How Different Is Your Second Draft From The Third Draft?

Reasons to keep writing:

it brings you joy

somebody has to take care of the characters

you have a lesson to teach

it gets you through everyday life

there's people excited for the next chapter

to provide hope for yourself and others

if you don't tell the story, no one else will

it's a way of expressing yourself / what you go through

to make yourself and others feel less alone

people adore your writing

your characters would miss you if you left

nobody can take your place / write your stories for you

to leave something behind to be remembered by

to release your emotions

to inspire other people

You cannot have a lasting relationship without conflict resolution skills, how can we build a society without it, if you

anyone remember what these things are called like little cartoony expressive doohickies i think they have a real name but i can’t remember

Fantasy Guide to A Great House (19th-20th Century) - Anatomy of the House

When we think of the Victorians, the grand old Gilded Age or the Edwardians, we all think of those big mansions and manors where some of our favourite stories take place. But what did a great house look like?

Layout

All great houses are different and some, being built in different eras, may adhere to different styles. But the layout of certain rooms usually stayed somewhat the same.

The highest floors including the attic were reserved the children's rooms/nursery and the servants quarters.

The next floor would be reserved for bedrooms. On the first/ground floor, there will be the dining room, drawing room, library etc.

The basement/cellar would be where the kitchens and other food related rooms would be. Servants halls and boot rooms may also be down here too along scullery, where sometimes a maid would clean.

Rooms used by Servants

Boot Room: The Boot Room is where the valets, ladies maids, hallboys and sometimes footmen clean off shoes and certain items of clothing.

Kitchen: The Kitchen was usually either in the basement or the first floor of the house, connected to a garden where the house's vegetables were grown.

Butler's Pantry: A butler's pantry was where the serving items are stored. This is where the silver is cleaned, stored and counted. The butler would keep the wine log and other account books here. The butler and footmen would use this room.

Pantry: The Pantry would be connected to the kitchen. It is a room where the kitchens stock (food and beverages) would be kept.

Larder: The larder was cool area in the kitchen or a room connected to it where food is stored. Raw meat was often left here before cooking but pastry, milk, cooked meat, bread and butter can also be stored here.

Servants Hall: The Servant's Hall was where the staff ate their meals and spent their down time. They would write letters, take tea, sew and darn clothes. The servants Hall would usually have a fireplace, a large table for meals, be where the servant's cutlery and plates would be kept and where the bell board hung. (these bells were the way servants where summoned)

Wine Cellar: The wine cellar was where the wine was melt, usually in the basement. Only the butler would be permitted down there and everything would be catalogued by him too.

Butler's/Housekeeper's sitting rooms: In some houses, both the butler and the housekeeper had sitting rooms/offices downstairs. This was were they held meetings with staff, took their tea and dealt with accounts.

Scullery: The scullery was were the cleaning equipment was cleaned and stored. The scullery may even also double as a bedroom for the scullery maid.

Servery: The Servery connected to the dinning room. It was where the wine was left before the butler carried it out to be served. Some of the food would be delivered here to be carried out as well.

Servant's Sleeping Quarters: All servants excepting perhaps the kitchen maid and outside staff slept in the attics. Men and unmarried women would be kept at seperate sides of the house with the interconnecting doors locked and bolted every night by the butler and housekeeper. If the quarters were small, some servants may have to share rooms. Servants' bathrooms and washrooms would also be up there, supplied with hot water from the kitchens.

Rooms used by the Family

Dining room: The dining room was where the family ate their breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was also where the gentlemen took their after dinner drink before joking the ladies in the drawing room.

Drawing room: The Drawing Room was sort of a living/sitting room. It was mainly used in the evenings after dinner where the ladies would take their tea and coffee before being joined by the men. It could also be used for tea by the ladies during the day. The drawing room was seen as more of a women's room but any of the family could use it. The drawing room was a formal room but could also be used for more casual activities.

Library: The library is of course where the books are kept. The family would use this room for writing letters, reading, doing business with tenants and taking tea in the afternoons.

Bedrooms: The bedrooms would take up most of the upper floors. The unmarried women would sleep in one wing with bachelors at the furthest wing away. Married couples often had adjoining rooms with their own bedrooms in each and equipped with a boudoir or a sitting room.

Nursery: Was where the children slept, usually all together until old enough to move into bedrooms. They would be attended to be nannies and nursemaids round the clock.

Study: The study was a sort of home office where family could do paperwork, chill and write letters.

Dressing room: Dressing Rooms where usually attached to bedrooms where the family would be dressed and their clothes would be stored. The valets and ladies maids would have control of the room.

Hall: The hall was where large parties would gather for dancing or music or to be greeted before parties.

Furnishings and Decor

Most of these Great Houses were inherited which means, they came with a lot of other people's crap. Ornaments from anniversaries, paintings bought on holiday, furniture picked out by newly weds, all of it comes with the house. So most of the time everything seems rather cluttered.

As for Servant's Quarters, most of the furnishings may have been donated by the family as gifts. Most servants' halls would have a portrait of the sovereign or sometimes a religious figure to install a sense of morality into them.

A Single Word Written is Better Than None

I took a few months off from writing. Not voluntarily. I just couldn’t seem to write a single word. Whenever I would open up a new document, I would simply shut down and freeze up.

I’m a writer who hasn’t written anything in months.

Even writing in my journal became difficult. If someone were to unbury my journal after the apocalypse, they might think I took a four-month hibernation. I was shut off from the world, adding nothing to the world. Not even a single word.

For the past couple of weeks, however, it feels like I’ve gotten a little bit of that writing bug back. Nothing like Stephen King’s two thousand words a day. About five to seven hundred words on a good day.

Even though I’m writing, it feels more like a slow crawl. I look at these low word counts and put myself down for not doing more. I know I’m not the only writer who focuses too much on their word counts and feels bad when we can’t reach the professional levels.

So to you out there who are in the same position, telling yourself you’re not a real writer because you’re not writing a full novel each month. I have a message for you that I need to do a better job of remembering myself.

You Are a Writer Even if You’re Not Published

This holds back a lot of writers. I write mainly short stories, but the fact that none of them have been chosen for a publication journal does weigh heavily on my head.

Still, just because they haven’t been published doesn’t mean they haven’t been written. I wrote those stories, and I am still a writer because of it.

If you’ve finished a story or a whole novel but it hasn’t been published, don’t beat yourself up! You are a writer! Write another one and another one till the world finally acknowledges you!

Having Moments of Writer’s Block Doesn’t Mean You Are Failing

I struggle with this a lot. The idea that if my writer’s block lasts more than a few days, I have somehow failed as a writer and the title should be stripped from me.

Just because I had a few bad months doesn’t mean I’m no longer a writer. And if you’ve had a few bad months too, or even a few bad years of writing, that doesn’t mean you’re not a writer anymore either!

When a pitcher strains his wrist and has to take a hiatus while it heals, is he no longer a pitcher?

A Single Word Written is Better Than None

Don’t feel bad if you’re coming out of a writing slump and it feels like you’re coming out of it very slowly. The pitcher who returns from his injury won’t be throwing shutouts the minute he steps onto the mound. He eases into it.

And so should you!

If you’re only writing a few words a day and you’re feeling disappointed that it’s not at the high word count standard that most professionals hold themselves to, just remind yourself that progress is progress! Whether you’ve written one, two, or a thousand words. It is still more than the absolute zero you wrote during your slump.

Feel proud of your progress!

And remember, no matter what, you are still a writer.

uh oh time to meet the parents prompts

i love this request so much! please feel free to use :)

“what are the chances that you’d let me not meet them, then tell them i died or something and we can run away together and—” “breathe.”

“mom, this is [name].” “……… you’re joking, right?”

“mom… what would you do if i said i was getting married?” and a response like “omg!!!!! to that guy you were dating before??? when is it???? what’s the color theme????? WAIT DONT MOVE IM FLYING OVER”

^and a contrasting “dad… i’m getting married” and a response like “oh ok congrats”

introducing them in that awkward stage where they’ve been dating for like a couple months and they’re eating dinner tgt and the parents are just humiliating them

“whether you like them or not, i love them. you can respect that or you can uninvite yourself from the wedding.”

“thank you for loving my daughter. you were one of us from the moment you started taking care of her.”

they hit it off so very well that the parents are like F my child can i adopt u instead

^afterwards like “so what did you think of them?” and the parent(s) are like “i think i like them more than you.”

“i’m gonna be honest my love. watching you guys together made me glad because i know you have someone when your dad and i leave this earth.”

“give her a chance.”

if the parents don’t like the love interest: have scenes displaying how it feels for the love interest to have to see their partner scramble to convince their parents to like their partner. that cannot in any way shape or form go untalked about as the live interest probably feels humiliated, inferior, etc… also consider why the parents would dislike the love interest

“i don’t like him.” “good thing i’m the one dating him then, right?”

a lot of people don’t have parents/good relationships w their parents so what if they broke the news to their friends :)

one of your characters doesn’t have parents to break the news to but their partner’s parents take them in as their own

“i need them to love me. because you love me, and you love them, and if they don’t love me i don’t know what i’ll do.”

“i want them to love you.”

“i need you guys to love him because i love him.”

“i finally realized that i don’t need your permission as much as i thought i did.”

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

i unironically believe electricity is the closest thing we have to magic in this universe. consider:

it's basically what human "souls" are made of (your consciousness is the result of miniscule amounts of electric charge jumping between neurons in your brain)

when handled incorrectly or encountered in the wild, it is a deadly force that can kill you in at least half a dozen different ways

when treated respectfully and channeled into the proper conduits, it is a power source that forms the backbone of modern society

if you engrave the right sigils into a rock and channel electricity into it, you can make the rock think

there is a dedicated caste of mages (electrical engineers) tasked with researching it in ivory towers

whatever the fuck Galvani was doing with those frog legs

look at this and just try to tell me it isn't a kind of summoning circle