‘Always show, not tell,’ is a big fat lie. If you always show, you’ll have half a novel of descriptive words and flowy sentences that will be hard to read.
Here is a quick tip:
Show emotion.
Tell feelings.
Don’t tell us ‘she was sad.’ Show us- ‘Her lip trembled, and her eyes burned as she tried to keep her tears at bay.’
Don’t show us ‘her eyelids were heavy- too heavy. Her limbs could barely function and she couldn’t stop yawning.’ Tell us – ‘she felt tired that morning.’
Showing emotion will bring the reader closer to the characters, to understand their reactions better. But I don’t need to read about how slow she was moving due to tiredness.
Likewise, when you do show, keep it to a max three sentences. Two paragraphs of ‘how she was sad,’ with no dialogue or inner thought is just as boring.
I love how the search function on this site is absolute garbage. I can look up a post word for word and I will NEVER find it
Pro tip:
Wanna find a post?
Write out what you remember into a Google search.
After you write that out, end with site:tumblr.com
Google will search for your text on just tumblr
In my experience, it’s way more effective than searching through Tumblr
(you can use site:SITENAME.com to search any site btws)
This usually works but for some reason a lot of posts get indexed on google from a person’s URL based on the posts that were recently reblogged on page 1, meaning that this is only a tiny bit more reliable.
I HAVE a solution to this, you have to write down site:tumblr.com/post “ “
and then write a direct quote (could be a fraction of a sentence) into the quotations, I’ve been doing this for years, and it’s so useful, it works like 99% of the time
(the more popular a post is the more likely you’ll find it)
Alright shitstains listen up because I just found god in a bottle.
If you’re a nerd like me your body’s probably riddled with a few nerd tattoos yeah? Some of ‘em in some pretty obvious places? Maybe you work in a professional environment that frowns upon body ink? Maybe you’re a cosplayer and you have some revealing outfits that you need to cover up for, yeah? Tattoos that you can’t afford that $30 Kat Von D Tattoo cover up because you’re a cheap broke shit?
Story of my life bud.
Now I have a pretty obvious Squad 11 tattoo, because I’m a Bleach nerd and Zaraki Kenpachi is my husband, and honestly it’s difficult to hide it in some of my cosplays because it’s bright and black and right smack dab on my shoulder. Poor planning on my part but hey, squad represent.
You see that glorious miracle up there? That’s Mehron Tattoo Cover. You see those pictures underneath it? Tattoo? What fucking tattoo?! It’s gone!!!! Vamoosed!!! Like I never got the ink in the first place!!!!
This shit is durable, and I mean durable. It’s completely waterproof and that first picture of my tattoo is actually what it looked like after scrubbing at it with two makeup wipes. TWO. It’s not going anywhere
And the best part?
IT COMES IN DIFFERENT SKINTONES. BAM. WHAT.
I mean it’s not phenomenal but hey at least it’s not just “pale as fuck”.
Yeah. $12. Not $30. Because $12 is much more reasonable than $30.
As for size reference, that’s how big it is in that third picture right there. It’s honestly the best investment I could have made and everybody should know about it.
Go forth and conquer with your newfound knowledge. You’re all welcome.
As someone who used to chair a stage makeup department, Mehron and Ben Nye are going to be cheaper and better than whatever concealer/orange eye shadow/green lipstick whatever weird tutorial you found or expensive-ass luxury concealer.
Why you ask?
Because Mehron and Ben Nye are stage makeup. They’re meant to give thick, full coverage in one layer that can stand up to cameras and stage lights. Blend it out, powder it, and you’ll never look back. Plus it’s cheap enough that you can buy 2 and mix the perfect shade.
This will work on scars, too.
Just an FYI for folks I know who may want to cover for cosplays, work, or personal reasons.
Honestly this would be a life saver for people with tats stuck looking for jobs in places that frown on them.
I’ve watched people not get jobs at places I work even though their personalities and experience levels were exactly what we were looking for purely because of personal adornment (tattoos, piercings, etc.). So to anyone who might need a product like this, I hope you see this post.
Reblogging in case anyone wants to know how to hide scars specifically.
It can be hard to remember how to properly address your noble or royal characters when writing a fantasy court. Here is a quick guide:
1. King/Queen:
Usually addressed as either “Your Grace” or “Your Majesty”. Consort (married to a ruler and not reigning in their own right) can be addressed the same. Sire or Madam can be used also.
2. Prince/Princess:
They are addressed as “Your Highness”. They are NEVER addressed the same as a King or Queen
3. Duke/Duchess:
These are addressed with “Your Grace”. This was a common term also used by royalty before Henry VIII got to big for his codpiece.
4. Earl (Count)/Countess:
Are almost never referred as the “Earl of Narnia” but “Lord Narnia”.
5. Lord/Lady:
An easy one. They are called “My Lord” or “My Lady”.
6. Emperor/Empress:
These may be equal to a King/Queen for status but the have a grander title. They are only addressed as “Your Imperial Highness/Majesty”
I hope this helps when writing your court or fantasy novel.
I’ve been asked many times what someone should look for when trying to find a good artist. The best way you can do this is to look at their portfolio, whether it’s in a book at their shop or online. If they don’t have good work in their portfolio, they’re probably not good artists.
The shop may be clean, the people there might be nice, and the design they draw up for you might be exactly what you want, but if your artist doesn’t stand up to the points listed above, then you’re going to get a bad tattoo.
It’s okay to walk into a shop, talk with an artist for a while, and decide you don’t want a tattoo from them. Even if the artist has a bad attitude about it or tries to convince you to just let them do it, remember this is going to be on your body for the rest of your life.
This is fucking fantastic thank you!!
So important. I had an apprentice tattoo me once without any supervision – wound up with a blurry tattoo, and a messed up tendon for a while after 😡
Unreliable narrators need to add something to the story. They aren’t an excuse for poor storytelling and inconsistencies.
If you have an unreliable narrator, you should be doing twice as much work in your plotting! At every turn of the story, you need to know both what’s actually happening AND what your narrator thinks is happening.
When you’re right, you’re right. And you’re right.
Not only does the author need to know what’s happening on both layers of story, they need to actually write in clues for the reader to telegraph the lower, “true,” layer of the story so the reader is capable of figuring it out if they choose to read closely. Without that double work, an unreliable narrator cannot perform its literary function.
It is the evidence of the truth, not the lie the narrator tells, that makes a narrator unreliable. Otherwise they are just a liar which the audience is incapable of catching due to the hobbling imposed by the medium. Which means the lie may as well be the truth, making it serve no function as a lie.
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