100,000 notes and I wonder how many people realise this line was improvised by a 7 year old
I think most of us guessed it when we saw the “people from liverpool” bit.
Is the heart day and I figure why not post an old drawing to pretend im prepared.
Twas for my darling and the use of dumb flowers we grew one morning.
Anonymous asked: Hey! I love your blog! <3 So I have this character, and I’m currently plotting him out. He has an ex-military sniper, close to 26 years old, and his new profession is being a paid assassin to take out people for whatever reason, it could be a non-personal reason or a personal reason via his client. He is an arrogant person and very boisterous. I’ve formulated an opening where he wakes up with amnesia and severely hurt. My issue is I don’t how to plot my story with him. I’m lost. Any help??
Well, there are two routes you could take. One is to just write and see where this guy takes you. It’s really easy to get caught up in plotting everything out and mapping out every element of your story’s structure, but not every story comes together that way. Plot and story structure only really help if you know where your story is going—if you know what it’s going to be about. If you don’t, you can’t force a plot to take shape. You can brainstorm for awhile and see if a plot suddenly comes to you, but when your story revolves around a character rather than an event or a particular setting, sometimes it’s just better to sit back and let the character take the wheel. Because, remember—no one is going to read your first draft. The first draft is for you to figure everything out.
The second route is if you feel you absolutely must have a plot, in which case you can do the brainstorming thing I mentioned before. In that case, look at what you know about the guy and try to figure out what might happen to shake up his life. If you know you open with him having amnesia, but what led him to that place? Was it a job gone awry? Was he double-crossed by a client? Overpowered by a target? Once you decide on what happened, figure out an inciting incident, which is the thing that happens and kicks off the events of the story. Maybe it is being introduced to a wealthy billionaire who decides to hire him for a job. Maybe it’s a routine job that goes wrong somehow.
Whichever route you take, be patient and give your muse time to work everything out. :)
Names
- Fairy/faerie/faery
- Fae/fey/fay
- Sidhe
- Wee Folk
- Fair Folk
- Good Folk
There isn’t a cut and dried definition of “fairy”. In some places, fairy refers to an ethereal, human-like creature with no empathy. In others, fairy is a catch-all term that encompasses trolls, goblins, banshees, gnomes, brownies, dryads, leprechauns, redcaps, buccas, elves, mermaids, trolls, and others.
For the sake of simplicity, this article is about the former definition, although you can certainly work the latter definition into your world; I’ve read several books that use the all-encompassing definition to great effect (psst read The Dresden Files psst).
Origin, Appearance, and Powers
Fairies supposedly kept the wild places in the world before humanity entered the picture. Humanity defeated or warded them away with iron, so the fairies became weaker, but still a force to be reckoned with. In some tales, they live on Earth. In others, they live in another plane or dimension that humans can rarely enter. Tales of fairies also came from religions predating Christianity. Fairies differ in their description: sometimes they are dead, gods, demigods, spirits, or halfway-fallen angels. Many sources believe fairies traded their souls to the Devil in return for their powers, making fairies as a whole soulless. Christian scholars also classified fairies as “too good for Hell, too bad for Heaven”.
The first fairies appearing in folklore resembled contemporary versions of elves more than Tinker Bell: tall, beautiful, and even angelic-seeming. The first descriptions of trolls - classified as a kind of fairy - named them as short and wizened. Small fairies often appear in folklore, their size ranging from minuscule to that of a human child. The earliest fairies did not have wings, although they could fly with magic. Small fairies sometimes rode birds.
Fairies had the power to fly, cast spells, and foresee the future. They also had the ability to cast powerful glamours or illusions that could trick mortal minds into seeing anything.
Courts
Seelie Court
Seelie fairies will seek help from humans and return human kindness with that of their own. They play lighthearted pranks and quickly forget their sorrows. They will not show remorse when they realize the negative effects of their machinations. Seelie appear most often near twilight. You must offend them to bring down their wrath. Seelie are the nicer of the two fairies. They are also called “The Golden Ones” and “The Light Court”. The Seelie Court is closely associated with spring and summer.
Unseelie Court
The Unseelie appear at night as a group. They attack anyone they come across, often by carrying them through the air, beating them, and forcing the them to kill cattle. Some Unseelie can be fond of a human who respects Unseelie culture. However, this human ends up as a pet rather than a friend. The Unseelie Court is closely associated with winter and autumn.
Weakness
Iron burns them. Rowan repels them. Fairies must keep promises they repeat three times (or just promises they make).
More Resources
THE NINE CHOIRS OF HEAVEN. An info-graphic for my editorial class and god am I thankful it’s done. Way too much went into this than what I had time for, but hey… I actually kind of like it?
Now excuse me, I must return to my fashion major lifestyle and go sew a coat u_u
EDIT: Re-uploaded with easier viewing!
Beautiful graphic. Gorgeous.
An info-graphic to go along with my Angelic Hierarchies post? Thank goodness!
There’s some disparity. I was always taught the order was supposed to go Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, angels.
That was my only gripe. But I can forgive because this was so beautiful.
Just jumping in here because this is one of my favorite things to research in my spare time. c:
From everything I’ve studied, there are at least ten different versions of the Hierarchy, at least in Medieval theology. And some of the groups in each sphere have various names (such as Thrones also being called Ophanim), and there are a few groups that only appear in certain manuscripts and never again (such as Aeons and Hosts in the 1st Century Apostolic Constitutions). A few manuscripts only list seven ranks, and others invert the order of angels completely.
That’s not even looking at the Jewish angelic hierarchy, which is completely different and comprised of ten (I think?) separate ranks of angels. Although I don’t know much on this other than a passing glance; I am not Jewish nor have I studied Judaism in depth.
I can’t speak on what is being taught in Christian groups now, as my family was never that religious. But just like all parts of religion, the Angelic Hierarchy contradicts itself depending on who you reference from, but it seems the above is the commonly accepted order.
I have also seen referenced two different classes of Archangels. One is capitalized and refers to Michael, Gabriel, etc, or those angels who have authority over all angels (which is a whole other matter: some sources refer to four Archangels, some refer to seven, the New Testament only refers to Michael and Gabriel, it all gets very confusing). And the second group is lowercase and simply refers to the 8th angelic rank.
I’ve also seen Satan referred to as belonging to different spheres. Ephesians 6:12 could be interpreted as Satan belonging to Powers, but Thomas Aquinas claims he was a Cherub. Lucifer is generally considered an Archangel (capitalized) or a Seraph, I think, but don’t quote me on that as it is also my UPG (whether or not you consider Satan and Lucifer the same is your own UPG and whole different story entirely, I don’t yet know where I stand on that matter).
But for all I know I could have everything backwards on this, I am not a scholarly source on angels. I just enjoy studying them.
When developing your characters, they should have both positive and negative traits. To avoid being a Mary Sue (in the sense that your character is perfect and always does the right thing), your character needs to have flaws. These flaws are usually what prevents them from getting what they want, NOT necessarily the antagonist. The antagonist can stand in your character’s way, but most main characters usually have to contend with their flaws before they can overcome any adversity. Accepting and working with your flaws is usually a major part of character development.
I know a lot of people ask what to do to prevent your characters from being too perfect, so I thought this was a good post to help you determine what character flaws to include. You need something more than “he doesn’t like washing his hands” for it to even matter, so you need to get to the core of your character. Here are a few common character flaws that might work:
Shyness. Being too shy, and not in the cutesy I’m so awkward way, can be a major character flaw. Some people are naturally shy or introverted, but if being shy constantly prevents you from getting what you want, it could be an obstacle your main character has to deal with. We often see main characters getting stepped over because they can’t or won’t speak up. Remember, being shy isn’t necessarily a flaw, but it could be an obstacle.
Defensiveness. A character that doesn’t want to be wrong or has trouble taking criticism could also be a major obstacle. Defensiveness doesn’t allow for your main character to learn and grow, which is an interesting character flaw. Exploring this flaw and having your character discover that they don’t always need to be this way will create character growth.
Entitlement. If your character has a serious sense of entitlement, this is a character flaw. They might believe they deserve everything and get seriously disappointed when they don’t get it. This could also be combined with selfishness or self-centeredness, which could create an interesting in-depth character flaw. Your character would need to understand that they don’t always get or deserve everything they want or need.
Dishonesty. Making your main character dishonest or unreliable is a great character flaw to explore. A dishonest character will not be trusted over time and they will have to learn that lying has caused distance between them and other characters. Gaining trust and learning not to deceive will be an obstacle.
Self-Deprecation. Main characters disliking themselves so much that they have trouble believing in themselves is a major character flaw. Your character needs to believe in themself and turn that into something positive if they want to succeed.
Here are a few more resources that might help you:
-Kris Noel
I don’t normally do a lot of reading challenges but I feel like doing something fun this year. Here’s what I will be participating in:
- A to Z Reading Challenge
Like you probably guessed, you read your way through the alphabet using book titles. This was organised by bookishowl and all of the details you’ll need are HERE if you wanted to join- Read a Classic a Month
This one explains itself really. It was organised by prettybooks and all of the details are HERE- Blast from the Past
I’m going to be 19 soon and lately I’ve been very reminiscent of my childhood, so I’ve decided to re-read some of my favourite books from when I was younger. At the moment that means A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling and some books by Roald Dahl. If I get through them quickly, I might throw in some series I never finished like His Dark Materials and The Chronicles of Narnia. I just made this one up myself because I felt like it- 1001 Books To Read Before You Die
Haha no, I’m not going to be reading all 1001. I’d like to read a few more this year, but I don’t want to set myself an exact number. I know the classics challenge will help me through this one- 100 Books in a Year
I’ve set 100 as my goal on Goodreads, even though I’ve read over that for the past 3 years. I just want less pressure this year and I’m going to focus more on uni and reading longer booksAre you participating in any challenges this year? :)
1. When your main character first meets somebody they’re attracted to, their thoughts might go to the positives and negatives of their appearance.
2. Same goes for when your character is going into a situation where they feel judged (first time on a stage, moving to a new area, first day at a new job, etc.).
3. When your character is dressed up or in costume, they could take the opportunity to contrast their new look with how they look normally.
4. When your character meets a family member they’ve never seen before, they may think about which traits the two of them share.
5. Try spacing out the physical description throughout the first part of your story instead of concentrating it in one place.
