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Can you do puppy stony

I fanlly complete it!

I’m very very very like Pomeranian much!

Highlight above the brow, right above the very tip of the arch instead of under. This will help lift the face without making the eyelids look puffy or accentuating stray hairs.

A Beginner’s Guide To At Home Workouts

Some Artist Tips you May or May Not Know

Just from personal experience.

1: Never try to draw on an empty stomach. You’ll make mistakes and be uncomfortable. (But don’t stuff yourself till you’re sick either.)

2: If you have to go to the bathroom, go. A full bladder or otherwise does serious damage to the attention and patience spans. Plus it gives you time to stretch your legs.

3: Before you ink it, leave it alone. Come back later (a few hours, a day?) and check for major anatomy mistakes. Work on something else while you’re waiting.

4: Stay hydrated! The brain and fine motor skills work better when properly circulated.

5: Do not have an excessive amount of sugar before sitting down to work. You’ll get jittery and impatient. Same goes for immense amounts of caffeine.

6: If you’re stuck, take a break to stand and stretch. Walk around the room. But don’t THINK of it as a break. Just take time to really focus on your body. Loosen it up, get a goooood long stretch and some deep breaths. (but don’t pass out!) It’ll jolt the mind awake and let you really relax a moment.

7: Keep. All. Your. Old. Art. I don’t care what it is. Keep it. Date it if it’s in your computer folders. Make a suitcase filled with it. (I personally have ALL my old art in a thick work folder.)

8: Keep your sketchbooks together, used and unused. If there’s a good sale on sketchbooks, get two or three! You won’t regret it later. There’s no such thing as too many. (I currently have about ten spankin’ new sketchbooks and I know I’ll need/use every single one of them.)

9: Date your sketchbooks. Put a start and finish date on them.

10: I’m afraid I don’t practice this one: date your drawings. You’ll be happy about it later. You don’t need to SIGN every drawing, but do date them. At least date pages.

11: ART BLOCK HAPPENS. Art block is pretty much a CONSTANT state of mind for artists. You’re never out of art block totally. But sometimes you get bursts of inspiration that make it feel like you’re out. So instead of feeling like you’re ill if you suddenly have artblock, remind yourself that this happens all the time, and you get out of it eventually, every time. c:>

12: If you’re REALLY stuck on some bad art block, do what I do.

Draw a brain barf. This is where you take a blank sheet of paper, and you just LET your hand be A.D.D. Draw whatever comes to mind, as it comes to mind. in the middle of drawing a hippo in a top hat but you think of a jolly rancher riding a unicycle? Switch immediately.

Let your brain just vomit all over the page. You’ll be surprised what comes up and what art block this can get you out of. It’s gotten me out of it various times.

13: Take advice from more experienced artists. But do NOT take everything as Gospel. Some people are just wrong.

14: HAND SHYNESS/ ART ENVY/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS/ AND SKILL IMPATIENCE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE like a Titan. Do not let yourself get shy after looking at ‘better art’, do not let yourself think your art is worthless or your skills are worthless, and do not let yourself get frustrated that you cannot be at a higher skill level RIGHT NOW. Your brain will try to do this. All the time. Keep yourself in check. If you keep going at it, and keep working, you will get better. This is why you keep your old art. Look at it to remind you how far you’ve come.

15: Draw what you like. This is so important. (This does not apply for exploitative art. :l That’s just wrong. So long as you’re not targeting someone harmfully, I guess you’re fine.)

But don’t let people’s preferences dictate what you can and can’t draw. Draw whatever the heck you like. Accept that no matter WHAT there will be someone out there that hates it. Always. This is just a fact of life. But don’t let it get you down. I would have stopped being an artist at day one if I had.

16: You never. Stop. Learning. Ever. You will be old and grey and still be learning new things. That’s okay. That’s the nature of art. Even the ‘pros’ don’t know everything.

I hope these help someone out there~

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ONE! Don’t ignore this in your writing!

Writing Character Relationships

Character relationships are important to add dimension to the characters and can help make them and the plot more realistic. This isn’t just for romantic relationships because building the characters’ platonic and familial relationships are important as well. So here are a few tips on creating believable and endearing relationships your readers will love.

Don’t rush into it. This goes for platonic relationships as well as romantic ones. A big cliché complaint with romance stories is that the two characters tend to meet and fall head over heels in love with each other after two conversations or one loving glance across the room (sorry Romeo and Juliet). While romantic connections can begin on the first date, the characters probably shouldn’t be professing undying love and devotion to each other an hour after meeting. The problem isn’t so much the length of time that they’ve known each other as it is how well they know each other, which is why character friendships need time too. If your characters spend two full days together where they really get to know each other deeply and we can see the progression from strangers to people who understand each other, great. If their relationship spans a year but all they do is check each other out then you have a problem. Make them know each other and interact in meaningful ways to create the relationship and show how it came to be.

Show their history. Not every relationship your characters have is going to be created in the span of time in which the story takes place. Your character might have a best friend they’ve known for ten years or three older siblings. Just because these predate the beginning of the story doesn’t mean you don’t have to show what kind of relationship they have. You can say that so-and-so is the best friend but you have to make us believe it. Are they the kind of friends that tell each other everything, like even what they probably shouldn’t? Or are they more the kind that have fun and leave the drama when they go out? Show what kind of relationship the characters have rather than just telling.

Give the reader a sense of why the relationship fits. In some stories you read about the guy and the girl who are just so cute together and they’re falling in love but…why? Why does this pairing work? Having things in common is important, particularly in things that are important to the character, like values. But they can and should also have differences, some of which serve to make the other better. Together they should push each other and support each other. If you make them connect in this way it makes the connection much stronger to the reader and that makes them want to cheer them on more. If it’s all about the smooching it can get rather boring quite quickly.

Make them complete without the other(s). I know I just said that making the characters push each other is a good thing, but they still need to be complete characters on their own. If the only real thing you can say about the character is that they are X’s soulmate or best friend, then they’re not a character. It’s more interesting to see how people interact with each other than Love Interests™ following each other around.  

You can save money and potential worry after your dog eats something it isn't supposed to by calling the Pet Poison Hotline. 855-764-7661.

855-764-7661

My dog Katie recently got into a bottle of calcium, potassium and vitamin D3 pills. Worried, I rushed her to the vet’s office. They induced vomiting, gave her activated charcoal and a referral to a 24/7-pet hospital–For which they charged me close to $300.

When we arrived at the hospital, the new vet told us about the hotline. It costs $49, but they keep files on all sorts of breeds and incidences of poisoning–the vet told us that the hotline’s advice is gospel. Also, it costs more money if the vet places the phone call, so you should do this on your own.

Luckily, my dog just needed a lot of fluids and the charcoal seemed to absorb most of the nasty stuff, but I could have saved a lot of money by A) calling the hotline in the first place, and B) keeping activated charcoal with my pet supplies.

Hey, you're awesome, thanks for existing, basically ^_^ Anyway, I wanted to know if you have any tips on how to write different personalities? My characters (all of them) always end up with the same default personality that I fall back on. Thanks!

Thanks for your question, darling!  I think most of us have struggled with this – after all, we’re conditioned to one way of thinking, feeling, and acting for as long as we live.  That doesn’t necessarily mean we write characters like ourselves, though.  In fact, many of us have a “default character” that’s sassier than we are, sweeter than we are, or in some way different enough from us that we still feel like we’re writing a character.

The problem, then, isn’t that we can’t visualize a different personality than ours.  On the whole, we can.  What we’re missing are the small details that make it feel whole – otherwise, it’s like painting the same room six different colors and trying to pass it off as six different rooms.  Different dominant traits can’t hide the fact that you’re working with one template!

So the question we’re left with: what are the traits we’re missing?  And how can we change them to create a unique and whole personality?

Three Types of Character Traits

There are, as the title suggests, three major categories of personality traits as I see it: fundamental traits, acquired traits, and detrimental traits.  A well-rounded character needs some of each to be three-dimensional and realistic.

Fundamental Traits

The fundamental traits of a person’s character are not as simple as interests and preferences; they are the very base of all decisions and desires.  They are either learned in early life or developed over a long period of time, rooting deeply into the personality.  A few examples of fundamental personality traits include:

Upbringing – The word choice here is conscious, as upbringing encompasses many different aspects of a person’s development.  Consider who raised them, and with what morals and practices they were raised to adulthood.  Consider their influences, both familial, social, and in media; consider the relationships that were normalized during their development, as well as the living conditions (financially, emotionally, environmentally, etc.).  The people, places, emotions, and conflicts made common during a person’s developmental period are essential to their personality in adulthood.  This is why psychologists often draw present-day problems back to a person’s childhood memories – because those formative years can subconsciously dictate so much of a person’s future!

Values – These may not coincide with the values a person is raised to hold, but upbringing certainly has an influence on this. A person’s values will direct the course of their life through every decision, large and small.  You don’t need to outline everything your character believes is important – every moral and every law they agree/disagree with. But those values which stand above others will give your character purpose.  A few of my favorite examples are: Jane from Jane the Virgin (whose initial storyline is heavily based on her religion and desire for a beautiful love story, as well as her childhood influences who inspired these values) and Han Solo from Star Wars (whose character development rested upon his values shifting from money and gratification to more honorable things).

Beliefs – Different from values, beliefs are a more general set of guidelines for how a person believes things are supposed to be.  Beliefs can also be a source of great conflict, as a character tries to stay aligned with their beliefs despite other values or desires.  These beliefs can be established systems, like religion or politics; they can also include more personal belief systems, like nihilism or veganism.  A characters beliefs, like their values, can change over the course of the story – but even if a character is questioning one system of belief, like religion or pacifism, they should have other belief systems in place to govern some of their activity.

Reputation – A lot of human activity, whether consciously or not, is dictated by how others perceive them (or how they believe others perceive them).  There are two types of reputation: personal and passing.  For instance, a woman named Sally who gains a personal reputation of sleeping around will behave in reaction to this reputation – either sleeping around because everyone already expects it of her, or specifically not hooking up because she wants to shake this reputation, or developing a thicker skin to deal with the rumors until it passes.  A man named Billy who, because of his tattoos, bears a passing reputation as an intimidating man will either try to soften his demeanor with strangers, own up to the image, or at least learn to expect judgment from strangers as a consequence.

Self-Image – Also relevant to a person’s behavior is the way they perceive themselves, which can often have little to do with their reputation.  A lot of self-image is based on definitive moments or phases in the past.  For instance: for several years after I started wearing contacts and cutting my hair, I still saw myself, in dreams at night, with long hair and glasses.  One of my friends, similarly, could not seem to notice when boys would flirt with her during sophomore year – because she still saw herself as an awkward middle schooler with braces, and not as the charming cheerleader with the great smile.Inversely, self-image can be inflated, causing character to behave as though they are funnier, smarter, or more prepared than they truly are (see: the rest of my sophomore acquaintances).  This can be an overlooked character flaw opportunity – or flawportunity…

Acquired Traits

Now we move on to the acquired traits of personality, which are the ones you’re more likely to find on a character sheet or a list of “10 Questions for Character Development”, alongside a million other things like their zodiac sign and their spirit animal.  But the traits I’m about to outline are a little more relevant to a character’s behavior, and more importantly, how to make this behavior unique from other characters’ behavior.  The following traits will be learned by your characters throughout their life (and their story), and are more likely to shift and grow with time:

Interests – I know, I had to reach deep down into my soul to think of this one.  But it’s true!  Interests, both in childhood/adolescence and in adulthood, are an important part of a character’s personality and lifestyle.  Childhood interests both reveal something about the character (for instance: my nephew loves trains, Legos, and building, suggesting a future interest in construction or engineering) and create values that can last for a lifetime.  Current interests affect career choice, social circles, and daily activity for everyone.  Forgotten or rejected interests can be the source of pet peeves, fears, or bad memories. There’s a reason I’ll never play with Polly Pockets again, and it 100% has to do with bloody fingertips and a purse that wouldn’t open.

Sense of Humor – This can be a little hard to define, understandably.  If you were to ask me what my sense of humor is, I’d probably start with a few stupid memes, pass by Drake & Josh on the way, and somehow wind up telling you bad puns or quoting Chelsea Peretti’s standup comedy. A person’s sense of humor can be complex and contradictory!  Sometimes we just laugh at stuff because someone said it in a funny way.  But anyway, to help you boil this down to something useful: take a look at a few kinds of comedy and relate it to your character’s maturity level.  Do they laugh when someone lets out a toot?  Are they the kind of person to mutter, “That’s what she said,” or simply try not to laugh when something sounds dirty?  Can puns make them crack a smile?  Do they like political humor?  Do cat videos kill them?  Is their humor particularly dark?  Can the mere sound of someone else laughing make them laugh?  Figure out where your character’s sense of humor is, and you’ll feel closer to them already.

Pet Peeves – For every interest a person may have, and everything that makes them laugh, there’s something else that can piss them off, large- or small-scale.  Are they finnicky about their living space and neatness? Do they require a lot of privacy? Do certain sounds or behaviors drive them crazy?  What qualities are intolerable in a romantic interest for them? What kind of comments or beliefs make them roll their eyes?  If you need help, just try imagining their worst enemy – someone whose every word or action elicits the best eye-rolls and sarcastic remarks and even a middle finger or two – and ask yourself, what about this person makes them that mortal enemy?  What behaviors or standards make them despicable to your character?  That’s all it takes.

Skills – Everybody has them, and they’re not just something we’re born with.  Skills can be natural talent, sure, but they’re also cultivated from time, values, and interests.  What is your character okay at?  What are they good at?  What are they fantastic at?  Maybe they can cook.  Maybe they have a beautiful eye for colors.  Maybe they have an inherent sense of right and wrong that others admire. Maybe they’re super-athletic or incredibly patient or sharp as a tack or sweet as a cupcake.  Maybe they know how to juggle, or maybe they’re secretly the most likely of all their friends to survive a zombie apocalypse.  Where do they shine?  What would make someone look at them and think, “Wow, I wish I were them right now”?

Desires – A good way to “separate” one character from the next is to define what it is they want, and then use every other detail to dictate how they pursue that goal.  Every real person has a desire, whether they’ve defined it or not – whether it’s something huge, like fame or a family of five with triplet girls and a beach house on an island, or something small, like good grades for the semester.  These desires can cause a person to revise their values or forsake their morals; and these desires can conflict with other people’s desires, influencing how people interact with each other.  Remember that every character is living their own story, even if it’s not the story you’re telling.

Communication Style – A majorly overlooked character trait in pop fiction is unique communication styles.  Having every character feel comfortable arguing, or bursting out with the words, “I love you,” is unrealistic.  Having every character feel paralyzed at the idea of confronting a bully or being honest to their spouse is also unrealistic.  There should be a healthy mix of communicators in a group of characters. Some people are too softspoken to mouth off at their racist lab partner.  Some people wouldn’t see their girlfriend kissing another guy and just walk away without saying something.  Some people just don’t react to conflict by raising their voice; some people enjoy sharing their opinions or giving the correct answer in class.  Boldness, social skills, and emotional health all have a part to play in how people communicate their thoughts – so keep this in mind to create a more realistic, consistent character.

Emotional Expression – Along the same lines but not the same, emotional expression is more focal on feelings than thoughts.  If you’ve ever heard of the fight-or-flight response, the different types of anger, the stages of grief, or the five love languages, then you’re aware of different “classifications” of emotional expression and management.  Read up on some of those things, and think about how your character handles emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, loneliness, paranoia, and so forth.

Detrimental Traits

While acquired traits are certainly more enjoyable to brainstorm during the creation process, detrimental traits are as important – or even more important – to the character’s wholeness as well as their role in the story.  Not only do these negative or limiting traits make your character realistic, relatable, and conflicted – they create a need for other characters and their strengths to move the plot forward.  A few examples of detrimental traits include:

Flaws – Character flaws are probably the first thing that came to your mind while reading this, but they’re the essence of the category.  Flaws in a character’s personality, morality, or behavior can be a source of character development; they set an individual on their own path and provide a unique motivation for them.  Having Character A struggle with sobriety while Character B learns to be a more patient mother can do a lot to separate their stories and personalities from each other.  Even if certain flaws don’t reach a point of growth, they create a third aspect to personality and force us, as writers, to be more creative with how our characters get from Point A to Point B, and what they screw up along the way.

Fears – Everyone has fears, whether we’re conscious of them or not – and I’m not talking about phobias or “things that give you shivers”.  Just like everyone has a primary motivation throughout life (romance, family, success, meaning, peace of mind, etc.), everyone has a fear behind that motivation (loneliness, failure, emptiness, anxiety).  We all have something we don’t want to happen – places we never want to be and things we never want to do.  We’ve all been in situations that mildly bothered others but wildly affected us at the same time.  For me, it’s a lack of autonomy, or in any way being forced to do something or be somewhere against my will.What does this mean for me?  It means that when other people have nightmares about being chased by an axe murderer, I have nightmares about being kidnapped and locked up.  It means that I’m continually aware of my “escape plan” if something goes wrong in my living situation, and I’m hypersensitive to someone telling me, “You have to do this.”  It means I struggle to follow rules and usually don’t get along with authority figures because I have to assert my independence to them.  It’s irrational and continual and doesn’t just affect me in one situation; it subconsciously directs my steps if I let it.  That’s how real, guttural fears work. Phobias are only skin deep, and they don’t make you feel any closer to the character.

Secrets – Even goody two-shoes Amber from the swim team, with her blonde blonde hair and her good good grades, has a secret.  Everybody does, even if it’s not a purposeful, “I have a deep, dark secret,” sort of secret. We have things we don’t tell people, just because they’re embarrassing, or painful, or too deep to get into, or they don’t paint us in a good light.  While the secrets themselves tell a lot about a person, so do the reasons a person keeps a secret.  Hiding something out of shame suggests a person is prideful, or critical of themselves, or holds themselves to a higher standard than they hold others.  Hiding something painful suggests that the person struggles to handle sadness or regret, or that they feel uncomfortable showing raw emotion in front of loved ones. And so on and so forth.

Conflict – Whether internal, interpersonal, legal, moral, societal, or what have you, conflict will limit your character’s actions at every turn.  A story is nothing without conflict driving the plot in different directions and causing your character to rethink both their plans and their lifestyle.  Without Katniss’s moral conflict over killing other tributes, The Hunger Games would be the story of a girl who entered an arena, killed a lot of people, and lived the rest of her life rich and comfortable.  If Luke Skywalker didn’t have interpersonal conflict with Darth Vader, Star Wars would be the war-story of a guy who joined a rebellion and then… yeah.

Health – Physical, mental, and emotional health is a huge limiting factor for characters that often goes untouched, but it’s valuable nonetheless.  Not everyone has a clean bill of health and can jump off trains without pulling a muscle, go through a traumatic life experience without any hint of depression or anxiety, or watch a loved one die in gunfire and shove right on without emotional repercussions. Consider creating a character who’s not perfect – who isn’t perfectly in-shape or abled, or neurotypical or stable day-to-day, or completely clean and clear of residual heartache, unhealthy relationships, or bad emotional habits.  Don’t define them by these traits, of course – but don’t feel that you can’t write a character with health issues without writing a “sick character.”

So this post got ridiculously long, but I hope it works as a reference for you when creating unique characters.  Remember that you don’t need to outline all of this information to create an individual, realistic character.  These are just some relevant ideas to get you started!  It’s up to you, as the writer, to decide what’s necessary and what’s excessive for your creative process.

Still, I hope a majority of this is helpful to you!  If you have any more questions, be sure to send them in and we’ll get back to you :)  Good luck!

- Mod Joanna ♥️

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

because they all deserved better.

Do the thing. I believe in you.

Motivation. What a thorn in our collective sides, right? You pick something to do and for whatever reason… you don’t do. You do the opposite of do, you don’t and then you get absolutely nowhere and you just blankly stare at the thing and nothing changed because you still haven’t gotten up, you still haven’t started, and eventually it all snowballs. 

So you ignore it. You give up. You think about it from time to time, shaking your head in disgust at yourself because you couldn’t do something as simple as start the thing you wanted to do in the first place – if you would have started it when you originally wanted to, you’d have been done with it by now! The snowball keeps rolling. The frustration and anxiety gets worse. How can you even think about starting it now, because all of a sudden it’s not so simple. You’ve made a metaphorical mountain out of a metaphorical molehill (unless you really are dealing with a molehill, in which case I am sorry for your yard). 

Breathe, friend. 

I have been down this terrible path before, and I’m sure I’ll go down it again. In fact, I’m facing similar thoughts when it came to making this blog. I really wanted to create a blog where I could share my knowledge, and learn more from those around me and generally have a safe space for everyone on their life journey of becoming a better person. It took forever for me to just stop thinking and start doing. I’m still trying to just keep doing. Let me try to help you do the same: Do. 

So you want to do a thing. 

Well that’s the first step. Saying “Hey, I want to organize my room” or “I think it’s time for me to clean the kitchen” is a great way to start. Recognize what it is you want to accomplish in your end game. 

However, don’t get overzealous. “I want to organize my room” can become a daunting task if you try to do it all at once. A good tip is to make it a project – trying to finish it all in one go is a good way to get burnt out before you even start! Instead make a list and check it off as you go. 

Example:

Make the bed

Clear off bookshelves

File away desk papers

Dust the corners

Fold the laundry

Vacuum the floor

A list like this seems a lot more manageable mentally than just saying “Organize the room” and as you check things off you’ll feel accomplished, which helps your motivation to continue on your project. 

Be proud of any bit you get done. Managed to clean off one of your shelves? Good job, you! You’re that much closer to finishing that task! Which means you’re practically almost done with your project! It can be really motivating to feel like you’re getting closer to your end goal. 

Sometimes we all need a little push in the right direction and maybe even a little company. Invite a friend over and tell them what your goal is. They can help by giving you a hand and maybe assist by directing you where to go. Surrounding ourselves with people who have a good directional skill can help lead the effort. 

Putting on entertainment as background noise can also help. I personally like to listen to one of the Crash Course series (Right now I’m on Anatomy and Physiology) or to Mental Floss videos while I work because it gives my brain something other than the ever increasing list of to-dos I face to think about. It’s hard to stress about stuff I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get done when I’m too busy listening to videos and then… what do you know, I’ve completed half my to do list without freaking out about how much I had to do!

It can can be hard to just motivate yourself to get out of bed, let alone take on any other sort of project aside from the act of being alive. Just know that you deserve a gold star for waking up, double gold stars for getting out of bed and triple gold stars for even glancing out the window. Some days are better than others, but no matter what it is you want to accomplish… you can do it. I know you can. 

For other great resources to help with your motivation, check out the following links:

How to Adult – Procrastination/Getting Things Done

Lifehack - Ways to deal with Motivation Loss

WVU Student Wellness - How to Motivate/Do Practically Anything