veronicamarsconfessions:

🪷

16tinyfrogs:

brutus’ legacy (& dante’s inferno)

so i can’t stop writing about brutus- shocker, i know. i wrote this piece about brutus’ story in the eyes of the people vs the soil he was buried in. first line(s) is from that one person yelling at their cat iykyk

dragon-in-a-fez:

I love the random replacements for clichés writers insert in science fiction shows. like when a 21st-century human would say “stop pacing you’ll wear a hole in the floor” but in a space show the alien/future human says “you’re oscillating like a Betelgeusian night badger” or some shit. like fuck yeah he is. amazing drive-by worldbuilding. I’m gonna spend the next half hour wondering why the Betelgeusian night badger evolved to do that

Prompt #1736

gingerly-writing:

gingerly-writing:

“I have to marry the most powerful mage in the land. I won’t have any legitimacy as queen until I do.”

“But he’s evil!” her haidmaid fretted. “You can’t marry him, you’re supposed to be defeating him!”

“If I must marry evil to subdue it, so be it. I will have my crown no matter the cost. My country demands it.” Her eyes narrowed. “And if he thinks to try and take it from me, I will show him where the true power in our marriage lies.”

for @rrrawrf-writes and @haphazardlyparked -because you deserve magic and soft things <3

The wedding bells were ringing when she first touched him. Gloves saved her hands from his skin, but all brides must kiss their grooms. 

The most dangerous lips in the kingdom were soft, no taste of gunpowder despite the fire they could rain down, no crackle of power, no metallic taste of blood. Just lips. Unchapped, gentle, and soft. 

The whole court held its breath for the split-second of contact. This was the time he would rend her in two, would take over her mind, would suck out her soul. This was when the dark Archmage of Delcore Heights would destroy the rightful queen and take her kingdom for himself. 

Instead, he leant back, dark eyes unfathomable, and offered her his arm. Queen Carys checked herself, but found no aberrations, no strange emotions or thoughts that were not her own. She was no mage, could not be sure, but she felt fine. That would have to be enough, at least for now. 

She took his arm, and together the queen and her kingdom’s greatest enemy walked out of the holy shrine, bound together in the eyes of the gods for all eternity. 

Keep reading

marcianoliterati:

QUILTBAG+ Speculative Classics: The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate, translated by David Bowles - Reactor

A sumptuous queer reimagining of Dracula's journey to England

Reactor

Did you know there is a gay novella reimagining the last voyage of the demeter???

I didnt till now

It was written by a mexican writer published in 98. If you speak spanish it is available through FCE, and it was recently translated into english.

It was $2 + shipping on the FCE site so ive just ordered a copy (plus a few other books)

very-gay-poet:

sapphiresoulmate:

chronophobica:

ebvoiceover:

We are like fireworks…: Surnames Master Post.

rinnymcc:

oldmanrupee:

hiddlesfiddleswithme:

phoeberpc:

Surnames are just as important as given names. So, I compiled a list of the websites I use to find my surnames.

• English Surnames
• Dutch Surnames
• Spanish Surnames
• Scottish Surnames
• German Surnames
• Italian Surnames
• Irish Surnames
• French Surnames
• Scandinavian Surnames
• Welsh Surnames
• Jewish Surnames
• Surnames By Ethnicity
• Most Common Surnames in the USA
• Most Common Surnames in Great Britan
• Most Common Surnames in Asia

For whoever needs these.

I NEED THE ITALIAN LAST NAMES SO BAD

Chinese surnames

Indian surnames

Indonesian surnames

Pakistani surnames

Bengali surnames

Japanese surnames

Filipino surnames

Korean surnames

Syrian surnames

Mongolian naming and clan names

Thai surnames

Asia is not a single country.

“Asia is not a single country.”

oh my fucking god if heaven is real its this fucking post.

(Source: hearmeroarplay)

starryeyeddarlings:

i wrote a twin cinema poem about two gay soldiers in wwi

context: the two sides, read separately, are the two soldiers thinking about their futures with each other. when read together, it’s a reflection of their final thoughts when they die together struck by bullets <3

literaryvein-reblogs:

Writing Notes: Children’s Dialogue

Language is extremely complex, yet children already know most of the grammar of their native language(s) before they are 5 years old.

BABBLING

• Babbling begins at about 6 months and is considered the
  earliest stage of language acquisition
• By 1 year babbles are composed only of the phonemes used in the
  language(s) they hear
• Deaf babies babble with their hands like hearing babies babble
  using sounds

FIRST WORDS

• After the age of one, children figure out that sounds are related to meanings and start to produce their first words
• Usually children go through a holophrastic stage, where their one-word utterances may convey more meaning
• Example: “Up” is used to indicate something in the sky or to mean “pick me up”
• Most common first words (among the first 10 words uttered in many languages): “mommy,” “daddy,” “woof woof,” “no,” “bye,” “hi,” “yes,” “vroom,” “ball” and “banana”

WORD MEANINGS

• When learning words, children often overextend a word’s meaning
• Example: Using the word dog to refer to any furry, four-legged
  animal (overextensions tend to be based on shape, size, or texture, but never color)
• They may also underextend a word’s meaning
• Example: Using the word dog to refer only to the family pet, as if dog were a proper noun
• The Whole Object Principle: When a child learns a new word, (s)he is likely to interpret the word to refer to a whole object rather than one of its parts

SYNTAX

• At about two years of age, children start to put words together to form two-word utterances
• The intonation contour extends over the two words as a unit, and the two-word utterances can convey a range of meanings:
• Example: “mommy sock” = subject + object or possessive
• NOTE: Chronological age is NOT a good measure of linguistic development due to individual differences, so instead linguists use the child’s mean length of utterance (MLU) to measure development
• The telegraphic stage describes a phase when children tend to omit function morphemes such as articles, subject pronouns, auxiliaries, and verbal inflection
• Examples: “He play little tune” or “Andrew want that”
• Between 2;6 and 3;6 a language explosion occurs and
  children undergo rapid development
• By the age of 3, most children consistently use function
  morphemes and can produce complex syntactic structures:
• Examples: “He was stuck and I got him out” / “It’s too early for us to eat”
• After 3;6 children can produce wh-questions, and relative pronouns
• Sometime after 4;0 children have acquired most of the
  adult syntactic competence

PRAGMATICS

• Deixis: Children often have problems with the shifting reference of pronouns
• Children may refer to themselves as “you”
• Problems with the context-dependent nature of deictic words: Children often assume the hearer knows who s/he is talking about

AUXILIARIES

• In the telegraphic stage, children often omit auxiliaries from their speech but can form questions (with rising intonation) and negative sentences
• Examples: “I ride train?” / “I not like this book”
• As children acquire auxiliaries in questions and negative sentences, they generally use them correctly

SIGNED LANGUAGES

• Deaf babies acquire sign language in the same way that hearing babies acquire spoken language: babbling, holophrastic stage, telegraphic stage
• When deaf babies are not exposed to sign language, they will create their own signs, complete with systematic rules

IMITATION, REINFORCEMENT, ANALOGY

• Children do imitate the speech heard around them to a certain extent, but language acquisition goes beyond imitation
• Children produce utterances that they never hear from adults
  around them, such as “holded” or “tooths”
• Children cannot imitate adults fully while acquiring grammar
• Example:

Adult: “Where can I put them?”
Child: “Where I can put them?”

• Children who develop the ability to speak later in their childhood
  can understand the language spoken around them even if they
  cannot imitate it

NOTE: Children May Resist Correction

Example: Cazden (1972) (observation attributed to Jean Berko Gleason)
– My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
– Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
– Yes.
– What did you say she did?
– She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
– Did you say she held them tightly?
– No, she holded them loosely.

• Another theory asserts that children hear a sentence and then use it as a model to form other sentences by analogy
• But while analogy may work in some situations, but certainly not in all situations:

– I painted a red barn.
– I painted a barn red.
– I saw a red barn.
– I saw a barn red.

• Children never make mistakes of this kind based on analogy which shows that they understand structure dependency at a very young age

BIRTH ORDER

• Children’s birth order may affect their speech.
• Firstborns often speak earlier than later-born children, most likely because they get more one-on-one attention from parents.
• They favor different words than their siblings. 
• Whereas firstborns gabble on about animals and favorite colors, the rest of the pack cut to the chase with “brother,” “sister,” “hate” and such treats as “candy,” “popsicles” and “donuts.” 
• The social dynamics of siblings, it would appear, prime their vocabularies for a reality different than the firstborns’ idyllic world of sheep, owls, the green of the earth and the blue of the sky.

MOTHER’S LEVEL OF EDUCATION

• Children may adopt vocabulary quite differently depending on their mother’s level of education.
• In American English, among the words disproportionately favored by the children of mothers who have not completed secondary education are: “so,” “walker,” “gum,” “candy,” “each,” “could,” “wish,” “but,” “penny” and “be” (ordered starting with the highest frequency).
• The words favored by the children of mothers in the “college and above” category are: “sheep,” “giraffe,” “cockadoodledoo,” “quack quack,” the babysitter’s name, “gentle,” “owl,” “zebra,” “play dough” and “mittens.” 

BOYS / GIRLS

• One area of remarkable consistency across language groups is the degree to which the language of children is gendered.
• The words more likely to be used by American girls than by boys are: “dress,” “vagina,” “tights,” “doll,” “necklace,” “pretty,” “underpants,” “purse,” “girl” and “sweater.”
• Whereas those favored by boys are “penis,” “vroom,” “tractor,” “truck,” “hammer,” “bat,” “dump,” “firetruck,” “police” and “motorcycle.”

Tips for Writing Children’s Dialogue (compiled from various sources cited below):

1. Milestones - The dialogue you write should be consistent with the child’s developmental milestones for their age. Of course, other factors should be considered such as if the child has any speech or intellectual difficulties. Also note that developmental milestones are not set in stone and each child is unique in their own way.
2. Too “Cutesy” - If your child characters are going to be cute, they must be cute naturally through the force of their personality, not because the entire purpose of their existence is to be adorable.
3. Too Wise - It’s true kids have the benefit of seeing some situations a little more objectively than adults. But when they start calmly and unwittingly spouting all the answers, the results often seem more clichéd and convenient than impressive or ironic.
4. Unintelligent - Don’t confuse a child’s lack of experience with lack of intelligence. 
5. Baby Talk - Don’t make a habit of letting them misuse words. Children are more intelligent than most people think.
6. Unique Individuals - Adults often tend to lump all children into a single category: cute, small, loud, and occasionally annoying. Look beyond the stereotype.
7. Personal Goals - The single ingredient that transforms someone from a static character to a dynamic character is a goal. It can be easy to forget kids also have goals. Kids are arguably even more defined by their goals than are adults. Kids want something every waking minute. Their entire existence is wrapped up in wanting something and figuring out how to get it.
8. Don’t Forget your Character IS a Child - Most of the pitfalls in how to write child characters have to do with making them too simplistic and childish. But don’t fall into the opposite trap either: don’t create child characters who are essentially adults in little bodies.
9. Your Personal Observation - To write dialogue that truly sounds like it could come from a child, start by being an attentive listener. Spend time around children and observe how they interact with their peers and adults. You can also study other pieces of media that show/write about children’s behaviour (e.g., documentaries, films, TV shows, even other written works like novels and scripts).
10. Context - The context in which children speak is crucial to creating realistic dialogue. Consider their environment, who they’re speaking to, and what’s happening around them. Dialogue can change drastically depending on whether a child is talking to a friend, a parent, or a teacher. Additionally, children’s language can be influenced by their cultural background, family dynamics, and personal experiences. Make sure the context informs the dialogue, lending credibility to your characters’ voices.

Sources and other related articles: 12345678910

Writing Notes: On Children

dear-ao3:

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