Latest Posts by ainesseyspiegel - Page 3
Every time I read that post about doing things out of spite I remember that C. S. Lewis put that fucking street lamp in Narnia because Tolkien once said that no good fantasy story would have a lamp in it.
ʜᴏᴡ ᴛᴏ: ғᴏʀᴍᴀʟʟʏ ᴀᴅᴅʀᴇss ʀᴏʏᴀʟᴛʏ/ᴀʀɪsᴛᴏᴄʀᴀᴄʏ ɪɴ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ
This is more for my own reference, but if anyone else finds this useful, you’re free to like/reblog it and what-not. Most of the information was either taken from various Wikipedia pages or WikiHow.
First, let’s look at the social hierarchy:
Emperor/Empress
King/Queen
Grand Duke/Grand Duchess
Grand Prince/Grand Princess
Archduke/Archduchess
Duke/Duchess
Prince/Princess
Marquis/Marchioness
Count (Earl)/Countess
Viscount/Viscountess
Baron/Baroness
Knight/Dame
Sir/Lady
When meeting royalty for the first time, always acknowledge them with a bow from the neck (not the waist) if you are a man, and a small curtsey if you are a woman. (This gesture is no longer applicable in today’s world, but if you’re writing for an earlier time period, then it’s important your character bow or curtsey).
Below is directly applicable to citizens of the U.K and Commonwealth:
Only shake the queen’s hand if she offers it to you first. If you are wearing gloves, do not remove them.
Do not begin a conversation with the queen. Instead, wait until she starts speaking to you.
When addressing royalty, finish your first reply with their formal address. For example, if a prince asks you, “How are you enjoying the United Kingdom?” you would respond “It’s wonderful, Your Royal Highness.” Each title carries a different formal address:
Emperors and Empresses are addressed as “Your Imperial Majesty” and introduced as “His/Her Imperial Majesty”.
Queens and kings are addressed as “Your Majesty.” Introduce them as “Her Majesty the Queen” (not ”Queen of England”, as she is the “Queen of the United Kingdom”, “Queen of Canada” and a long array of additional titles).
Princes and princesses are referred to “Your Royal Highness.” Introduce them as “His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.” Any child or male line grandchild of a monarch is considered a prince or princess. The spouse of a prince is also a princess, although she is not always “Princess” Her First Name. The spouse of a princess is not always a prince. Great-grandchildren in the male line of the monarch are not considered princes or princesses. Use the courtesy titles lord or lady for these personages, addressing them as, for example, “Lady Jane” and introducing them as “Lady Jane Windsor” (unless they have a different title of their own).
Dukes and Duchesses are called “Your Grace” or “Duke/Duchess.” Introduce the duke to someone else as “His Grace the Duke of Norfolk,” the duchess as “Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk”.
Baronets and knights, if male, are addressed as “Sir Bryan” (if his name is Bryan Thwaites) and his wife is “Lady Thwaites”. You would introduce him using his full name, “Sir Bryan Thwaites,” and his wife as “Lady Thwaites.”
Dames (the equivalent of knighthood for women - there is no female equivalent of baronetcy) are “Dame Gertrude” in conversation, and you would introduce her as “Dame Gertrude Mellon.”
Other forms of nobility (including Marquess/Marchioness, Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Baron/Baroness) are generally addressed as, “Lord or Lady Trowbridge” (for the Earl of Trowbridge), and introduced with their appropriate title, such as “Viscount Sweet” or “Baroness Rivendell” .
Use “Sir” or “Ma’am” thereafter. If the noble uses a casual style of conversation, drop the “Sir” or “Ma’am.” Don’t make them have to ask.
This information strictly deals with meeting British peers and royalty.Other parts of the world have different systems of aristocracy, and while the British royal family’s official website notes that when meeting a member of the royal family, “There are no obligatory codes of behaviour - simply courtesy,” this is not the case for all aristocracies. Failure to observe specific codes of behaviour in some countries may result in harsh punishment.
So—— it’s always best to research the monarchy in which you are writing for. I used the U.K’s peerage system because it’s the most widely known, but don’t take it as applicable for every monarchy. Titles and protocols can differ greatly between cultures.
If any of this information is incorrect, please feel free to correct it.
Don't suppose you have any posts on animal- or in particular horse-related vocab? Half my novel characters ride horses and, not being a horsey person myself, I'm running out of ways of talking about them ¬_¬
Ohhh, I was confused at first to what you meant but now I know.
Glossary of equestrian terms
Horse riding for beginners
Riding and training terms
On horses in general
Horse personalities
Horse color descriptions
Different types of horses
Why and how to ride a horse bareback
How to handle a scared horse
Caring for your horse in the stable
Wounded horses
How to sit correctly on a horse
A horse’s tail
Equine body language chart
How to understand horse communication
Horse behavior
There you go. Happy writing!
-Alex
Writing Characters with Enhanced Senses
Characters with extraordinary senses come up a lot. Maybe your character is of supernatural or alien origin, or maybe they were just born with a genetic quirk. Maybe they have a sensory disorder that only makes their hearing seem extraordinary. There are lots of reasons why a character might have extraordinary senses and a lot of different ways those senses might be put to use, but here are some of the drawbacks you might consider when writing a character who has a super sniffer, excellent eyesight, or high-quality hearing!
Sight: If your character has super sight, chances are that they can see farther and more clearly than anybody else, which is pretty cool except that the human eye can still only really focus on one thing at a time…so your character might want to be careful not to get distracted when they’re, say, crossing the street. If they’re watching a burglary occur a thousand yards away, they might not notice the car that just whipped around the corner behind them. Other super-drawbacks might include heightened sensitivity to light, color, or movement - and you have to remember that nobody can see three-hundred-sixty degrees at all times, so your character is probably going to have a blind spot (unless they’re an owl). Also, they may frequently look like they’re staring off into space when they’re really just watching something very intently.
Hearing: Have you ever been standing in a crowd of people who are all talking at the same time? Now imagine if you had super hearing! It can be hard to pick out individual pieces of information or even follow a single conversation when you can hear everyone in a six-block radius…and it’s not just conversations. You can also hear every car, every pet moving around, every jingle of a key, the air moving through the vents, and so on and so forth. This is another one of those abilities that may make it look like your character is just really easily distracted - it’s not that they don’t want to pay attention to their friends, it’s just that they’re playing “name that tune” with a radio four blocks to the southeast!
Smell: Think about your shower routine, whatever it might be. How many scented products do you layer on your skin? Soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deoderant, maybe perfume or cologne, shaving cream or aftershave - the list goes on and on. If you had a super nose, you might be able to smell every single layer a person was wearing, and that kind of assault on the nose could be eye-wateringly overwhelming. Consider your reaction to someone wearing strong perfume! There are a lot of other types of smells in the world too, from cut grass and shoe polish to rotting garbage…and a lot of bodily functions have smells too: passing gas, excrement, or urine, menstruation, or sweating, for example. Your character might even be able to smell disease. This type of character might have to wear a mask or a scarf over their face to dull their super-sense, which might give them an odd appearance, but just imagine how much weirder it would look to be standing on a street corner sniffing at the air when all anyone else can smell is car fumes.
Taste: What’s the strongest flavor you’ve ever tasted? Maybe it was something fishy, or spicy, or sour. Everyone’s answer is bound to be different, but imagine if every single thing you ever ate or drank tasted that strong. Eventually you might get kind of tired of it and start preparing food that is more bland, right? Alternately, imagine if nothing ever just tasted like itself to you: you’re eating a french fry, but instead of tasting “french fry” you’re tasting potato, salt, oil, the metal of the fryer, the latex in the gloves used to scoop them into the paper tray, the paper tray itself…that would be pretty overwhelming! The major drawback to super taste is that your character might have trouble eating out or eating in front of other people. When you taste a lemon, your face puckers up…just think of how much more sour it would taste with a super tongue!
Touch: Did you know that every day you suffer a million tiny hurts and your brain just ignores them so that you can keep on functioning normally? If you had an enhanced nervous system, that might not be the case. Think about the number of tiny things we ignore every day: actions like walking, scratching, accidentally biting your tongue, or blinking could hurt pretty bad if you were super sensitive to touch! People with super touch might have a hard time getting comfortable all the time, and they might have to deal with not liking the feeling of clothes, being annoyed with air moving over their skin, or being extra-sensitive to physical contact. If a hug felt to me like someone was trying to break my ribs, I’d avoid them too!
So what are some things to keep in mind when writing about characters with extraordinary senses, other than drawbacks? Here are some things to consider:
Set limits. Your character shouldn’t be able to see past the curve of the earth - that’s just silly! Likewise, if they can hear something happening through the entire planet, you may want to rethink. Consider things like range and clarity when you’re setting limits on super senses: how far away can they see things and how clearly can they see them, for example. When it comes to touch, this is a little more tricky, and you might want to think more about the direct effects of pressure on the character: how much pressure does it take before it hurts?
Enhanced senses require enhanced brainpower. I don’t mean that they raise your character’s IQ level, but consider how much effort it takes to sort through and process sensory information. If your character’s brain can’t handle it, they might be in a constant state of sensory overload.
Speaking of sensory overload, that might happen to your character sometimes anyway! Everyone faces extreme situations in their lives where their brains just can’t keep up with the workload, and the threshold for that point is probably lower for people with super senses. If you’ve got a character with super hearing and four people are trying to talk to them at once, they might experience sensory overload and have to go recover for a while, so do your research into sensory overload and what to do to help them.
Finally, their super sense is going to impact how they experience and relate to other people. Maybe your character doesn’t remember a person’s name or face but they’ll never forget her voice. Maybe they just can’t even be in the house with Great-Aunt Helen because she always wears the same musty old perfume and it gives your character a headache. Maybe your character appears to be constantly zoning out when really they’re just looking closely at peoples’ jewelry. How your character perceives others, and how others view your character, is going to be impacted by their ability - count on it.
If you’re writing about a character with super senses, I hope that this has been helpful and maybe even inspiring to you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts too! Thanks for reading, and good luck!
-Kyo
Zodiac Signs as Beautiful Words:
ARIES: Defenestration (n) the act of throwing someone out the window.
TAURUS: Petrichor (n) the pleasant, earthy smell of rain.
GEMINI: Ephemeral (adj) lasting for a very short time
CANCER: Hiraeth (n) a home sickness for home you cannot return to, or that never was.
LEO: Phosphenes (n) the light and colours produced by rubbing your eyes
VIRGO: Mellifluous (adj) a sound that is sweet and smooth, pleasing to hear.
LIBRA: Limerence (n) the state of being infatuated with another person.
SCORPIO: Sonder (n) the sudden realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own
SAGITTARIUS: Luminescence (n) light produced by chemical, electrical, physiological means
CAPRICORN: Denouement (n) the resolution of a narrative
AQUARIUS: Syzygy (n) an alignment of celestial bodies.
PISCES: Ethereal (adj) extremely delicate, light, not of this world.
a letter to taurus
You leave a pollen trail of petals and wind chimes, and you build sanctuaries for me to crawl into and wrap my legs around your vines, you make me feel so safe. And yet, you feel so unsteady yourself, like you are always looking for a cradle of security, worried that the world will be pulled from below you feet and you will be left holding nothing and no one. It’s always everybody else’s hearts you want to stitch together and repair. And you forever try to stay still and placid, as if you are so resilient you cannot be moved. This is true, but I can also sense your fear, and your worries, and that if you move you think you will crumble, or break everyone around you. I know every pain in your life has cut a deep wound in your body and you are forced to rewatch the memories… everything is not so analgesic as it seems You seem so serene that even your silences make music.
cherry
seeing straight men be disgusted by booktok smut recommenders has actually radicalized me to the side of booktok smut recommenders. girls your taste may be atrocious but i will never disparage you for exposing mainstream discourse to the concept of soaking through your underwear. spent my whole life listening to men talk about penises it’s about time they get jumpscared by women talking about pussy in crude detail on social media. go forth and goon my warriors
A light for those who need it in times of darkness.
I got my major fandoms in here holding a beacon of light for anyone who needs it in times of sadness and despair I wish I had a chance to fit a few more fandoms in.
hush little laptop dont you cry. Mommy’s gonna find you some more wifi.
"All My Friends Are Dead,"
an autobiography by Merlin Emrys.
Dedicated to Dr. John Watson
Preface by The Doctor.
Epilogue by Dean Winchester.
I shit you not, the hardest part about creating a character is coming up with their last name
DAILY MOTHERFUCKING REMINDER
THAT YOU ARE
DAMN INTELLIGENT
VALUABLE AS HELL AND NOT THE LEAST BIT WORTHLESS
SUPER FUCKING LOVED
EXTREMELY GOD DAMN INTERESTING
NOT TO MENTION A HOT PIECE OF ASS
AND THAT ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU OTHERWISE IS A PIECE OF SHIT. KEEP BEING AWESOME, DON’T LET THE DOUCHE BAGS GET YOU DOWN, AND REMEMBER THAT I MOTHERFUCKING LOVE YOU.
How to make a scary villain
Nobody hides under their blankets when they see Snidely Whiplash or Jesse and James. Here are a few tips on how to make an effective villain that makes your readers sleep with a nightlight.
Give them an unusual, unsympathetic reason to hurt or kill.
If Lord Skulsanstuf kills for revenge, because of bigotry, or to prove how cool he is, he’s not as powerful. Readers hear about people in real life killing for those reasons all the time.
Instead, make him kill because he wants beautiful people never to have the experience of growing old and ugly. Make him kill because he thinks the only way to stay pure is to drink a glass of blood every morning. Then do a chapter from his perspective and show how delighted he is with his way of thinking. Instant chills.
Allow them to kill fully developed characters.
Nobody cares that Lady Lotsoblood burned an entire village to the ground and tortured all the children to death if nobody in that village is important enough in your story to have a name. Look at all your characters and figure out which ones are the most expendable. Then let Lotsoblood work her magic.
Go in detail about the strange deeds they commit.
I would never want to be stabbed, but I especially don’t want a knife to run down the side of my cheek, lifting parts of my skin so my assailant can brutally rip them off later. That sounds a lot worse because I can imagine it better in my head.
Don’t bog them down with too many evil traits.
A vivisector who kicks puppies and burns down buildings in his spare time is silly, not scary. Good, nice traits can drive in the fact that your villain is human and therefore anybody could turn into them, which is a scary thought.
Don’t make them annoying.
Professor Umbridge hits almost every point on this list, but she’s too annoying to be truly scary.
Give them control of every situation.
Until the very final battle, the villain should know more about what’s happening than the heroes. The heroes should have a hard time keeping a secret no matter what measures they put in place.
Two men start to argue on a street corner and a crowd gathers to watch. Write about the incident from the perspective of:
One of the two men involved in the argument
An observer who happens upon the scene after the argument has started
An observer who knows one of the men
The Writer’s Book of Matches
Why my characters drive me nuts.
Me: Okay , I literally have nothing else of dire importance to do today, so I finally have times to work with a few of you. Who wants to go first?
Hero: Nah I don't feel like it right now.
Side Character: I think there's a game on that I want to watch.
Plot Device: I'm going to bed.
Civilian: Oooooh, shiny thing over there.
Villain: Blah.
Me: What the hell!? Two seconds ago you wouldn't shut up.There's actually time now, I have the time!
Characters: Sucks to be you then.
