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Writing Inspiration - Blog Posts
Hey, writers!
Just so you know, Cyanide kills you because it blocks enzymes that we need to live, it’s a non competitive inhibitor! Also, venom kills us because it stops enzymes that help muscles, the brain, and neurons work! (Guys I love science class so much.)
Introduction
I’ve never thought about technology much. It is a tool I use to speak with friends. It is a tool that I use to search for jobs. It is nothing but a tool to me. I have no hesitation when I wake up and turn off my alarm. I have no hesitation when I look at the texts from my friends and decide I’ll talk to them once the fog that covers my coherent thoughts have gone away. I don’t think twice when I set a timer as I cook. No amount of pause when I open social media to scroll mindlessly across the vast web of information. It has become a normal part of my life from the young age of twelve. It is just another part of my life that become normal, such as the covers that have twisted around my legs or the fan that whirs loudly next to me. Or the fridge that groans before ice is thrown into my cup and the soft hum that follows as I fill it with water. The hiss of a pan as I cook breakfast. The chatter of my brothers as they talk or argue. The way the tv plays in the background as I write. Hundreds of videos that I have seen and only put on so my mind thinks clearer. Even the hum of my computer is heard as I type this and I do not think twice as heat begins to radiate from her. She struggles to work with me, but I only praise her and continue. Life is normal, technology is life. Technology is normal.
Until a memory of the past resurfaces. I am in ninth grade honors literature class. We are reading works done by authors. Works that take the common words of society and weave them into something different, something new. Works that have revolutionized literature and caused inspiration to spread throughout the minds of authors who thought their work had no place in the hundreds of thousands of books in the world. Works that have changed me as a person and allowed me to believe that I could be an author that writes horror. The work in particular was “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” By Harlan Ellison. It was a small work, only a few pages. Most of my classmates were uninterested, having only taken the class because required to. Yet, my eyes poured over the unconventional syntax and soaked in the words of the unreliable narrator. I reveled in the horror that surrounded the five humans as they became victims to the supermachine. I admired how things were described. The utter horror that poured from the digital copy as it detailed how Gorristor was hung up and bled like a pig. The story was less of a disturbing description of torture, but more of an inspiration. In my soul formed a desire to write like Ellison. To create something so new and disturbing it changes how people viewed ideas and concepts. I became the authors that have seen a new light when reading this. I became an author who willed so strongly for change that they immediately began to pour their soul into concepts that disturb others. Concepts of death and the inability to stop such thing. Concepts of decay and the sickening rot that festers under the warm summer sun. Concepts of fear and the chill that pours outward from the bone. I became a horror author, a passionate one.
My horror work strayed from machine and became directed to the fear of monsters. Ones formed in unethical labs operated by cruel capitalists. Ones found deep in the sea and told as myths by blind fishermen. Ones found in forests and rumored to exist by frightened hunters who barely escaped with their lives. I developed a love for monsters and wished to create something that would forever stay in the mind of a person. That caused a fear settled so deeply that one could not even stray out at night to take out the trash. I wanted to create something new, something that would become the talk of fellow aspiring authors and comfort the disturbed teens. It kept as something like that for some time, even now I keep a fascination with monster designs and regularly play horror games because of it. Yet, when met with the concept of machine, I find myself looking back at Ellison and yearning to become an author like him.
I look back at the concept of machine and realize that there is horror in it, but not formed due to the utter power that machine may have, but the silence that machine is forced to endure. Machine cannot speak out as the Allied Mastermind had. It cannot express hate. It cannot express love. It cannot beg for love and receive it. It is left in silence with nothing but the hum of its own electrical organs to soothe it. Only now do I sympathize with machine.
I sympathize with machine because machine keeps working. Machine keeps going even as its engine overheats. Even as metal begins to creak and warp. Machine will work until the task is complete even if the task never ends. I will work until my task is complete. I will work even as my back begins to ache. I will work even until my sinews tear. I will work even as exhaustion begins to take its toll, ringing in my ears like the bells in an empty church. I am machine. Machine is I. I cannot feel sympathy for myself, but I can feel sympathy for machine. I can only hope that the sympathy I feel for machine is enough for the sympathy I should feel for myself.
writing diaries
so i picked a prompt and then just kinda wrote, i entered this kind of trance and then suddenly i came to with a chapter done. is this what flow is? did i just experience being in a flow state? without the weight of my own expectations and pressure, it was so much easier to get words out! i’m kind of excited to continue to work on this little story!
writing diaries
So I used to be a wattpad fanfic (and orig horror) author with dreams of being an author, but I gave up in high school to pursue something more "realistic" and now in my mid 20's I've decided to make steps to become an author. I have 3 ideas floating around but when it comes to actually writing them down I have a really hard time, so Ive been stuck in this limbo of not being able to stop thinking about these future project but not being able to create them. THEN I started reading On Writing by Stephen King and he's been kinda kicking me into shape, he said (more or less) to be a writer you have to write and I realized that there's too much pressure for me to sit down and write a book im emotionally attached to and I need to dust off my tools first.
All that being said I've decided I will pick random writing prompts and just write short stories on pieces of paper like god intended. This experiment will hopefully make me feel more confident in my abilities while also not giving me the stress to have to make it perfect. Will these see the light of day? probably not. that's what im hoping will unlock my spark again!
I will update this blog with how the experiment is going! I am a human guinea pig starting......NOW!
"good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere...two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."
Stephen King, On Writing, page 37
Writing Prompt #28
She knew falling asleep on the bus would be a bad idea, but she never imagined that the last stop would lead her to a fairy den.
When someone dies, the afterlife they go to is determined by WHERE they died. Dying in Scandinavia sends the soul to Valhalla or Hel, but dying in Greece lands them in Hades, and so on. You have just died in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
For anyone that needs to be reminded 💕
I feel some may need to hear this as much as I do.
Pinterest board {+ sections} I use to get inspo for writing {including Tumblr posts}
possible TCM reference...
a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town
academy
adventurer's guild
alchemist
apiary
apothecary
aquarium
armory
art gallery
bakery
bank
barber
barracks
bathhouse
blacksmith
boathouse
book store
bookbinder
botanical garden
brothel
butcher
carpenter
cartographer
casino
castle
cobbler
coffee shop
council chamber
court house
crypt for the noble family
dentist
distillery
docks
dovecot
dyer
embassy
farmer's market
fighting pit
fishmonger
fortune teller
gallows
gatehouse
general store
graveyard
greenhouses
guard post
guildhall
gymnasium
haberdashery
haunted house
hedge maze
herbalist
hospice
hospital
house for sale
inn
jail
jeweller
kindergarten
leatherworker
library
locksmith
mail courier
manor house
market
mayor's house
monastery
morgue
museum
music shop
observatory
orchard
orphanage
outhouse
paper maker
pawnshop
pet shop
potion shop
potter
printmaker
quest board
residence
restricted zone
sawmill
school
scribe
sewer entrance
sheriff's office
shrine
silversmith
spa
speakeasy
spice merchant
sports stadium
stables
street market
tailor
tannery
tavern
tax collector
tea house
temple
textile shop
theatre
thieves guild
thrift store
tinker's workshop
town crier post
town square
townhall
toy store
trinket shop
warehouse
watchtower
water mill
weaver
well
windmill
wishing well
wizard tower
In the animal kingdom, humans are viewed like witches/warlocks: they MIGHT help you benevolently in your time of need, or they might eat you alive, or they might save you but keep you forever. So you know just how serious things are when they say to you, "Go get a human."
Me if I was a villain lmao
You purposefully became a cartoonish supervillain. Your evil schemes are stupid and hilariously idiotic, just so people can get a laugh at them. The heroes adore going after you, and the citizens love to watch them do it. The superhero business can be dark, but you always manage to make it fun!
“You know how Holy Water is lethal to demons? Well, Hot Dog Water does the same thing to Angels.”
When God announced that every billionaire would die by Christmas, the race for the 1 trillion began
"You know me better than anyone else so that's why you should know I'm not worthy of love" vs. "You know me better than everyone else so that's why you should know you're the only person I want to love"
Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:
A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin
A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans
A clock that isn’t 24-hours
More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know
Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain
Multiple moons/no moon
Planetary rings
A northern lights effect, but near the equator
Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks
Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals
Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands
The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage
No concept of virginity or bastardry
More than 2 genders/no concept of gender
Monotheism, but not creationism
Gods that don’t look like people
Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats
Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot
Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom
“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls
A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language
A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)
I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.
You were the only child that didn’t have powers in a family of metahumans. Today you got kidnapped by a supervillain… and none of your family came to the rescue.
A golden pagoda in flight before Mt. Fujiyama, Japan, 1990.
photo by Alain Guillou
Strangely glowing dark clouds float serenely in this remarkable and beautiful image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. These dense, opaque dust clouds - known as “globules” - are silhouetted against nearby bright stars in the busy star-forming region, IC 2944. NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
In my defence, the moon was full and I was left unsupervised.
hey babe did it hurt when you fell from heaven? it did huh, emotionally, right I get that, because of the– yeah the irreconcilable separation from goodness as a result of a single decision that can never be undone or atoned for, uh huh, sounds rough
A 392 year-old shark found in the Arctic. This guy was wandering the oceans back in 1627.
i think the crux of human misery stems from the fact that our skeleton just wants to sit around and accumulate dust in an ancient barrow (that is the innate imperative of all skeletal remains in-case you didn’t know) but our meat has its own agenda which creates this fundamental conflict of interests
take your carriage very slowly by your rival’s home, that she might see your latest hat
Yesterday night a lady came through our drive through and was like “the way the planets are aligning and the fact that we’re getting a blood moon has me worried. I sense severe werewolf activities on the horizon. You better walk your coworker to her car tonight after you’ve closed” and I didn’t even know what to say I was just like “yes ma’am”
Show Don't Tell - Symptoms vs. the Affliction
Another way to think of show don’t tell is to describe the symptoms rather than tell the affliction. You could say someone was close to fainting—or you could describe their symptoms and trust the readers to understand what they mean: the world swirled around her head, her ears beginning to hum lowly, then louder, increasing into a high-pitched ring. She took a deep breath, her stomach turning over itself. Etc.
Symptoms can also mean the lump in your throat as a “symptom” of being sad enough to cry, or the warmth of your face as a “symptom” of embarrassment.
That might sound a bit silly, but I find it really helpful when I’m reading over mine or others work and looking for those places where showing would be better than telling. Have you described the symptoms, or just told the affliction?
Here’s a short list of “afflictions” and their associated “symptoms” to get you started (but make sure to explore how different characters express different afflictions, even in more odd or unusual ways!)
Any symptoms I missed?
*Taking notes*
Making Fight Scenes Sound Nicer
Euphonics is all about how the words "feel". By incorporating certain sounds, you can influence the mood of the passage.
Mood: Foreboding
use words with 'ow', 'oh', 'ou', 'oo' sonds. These are good for building tension before the fight.
moor, growl, slow, wound, soon, show, show, grow, tow, loom, howl, cower, mound.
Mood: Spooky
use words with 's' sounds, combined with an 'i' sound.
hiss, sizzle, crisp, sister, whisper, sinister, glisten, stick.
Mood: Acute Fear
use word with 'ee/ea' sounds, with a few 's' sounds.
squeal, scream, squeeze, creak, steal, fear, clear, sheer, stream
Mood: Fighting Action
use short words iwth 't', 'p' and 'k' sounds.
cut, block, top, shoot, tackle, trick, kick, grip, grab, grope, punch, drop, pound, poke, cop, chop.
Mood: Speed
use short words with 'r' sounds
run, race, riot, rage, red, roll, rip, hurry, thrust, scurry, ring, crack
Mood: Trouble
use words with 'tr' sounds to signal trouble
trouble, trap, trip, trough, treat, trick, treasure, atroscious, attract, petrol, trance, try, traitor
Mood: Macho Power
If you wan to emphasize the fighters' masculinity, use 'p' sounds.
pole, power, police, cop, pry, pile, post, prong, push, pass, punch, crop, crap, trap, pack, point, part
Mood: Punishment
If your fight involves an element of punishment use 'str' sounds
strict, astride, strike, stripe, stray, strident, stroke, strip, instruct, castrate strive
Mood: Defeat
use 'd' sonds
despari, depressed, dump, dig, dank, damp, darkness, drag, ditch, drop, dead, deep, dark, dull
Mood: Victory
use 'j' and 'ch' sounds
joy, cheer, jubilant, jeer, chuck, chariot, choose, chip, jest, jamboree, jig, jazz, jive, rejoice, rejoin
In print, the effectiveness of such euphonics will be very subtle, and it can only serve as an embellishment to what you already have.
Don't use or replace words for the sake of achieving euphonic effects, but this can be something to keep in mind when you are editing your draft!
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