Rulingtheworldistoomuchwork

so I go to animation school now

Favorite genre of post

mdzs art that will haunt me for the rest of my life:

to the words never spoken

"I've kept them waiting far too long"

pride

the ghost general wen ning

a brothers vow

a sisters heart

would you be proud of who I've become?

You Were Never Really Alone

growth

Lan Wangjis Bloody Back

you are a bit late, aren't you?

core transfer

And The Little Prince Feels Lonely

your brother loves you

"it's perfect, obviously"

Haunted By The Ghost Of You

well I bled blue blood from my back last night

"why didn't you tell me?"

memories

"魏婴，回来吧。"

A Swordsman Without A Sword-Hand

jiang cheng made a reach for wei wuxian

the victory is that I could not stomach it

and you can watch me give

kept apart

"when I couldn't even honor his gift"

What They Sacrificed For Each Other

The Yiling Patriarch Has Died

"jiujiu!"

jiang cheng and suibian

golden core/sandu

all I could give still wasn't enough

dream part one, dream part two

the fallen sun

Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs

In six seconds, you’ll hate me.

But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs.  These include:  Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

The list should also include:  Loves and Hates.

And it should include:  Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write:  Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like:  “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave.  Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them.  Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Instead of saying:  “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”

You’ll have to say:  “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it.  She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume.  The combination lock would still be warm from her ass.  And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

In short, no more short-cuts.  Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.

Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph  (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later)  In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph.  And what follows, illustrates them.

For example:

“Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline.  Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits.  Her cell phone battery was dead.  At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up.  Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”

Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows?  Don’t do it.

If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others.  Better yet, transplant it and change it to:  Brenda would never make the deadline.

Thinking is abstract.  Knowing and believing are intangible.  Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing.  And loving and hating.

Don’t tell your reader:  “Lisa hated Tom.”

Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail.  Present each piece of evidence.  For example:

“During role call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout: ‘Butt Wipe,” just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone.  Writing, you may be alone.  Reading, your audience may be alone.  But your character should spend very, very little time alone.  Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.  

For example:  Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take..”

A better break-down might be:  “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57.  You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus.  No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap.  The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late.  Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”

A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.

Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.

No more transitions such as:  “Wanda remember how Nelson used to brush her hair.”

Instead:  “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”

Again, Un-pack.  Don’t take short-cuts.

Better yet, get your character with another character, fast.  Get them together and get the action started.  Let their actions and words show their thoughts.  You – stay out of  their heads.

And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”

For example:

“Ann’s eyes are blue.”

“Ann has blue eyes.”

Versus:

“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”

Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures.  At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.

And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for:  “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”

Please.  For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use “thought” verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t.

[ Essay by Chuck Palahniuk on August 12, 2013]

every time im sad i want to draw but then i remember i dont have a sketchbook anymore and then i get even more sad

mister bunny’s trying a new parenting trick

bonus:

Reporter: What’s your name?

Hong Kong Protestor: Lee Chun Hei! I won’t commit suicide!

Police: 

*deadpan narrator voice*: he DOES have ten children

a writing guide to rivals (or enemies) to lovers + writing prompts

note: these are more rivals to lovers than anything, but you can use them for enemies to lovers as well. 

oh, you’re walking through this door? let me just ~politely~ slam the door in your face on the way out

i know we’re technically supposed to be fighting each other with swords, but you ended up on the ground and i fell on top of you, and woah… i never noticed how attractive you are until now, so let me just appreciate for a moment – wHY THE HELL DID YOU JUST SHOVE ME 

you’ve got me pinned against the wall and i’m not sure if i want to kiss you, or kill you. probably both 

‘’i know we’re, like… friends now, or whatever, but… i’d still kick your ass.’’ ‘‘like you could ever beat me.’‘ but they do, in fact, beat them.

so you’re just… not going to respect my take on this whole thing and go against everything i just said? that’s fine. i’ll just do the same thing and – oh, you didn’t like that? okay. O K A Y . and obviously, they’re doing it out of spite 

character A says ‘‘i’m going to kill you.’‘ and character B takes a step close, they’re so close now, if character B bends their head, they’d be kissing, and character B’s intensely staring into character A’s eyes, and character A’s like… shit . THIS DID NOT GO AS PLANNED ABORT MISSION ABORT ABORT ABOR —– 

OH NO – my love interest has said that they don’t care if anything happens to me, but now i’m about to die, and they’re risking their own life by running into a burning building to save me!!!!! also, did they just scream my name before bursting into the building??? god why do they sound so,,, worried???? 

okay, so… did we… did we just hug… dude. let, let go of me. let’s just. let’s just pretend this didn’t happen. *cough* i’m going to walk away now. okay. BYE 

‘‘is that a smile?’‘ ‘‘if you tell anyone about this, i swear to god, i’ll kill you.’’ 

so somebody ends up on somebody’s lap and holy shit maybe the tension is… unbearable 

when they share an intimate moment, or maybe even a kiss, and they’re both so confused by it, they completely derail. like, they just… stop working. because what the HELL just happened and then they just stare  at each other and nobody says a word until one of them turns around and SPRINTS out of the room 

‘‘go ahead, do it. if you’re so convinced you’ll kill me, do it.’‘ faster than a bullet, character A grabs a knife, handing it over to character B, who, of course, despite having spent the last couple of months claiming they would kill their love interest, and leave them for dead, can’t bring themselves to grab the knife, and actually do it

you ever just get so annoyed by a person, and what they have to say, that you snatch hold of knife and throw it into the wall behind them with all of your strength yeah me neither but maybe this fictional couple would

using seduction to try and throw each other off balance, usually by taking their clothes off in front of the other person, and it’s working

you just took a friend of mine hostage, and your crew’s been torturing them… i just found out about it, and i’m so disappointed, and there’s tears in my eyes, and the other character’s like, holy hell it fucking hurts seeing you like that… and knowing that my crew did that, that i did that to you… that i’m responsible… 

when character A is really sad, and just… out of nowhere, wraps themselves into character B’s arms and starts crying… and character B’s just like… what the hell…? we hate each other? but ok i’ll let it slide this time

there’s only one bed, but this time they’re arguing over who has to sleep on the floor, in which nobody agrees to do, so they end up in the same bed, incredibly annoyed that they have to share their space (it’s not like friends to lovers, in which they both awkwardly get into bed and laughs it off. this is straight up just. i will set this bed on fire if you don’t stay over on your side)

do these two do anything other than be at each other’s throats. like. can they hold oNE conversation without arguing over something

so you’re just. you’re just going to chain me up against this tree. okay. that’s fine. that’s totally fine. i’m fine. 

when one of them realizes that they’ve gone too far, and they show up at their love interest’s door to apologize, but the following conversation happens; ‘‘why are you here?’‘ ‘‘i’m here because i want to apologize.’‘ ‘‘well, i don’t want you here, so go away.’’ followed by the character getting the door slammed in their face.

THE FIRST KISS – and total denial after it happened, and they’re convincing themselves that there’s nothing going on between them… and they pull away from the kiss, and look at each other, and they’re just like… yeah. just realized i’m head over heels in love with this person but if i speak i will die

when they’re having a moment, and one of the characters says ‘’you hate me.’’ and the other character replies with ‘’maybe i don’t hate you entirely’’

when character A’s crew has taken character B hostage, and character A finds out they’re to be executed, and suddenly it’s this race against the clock to try and save character B’s life, while also trying to not reveal to their crew that they’re head over heels in love with the enemy

it’s not enemies to lovers if the characters hasn’t tried to kill each other at least once, or betrayed each other, or put a friend or a loved one of the other person in danger 

literally, how much do i have to stress this, enemies to lovers, they’ve got to raise hell in each other’s lives, enemies to lovers is not about sitting around a campfire and singing kumbaya, enemies to lovers means i’m covered in blood, and if you’re not careful, it’s soon be yours

and rivals to lovers is, you’re covered in blood, but since you’re here, i’ll help you clean it up, but if you get blood on my carpet, you better run 

IF THERE WAS EVER A TIME TO SLOW BURN, IT’S RIVALS OR TO LOVERS. IT’S ALL!!!!! ABOUT!!!!! THE YEArning!!!!!! THESE ASSHOLES ARE FILLED WITH TOO MUCH PRIDE TO ADMIT THEY’RE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER!!!!!!