@whichhannahsmith / whichhannahsmith.tumblr.com
I worked on this for 3 days straight in a fever dream until it was done. This is an animatic of one of my favourite scenes that I’ve written from early on in my WIP Merrow.
TW: death
When Dylan passed, Nerissa lost her fiancé and Niamh lost her son. Now, decades later, Niamh has moved on and started a new family while Nerissa is still mourning the loss of Dylan.
Something like this would be so colossally helpful. I'm sick and tired of trying to research specific clothing from any given culture and being met with either racist stereotypical costumes worn by yt people or ai generated garbage nonsense, and trying to be hyper specific with searches yields fuck all. Like I generally just cannot trust the legitimacy of most search results at this point. It's extremely frustrating. If there are good resources for this then they're buried deep under all the other bullshit, and idk where to start looking.
>:)c
May I present to you, nationalclothing.org?
It doesn't have everything, but it's still my first source when researching traditional clothing from other cultures.
There's also this resource on historical fashion: Claire’s Historical Fashion Reference & Resources
another addition as far as physical media goes there is the encyclopedia of national dress (that i still need to buy myself bc this kind of thing is super important to my sort of fantasy designing) but yes i do agree i wish there was EVEN MORE documentation on this
just when i think i've cleaned up the plot of my novel, some other plot hole randomly appears, whole scenes turn into useless nonsense, and i realise i haven't mentioned anything in the first half about a key factor that would assist in the entire resolution, making it seem not only implausible, but frivolous and nonsensical!
This one saves me on the regular. When you’re done with your writing session, make a note to yourself in your document about what you were working on and what you intend to do the next time you open your WIP. It helps if you make this note right at the spot you were working on, and another reminder at the top of the document. I like to change the font color and increase the size so I see it right away the next time I open my document.
You might not always go back to what you were working on before. But this trick can save you a lot of time reading through your WIP and trying to remember where you were going. Plus it can keep your WIP from becoming a giant mess of half-started ideas and editing tweaks.
Some examples of recent notes I’ve made to myself in my WIP:
At the very least, making a note to yourself will give you a clear direction the next time you approach your WIP. If you choose not to follow it, that’s fine, but it’s nice to have the option, and it only takes a few seconds to jot down a reminder to yourself.
THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS
OMG
This one’s an always-reblog, because who knows who needs it and hasn’t seen it yet?
please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts
Hey I have good news for you!!! Actually two pieces of news, because this symptom could be indicating one of three potential diagnoses. (Preface: I am a professional fantasy author and I have been published more than a dozen times. I have also taught creative writing at the university level and am REALLY good at it. I know my shit and I have seen your problem a thousand times.) FIRST POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: This one happens to me all the time. If you feel like your writing is getting worse, that might mean you're at a "plateau" stage in your development of technique execution, but you're in a "growth" stage in your development of your technique perception! Because they alternate!
When you're in the phase you're in now, you have all the "omg my writing is garbage" thoughts, but those are not true. Your writing is the same as it was last week. However, your ability to see it and analyze it is getting better -- and that keener perception is why it SEEMS to be worse. It isn't, I swear.
When it's the other way around and your execution is in a growth stage and your perception is on a plateau stage, that's when you have all your "omg I'm a supergenius? Omg *I* wrote that? fuck yeah im a god of writing" moments (and if you haven't had them yet, that's ok, they'll come, be patient with yourself).
Either way, this is a normal part of the growth process. It's like the ache of sore muscles after you've gone to the gym for the first time in a while, that's all. Your muscles will hurt less as you get stronger, and then you'll add more weight or more reps to your exercise routine, and you'll be sore again until your body catches up. It's just that when that's happening in your brain, it's a lot harder to set the "muscle ache" aside, because your brain's only way of expressing discomfort is to gnaw miserably on itself and make you have sad thoughts. Prescription: Have a cup of tea or whatever small treat you like best, and be gentle and patient with yourself. It's gonna be ok. Try to consciously notice and appreciate some of the things you've measurably gotten better at and give yourself a deliberate, intentional, conscious pat on the back for it. (I have ADHD, so my brain doesn't want to give me the reward chemicals automatically; I have to trigger it manually by saying aloud "I'm really proud that I accomplished this." YMMV.)
SECOND POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: This one also happens to me all the time. Oftentimes when I have the "my writing is getting worse" feeling, it is a signal from my subconscious that the story is going in the wrong direction -- that is, a direction which doesn't satisfying to me, or that I'm not interested in, or that leads the characters in a direction that I don't like, or that leaves a glaring plot hole that I haven't noticed consciously yet... All manner of small, fixable problems. This usually happens after I have ignored the earlier warning signs, which start with feeling a bit bored of the story but trying to push through, and then go to a vague dissatisfaction that I ignore. The end result of this is frequently outright burnout or writer's block, so the better you get at noticing those early warning signs, the faster you can address them and nip the problems in the bud. Problem is, being able to do this and use your feelings as a useful tool to flag burgeoning story problems only comes with practice. Prescription: Do the practice. When you start having those fidgety, restless feelings, try to notice what you're feeling before it gets to the "this is garbage and I hate it" stage, and then sit with that feeling. Instead of flinching away from it and hiding from the scary feeling, turn towards it with compassion and curiosity. Ask it questions like, "Hmmm, what SPECIFICALLY is garbage about it? What would make it more fun and appealing? Is there anything I'm missing here?" Your brain may initially try to continue the tantrum of "No, it's bad, it's just all bad, there's nothing good about this, it's horrible, and therefore I'M horrible" but you're gonna need to address this with all the kindness and patience that you would give a cranky toddler. Let it wriggle and cry, and just continue being curious and trying to get it to use its words to express what the problem is. Eventually you'll stumble on SOME kind of answer, and then YAY THAT IS A THING THAT CAN BE FIXED. Oftentimes when it happens to me, I have a reaction that's sort of like, "Oh! Duh! I forgot [XYZ thing]! That was a silly mistake, haha, no wonder I'm grumpy about it. Glad i noticed it now." The answers you stumble on might be things like, "I don't like mystery novels but I seem to be accidentally leading myself into writing one, whoops" or "It is so out of character for this person to be reacting that way, I need to rewrite this scene" or "I'm feeling bored, I would have put the book down by now if I were a reader; how can I jazz it up?" THIRD POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: (kind of a really specific subset of the Second Possible Diagnosis, but it is SO COMMON for both experienced writers and apprentice writers that it gets its own section) Your book might be having problems with tension.
Tension issues account for 99% of all book problems. It's like sewing machines?? You know how all sewing machines have the devil in them, and if you try to sew and your thread gets tangled and fucked up on the bottom, that's because the tension has gone weird, so you have to try rethreading the machine and wiggling the tension knob a bit to make it stop? Like that.
Prescription: If you are having the "this shit sucks" reaction, stop immediately and check your story tension. Are there stakes? Do they MATTER DEEPLY to the protagonist? Can they be raised? Can they be endangered? Does a new problem need to be introduced, or an existing one made worse? TENSION TENSION TENSION TENSION. There are a thousand ways of raising tension, and I cannot list them all here. When my tension is right, I almost never have the "this sucks" reaction, because I am in that document doing my job with ruthless efficiency. The SECOND it goes wonky, I have a crisis of confidence and a small tantrum and I sink into my Desponds. Every single time. It has gotten to the point where I have trained my closest friends to say, when I slide into their DMs to complain about my book: "Oh, this part. Past!Alex told us to give you a message. [checks notes] Message reads, 'bitch, is it a tension problem'" whereupon I subside, chastened, and say, "....yeah probably."
CHECK YOUR TENSION, IT IS PROBABLY FUCKED UP. How do I know? Bc tension wants very badly to fuck itself up if you're not keeping an eye on it. Same as sewing machines having the devil in them.
Hope that helped. <3 Good luck! It's gonna be ok.
Fun apocalypse-verse fact: You know all those steam trains that are still out there mostly as tourist attractions? Well there was one before the end of the world that went back and forth across Europe, east to west and back again, a luxury trip for ridiculously rich people. And one of the drivers was called Luca.
And then the world ended, and the electricity blew, and there weren't enough people left to care to fix it.
Steam still worked though.
The train had stopped in Western Russia when it happened and most of the workers did what everyone did, they fled. Luca was about to go too, try to find some more permanent shelter, when he met a young woman from what had once been France who had been on holiday. All her family was still there, she said, if they were alive, but she had no way back to them. Luca looked at the coal on board, of which there was still enough for numerous journeys if he didn't push her too hard, and he looked at the woman, and he told her to spread the word that the train left tomorrow at nightfall, to go all the way back across the continent.
Most people on the continent didn't travel far after. They would move through what used to be their country, into others if they were close by, but most long-distance transport was gone and even if it weren't, what's the point? All you'll find somewhere else is a place as bad as here.
But they say there's still a steam train running, back and forth, hungry for fuel but somehow always finding enough, battered by bands of thieves and thugs, but still running. Ferrying people where they need to go.
It’s the age old writing question, should you write every day? Some argue yes, that come hell or high water your goal should be to write at least a few words every day. Some people say no. That it’s not possible for everyone to write every single day. Yes puts forward the argument of even if it’s just a few words that’s enough. No takes into account that most writers are living full lives outside of their writing careers. Both make a valid argument and I myself have been swayed back and forth between the two answers. However, I have finally come to my own conclusion that the best practice is to form the habit of writing every day. Here are some of my reasonings:
1. It forms a habit. Habits take a long time to form (longer than the 30 days most people think). Taking 5 minutes out of your schedule to sit down and write a little each day will form that habit. Remembering that it will take time, and not to rush into things with lofty goals that are unsustainable.
2. If you don’t write, you’ll never finish your story. Writing every day ensures that you are consistently working towards finishing your story. Even if it is only a few words a day that is a few words closer to your goal than you would have been if you didn’t write anything at all.
3. Even a few words gets you closer to a completed novel. Moving forward is moving forward. Even if it’s small. Better to write a few words closer to your completed novel than nothing at all.
4. It keeps you in the flow of your story. It is easier to keep a consistent tone and remember what you are writing about if you write every single day. Taking an extended break can leave you wondering where you left off and may cause tone shifts.
5. It feels fulfilling. Writing every day adds to the sense of accomplishment and feeling that this book you are writing will one day be completely finished.
Writing is writing. Every little word you write moves you one step closer towards the end goal of a completed story. If you’re writing every day, even if it’s just a little, there will be a day when you have a completed novel in front of you.
With all of this said, it is also important to remember that life happens. Mental health is being pushed more and more, and as you are forming your writing habit it is always imperative that you forgive yourself if you need to take a day off. Because at the end of the day, your story will never get written if you’re not there to write it.
I actually did it! 53,599 words during Nanowrimo making the grand total of my current draft 69,366. I’m taking a few days break because work is picking up but I want to keep up this pretty fast pace so I can have an editable draft by the new year. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Congrats to all those who participated. It was a real sprint.
