Yes. Writing a book is the easiest thing in the whole world. In fact, let me show you just how easy it is!
Goal: change all this paper into a book.
Eh, not that hard. I mean, you just have to read, right?
Maybe scratch a few notes in the margins as reminders.
Yeah, writing and editing isn’t time consuming or painstaking at all.
In fact, I find it quite relaxing. Good meditation. No stress whatsoever!
I mean, it’s not like writing a book involves any train of thought or decision making, like when to cut scenes, because whatever you write is perfect and there to stay!
I mean, come on, it’s not like I’m going to rewrite the first chapter 51 TIMES to make sure it’s how I want it, right? That’d be crazy.
And no, it’s not like I spent over 3,000 HOURS READING AND REVISING 14 DRAFTS OF THE BOOK to make this book readable.
No sweat, no tears, no blood, and DEFINITELY no coffee stains.
Nope, writing is the easiest job in the world. I don’t see why anyone thinks otherwise. I mean, all we do is scribble words and take a few out, right?
We feel no satisfaction AT ALL when we receive a shipment of the final product for a book signing. *yawn* BOR–ING.
Nope, we don’t get excited at all. It’s just another day in the life.
And the sequels? Bitch, please. That’s child’s play.
You’re right. Writing a book is so easy. It’s not stressful, not exciting, and it’s definitely not worth the reward of holding something that USED TO BE EXCLUSIVELY IN YOUR HEAD AND NOW YOU GET TO SHARE IT WITH THE WHOLE WORLD.
It’s our chemical all-star team of death. We’ve got historic poisons that have claimed the lives of millions in a sinister manner, along with a couple of chemicals that might be in your home. Contact with any of these, in the right dose, will send you running for a hastily scribbled bucket list.
Before we start – a couple of rules concerning these deadly jumbles of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Neither proteins (sorry Botulinum toxin) nor elements/radioactive isotopes (my apologies to Polonium-210) were considered for the list, with a nod given to chemical compounds that you could come in contact with during your life.
The hydrogen peroxide in your bathroom cabinet has a concentration of 3 to 6%. At higher concentrations, it’s a rocket propellant. Hydrogen peroxide is extremely volatile, with the merest nudge setting off an explosion in laboratory grade solutions (>70% hydrogen peroxide). The 2005 London subway bombers used concentrated hydrogen peroxide as an explosive in the attacks that killed 52 people.
8. Ethylene glycol
It’s in your car as antifreeze. It’s cheap. It looks so damn simple. It has a moderate toxicity level, however, the sweet taste can make one easily surpass that boundary, leading the ethylene glycol to be metabolized into the more dangerous oxalic acid. Keep it away from animals and pets, as they are likely to lap up the liquid as a food source. If you do ingest a large amount of ethylene glycol, death is slow, knocking out organ systems systematically over the course of 72 hours. The treatment is administration of grain ethanol, as the ethanol competes with ethylene glycol for binding in your body.
A routine industrial reactant, but one false step results in the smell of almonds, then death within seconds. Cyanide binds to cytochrome c oxidase, a protein in the mitochondria, and stops the cells from using oxygen.
5. Strychnine
Commonly used as a pesticide to kill large unwanted pests like rodents and birds. Due to the ease of concealment, strychnine is rumored to have killed many historic figures including Alexander the Great and Blues musician Robert Johnson.
4. Tabun
One of the first nerve agents discovered, this liquid is known for a fruity odor and can be sprayed as a mist that causes convulsions and paralysis. Tabun itself is not extremely deadly, but the success of this chemical compound in war led to the development of deadlier toxins like ricin and soman. Iraqi soldiers used Tabun in the final days of theIran/Iraq war to kill thousands of Iranians.
3. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
Heard of Agent Orange? 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin was thecontaminant in Agent Orange. That’s a bastard chemical. Agent Orange was created to cause defoliation of dense areas in Vietnam, but this contaminant led to severe prenatal deformities and skin lesions.
2. VX
One of the first chemical WMDs, researchers initially produced VX for retail sale in the 1950s as a pesticide. Thankfully, your likelihood of coming in contact with VX is extremely low - the world’s stockpiles have been destroyed, including the United States’main stockpile in Anniston, AL.
1. Batrachotoxin
The most potent non-peptide based poison known. Batrachotoxin gained fame though its use in poison darts made from frog excretions. The frogs themselves don’t produce the toxin directly, but through digestion of Melyrid beetles the frogs eat.
You asked for a Writing Advice Masterpost, so here it is! Below you will find a collection of the best questions and answers from the last two years. Not only that, but they are also organized so you can find the answers to your questions quickly and get on with writing.
But wait, there is more!
This post is more than just a collection of advice, it’s a nexus for writing advice, resources, and information! That’s right, this post is going to grow over time. I will be updating this masterpost WEEKLY with new answers, writing advice videos, playlists, and more! So, make sure to bookmark this page and follow my blog (maxkirin.tumblr.com) so you don’t miss a thing~ ♥︎
Authonomy It’s been a while since I used this website in particular, but it’s useful for helpful critique and to get your original works out there. If your book get on the top five list at the end of the month Harper Collins will read it for possible publication.
How to write Funeral Directors I’ve read quite a few fanfics where they just have funeral directors slapping clothes on a body and calling it a day. As a former funeral services major I can tell you that’s not the only thing they do.
Develop your characters, outline your story, and tweak your loglines with three of the best story development apps on the market. With constant software development being maintained, this package is a writer’s sure solution to get their story working from day one. Combine these tools with your method of story development, and your time and space for writing becomes much more free in a fast-paced, technology-driven world.
Show not tell. Nowadays that message is hammered into writers’ heads. And for the most part that’s true. We need to paint a vivid picture in our reader’s minds by having our characters act out the story on the stage of our pages, rather than simply narrating.
After all, we wouldn’t go to a theater production and expect a narrator to read the play from the sidelines while the characters simply stand on the stage silently. No, we expect the characters to act out one scene after another, with perhaps a few narrations thrown in here and there.
However, emotions aren’t always easy to show every single time. But in our age of show versus tell, instead of “sinning” by telling the emotion, many authors leave it out and cross their fingers hoping readers will figure it out on their own.
The trouble with such an approach is that it often confuses readers or leaves them feeling empty, unconnected, and unsatisfied.
A story needs emotional energy for our readers to relate to the characters and story on a deeper level. But how do we know when to show our character emotions and when it’s time to tell?
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if I had to break down the showing versus telling of emotions, I would say that the majority of time we should strive to SHOW our characters emotions. And we can do that in several ways:
Body language: For example rather than telling our readers that our character is angry, we can show our character glaring or narrowing her eyes. Or if our character is nervous, we can have her biting her lip and concealing a gasp.
Dialogue: If our character is angry again, we can have her shouting in the dialogue or perhaps being passive-aggressive with what she’s saying. If she’s nervous, we can sprinkle her dialogue with terse, short sentences or stuttering.
Action: Once again, if our character is angry, we can have them stomp across the room and slam the door on their way out of the room. Or if they’re nervous we can have them hide in a closet or bolt every lock on their doors and windows.
Internal monologue: If our character is angry, we can show the thoughts running through their head, something like: If only I had enough nerve to slam the door in her face. Or if she’s nervous she could think something like: My mamma always told me there was no such thing as ghosts, but what else could be out there?
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As always, we should attempt to make the emotion clear from the context, and often that can happen when we’re using some combination of body language, dialogue, action, and internal monologue that all work together to convey the emotion.
For example, if our character biting her lip doesn’t convey the emotion were striving after, then we can add in a sentence of internal narration that compliments it and makes the emotion stronger and clearer.
Usually the trouble comes when we’re in a fast-moving part, or a scene with a lot of dialogue, or perhaps a scene with more backstory or exposition, and we can’t take the time to show every emotion our character is feeling. If we do, we may end up with a 1000 page tome that’s packed full of emotion being acted out, but that no one will want to read.
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There are lots of ways to sneak in an emotion so that the reader doesn’t realize we’re telling them. Here are just a few techniques:
Sparingly use adjectives or adverbs: An angry retort or voice dripping with sarcasm.
Personify the emotion or link it with a simile: Bitterness sucked at the lining of her stomach like a leech.
Have the character name the emotion in her internal monologue: She was so mad she wanted to smash something bare-handed. If only she had enough nerve
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My Summary: In the modern hype to show not tell, writers often go to the other extreme. They take the technique too literally, which often leaves readers guessing how the character feels. If we want our readers to feel joy and sorrow, heartache and disappointment, and the gamut of other emotions during our stories, then we must make sure those emotions are visible in our characters.
yesifonlyyouknew asked: I love writing, but I have always found writing beginnings difficult. I know what I want in a story but just don't know how to start it off. Any tips on how to fix this simple but yet complicated problem?
The first chapter of your first draft is the first taste you get of your story. You, not your readers, not your editors. I’m talking about you here. And there’s huge difference between drafting a first chapter for you, the writer, and drafting one for the consumption of others.
A first draft of a first chapter should help you do several things:
1. Acknowledge that you are officially writing a novel - let that sink in
You have just transitioned from planning, organizing, or thinking about writing a novel to actually doing it. Work on developing daily writing habits and goals. Learn how to fit it into your routine. This is all about the act of writing, and not what you are writing
2. Learn about your protagonist
Intimately. A reader might only scratch the surface in the first chapter of who this character is. They might get a glimpse of their goals/flaws and a little about their home life and past. In a first draft, you should be writing any little thing that comes to mind about the character. If she wakes up and wants cereal, and she’s out of her favorite cereal, feel free to write the detailed back story of how she loves Lucky Charms because her brother used to eat all the marshmallows from the box, leaving her with none. And then go into the back story of how her little brother always got everything he wanted, and her parents tended to favor him. Go on for pages and pages on their childhood if that is what you’re thinking about. Most of this might not make it it into the next draft, but it’s valuable info that helps you get acquainted with your characters. Go off on as many tangents as you want.
3. Get into the problem
Some final drafts jump right into the main conflict, and sometimes it’s more appropriate to write some setup to introduce the context before the meat of the problem is identified. Regardless of your situation, you need to get into the problem early on in your first draft. Getting to the problem makes it clear to you why you’re writing the novel. And once you have a good idea why you’re writing it, you’re more likely to continue writing it. Not to mention, the conflict is the fun part. In addition, if you skip a lot of the setup to the problem, it feels more like a first draft. And when we’re in “first draft mode,” it’s easier to just go with the flow.
4. Write the second chapter
The first chapter should help you write the second chapter, plain and simple. If all the first chapter accomplishes is getting you past the “beginning” so you can work on the middle, then so be it. I say this a lot, but the first draft of a first chapter just needs to exist. It doesn’t have to be good, and it doesn’t have to do anything. It just has to be there so you can trick your brain into thinking that the story is underway and that scary beginning is over and done with. Now you can focus on the fun stuff.
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to have the perfect beginning. You might not know the best way to get it going, but you don’t need to! Just think of any way that will allow this story to go from idea to draft. You may, as you’re writing the middle or the end, think of a the perfect way to the start the story, and that’ll get you going on the second draft.
Including body language in your writing gives your characters more depth and provides a relatable, interactive experience for your readers.
I find that this helps me remember to add what’s happening in between a conversation, not just during it. I’ve started to describe how my characters sit in certain situations and their over all body and presence. It’s really helped me convey the power and the helplessness of some of the dynamics I have going on.
For reference. The article also has a choice Ursula picture, so extra points.
This took me a good few hours and a lot of effort to make and even though it was mainly for myself anyone can feel free to use it, for the note it is still under construction and I am undergoing fixes. So If anyone actually does use this other than myself and notices a broken link or something not quite right, could you please inform me about it? Thank you.
9. Hydrogen peroxide
8. Ethylene glycol
7. Nicotine
6. Sodium cyanide
5. Strychnine
4. Tabun
3. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
2. VX
1. Batrachotoxin
