OC Fact Swap.

if you are struggling with choosing which fundraisers to support, please consider donating to the following places providing medical aid, food, and other supplies to palestine at this time:

donate to doctors without borders here

donate to careforgaza here, providing food, medicine and clothing

donate an e-sim to gaza today

donate feminine hygiene kits for women in gaza

donate to the palestinian civilian relief fund

donate to the palestine children's relief fund

donate to the world food programme

donate medical aid for palestinians

donate to the united nations relief for palestine refugees

donate to healpalestine

if you are looking for individual fundraisers to donate to but are struggling to choose, gazafunds gives a spotlight to fundraisers that are not close to their goal.

instead of watching and supporting eurovision tonight, please instead boost this post & donate if you can. keep your eyes on rafah.

I used to hate this tip, too, but then I realised that maybe we should not take it that literally. If you are Britsh, you might not know much about the highschool-system in America, but you probably know some things about friendship. You know how a first love feels and you know how hard it can be to share a school with people who have bullied you for years. Or maybe you don’t know that, either. But you sure know what humiliation feels like. We have not attended executions, but we have seen scared people and we know suspense.

‘Write about what you know‘ does not have to be about facts. It can be about feelings, about insights and moments of understanding. You can make your readers believe the most fantastic things and experience the most amazing events, because you can base the sensation of casting a spell on the electricity you felt when you touched an escalator in the shopping mall. 

Maybe all this dogma means, is that you don’t have to make everything up. One of the truest thing I ever knew, is that I feel safe as long as I am the only one in danger. That does not mean I have to write about a college girl with insecurity issues. I can write about a Chosen One in the middle ages. But he will feel real, because I wrote him based on something I know

You know what it would be like if we all only wrote about what we know?

BORING AS SHIT.

You’re British and want to write a highschool AU set in America? Sorry, you can’t, even if you research you might get it wrong. You’re an artist and you want to write about geologists? Nope. Not for you. You’re writing a zombie apocalypse AU? Not if you haven’t lived through a zombie apocalypse. You’re writing a space AU? You better be an astronaut (even if you’re an engineer or technician you might get something wrong about spacewalking!!!). You’re writing meta about elf biology? You’d better be a fucking biologist or you might get something wrong.

So do some research online and write your AU. If someone who knows more about that thing offers to help you, great! If they don’t, you can do it anyway. You don’t need a Stamp Of Approval™ in order to write your stuff.

And if someone is rude about it because it doesn’t fit their standards? Oh well, too bad for them.

I write historical fantasy, with a cast containing gay, bi and nonbinary characters.

Smash heteronormativity and cisnormativity in fiction blog masterlist!

Sci-fi

@albatris Sci-fi short fiction with a variety of lgbtqai+ characters, equal part humor and serious themes.

@kioskwrites Science Fiction and Fantasy without straight characters at all.

@perringcentral both Science Fiction and Fantasy with LGBT characters.

@knightedwriter Sci-fi (Contact), Fantasy (The Moon’s song) and WIP (Death’s name) featuring queer characters as leads (including a non binary and a trans characters) and lgbt+ relationship.

@morrigans-ink-0124 Sci-fi book (Aerium) that features two pansexual, polyamorous characters, a genderfluid, aroace and a bisexual characters.

Fantasy and Paranormal

@justaprettylittlesoulwriter Vampires, werewolves and paranormal WIP in general with racially diverse lgbtqai+ characters.

@ziggy-writes-stuff Alchemy steamfantasy WIP with an almost all lgbtqai+ cast, with racially anc culturally diverse characters.

@elliot-orion Fantasy and Urban fantasy with lgbt and polyamorous characters.

@authorisada stories with ace (Council of Thieves) as well as other lgbt (Curse of the Crimson Throne: Courtesan) main characters.

@cog-writes High fantasy steampunk (MotU) with bi and ace protagonists, as a cast of lgbt+, POC and disabled characters.

@jmlascar Fantasy (Letters from the Underside) with an ace woman and a bi man as main characters, as well as with a lgbt+ diverse cast and romance.

@elle-ecrit-lamour LGBT Urban Fantasy and High Fantasy involving Angels and Demons.

@dancingdarklingwrites Fantasy that features primarily LGBTQ+ characters, polyamorous relationships and non-vanilla romances. Also own voices works as a non binary, genderfluid person.

@ejsmagazine Fantasy and Sci-fi full of LGBT+ characters, also on Wattpad and Fictionpress.

@nanaschreibt German writer of a book about a genderfluid magician.

Horror

@merlebaes-writing-resources Fantasy(The Demon apprentice), sci-fi, and horror writer (short stories), both of short stories and novel wips. A diverse LGBT+ and non-white cast is present in their work.

Action and Thriller

@lynnafred Superhero action story with a predominantly LGBT cast.

@panticwritten Supernatural thriller, but also variations of Fantasy and Fluffy, with a recurring agender, bisexual, greysexual and poly protagonist and a demisexual love interest.

General (or non specified by the author)

@writing-under-stars Fiction with Ace and lgbt character.

@pheita Stories and WIPs with mainly queer and heteronormativity defying character.

@scribble-dee-vee Fantasy and YA projects with sexuality, gender and race diverse character, plus resources on her blog.

@theguildedtypewriter a writembrl that focus both on LGBTQ+ and straight characters, trying to “use every color of our awesome fu****g Rainbow” 

@theocaddictscorner Not a single one of their characters is both Cisgender and heterosexual.

@gettingitwrite Various works that all feature LGBTQIA+ characters and a WIP (Rabid) with an ace persone and a lesbian woman as main characters, as well as queer background characters.

@ruejuge Most of their characters are on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, feature a bisexual main character and a mlm romance.

@jade-island-lives Most of their work involves LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships.

@brynprocrastinates Writes almost exclusively LGBT+ characters, including ownvoice nonbinary protagonists and love interests. Part of a collab of nonbinary Writers to create a guide to help binary people in including non binary characters in their stories.

@mossywritings Writer with a lesbian main character.

Correlated (promotion, resources etcetc)

@jessicameats Promotion of LGBT+ Sci-Fi and Fantasy, giveaways and recommendation lists.

This list is gonna be updated!

My blog is open for requests

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Kissclipart and kissPNG - more vectors and clipart (often transparent!)

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

kaveh akbar, 'calling a wolf a wolf' // doc luben, 'love letters or suicide notes' // @/nutnoce, tumblr // 'my body's made of crushed little stars', mitski // @/ojibwa, tumblr // 'spring', mary oliver

what is the most unique aesthetic you've either created for a character, or someone has sent into you?

That's a difficult question! I've read such awesome character descriptions and I hope I created something nice for each of them. I am still very happy with the Instagram-aesthetics I did for @futureauthor-mabye, that felt like a unique little project!

I am also satisfied with all my Waterwegen aesthetics, especially the one I made for Paco and the one I created for the full story. It's a story with a very distinct feel to it and I like to think I captured it pretty well.

Stavanger, Norway 

A moodboard for ‘Eliza‘, an introvert florist by @chloromantis. I hope you like it! Requests for OC aesthetics are open.

I’ve been away for a little (long) while, but here’s a moodboard for heavy weight lifter Ginger, by @brownchickendog. I hope this was worth the wait!