writing-with-olive:

Disclaimers: while I have been learning ASL (American Sign Language, I am not yet fluent. Also, I am not deaf. Both of these things being said, I have been learning ASL for nearly a year and I’ve been doing independant research about the language itself and the Deaf community. What I’ve listed below are things that I have learned from my own personal experience signing, what I’ve learned in my ASL class, and what I’ve learned from my independant research.

1) When you write signed dialogue, use quotation marks and everything else you would use for any other type of dialogue. Yes, I know they didn’t do that in the Magnus Chase series, but many Deaf readers were made uncomfortable at the choice to depict sign language as not speech. Establish early on that the character signs and then use tags such as “xe signed,” or “hir motions were snappy with irritation.”

2) Without facial expressions, someone’s signs are going to be almost meaningless. All of the grammar is in the face, as are some descriptors. For example, if you can’t see a character’s face, and you’re only looking at their hands, the signs would be the same for the statement “Xe doesn’t have dogs.” and the question “Does xe have dogs?” 

3) There is no such thing as fluent lipreading. The best lipreaders in the world can only understand about 70% of what’s being said, and factors such as darkness, the presence of mustaches, lack of context, and a bunch of other common things can easily lower that ability. If someone’s lipreading, they’re taking little pieces of what they can lipread, and stitching together context and other details to get a general picture of what’s going on, but there’s still always going to be holes.

4) If you’re writing a character who can’t hear, know the difference between deaf (lowercase d) and Deaf (uppercase D). The medical term for not being able to hear anything is deaf. People who use their deafness as part of their identity are referred to, and refer to themselves as Deaf. They are part of the Deaf community.

(more tips below cut)

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(via itsjustanotherwriter)

foxiswriting:

nature names!! (feminine)

bc why not. ** = my favorites

names meaning moon

• aiday - kazakh
• alcmene - greek mythology
• belinay** - turkish
• bulan - indonesian
• chandra - hindi, marathi, telugu, tamil, kannada, nepali, bengali
• feray - turkish
• hala** - arabic
• jacira** - indigenous american, tupi
• lusine - armenian
• mahin - polynesian
• menodora - ancient greek
• natsuki - japanese
• purnima - hindi, marathi, bengali, tamil, kannada
• sanda - burmese
• sasithorn - thai
• selene - greek mythology
• tsukiko - japanese

names meaning sun

• arevik - armenian
• eloise - english
• haru, haruko - japanese
• khurshid - persian, urdu, persian mythology
• marisol - spanish
• mehr, mehrnaz** - persian, persian mythology
• mzia - georgian
• nou - hmong
• savitri** - hinduism, hindi, marathi
• siqiniq - indigenous american, inuit
• sóley** - icelandic
• sunčica - croatian, serbian
• sunniva - norwegian
• tonalli - indigenous american, nahuatl
• yang - chinese
• yōko - japanese

names meaning water

• anat - semitic mythology
• arethusa** - greek mythology
• aysu** - turkish
• iara** - indigenous american, tupi
• karen - japanese (im shocked)
• lian - chinese
• liên - vietnamese
• maya, maayan - hebrew
• neith - egyptian mythology
• nerida** - indigenous australian (i love how it sounds like nereid)
• rayyan - arabic
• shui - chinese
• talia - english (australian)
• vaitiare - tahitian

names meaning flower

• abeba - eastern african, amharic
• anfisa** - russian
• anh - vietnamese
• anthea - greek mythology
• ayaka** - japanese
• azahar - spanish
• blodwen - welsh
• calanthe - english
• cvetka - slovene
• diantha - dutch, english
• endzela - georgian
• euanthe - greek mythology, ancient greek
• eun-yeong - korean
• fiore - italian
• flora - english, italian, spanish, portuguese, german, dutch, french, roman mythology
• golnar - persian
• guiying - chinese
• gulmira** - kyrgyz, kazakh
• hanae - japanese
• hua - chinese
• ianthe - greek mythology
• kalei - hawaiian
• kasumi - japanese
• lei, leilani, leimomi - hawaiian
• malai** - thai
• millaray** - indigenous american, mapuche
• nitzan - hebrew
• palesa - southern african, sotho
• pushpa - hindi, marathi, kannada, tamil, telugu, nepali
• zahrah - arabic

names meaning night, stars

• anisha - hindi
• asra** - arabic
• aster, astra - english
• astraea - greek mythology
• citlali - indigenous american, nahuatl
• csilla** - hungarian
• danica - serbian, croatia, slovene, slovak, macedonian, english
• estrella - spanish
• hōkūlani - hawaiian
• hoshi, hoshiko - japanese
• izar** - basque
• maristela** - portuguese
• miyako - japanese
• nisha** - hindi, marathi, kannada, malayalam, tamil, telugu, gujarati, bengali, nepali
• nyx - greek mythology
• seren - welsh
• sitara - urdu
• tara - hindi, nepali
• pomare - tahitian

names meaning tree

• alani - english
• bai - chinese
• elowen - croatian
• hadas - hebrew
• iva** - bulgarian, serbian, croatian, macedonian
• jela - serbian, croatian, slovak
• kalina - bulgarian, macedonian, polish
• kiri** - maori
• liepa - lithuanian
• lina - arabic
• melia - greek mythology
• pomona - roman mythology
• sawda - arabic
• taimi - finnish, estonian

compassionatereminders:

• The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.
• The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.
• The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.
• The “get stuff done while you wait” method.
• The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.
• The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.
• The “break the task into smaller steps” method.
• The “treat yourself like a pet” method.
• The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.
• The “put on a persona” method.
• The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.
• The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.
• The “wait for a trigger” method.
• The “do it for your future self” method.
• The “might as well” method.
• The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.
• The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.
• The “make it easy” method.
• The “junebugging” method.
• The “just show up” method.
• The “accept when you need help” method.
• The “make it into a game” method.
• The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.
• The “trick yourself” method.
• The “break it into even smaller steps” method.
• The “let go of should” method.
• The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.
• The “fork theory” method.
• The “effectivity over aesthetics” method.

(via headspace-hotel)

writing-prompt-s:

Human beings sleep to rid themselves of residual magic every day. The most powerful wizards are those able to keep themselves awake the longest. The wizarding world now sits at the dawn of a golden age because of the Alchemy Guild’s latest discovery: Stimulants.

writinghelpers:

writinghelpers:

I was sitting on the computer last night trying to be productive and actually write something. My first sentence included the character listening to a voice through an intercom and my first thought was, “What kind of voice is it?“ 

So, naturally, I found myself googling the different ways to describe a voice. I present to you my findings! I hope you all find it useful. 

• adenoidal (adj): if someone’s voice is adenoidal, some of the sound seems to come through their nose
• appealing (adj): an appealing look/voice shows that you want help, approval, or agreement
• breathy (adj): with loud breathing noises
• brittle (adj): if you speak in a brittle voice, you sound as if you are about to cry
• croaky (adj): if someone’s voice sounds croaky, they speak in a low, rough voice that sounds as if they have a sore throat
• dead (adj): if someone’s eyes or voice are dead, they feel or show no emotion
• disembodied (adj): a disembodied voice comes from someone who you cannot see
• flat (adj): spoken in a voice that does not go up and down; this word is often used for describing the speech of people from a particular region

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mrspider:

mrspider:

i have some theories about those crusty little dogs older women own

1) those are their familiars. the weight of the curses they bear for their masters slowly detoriorates their bodies over time

2) those animals exist solely for war criminals to be re incarnated as, as punishment

3) they are the pupal stage of wealthy white women, who are created much like a homunculus is. they do not exist as children this is the form they take between hatching and becoming bipedal

saltherpgnerd:

queensweeties:

Anatomy:

• Arms
• Breasts
• Body Types
• Feet
• Female
• Hands
• Heads
  -Ears
  -Expressions
  -Eyes
  -Facial
  -Hair
  -Mouths and Lips
  -Noses
  -Tears
• Humans
• Legs
• Male
• Muscles
• Pelvis
• Proportions
• Shoulders
• Torso

Animals:

• Anatomy
• Antlers
• Beaks
• Behaviour
• Ears
• Facial
• Feathers
• Fur
• Hooves
• Horns
• Insects
• Legs
• Paws
• Talons
• Teeth
• Wings

Backgrounds:

• Cityscape
• Indoors
• Organic
• Perspective
• Quick BGs
• Simplistic

Brushes:

• Photoshop
• Paint tool SAI

Design:

• Buildings
• Character Design
• Clothing
• Environments
• Folds
• Heights
• Maps
• Names
• Sketching
• Skin Tones

Drawing and Colouring:

• Canvas Size
• Colour Palettes
• Colour Theory
• Comics
• Composition
• Lighting
• Lineart
• Painting
• Quick Tricks
• Shading
• Traditional

Fantasy:

• Armor
• Archery
• Horns
• Mythical Animals
• Mythology
• Power Ups
• Weapons
• Wings

For the Artist:

• Copyright
• File Types
• Exercises
• Portfolio
• Reminders
• Tablets
• Tips and Advice
• Tools

Languages:

• ASL
• Ancient
• French
• German
• Grammar
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Morse
• Spanish

Misc:

• Animation
• Commissions
• Cosplay
• Crafts
• Life
• Master Lists
• Psychological
• Resources
• School
• Writing

Nature:

• Blood
• Clouds
• Fire
• Flowers
• Grass
• Landscapes
• Lightning
• Metal
• Plants
• Rocks
• Space
• Trees
• Water
• Wood

Poses:

• Angles
• Animals
• Draw Your X
• Humans
• Movement
• Multiple Persons

Programs:

• Clip Studio Paint
• Krita
• Paint Tool SAI
• Photoshop
• Etc

World Building:

• Buildings
• Culture
• History
• Historical Clothing

Video

Links

Helpful as hell

(via monstrouswrites)