I Cannot Get Mad At Myself For Not Being Good At Answering Texts And Dms N Emails N Returning Phone Calls

YOU CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH LOVE, NOT EVEN WHEN YOU'RE BROKEN & SICK.

unknown // w. s. mervin // jane seville // denice frohman // florence + the machine // jennifer franklin // frank bidart.

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hi my reader friends lithub has a new syllabi section that has some great (u guessed it!) syllabi from much beloved writers like ocean vuong and ross gay here's the full list that i have already added half of to my tbr:

ekphrastic poetry with victoria chang (featuring works of john ashbery, joy harjo, paul tran)

the literature of obsession with julia may jonas (obsession as transformation, destruction, catharsis and form)

place, space and landscape with alexandra kleeman (featuring didion, okorafor and hernan diaz)

lyric research with ross gay (books that combine research with an "I" like nelson's bluets or christle's the crying book)

hybrid poetry with ocean vuong (traditions, innovations and possibilities featuring bhanu kapil, rimbaud, clifton)

multigenre experiments in form with paul lisicky (for writing that explores connections between genres)

reading about writers with peter ho davies (books that teach the craft and give writing advice, think 'the outline' trilogy)

speculative women with lina maria ferreira cabeza-vanegas (a look at speculative works by women writers like jemisin, butler, k le guin)

writers and the world with viet thanh nguyen (rankine, baldwin, and coates)

sports and contemporary writing with sam lipsyte (exactly what it says on the tin)

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(endgame spoilers please do not read further if you don’t want to get spoiled)

when you are a visual learner sometimes and are trying to understand the quantum time travel:

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

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Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

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Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

STOP saying the marauders are like the raven boys. you are WRONG. ronan lynch is an eldritch horror and sirius black is what? a twink?

Domestic wolfstar moments because we need peace in this household

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in what order do you think it’s best to read dostoyevsky’s novels?

hey so this is a question i get asked quite often, so you know what? i made yall a handy chart

Carbickova Crowns on Etsy

She-Who-Fights-And-Writes FAQ + Complete List of Writing Resources

Please refer to this page before sending any asks, please!

I will answer questions about:

Characters

Plotting

POV

Setting

Tropes

Fanfiction

Genres

Getting Started

And more!!!!

I will NOT answer questions about:

Things that are already on this list 

The publishing/editing industry (primarily because I’m unqualified)

Children’s fiction and Nonfiction (Same reason as above)

Hyper-specific details of your WIP; I can’t tell you how to write your own story. 

“Does ____ sound like a good idea?” 

Anything that can be figured out with a quick Google search (i.e. how fast can cheetahs run, how long does it take to get a license, etc.)

Asking me to reblog your post, give you a shout-out, etc. This blog is just for writing content only and will remain ad-free. 

Asking me to read/edit your story. I’m a college student with a very busy life who also has her own writing projects to worry about, and cannot put time aside to edit someone’s work for free. However, if you do send a message perhaps we can discuss pricing if I have the time. 

Sorry, but I am quite rigid about these rules!

This is just a compilation of the questions I get a lot or I think I answered pretty well, so if you need anything else feel free to check out my #answering asks tag!

I’ve also included some posts from other blogs/sources as well because I feel as though they can explain it much better than I ever could!

Once Upon A Time (The Basics)

How to Get Into Writing Fiction

How to Improve Your Writing

How to Outline 

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Write A Scene (AKA get through the boring parts) (Source: Jerry Jenkins)

How to Write a Sub-Plot

How to Write In Certain Tenses

Is Your Story Better as a Fanfic or an Original Work?

POV Tips

How to Choose Which POV to Use (Source @evans-writing)

How to Write First Person POV

How to Write Switching POVs in Fanfiction

Genres + Setting

How to Write About Medieval Europe

How to Write About the Mid-Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Century (In America)

How to Write Gangster/Mafia Fiction

How to Write About School

How to Write an Apocalypse

Stuff Happens (Plot)

How to Write Humor

How to Make Your Story Less Sad

How to Make Your Story Longer (Feat. a helpful reblog from @romancingthebook)

How to Make Your Story Scarier

How to Write a Fight Scene

How to Write Magic

How to Write a Missing Person’s Report

How to Write Character Death

How to Fake a Character’s Death

How to Write Pain

How to Write a Terrorist Attack

Subverting Common Fanfiction AUs and Plot Ideas

How to End Your Story (Source: Now Novel)

Descriptions + Dialogue

How to Write Arguments

How to Write Dialogue

How to Write Humor

How to Expand Your Vocabulary and Utilize English Idioms/Figures of Speech

How to Write a Smooth, Rhythmic Narrative

How to Avoid Purple Prose (Source: WikiHow)

How to Balance Description and Dialogue

Prologues and Info Dumping

How to Write Flashbacks

Master List of Speech Tags

Characters (Who you will inevitably wind up torturing)

When to Change Your Character’s Name

Ways To Tell if Your Characters are Too Similar (How To Cut Characters)

How to Describe Bodies

How to Describe Clothing

How to Write Characters Who Are Different From You

How to Write Complex Characters

How to Write (Good) Female Characters

How to Write a Villain

How to Write a Villain Redemption Arc

Villain Motivations

How to Write Young Children and Babies

How to Write Siblings

Love Stuff

How to Write Close Platonic Relationships

How to Write Romance

How to Write Falling In Love

How to Write Healthy Relationships

How to Write Long Distance Relationships

How to Write Make-Out Scenes

How to Write Non-Explicit Sex Scenes

How to Write Teasing in a Romantic Relationship

How to Write Toxic Relationships

Reasons for Divorce

Fantastic Beasts (And How to Write Them)

How to Write Shape-shifters

How to Write Characters With Wings

How to Write Angels (A History of Angelic Lore)

How to Write Characters with Tails

How to Write Zombies

How to Write Gods, Goddesses, and Deities

How to Write Animals in Battle

How to Write a Hive Mind

Diversity

I am a straight, white, neurotypical, cisgender woman and shouldn’t give you any advice but to DEFINITELY include diversity! Here are some great blogs for you to follow!

@writingwithcolor

@yourbookcouldbegayer

@scriptautistic

@actuallyblind

@cripplecharacters

Writing Deaf of Hard of Hearing Characters

Miscellaneous

My Writing Playlist

How to Become a Writing Advice Blog

How to Write Constructive Criticism

Books You Should Get As a Writer

Writing Memes

My Book

I’m currently working on a novel titled Wings of Faith, and often post content such as art, aesthetics, and writing updates!

Summary:

A one-winged angel must team up with a ragtag band of demons to escape from Hell. Haloes and harps must go on the backburner if it means clawing his way out of the fire, and if the world burns to ashes in his wake, so be it…because let’s be honest here: Hell’s humidity got old after, like, a day. 

You can find all my Wings of Faith content under #wings of faith and #wof on my blog, (if you’re looking for progress reports, check #writing update) and feel free to check out @wiingsoffaith​, a blog run by my bestest friend and fabulous beta reader @gettinhellaturnt​. 

“When you’re a trans woman you are made to walk this very fine line, where if you act feminine you are accused of being a parody and if you act masculine, it is seen as a sign of your true male identity. And if you act sweet and demure, you’re accused of reinforcing patriarchal ideas of female passivity, but if you stand up for your own rights and make your voice heard, then you are dismissed as wielding male privilege and entitlement. We trans women are made to teeter on this tightrope, not because we are transsexuals, but because we are women. This is the same double bind that forces teenage girls to negotiate their way between virgin and whore, that forces female politicians and business women to be aggressive without being seen as a bitch, and to be feminine enough not to emasculate their alpha male colleagues, without being so girly as to undermine their own authority.”

— Julia Serano, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, p 28-9  (via lugardepiedras)