Beneath The Cut, You’ll Find #76 Character Labels That I’ve Thought Up– They’re Underused! I

The BBC is releasing over 16,000 sound effects for free download

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The BBC is releasing over 16,000 sound effects for free download

The BBC have released their incredible, expansive library of bizarre and obscure sound effects, all available for free download.

Two years?! I’m in!

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so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

The world of modern aesthetics owes so much to Jean Pettine yall dont even know

Fantasy Guide to Balls

When we think of fantasy we think of castles and princesses and then we immediately think of ballrooms and dancing. After all, what court is complete without balls and feasts?

Types

Throughout time there have been many kinds of ball. In mediaeval times, a feast could be a nightly occurrence. The monarch would pay to host their friends and vassals for dinner and afterward would come the dancing. The first few years of Henry VIII's reign had feasts and masques almost daily if not weekly. As we come closer to Edwardian times, some balls abandoned the dinner aspect for dancing, music and gossiping.

Invite only

If the monarch announces a ball, they will send an invite to the nobility or the wealthy if their presence is either desired or cursory. Snubbing a noble of an invite would be seen as an insult, a very public one. No noble or guest can show up without an invite. That would be seen as impetuous and rude, almost the equivalent of wearing white to a wedding.

Precedent

When you step into the ballroom, sometimes you would be announced to the room or introduced to the royal family. There would be a special sequence in which this would happen. The highest ranking to the lowest ranking always. It would be a manor faux pas to announce a mere Lady before a Duchess.

Dancing

Actual dancing sometimes ran like bingo. A lady could have a dance card which she would ask her dance partners to sign as a keepsake. The men would dance to show their grace and manners whilst some might be chasing a new mistress and the ladies would dance to show their grace and skill. It could be considered scandalous for a woman to dance more than a single dance with a man which could lead to gossip.

Different kinds of historical dances

Carole

Ductia

Estampie (Istampitta)

Saltarello

Trotto

Farandole

Allemande

Basse danse

Branle

Canario

Coranto

Dompe

Galliard

La volta

Pavane

Sarabanda

Spagnoletta

Tourdion

Bourrée

Canary

Chaconne

Entrée grave

Forlana

Gavotte

Gigue

Loure

Menuet

Musette

Passacaille

Passepied

Rigaudon

Sarabande

Tambourin

For @viola-cola

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And remember

cleaning along desire paths

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Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here.