporinus vitreus and Xylaria longipes), which decay Norway spruce and sycamore -- the two important kinds of wood used for violin making -- to such an extent that their tonal quality is improved. "Low density, high speed of sound and a high modulus of elasticity," is what signifies good wood for violin making. No word yet on how this will affect the value of existing Stradivarius violins, or when a fungolin will make its debut on Law & Order.
Aesop's Fables - Online Collection - 656+ fables - - Waterfox 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. While your grammar shouldn’t be a reflection of your creative powers or writing abilities, let’s face it — it usually is. Who and Whom This one opens a big can of worms. Which and That Lay and Lie Moot Nor