Latest Posts by souppooppie - Page 4
Altair and Yasmin promt
Yasmine strangles a man in a choke hold and Zafira heard Altair muttered under his breath lucky bastard before proceeding to throw his scimitar against an oncoming enemy.
The chapters on We Free The Stars is Zafira and Nasir having the LOVLIEST AND SOFTEST interaction and the next is Altair having an absolute crisis, being doubt's whore, and just feeling absolutely and utterly lonely. thats it. rinse repeat. i love the cycle- LIKE ITS SO FUCKING FUNNY SEEING THE DIFFERENCE ON EACH CHAPTER LIKE YAA. THIS MAN IS MISERABLE !! THE OTHERS BE HAVING THE ABSOLUTE BEST TIME OF THEIR LIVES TAKING NAPS, BEING NAUGHTY AND SHIT IN A PALACE WHILE ALTAIR CRIED WITH HIS PRISON RAT ALL ALONE IN THE DARK-
So true of Altair to name his prison-buddy rat after Nasir.
that last bit from we free the stars, when Nasir was so happy he cried... my boy never really thought that his life was gonna get better, that he will one day feel happiness, valued.. loved...
I've been thinking a lot about Deen and my heart ache .. He died by an accident from the hands of the person that once was his ally. His sister might marry and fall in love to the same man that killed him. He never tasted magic.. didn't get to see the rise of Arawiya.. or travel the world, he could never have more, he did everything yet what did he get?
Death. Eaten by Sharr, no grave, no burial.
And even after his death life still made a mockery out of him.
Zafira married the very person Deen swears to protect her from the very start of their journey, when DEEN'S proposal was rejected because she never loved him like he does for her and he knew. Yet he kept that love and loved the love itself instead of pushing it away. He yearned for her that much. He loved her. Cared for her until his very last breath. He gave her his heart even when he knew her heart will never be his. He will never get to be loved the way he wished to be loved, the way Zafira loves Nasir.
LIKE WHATS MORE PAINFUL BUT TO SEE THAT THE ' LIFE ' OF THE VERY PERSON WHO TRIES EVERYTHING, GAVE EVERYTHING AND DID EVERYTHING WITH THEIR VERY HEART AND SOUL TO RECIEVE NOTHING EVEN IF HE WASN'T TRYING TO GET ANYTHING BACK.
ITS JUST-
AGH
Yaa Dean, you are not real. But you have our hearts, and many are willing to give it even if you ask it for a thousand and one time
。：゜(；´∩｀；)゜：。
Short Story Plot: How to Use Ideas and Structure to Plot a Short Story
Do you want to write a short story, but are unsure about how to develop a short story plot?
Short stories rarely require extensive plotting. They’re short, after all. But a bit of an outline, just to get the basic idea down, can help you craft a strong plot.
Plotting your short stories will give you an end story goal and will help you avoid getting stuck in the middle, or accidentally creating plot holes. You’ll have fewer unfinished stories if you learn to do a little planning before you start writing.
And in this article, you can learn how to take your short story’s primary conflict, and build a plot around it.
Definition of Plot and Structure
I see the terms “plot” and “structure” thrown around interchangeably quite a bit, so I’d like to correct that before we move on.
Plot is a series of events that make up your story.
Structure is the overall layout of your story.
Plot is (most likely) unique to your story, but there are a handful of basic structures that are universal and used over and over again. (We’ll get into the basic three act structure in a later post.) Structure is the bones and plot is what fills it out.
You can learn more about plot and structure in this article, or the different story types here.
The Strength of a Short Story Idea
When I first started out writing short stories, I had no idea where I was going with any of them. Absolutely none. I see this time and time again with newer writers. I think it’s because we’re conditioned to think any kind of art is only driven by that infamous and often elusive muse rather than hard work. I felt the same way.
And then I started getting more stories under my belt. Some I finished. Some I didn’t.
You know what the difference was? The stories I finished, I plotted before I wrote.
Now I know a lot of writers loathe plotting or outlining stories—of any length, but especially short stories. They have various reasons for this dislike, but the most common one I hear is planning or outlining takes all the “magic” out of writing. “Creative writing is about being creative!”
I won’t get into the idea that writing is actually a job here—it is. That’s not what this article is about.
Instead, I’m going to propose a different reason for planning a short story with one important question: Is your idea even a story?
Planning out your story, even if it’s short, can give you an answer to this question. It will determine whether or not your central character can work towards achieving a goal (and simultaneously the plot moves towards a climax), or if your idea ends there—at the idea.
Writer’s tip: If you’re feeling stuck on coming up with an idea that could withstand a story’s length, try looking at the types of plots discussed in this article.
Is It a Story or Just a Story Idea?
Don’t panic. I don’t plan extensively. But what I’ve found was absolutely no planning whatsoever more often than not leads to wasted time. Nobody has time to waste.
If I don’t plot at all, I’ll get maybe a third of the way through the story and get stuck. I’ll have no idea where it was going, and without that goal in mind, I’ll flounder. I might tinker around with the idea a little longer, but most of the time I’ll end up abandoning the story.
A few weeks ago, I had the infamous muse visit me. I grabbed my notebook and started writing. It was great writing. The prose was good, the main character was crazy interesting, ditto for the secondary character, and I’d set up a mystery that made you want to turn the page. The problem was I had no idea what the mystery was. I had set up and no payoff. This story idea fizzled out at the start of the second act.
Now, to be clear, I do indulge my muse every once in a while. It does feel good to be taken over by an idea, even if you don’t know where it’s going. It’s all very “artisty.”
But the fact is I’ve sold one story that I finished without plotting it beforehand. One. Out of dozens I’ve started. That one took me about a week to write and it was torture for me, for my characters, and, I’m sure, for the backspace on my keyboard. Everything about the story reads as forced. It’s uninspired. And you know what?
That’s the one my muse started me on! Inspiration is supposed to be the point of the muse, right? But a muse can only get you started; it can’t keep you going.
Your muse won’t finish a story for you.
When your muse starts poking at you and you don’t know if your idea is a story, ask yourself a couple of questions:
Am I going to remember this idea tomorrow? Yes, it’s nice to be taken over by inspiration. Feel free to indulge that every so often. But also be prepared to have an unfinished story on your hands. You don’t necessarily have to wait until tomorrow to write the thing (especially when we’re talking about shorts), but you do need to know if your enthusiasm is going to wan a few minutes down the road when your muse decides to go take a nap, leaving you with nothing but frustration. (That story I mentioned a moment ago? I haven’t completely forgotten about it, but it does not sit at the top of my mind.)
Do I have a “What if?” question and an answer to that question? If you’re thinking about beautiful sentences where nothing is happening, that’s probably not a story. If you can’t think of an end goal for your character, that’s probably not a story. See the next section for more on “What if?” and the answer. (The story I didn’t finish did not have a goal in mind.)
Do you have a character? This one seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often I used to start “stories” and just ramble on with purple prose. No people, no action, no story.
If the answer to all these questions is “yes,” then you most likely have a finishable story. If it’s “no” tell your muse to go back to its hole until it can come up with something better.
If you must, explore the idea a little more and see if you can’t plot a little something. (Do not write yet!)
Enter the “What if?” question.
What If? How Asking This Question Can Plot a Short Story
In the last post, I told you my favorite way to think of a short story idea is the “What If?” question. This question can help you think about various ways to put your central character into a conflict, like: What if X happened? It’s your own mind giving itself creative writing prompts.
Let’s expand on that method a bit. Notice it’s a question. And questions often have answers, do they not? Knowing the answer to your “What If?” question is the most basic outline of a story.
Let’s start with a basic question.
Q: What if someone knocked on my door?
A: I’d probably ignore it.
That’s it. That’s the story. It’s kind of crappy, right?
Notice that answer is my immediate reaction to the knock. It’s not something that happens down the road. That’s part of what makes this scenario NOT a story.
The other issue here is there is no conflict. I don’t answer the door, the person goes away, and I’m left to my own devices. There are no consequences for my decisions, so nothing happens—and nobody reading about this incident cares.
Without conflict, there are no stakes in a story. No conflict equals no story.
What Makes a Good Conflict?
Remember conflict can come in many forms and doesn’t have to be a shoot ’em up kind of situation. Internal conflict can also make a short story. But there MUST be conflict.
So, on multiple levels, this question and answer session is a loser.
Now, let’s say I don’t answer the door. (I’m a millennial. I’d rather not talk to people if I can help it, so this really is the most likely thing to happen.) The person assumes I’m not home. But wait! They’re a burglar. They now try to break into my house. The “What If?’ question has now changed to “What if someone tried to break into my house while I was home?”
See how the central character has to do something now? Even if they don’t, there will be consequences.
Because the story idea establishes stakes, I know I’ve got something. How do I know? There are myriad possibilities here. I could call the cops. I could run out and confront them myself. I could freeze and run upstairs and hide. I could sic my dog on them. I could wait for them to get inside and invite them to join me in having a cup of tea.
Whatever I choose to do, there will be a cause and effect trajectory of events. Which means more stakes, and more opportunities that force my protagonist to face their conflict. They have to make decisions, which will lead to a whole slew of other “What If?” questions:
What if they get in before the cops get here?
What if they break a window?
What if my dog was outside and they hurt him?
What if a neighbor sees them and comes running over?
What if they “break in” but it’s really just my sister needing in my house for something?
What if I’m hiding under the bed and they find me?
What if they hate tea?
What if … and the list goes on.
These are all more interesting scenarios than just ignoring the door and the person going away. But we’re still looking for the answer to the initial “What If?” question. The answer solves the question and puts it to bed. It doesn’t lead to other questions.
Don’t Forget to Answer Your What If Questions
A short story only has one to three scenes normally, so your answer needs to come in a short span of time. It can’t come years down the road. Any span of time longer than a few hours, maybe a day or two, is probably too long.
Q: What if someone tried to break into my house while I was home?
A: I would call the cops, but also grab my bat and be ready to use it.
But wait. That still doesn’t answer the question, not in a final way. There’s still an open ending there, still questions. (Did I use the bat? What happened if I did?) Let’s try again.
A: I would decide not to use my bat and would talk to them until the police got there.
That’s better. With this scenario, I can think of a couple of things that would happen after the police got there, but at that point the situation is over. I’ve done it. I’ve defeated the burglar. Anything afterwards is a conclusion to the story.
The best part is, I’ve actually done it in a way that means change for me as a central character. I didn’t want to talk to anyone to begin with, which is what led to the whole situation. But I have to overcome that aversion by talking to someone in order to solve the problem.
Short Story Structure
We’ve got two important elements of the story narrowed down now: the “What If?” question and its ultimate answer.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might have come across the many posts we have about plot structure. In a story you need six things:
Exposition (Background and setup.)
Inciting Incident (A major event happens to your character.)
Rising Action (or progressive complications, a sequence of events where things get worse.)
Crisis (Ah, what is your character going to do?)
Climax (Showdown based on what your character decided to do.)
Denouement (Finish it up.)
Need a refresher on these plot elements? Dive further into story structure here.
A short story is often only one to three scenes. That means this structure, these six elements, stretch over the entire story to form the framework. (The scenario I’ve presented would most likely be a one-scene story.) Notice I’m talking about framework here. These six elements are your story structure.
So what do we have here after all this thinking about questions and answers?
The “What If?” question is your Inciting Incident.
The ultimate answer is your Climax.
Boom. Two elements down. And these two elements happen to be the bulk of what your readers will remember from your story.
We’ve planned a story, believe it or not. And it didn’t even hurt that much.
But wait! There’s more. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
In the process of coming up with these two elements, we’ve inadvertently come up with a couple of others.
Choosing not to use the bat and talking to the burglar instead? That’s the Crisis. All those streams of “What if?” questions? Those are progressive complications.
Whoops. We’ve outlined basically the whole thing, haven’t we? I sort of tricked you there. Sorry, not sorry.
Plotting Doesn’t Hurt—Too Much
Plotting a short story doesn’t have to be a meticulous thing that requires hours of work and a running spreadsheet. It also doesn’t have to take the magic out of writing.
Your plan for your short story can be a simple, loose outline. (By the way, outlines can change if you think of something better! They’re not set in stone.) Really, you just need two elements to get to writing a short story:
A “What If?” question (identifies the Inciting Incident)
The answer (shows the Climax)
And then you’re ready to write!
In future articles, we’ll dive more into writing structure and the essentials and plot elements of a short story. For now, use this “shortcut” to plan out a few short stories of your own! Have fun with it!
Source
Nasir Ghameq at the beginning of the story. On a mission to kill Owais and he had to wait : CURSE BE UPON THIS CHILD. THIS FOOLISH SOUL- WHOSE LIFE CAN NEVER AMOUNT TO MINE! HE SHALL FOREVER BE CURSED FOR WASTING MY TIME! HOW DARE HE BE LATE UPON MY VERY PRESENCE
Nasir Ghameq when he was with zafira in Sarasin, on a mission to kill the fake caliph, and they have to wait : ~hehe.. I wonder how we can pass the time.. hehe~ ^^
anyone call zafira's name in the tone of shakira shakira?
Introduction
Have you been wondering what ADHD is really like? This will not be biased towards one minority of people who have ADHD. It will be focused on the big picture.
This document will explain the seriousness of ADHD and everything that may come with it. Make sure to do more research into ADHD, as I am not an expert (although I, myself, have ADHD). In this, I go into detail about different aspects of ADHD and why it should not be taken lightly.
What is ADHD?
(Note: Not everyone with ADHD has these symptoms. They can vary from person to person.)
Constant activity going on internally (Hyperactivity)
Hyperfixations
Hyperfocusing
Depression (Co-occurring)
Anxiety (Co-occurring)
Sensory Processing Disorder
Executive Dysfunction
Auditory Processing Disorder (Co-occurring)
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria
Insomnia / Sleep issues
Inability to focus
Difficulty switching tasks
Inability to stick to one task
Mood swings
Difficulty regulating emotions
Choice paralysis
Problems with focusing
Poor impulse control
Trouble recalling things, such as commonly used words
Exhaustion levels
Imposter syndrome
Overwhelm
Overstimulation / Sensory Overload
Understimulation
Memory issues
Motivation issues
Time blindness
Poor sense of time
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (Co-occurring)
Extreme boredom
Going into Detail
Executive Dysfunction/ADHD Paralysis:
A feeling of constantly ‘waiting for something’, without knowing what or why.
Confusion as to how to start or do a task.
A feeling of being completely overwhelmed, even by mundane tasks, to a point of being unable to do the task or function.
A very good description of how this can feel is “a fuzzy-restless feeling when you need to do something but your brain won’t focus on anything… you’re silently begging yourself to just do one thing but instead you’re [sitting there] even though you don’t even want to be. It’s like your head is filled with heavy electric cotton… you’re both uncomfortable and unable to stop.”
This is not the same thing as procrastination or laziness. This occurs with tasks that the person is afraid to do, does not want to do, or even wants to do. Laziness means that a person does not feel like doing something, but they could if they wanted to. Executive dysfunction/ADHD paralysis can be described as something a person has been trying to do for [insert amount of time between minutes and months/years], but they physically cannot do the task and end up feeling like a failure because of that. It is debilitating.
Hyperfixation/Hyperfocus:
An extreme obsession over something. This can be creating something, finding out everything about something, or just something that creates extreme emotions in somebody.
This obsession can easily become unhealthy as the person may forget to take care of themselves due to it. However, these hyperfixations cause extreme joy or curiosity in the person.
Difficulty switching tasks:
“When you have ADHD, task switching can often be difficult. You might feel like you're stuck in a gear. It might be you're trying to start, and your gears just keep on grinding. Other times you may want to stop but the gear just stays in place because you're hyper-focusing on whatever you're doing.”
Inability to stick to one task:
People with ADHD often have issues with motivation, which leads to many unfinished projects.
If a task does not give a person with ADHD dopamine, they are often unable to complete the task (i.e. homework; chores).
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome:
Instead of having a regular circadian rhythm, with sleeping hours from 11 pm to 7 am, people have an irregular pattern of 2 am to about 10 am.
These times are flexible. However, this means that people with ADHD tend to have issues with falling asleep at a “normal time”.
Extreme boredom:
People with ADHD have issues with dopamine and serotonin.
There are moments when boredom can be painful. People with ADHD can be bored to tears due to extreme emotions and a lack of dopamine.
Time Processing:
If somebody has to leave at 8 am and they wake up at 5:30, they will think that they have two hours or less to get ready. Time seems to pass without a pattern or rhythm.
“Today is Monday, but tomorrow is Tuesday and I have class. After that is Wednesday: I’m having lunch with my mom. Then on Thursday, I have a night class which means it’s basically already Friday and this week is already over.”
Time Blindness:
Not knowing how much time has passed based on their ‘internal clock’; they don’t have one!
Being completely unaware of how much time something will take.
Memory issues:
With ADHD, memory can be greatly affected. Some things will be forgotten very quickly, and some things can be over-remembered.
Difficulty regulating emotions:
“Processing emotions starts in the brain. Sometimes the working memory impairments of ADHD allow a momentary emotion to become too strong, flooding the brain with one intense emotion.” -Thomas Brown, PhD
Brain imaging shows that delayed rewards don’t register for people with ADHD. They are more motivated by the instant gratification that strong emotions deliver.
As a result, a person with ADHD may struggle to deal rationally and realistically with events that are stressful, but not of grave concern.
Motivation issues:
People with ADHD have much lower levels of dopamine than those without ADHD. This causes the brain to constantly crave dopamine.
If a task is not providing the dopamine the brain wants, it will make a person with ADHD less motivated to complete the task, or even start it.
Overstimulation / Sensory Overload:
Information reaching the senses feels like an assault of competing stimuli.
Understimulation:
Outside stimuli are dulled, as if a shade has been pulled over the environment, muting sights, sounds, and touch. These people crave extra stimulation to feel alive.
Exhaustion levels:
Feeling fatigued and tired all the time can actually be related to ADHD. Due to low dopamine levels, people with ADHD can feel exhausted even after getting ample amounts of sleep.
Ironically, people can get bursts of energy from ADHD as well. This can be from hyperactivity or high amounts of dopamine.
Imposter Syndrome:
Feeling like a fraud and doubting your own abilities.
Somebody who is intelligent and who has ADHD can have imposter syndrome towards both. They are not related to each other, but the ways they are portrayed in media causes imposter syndrome.
Auditory Processing Disorder:
Things can take longer to process when somebody hears them than when they see/read them.
The amount or complexity of noise around somebody can affect how they hear things.
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria:
Extreme anxiety towards being criticized or rejected by others, despite their relationship with the person.
Extreme pain or emotional sensitivity is caused by a sense of ‘rejection’.
Hyperactivity:
This is not always visible, if at all. There is constant activity going on inside of a person’s head when they have ADHD.
This creates difficulty with sleep and relaxation.
If visible, it usually takes the form of fidgeting or stimming.
“Dealing” with ADHD
ADHD cannot be fixed, but some things can help people work with it. The coping mechanisms vary from person to person, and they aren’t always going to work. Getting diagnosed with ADHD is the best step to take before anything else, as trained professionals can help with ADHD symptoms.
It is important to understand that ADHD is a learning and doing disability. It affects every aspect of life, but it isn’t a bad thing! Many things with ADHD can be positive as well. Hyperfocusing can lead to a lot of productivity! Additionally, people with ADHD are known to be more creative and inventive (according to numerous studies). Empathy and compassion are higher in individuals with ADHD. People with ADHD even have a stronger moral compass!
3 Tips for Fast Drafting Your Novel In Record Time
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Writing Mastery Academy, a 2021 NaNo sponsor, was founded by Jessica Brody, author of the bestselling plotting guide Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. In this post, Jessica shares her tips for getting words down on the page quickly, aka Fast Drafting:
As an author who writes on more than 350,000 words per year, I like to joke that every month is a NaNoWriMo for me. So with the real NaNoWriMo approaching, I thought I’d share my top 3 tips for writing quickly and efficiently, which you can use to easily smash through that 50k mark this November!
1. You Don’t Need an Outline. You Only Need 5 Things.
As the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, I’m used to talking about plot. But as any happy “pantser” will tell you, you don’t have to start a novel with a full plot outline (although you certainly can!).
No matter if you’re a die hard plotter, pantser or somewhere in between, I urge you to, at the very least, sit down and brainstorm 5 things about your main character, your plot, and your world before you begin writing.
Keep reading
lost in the moss
the mighty nein as animated text part 4:
beau:
caduceus:
caleb:
essek:
fjord:
jester:
kingsley/molly:
nott/veth:
yasha:
Dragon Knight by Jian Li
@we-are-knight
The Council of Elder Tubbies
ADHD is having a day all to yourself with no work, chores or responsibilities and you tell yourself you'll work on your latest chapter of your WIP. It's midnight and you still haven't gotten anything done.
I legit thought i don't have RSD until my cousin jokingly said ' bitch ' when we were joking around.. and i shit you not shit hurted like bitch... (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ
executive dysfunction sounds like a fucking lie, even the ones who suffers from it think it's just some stupid excuses they make for not putting enough efforts, and the whole thing doesn't make any sense either!
" I can't do thing because brain stops me from doing it "
LIKE WHAT. WHO WOULD BELIVE THAT
is this common with people with adhd or anyone struggling with any sort of mental stuff, like when you're finally in a good mood. And by that it could be how you start to enjoy reading, painting or anything at all again. Or it can also be how you're not struggling too much with executive function. Basically brain feels pretty good. But since you feel good as if you have no problems at all.. do you just.. forget everything completely about all of your struggles as if none of that ever happened or exist at all. like if you read your own shits about YOUR OWN struggles a question pops out ' did I just made shit up to sound relatable cause I can't fucking remember ever feeling that way- ' even though you're not the sort of person who would do that, and at the same time you struggle to understand the things you wrote down about your feelings cause you simply forgor
I'm asking cause I'm starting therapy and im in a good mood, i can't remember shit. i dont want therapist to think im a liar,making a big deal out of nothing :(
ok but imagine if Howl's motherfucking Jenkins is in the same room as Alex Russo. what do you think would happen
SuperMesange on Instagram / Etsy
Just so you know, a normal response to a child breaking something is to first check to see if they got hurt and then if they’re old enough make them help clean it up. And then afterwards explaining to them how to avoid doing that in the future. At no point is yelling necessary to make them understand why they shouldn’t do that.
Anyone else has like... The inability to form habits?
Like normal people, they repeat something daily for a couple weeks and it sticks. They might miss a day here or there, but the overall habit is formed.
Me? I can push myself to do the same task daily for 8 months, forget one day, and it's gone. I realize 3 weeks later that i have not done it a single time since.
Some individuals with AD/HD, especially without hyperactivity, have an activation problem as described by Thomas Brown, Ph.D. in his article AD/HD without Hyperactivity (1993). Rather than a deficit of attention, this means that individuals can’t deploy attention, direct it, or put it in the right place at the right time. He explains that adults who do not have hyperactivity often have severe difficulty activating enough to start a task and sustaining the energy to complete it. This is especially true for low-interest activities. Often it means that they can’t think of what to do so they might not be able to act at all, or, as Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo say in You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!, they might experience a “paralysis of will” (pg. 65). “The clothes from my trip—a month ago—are just still lying in a heap in the suitcase.” “I spend a lot of time in bed watching TV but my mind isn’t watching TV. I’m thinking about what I should be doing, but I don’t have the energy to do it.”
- Sari Solden, Women With Attention-Deficit Disorder
Do I think I have ADHD because I have all of the symptoms ?? Yes
Am I scared to get diagnosed because if I don’t have it I’ll just be a fucking idiot ?? Also yes
Can anyone else relate to this ??