“Knowing Yourself Is Life’s Eternal Homework.”

“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”

— Ambrose Bierce (via quotemadness)

Writing Tip #207

Everyone knows the age old rule “show don’t tell” but people rarely explain what that actually means. Don’ tell your reader what happened, put them in the scene so they can experience it with the characters. Don’t say “Ella walked to the dining hall and discovered Stacy and Rick arguing in the corner”. Write about Ella walking to the dining hall, how she heard hushed voices and couldn’t make out the words at first but recognized the voices. Write about how as she got closer she could make out fragments of the argument and when she passed them in the hall they stopped speaking as soon as they spotted her. This will make for a much more interesting story.

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable…It means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”

— Neil Gaiman (via quotemadness)

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

hi! this is hard to explain but i’m trying to write my first proper story and i’m suddenly overthinking whether i’m writing in past or present tense. do you have any advice for that?

Hi and thanks for the ask!

As someone who tends to overthink things on a daily basis, I can imagine how troubled you might be about this. So I’ll try to make your decision at least a little bit easier.

In my opinion, choosing the tense you use is very much dependent on your personal preference. Although present tense seems to be more popular with today’s writers, personally, I prefer past tense. Apart from the question about popularity, though, there are different advantages and disadvantages for both choices. I’ll highlight the advantages and disadvantages for present tense only, since the opposite is obvious for the past tense.

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Advantages: Present tense has a more immediate feeling to it. Writing in present tense gives the reader the ability to experience the story in time with your characters. The moment a character changes, we experience that change in them as well. It also immerses the reader in the character’s emotions for longer than the past tense does. Moreover, handling tenses in general is a lot easier if you write in present tense rather than past tense.

Disadvantages: It’s a lot harder to manipulate the time inside a story. With present tense you usually only use past tense for the few things that actually happened in the past. That also makes it harder to create complex characters because phrases like “has always been” and the like can’t be used, since they would greatly disrupt the present tense’s main use. What’s more, the present tense author is experiencing the story at the same pace the characters do, so it is almost impossible to create a feeling of suspense. Even though you as the author, of course, know what will happen, phrases like “hadn’t known yet” and similar lines don’t fit well into a present tense story. Another possible trap the present tense sets, is misleading authors to write about mundane and trivial events that serve no plot function but would, of course, happen in a naturalistic sequence of actions.

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I hope this somehow answers your question and makes it easier for you to decide whether to write in present tense or past tense.

Bali's Unique Mourning Ritual

Bali is the only place that has been observed to consistently have funerals with no tears. In Bali, funerals are held two years after the person has died.

A Brief Guide to Writing British Nobles

>>By @writerthreads on Instagram

*note that different eras have different rules. This post is quite general, so research more specific details if you’re focusing on a certain period of time!

The following titles are under a Peerage, where peers were people who would hold one or more title(s) of duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron. They swore an oath as a servent of the monarch in exchange for land or money.

Sovereign

The Sovereign holds the most power in the country, although they do not have the power they used to in England as there is a now the Prime Minister. But if we’re talking about the olden ages, they would be the King or Queen. Typically, the Queen would be married into the royal family, and be beside the King, unless the King only had daughters, in which, (depending on the era for women were not allowed to rule for a time period a few hundred years ago) they would then be Queen.

Duke/Duchess

A duke outranks the other noble titles, namely the earl, marquess, viscount and baron. There are two types of dukedoms: royal and non-royal. Royal dukedoms can only be inherited if one is a member of the royal family and are hereditary.

Most princes become dukes when they’re married and their wife will be referred to as a duchess. (If you were not a member of the royal family but your parents were the duke and duchess you’d still inherit that title.) Non-royal dukedoms are titles given to a person by a king or queen. A duke is a ruler of a duchy, which is basically a large area of land, a territory. A duke is typically addressed as “Your Grace”.

Marquees/Marchioness

This title outranks the rest except for the duke and sovereign. This title is quite rare nowadays. The Marchioness is the wife of the Marquees. Marquees were the owners of a march which was on the border of the country, which meant that they were responsible for defending against anyone who tried to intrude or attack England. (FYI: a Count would typically be the owner of a county, which was more inland)

Marquees and Marchioness are addressed as “My Lord” or “My Lady” in speech, and “Lord/Dear Mannerisms” in social writing, where the atmosphere is less formal.

Earl/Countess

Earls are ranked below the Marquess and above the Viscounts. They were royal governors and had the authority to rule lands and judge courts in their provinces. Along with that they’d collect taxes, earning a third of the total. Over the years, their power decreased and increased depending on who was ruling England, and nowadays, they do not hold much power in their hands.

The Countess would be the Earl’s wife, and by the general population, be referred to as “My Lady” while the Earl would be addressed as “My Lord”. His eldest son would be called the Viscount.

Viscount/Viscountess

In Great Britain, people would use Viscount as a title for the heir of an Earl of Marquess as courtesy, but other than that, (depending on the time period) they were not hereditary in fear of a rebellion, and instead, titles were given by the Monarch. They would also collect taxes from people.

They’re also referred to as “My Lady” and “My Lord”.

Baron/Baroness

The baron was a land-holding nobleman and is one of the lowest ranks of nobility, and the lowest in a peerage. In the Middle Ages, they ruled over large areas of land (fiefs) and would report to the king. They’d also maintain the country’s army. “Baron” quite literally means “man”, so they were “men of the king”.

The rank of Baron is often hereditary although the first Barons were given the titles by the monarchy. In formal settings, they’d be addressed as “The Right Honourable The Lord/Lady”, but in social settings, “Lord/Lady”.

Knight/Dame

A knighthood is a title given to a man for his service to the country, and would be referred to as “Sir”. This would give them the status of the knight, in which they would be expected to learn how to fight and serve his liege lord in the Code of Chivalry. Being a knight came with great benefits: they were often given a piece of land to govern, and would collect taxes from the people. Only men were typically knights, though the title Dame is given to the wife or daughter of a lord, or a woman of knighthood.

Knighthood is not hereditary.

“Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.”

— Unknown