“If We Lived In A Culture With A Higher Tolerance For Ambiguity, Rather Than Obsession With Measurement,

1 2 3 4 5 6 | favourite yellow details in art !

"Vampires" by Takato Yamamoto.

Donation campaigns - May 30

Below are vetted campaigns I have come across today and compiled into one list to make it easier for us to generate the best possible impact.

Donate to save Wafaa and her children

Help secure a safe future for Yusef's family

Shahad needs our help to rescue her grandmother

Bilal is trying to rescue his family and we can help him reach his goal

Hani needs our urgent help to get to safety

Nader's family is displaced and need our help

Fadi's family of 8 lost everything and we can help

Help Tala's mother get the medical treatment she urgently needs

Help save Faten and her three children

Save Maliha's family with their evacuation fund

Donate to Helpgazachildren

8 year old Yusuf needs urgent medical help

Help Yousef and his family evacuate

Renad needs our support to get her family to safety

Support Ruba's urgent request to evacuate her family

Better fundraisers master post

Help Ahmed rescue his family and children

Help Alaa by supporting her fundraiser

Donate to Ezzideen's campaign to help him and his family get to safety

Alhawa family need our help to escape the horrors

Haneen is almost halfway through to her goal to save her family

Help Marah and her family

Help Mahmoud save his parents

Laila still needs our support donating to her campaign

Support Omar continue his education

Help the Abushammala family rebuild their life

Donate to help Islam and his family

Mohammed Ayesh needs our help to escape to safety

Consejos para Selectividad/PAU

For my non-Spanish speakers: This post is about the exam Spanish students have to sit if they want to go to uni, that’s why it’s in Spanish only. But you can read and practice your Spanish if you’re studying it!

Primero de todo: calma. El estrés es lo peor. Si has llegado hasta aquí la PAU es solo un paseo (a no ser que quieras entrar en Medicina)

DESCANSA. A ver, hay mucha gente que se tira desde las 8 de la mañana hasta las 2 de la madrugada estudiando, parando solo para comer. Y no es plan. Yo me despertaba a las 8.30 y me ponía a las 9. De 2.30 a 4 o así hacía siesta y a las 8 me duchaba. Y luego de cenar no estudiaba, leía un libro y me iba a dormir. Si a ti te sirve estudiar por la noche, adelante, pero no te fuerces: HAY TIEMPO.

ORGANÍZATE. Yo el día que terminé las clases me dediqué a sacar todo el material y contar las unidades que tenía, para dividir todo por días. HAZTE UN HORARIO A ORDENADOR E IMPRÍMELO. Pon lo que quieras hacer cada día y cuando lo hayas hecho lo tachas. Si no puedes más tal día, pasa parte del temario al día siguiente. Yo normalmente intercalaba días más intensos con días más “light”. Estudia primero una asignatura que te guste, luego una que no, y luego otra que sí.

HAZ PARONES. Yo paraba cuando ya me había estudiado una de las cosas que debía estudiarme cada día. Por ejemplo, me estudiaba un tema de historia y paraba. Puedes hacer lo que quieras. Yo hacía siestas de 15 minutos en cada parón.

DISEÑA UN PLAN. Tienes 1h y 30 min, así que planea antes de empezar los días de selectividad cómo vas a contestar. El orden da igual, así que empieza primero por las que valen más puntos y son más cortas, dejando las que valen menos para el final. Ya la harás luego si tienes tiempo. (En castellano, por ejemplo, empieza por la literatura y te la quitas de encima. Luego sigue con las que son más cortas. Déjate la pregunta que valga un punto para el final).

EL SORTEO. Si ves que no te da tiempo a estudiarte tantas cosas de una asignatura, se puede hacer sorteo y jugártela. Yo lo hice con castellano. No me daba tiempo a estudiarme tantos temas de literatura, así que busqué en internet qué preguntas salen más y no me estudié los otros temas. Con Literatura Universal, como son 6 libros, me estudié 5, quitándome encima el que más teoría tenía. Como tenía dos opciones, sabía que si me dejaba 1 siempre habría una opción en la que saldría uno de los 5 libros.

COME Y BEBE AGUA. Desayuna, almuerza, come, merienda y cena. Acuérdate de beber agua mientras estudias.

MUÉVETE. Vas a estar muchas horas en la silla. Cuando lleves unas horas te va a doler el culo y la espalda (yo llegué a perder peso de estar sentado). Te recomiendo que te levantes y muevas un poco el cuerpo. Yo bajaba a la panadería a comprarme el almuerzo, y así me obligaba a vestirme y a que me diera un poco el aire.

VÍSTETE. No estés todo el día en pijama, ponte ropa limpia.

DÚCHATE. Lo puedes hacer tanto por la mañana o al terminar de estudiar. Yo prefería hacerlo luego porque me despejaba.

ESCONDE TODOS LOS APARATOS ELECTRÓNICOS. Tienta mucho usar el móvil, la tablet o el ordenador. Guárdalos todos en otra habitación. Yo solo miraba WhatsApp dos o tres veces al día, para ver si algún amigo tenía alguna duda o por si el grupo de clásico estaban todos histéricos.

LLEGA A TIEMPO A LOS EXÁMENES. Recuerda salir de casa con tiempo de sobra, y estar en la facultad a la que tienes que ir también con tiempo.

MIRA LAS DOS OPCIONES. En PAU cada examen tiene dos opciones. Lee ambas atentamente antes de empezar y elige bien. Tal vez no te sepas la literatura de la opción que has escogido en castellano, pero tal vez sí sabes hacer sintaxis bien. Puedes cambiar de opción a mitad del examen, no pasa nada.

NO REPASES DURANTE LOS 5 MINUTOS PREVIOS AL EXAMEN. Tal vez tengas 1 hora o 2 horas de descanso para comer cada día. Puedes repasar, pero hacerlo mientras estás haciendo cola para entrar al examen no es bueno. Os podéis preguntar entre tus amigos y tú, pero no te agobies si sabes menos que tu amigo.

NO COMPARES CUANDO SALGAS DE LOS EXÁMENES. Esto tienta mucho, pero en las asignaturas de ciencias (las de letras pueden ser más subjetivas) no es bueno comparar los resultados con los demás, pues si no tienes lo mismo puede desanimarte.

SI UN EXAMEN TE HA SALIDO MAL, OLVÍDATE. El primer examen siempre suele salir peor (de hecho, yo en ese saqué la nota más baja de todos mis exámenes), pero tú olvídate de eso: lo hecho hecho está. Cada asignatura es distinta, y pensar que te va a salir mal no va a ayudar. HAY QUE SER POSITIVO.

LLEVA TODA LA DOCUMENTACIÓN OFICIAL. Sin DNI y todo el papeleo que se pide, olvídate de hacer los exámenes.

YOUTUBE. En YouTube hay miles de vídeos de gente dando consejos, contando su experiencia, diciendo qué hacer y qué no hay que hacer.

¡Suerte!

au where i actually write

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language

We are always told to use body language in our writing. Sometimes, it’s easier said than written. I decided to create these cheat sheets to help you show a character’s state of mind. Obviously, a character may exhibit a number of these behaviours. For example, he may be shocked and angry, or shocked and happy. Use these combinations as needed.

by Amanda Patterson

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farmers market soup haul

The Two Types of Pacing

Pacing is a tricky, tricky thing. Hopefully, by breaking it down into two schools of thought, we can better our understanding of maintaining effective pacing. 

as requested by @whisperinghallwaysofmirrors

First, Some Definitions

According to Writer’s Digest, narrative pacing is “a tool that controls the speed and rhythm at which a story is told… [H]ow fast or slow events in a piece unfold and how much time elapses in a scene or story.“

Pacing can be a lot of things. Slow, fast, suspenseful, meandering, boring, exciting, et cetera et cetera. While we don’t want meandering or boring, getting it to be the other things can be a feat. 

As I go through all of this, I would like to say that the number one thing you should be keeping in mind with the pacing of your story is the purpose.

What is the purpose of this story, scene, dialogue, action, arc, plot point, chapter, et al? This and only this will keep you on track the whole way through. 

Without further ado, here are the two types of pacing…

Micro Pacing

This, to me, is the harder of the two. Macro pacing usually comes naturally with our understanding of overall story structure that we see in books and movies. Micro is much more subjective and labor-intensive.

The first step of every scene you write is to identify what kind of pacing it needs to be effective. Is a slower pace going to nail in the emotional tone? Is a faster pace going to convey how urgent the scene is? Is choppy going to show how chaotic it is? How much attention to detail is needed? Et cetera. And even with the scene’s tone, there are also tones within with action, dialogue, and narrator perception.

There is no one-size-fits-all trick to mastering pacing. All you can do is try to keep it in mind as you draft. Don’t let it consume you, though. Just get it down. After drafting, look at the pacing with a critical eye. Do important scenes go too fast? Are unnecessary things being dragged out? Is this scene too detailed to be suspenseful?

A lot of errors in pacing are quick fixes. The adding or removal of details, shortening or lengthening of sentences, changing descriptions. However, these quick fixes do take a while when you have to look at every single scene in a story.

Macro Pacing

Rather than the contents of a scene, this deals with everything larger. Scenes, chapters, plot points, storylines, subplots, and arcs. This is taking a look at how they all work for each other when pieced together.

One of the biggest resources when it comes to analyzing macro pacing is story structure philosophy. The common examples are Freytag’s Pyramid, the 3-Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, and Blake Snyder’s 15 Beats. They follow the traditional story structure. Exposition, catalyst, rising action, climax, and resolution (albeit each in different terms and specificity). Though some see it as “cookie-cutter”, 99% of effective stories follow these formats at a considerable capacity. It’s not always about how the story is told, but rather who tells it. But I digress.

Looking at these structures, we can begin to see how the tried-and-true set-up is centered around effective pacing.

The beginning, where everything is set up, is slower but short and sweet. The catalyst happens early and our MC is sent out on a journey or quest whether they like it or not. The trek to a climax is a tricky stage for maintaining effective pacing. Good stories fluctuate between fast and slow. There is enough to keep it exciting, but we’re given breaks to stop and examine the finer details like theme, characterization, and arcs.

The edge before the climax is typically when the action keeps coming and we’re no longer given breaks. The suspense grabs us and doesn’t let go. This is the suspense that effectively amounts to the crescendo and leads to the emotional payoff and release that follows in the resolution. The resolution is nothing BUT a break, or a breather if you will. Though it is slower like the exposition, it is longer than that because this is where we wrap everything up for total closure. This is what the reader needs, rather than what they want. So you can take your time.

Not every story has to follow this recipe step-by-step. Critically acclaimed movies such as Pulp Fiction, Frances Ha, and Inside Llewyn Davis* break the traditional structure. However, they still keep certain ingredients in it. Whether it be the concept of a climax, the idea of a journey, or the overall balance of tension and release.

If you’re struggling with the macro side of your story’s pacing, I would try to identify what the weakest areas are and see if applying these story structure concepts and methodology strengthens it at all. If not, it may be that your story idea doesn’t fit the “substance” requirement of an 80k+ word novel. It may need more or fewer subplots or an increase of conflict or more things getting in the MC’s way. You could also see if adapting it to a shorter medium (novella, et al) or a longer medium (series, episodics, et al) would alleviate the pacing issues.

*sorry all my references are movies and not books, but I’ve seen more movies than I’ve read books

In Short–

Pacing, both macro and micro, are incredibly subjective concepts. The only way to really find out how effective your story’s pacing is, is to look at it through the lens of traditional structures and ask for feedback from beta readers. How a reader,who doesn’t know the whole story like you do feels about pacing is the best resource you could have.

I was meant to be a character in a low budget horror movie in 2005 wearing a short sleeved shirt over a long sleeved shirt to signify to the audience that I am an enjoyer of music