Totodile And Fuecoco Help Quaxly.

I love them. Such a goofy dude.

Another sketch brought to you by #Paleostream

Brachiosuchus, a dyrosaurid from the late cretaceous of Sudan. Dyrosaurids are in general already weird crocodilians but Brachiosuchus is extra bizarre because of it's very long arms, that are quite a bit longer than it's hindlimbs. it also has a skull the size of it's torso and tall neural spines.

Happy holidays, @junk-thrillz! I got to be your @paranaturalsecretsanta this year. I really had fun thinking of potential ways to sneak all the prompts in, although I didn't get all of them. I couldn't think of a good Werewolf Violet idea in my head, so I did the next best thing and threw a werewolf *at* Violet instead. I hope you enjoy it!

this is fabulous!

Okay but listen

Feraligatr and totobabies

People talk a lot about how reading is necessary for writing, but when you really want to improve your writing, it’s important to go beyond just simple reading. Here are some things to do when reading:

Note how they begin and end the story. There are a ton of rather contradictory pieces of advice about starting stories, so see how they do it in the stories you enjoy. Don’t only look at the most popular stories, but look at your more obscure favorites.

See what strikes you. Is it fast or complicated scenes with a lot of emotions? Is it stark lines? Pithy dialogue? What do you remember the next day?

Pay attention to different styles. It’s not just whether they use past or present tense, first or third person. It’s whether the writing is more neutral or deeper inside character’s heads. Do they use italics? Parentheses? Other interesting stylistic choices? Take the ones you like and try them out in your own writing. See what works and what doesn’t.

Keep track of how they deal with other characters. Do we see a lot of secondary character each for very brief periods of time or are there a couple that show up a lot? How much information do we get about secondary characters? Do they have their own plots or do their plots revolve entirely around the main characters? 

Count how many plots there are. Is there just one main plot or are there multiple subplots? Are the storylines mostly plot-based or character-based?  

Pay attention to what you don’t like. If you don’t like what’s going on in a book or even just a scene, note what it is. Does the dialogue feel awkward? Are the characters inconsistent? Does the plot feel too convenient or cobbled together? Does the wording just feel off? See if you can spot those issues in your own writing, especially when reading a completed draft or beginning a later draft.

How to write dynamic scenes

Here’s how you can inject some dynamics into your scenes where characters may be idling during their conversations! This is my favourite trick to use when I want to round out a scene.

Sometimes you may have a static scene in your book with characters simply sitting and chatting. So how do you make this more interesting?

The answer is to add in some dynamics!

🤔 What does that mean?

Creating dynamics in a scene means that you add some form of repetitive or changing background element throughout the scene to keep it moving, despite it being in the same spot.

For example, if you have a scene set in a restaurant with two characters having dinner, pick out an element from the setting that could create some kind of dynamic, pressure or conflict to your scene.

✍️ In a restaurant this may be:

An annoying cast of waiters circling around and offering refills

A scorching radiator by the side of the table raising temperature and shortening patience levels

A loud party of people in the background who make it difficult for your characters to understand each other

A partner’s phone buzzing on the table every other minute

A character’s personal tendencies - like fidgeting with the table cloth and eventually unthreading it, or coming close to dropping things until they shatter a glass at a high point of the scene

Think of background elements, or ways to externalise the way your characters are feeling in a particular scene can add so much life to a scene!

It also makes it feel more interesting, dynamic, and immersive, even a scene you’re writing is a simple conversation.

Whenever you find your characters having a conversation while they’re simply walking or sitting, think of whether you can externalise any of their emotions or inject some background element to make the scene more interesting!

Did you hear my first book is coming out August 15th? Pre-order it now through the [link here] or below!

Hi! Thank you so much for all the time and help you provide, can't think of a better writing blog to go to. So my question is, what do you think are the most important elements to take into consideration when creating a timeline? How do you make a timeline I guess I'm asking lol :)

Making a Timeline for Your Story

I’m not sure if you’re asking about figuring out the timeline of your story’s events or creating an actual timeline as part of the planning process, so I’ll address both. :)

Figuring Out Your Story’s Timeline of Events

1. First and foremost, figure out a general span of time for your story in terms of the year/s it takes place and the months. If you’re not sure what month your story should begin, consider what needs to be happening then. For example, if there’s going to be snow falling in the first scene, you know your story begins during a winter month.

2. Create a calendar for your story covering the months/years in question. You may just want to download a blank calendar template and print out several that you can fill in by hand. 

3. Once you have your calendar printed out, fill in the days of the first month. Then you can choose an appropriate “day one” for your story and jot down what scene or event happens on what day. Remember there will be blank days and that’s fine. Those will be “time skipped.” Doing it on a calendar like this allows you to get a bird’s eye view of the story so you can figure out a likely timeline of events.

Creating a Reference Timeline for Your Story

If you want to do a physical timeline for reference, all that’s really important to include are the date and the actual event.

If you want to, however, you may consider doing a scene list instead. A scene list will include: chapter, scene (I do two scene numbers, the scene within the chapter and then the total scene), the date, and what happens in the scene. So, ultimately, it would look something like this:

This not only helps you keep track of when your scene takes place, but it helps you map out your story so you’re never lost. You can also add other data to the table if you want to, like setting and characters present. You can modify it in any way that works for your story. :)

I hope that helps!

————————————————————————————————-Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check through my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

What’s your fav fic idea, planned or written

In general: someone becoming a spectral. Bonus points if it's from a Near Death Experience since we haven't seen what that looks like in comic yet and not a lot of people have written what it could be! Personally I make it so there's a ghost outside the body but has a tether into the person's heart. If the tether breaks, that's it, the person is dead. The tether will fray slowly on its own and also slowly gain a color. Becoming a spectral through this method depends on how long the person was "dead" for and how much they remember being "dead", although there are outliers for both criteria.

Specifically: I'm not entirely sure! In terms of what makes me happiest when brainstorming ideas for it, I'd say that one of my AUs where Peekaboo and Forge are switched (so that Peekaboo is the one that possesses Johnny in Chapter 4) is always a hoot to think about, since it involves a lot of Peekaboo being very chaotic in a looney toons esque fashion and having a foil in Violet, who's trying to figure out what's up with him and make sense of this odd relationship she now has with both Johnny and Peekaboo. There's also fics I have planned exploring what interactions could happen with Stephen and Isaac, including a few where they kind of sort of become acquaintances. One such fic is in the works now!

Websites for Artists by alinalal_

A regular and oblivious person works at a coffee shop not knowing its a place of ceasefire for assassins and mercenaries.

Massive thanks to both @paranaturalpop and @mas-y-menos for helping me rediscover this gem of a fancomic! Gave me a serotonin boost like you wouldn't believe, and reignited some ideas for some stories! All the best to you both!

my prediction for whats gonna go down re: johnny developing ghost powers