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How to Kick a Reader in the Gut

willowiswriting:

Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice. 

  • This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite. 
    • Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal. 
    • Let the bad guy get an extremely important win. 
    • Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.

Don’t always give characters closure. 

  • (Excluding the end of the book, obviously)
    • A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.
    • A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.
    • A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine

Make it the main character’s fault sometimes. 

  • And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.
    • MC must choose the lesser of two evils.
    • MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.

Rejection is a powerful tool. 

  • People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.
    • MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them
    • MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.
    • MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)

On the flipside, make your main character keep going. 

  • Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.
    • “But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?


Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost. 

Also remember that the things that make us sad, angry, or otherwise emotional as readers are the same things that make us feel that way in our day-to-day lives. Creating an empathetic main character is the foundation for all of the above tips.

randomitemdrop:

titleknown:

waxwormrepublic:

waxwormrepublic:

vestron:

vestron:

for some reason as a kid i thought a bitch was some kind of weapon. i always envisioned it as something akin to a battering ram

artist’s rendition

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I think….I think I own something akin to a bitch? It’s a wooden log that has outfitted so you can reach inside a cavity and grab on to a handle and use it as what is essentially a heavy, brain splattering sockembopper.

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The Bitch (aka the splattering-ram)

@randomitemdrop

Item: The Bitch

magictransistor:

The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, discovered near the Gorges de l’Ardèche (Southern France) in 1994, is now considered by archaeologists to be one of the most significant prehistoric art sites in the world. The figures pictured here are estimated to have been made as many as 32,000 years ago.

iamalivenow:

itch.io is doing another massive bundle, this time for palestinian aid and you can and you can buy 1020 items for just 5 dollars HERE

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[quoted from the page]

This is a grassroots bundle by indie devs who want to help Palestinians.

All profit from this bundle will be donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The UNRWA has provided food assistance for over one million Palestinians, and continues to do so in the territories with heavy destruction. They also provide emergency mental and physical health protection for those in the region. https://www.unrwa.org/gaza-emergency

Indie games are unique in that they can tell stories not seen in AAA or other games. We pour our life experiences into our games and share a piece of ourselves with the world. Palestinian game developers are no different in this aspect, but have the added challenges of limited access to basic services, like clean water, electricity, medical care, and food security. They live under Israeli authority that discriminates and subjugates Palestinians to the point of persecution and apartheid, simply for being Palestinian. Furthermore, they develop games without all the resources that come with being in a western hub for game development.

Palestinian game developer Rasheed Abueideh did exactly that when he made Liyla and the Shadows of War, which tells a story of a little girl who lives in Gaza during the 2014 war, in which 30% of civilian casualties were children. Liyla and the Shadows of War was showcased at IndieCade and A MAZE and earned numerous award nominations, including a win in Excellence in Storytelling at the International Mobile Gaming Awards Middle East/North Africa.

This bundle is pay-what-you-want (above $5 U.S. dollars) for Liyla and the Shadows of War, and you will receive hundreds of additional games, assets, and soundtracks graciously donated by game developers and media creators around the world for free. The bundle will run through Friday, June 11th. Together, we can raise funds for UNRWA for food and medical assistance for Palestinians AND highlight a game developer who is directly affected by the cause we are rallying behind.

here’s the link again: https://itch.io/b/902/indie-bundle-for-palestinian-aid

you can get games like: pikuniku, minit, longstory, a good snowman is hard to build, gnog, smile for me, cook serve delicious 2, and way more, along with  countless ttrpgs and programing resources. check it out if you have the time

glowingkorbat:

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I can’t believe I never posted my bike here

brunhiddensmusings:

tales-from-the-library:

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they do this so that they can prove people use the library, figure out what books are popular so they can make sure to get more like it or further entries in a series, and to figure out what times the library is more buisy

while ive never killed a person in a library (yet) i do sometimes unshelve additional books to boost the statistics thus resulting in increased funding for the library, however small

ebookporn:

First English dictionary of ancient Greek since Victorian era ‘spares no blushes’

Words the most recent Greek lexicon translated as ‘to wench’ or ‘do one’s need’ have been given much earthier new readings for modern students of classics

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Victorian attempts to veil the meanings of crude ancient Greek words are set to be brushed away by a new dictionary 23 years in the making. It is the first to take a fresh look at the language in almost 200 years and promises to “spare no blushes” for today’s classics students.

The late scholar John Chadwick first came up with the idea to update HG Liddell and Robert Scott’s 1889 dictionary, the Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, in 1997. An abridged version of a lexicon published in 1843, the Liddell and Scott had never been revised, and is packed with antiquated terms and modestly Victorian translations of the more colourful ancient Greek words. Despite this, it remains the most commonly used reference work for students in English schools and universities.

It was initially thought that Chadwick’s project would take five years, but Cambridge professor James Diggle, who was then chair of the advisory committee, said it soon became clear that the Intermediate Lexicon was “too antiquated in concept, design and content”, and the team would need to start afresh.

Diggle and his fellow editors then set out on the “Herculean task” of rereading most examples of ancient Greek literature, from Homer to the early second century AD. They then worked through the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet to create a modern guide for today’s students to the meanings of ancient Greek words and their development through the years. The lexicon is the first to be based on an entirely new reading of the Greek texts since 1843.

READ MORE

ultrafacts:
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Polish People’s Army training manual.
How to use the Tokarev TT-33 pistol.

Polish People’s Army training manual.

How to use the Tokarev TT-33 pistol.