Assignment: First Essay (film review)

Length: 800 words

Value: 10%

Due: Sept. 25th

 

In this essay you will review a film of your choice.  This is not an academic review, but do need to keep to a relatively formal tone. Think of your audience as mature, well-educated readers from the so-called “professional class.” Also keep in mind your angle, purpose, and the other elements of the rhetorical situation. Remember that a review is evaluative; that is, you will be judging the film- providing an overall assessment of it (see 67 WT), so make sure that you support your claims with sufficient evidence (including detail). Do not use any outside sources, including other reviews. If you quote, put the quoted material in quotation marks and put the film’s title in parenthesis, like this: “Luke, I am your father” (Star Wars). Organize your review according to either of the two models on page 59 of WT.  Here are some further guidelines:

   *Avoid excessively detailed summary or description

   *Use the present tense rather than the past tense when discussing the film

   *Summarize only what the reader needs to know to understand your argument

  *Avoid trying to deal with too many cinematic elements (cinematography, acting, lighting, soundtrack, special effects, etc.); rather, focus on only those elements that are pertinent to your evaluation.

 

I will also be looking for – and marking you on - the following:

  *A title that is interesting, informative, and centred above the first line of your essay

  *An effective introduction (see 66 WT for what I mean by effective)

*A succinct, clearly worded, underlined thesis statement expressing your main point

*Paragraphs that are unified by topic ideas

*Paragraphs that lead logically to one other via linking phrases and sentences

*Abstractions supported by details (see 68 WT)

*A conclusion that briefly recapitulates your discussion and evaluation (see 68 WT)

*Consistent and appropriate tone (see 69 WT)

*Correct spelling, grammar, and mechanics

*Your name, the course name and number, my name, and the date of submission in the upper left-hand corner (separate title page not necessary)

 * Pagination (means numbered pages), centred, bottom of each page

 *A separate Works Cited page - Use the following template for films viewed online:

Movie Title. Dir. Director’s Name. Studio or Distributor, Year of Publication. Name of Sponsoring Website. Web. Day, Month, and Year of Access.

Example:

Jimmy Bean. Dir. Max Schnell. Imagine Films, 1996. Netflix. Web. 17 September 2013.

RES DAY OF LEARNING

1. attended an event
2. demonstrating some form of reflection (watching/participating)
3. what you’ve learned what this means to you
4. attend one or more events
5. self reflection
6. demonstrate that you’re thinking

proscenium stage

• fly and trap
• audience in front
• mounted stage
• proscenium arch
• apron (area in front)
• sometimes scenery angled back for depth and vanishing point
• audience facing the stage
• in balconies
• originates in Renaissance
• most common stage

thrust stage

• surrounded by audience on 3 sides
• tech is much trickier
• tech is less often used and traditionally doesn’t have
• vomitories - straight through between audience or under audience
• classical greek theatre is the first idea of thrust

arena stage

• theatre in the round
• stage with audience on all sides
• most focus on props, costume
• little furniture, large objects, scenery
• probably oldest actor/audience configuration

black box

• empty black box that can be configured in any way
• tech is often very flexible
• speakers distributed throughout
• originates in 20th century germany
• converted factories/lofts

site specific staging

• when the theatre environment is connected to the performance
• can mean a play written to be performed in a specific place or a place that relates to that play
• specific connection between stageplay and placing
• became popular in 2nd half of 20th century

street theatre

• performances in public places that isn’t a purposely built theatre
• orgiinates in middle ages when plays were performed in town sqaures
• huge resurgance in the past 50 years
• audience members might not know they are going to theatre - guerilla theatre
• audience members choose their own perspective, might be free to come and go
• often very visual, spectical, music, not super text reliant, less narrative
• often used for political performances or for very avant garde edgy performances
• flash mobs

slitheringink:

So you’ve completed your first draft, thrown yourself a big party with all of your friends, got black-out drunk and now that you’ve woken up half-naked and covered in whipped cream, you’re wondering what you’re supposed to do next. Well, since you now officially call yourself a writer, you’re already in for the long haul. So, wake up sunshine, it’s time to revise that first draft!

Revision Passes

Your first draft is going to be a monster.

(Granted this has edits, but you get the idea.)

It’s going to have a lot of things that need to be changed and cut out entirely. It’s going to have way too many words, sometimes 30-50k more than you’re ever going to need. In order to whip it into shape, you’re going to have to relentlessly hack it up with an axe and then put the pieces back together into a nice, tight story. So how do you manage that?

It’s always best to tackle revision in sections. There are several things that you need to do when revising a novel and it’s easier to handle them when you do what I call a revision pass. In each pass you’re looking for specific things, and I suggest you do three major passes with your draft, one for story, one for characters, and one for grammar. Be sure to do grammar last, as it’s the largest edit and depends on everything else.

Story

On this pass you’ll be looking for inconsistencies and glaring errors in your narrative.

• Continuity – Sometimes when we’re writing a draft, we’re too busy spewing ideas onto the page that we forget some basic consistencies of our plot. If your protagonist has been driving a motorcycle in one scene and a page later is now suddenly in a car, that’s not going to make much sense to the reader. I notice in my own writing I’ll sometimes be so invested in a scene that I’ll forget a minor detail, like a character’s eye color, and swap it from green to blue within the span of a few pages. Don’t let these mistakes make it into a final draft as they tend to make your writing look sloppy.

• World Building – While you should have figured out everything about your world and how it works before you constructed your draft, sometimes errors involving plausibility still slip in or sometimes you neglected to think of a ramification. World building is is the ultimate game of “what if?” for you as an author and you do need to keep asking yourself that question as you craft your narrative. If you introduce a cool thing and then you don’t explain how that cool thing can not only exist within the context of your world, but what effect it has, then your reader is probably going to become confused or fail to suspend their disbelief. Either way, this is going to cause them to lose interest in your narrative. For a solid example of world building that wasn’t entirely thought out, we can take a look at the recent film Elysium. It had the interesting concept of the super rich leaving Earth and living on a space station with all of the advanced medical technology, but it failed to fully explain how that actually occurred. I wrote a previous article about it that explains the issues in depth.
  

• Information Dumps – This happens in a lot of novels, even published ones, and it’s tiresome to read. Authors tend to do this when trying to explain their story’s world, some complex element of the plot, or a character’s backstory to the reader. The thing is, we don’t need all of this information thrown at us at once, if at all. Only give the reader what they need to know in the immediate moment. Sprinkle the information over a wide range of scenes, give it to the reader in dialogue, show us through actions. If you need to do a backstory, be creative about it. I’ve always been a fan of how J.K. Rowling handled backstory with the pensieve scenes where Harry would dive into people’s memories. If you have an element like magic, or some supernatural power like mind-reading, then feel free to use that to your advantage. The thing to keep in mind with delivering backstory is if you do it in a flashback scene, then the forward momentum of your narrative is going to come to a grinding halt. If you want to keep your plot moving instead of doing a flashback, then try delivering the information in a conversation between characters.

• Being Too Vague or Too Obvious – Go over your plot points, your conflicts and make sure that they would make sense to not only you, but to a random person. In real life, the things that people do don’t always make sense or have an acceptable reason. In fiction, they need to. Make sure you have given enough necessary information for your reader to understand what’s going on, and why, without being totally obvious. As a reader, I hate when I can see how the plot will progress from a mile away. This happens a lot of the time because writers tend to utilize overused tropes, like the Chosen One, in their stories. Don’t get me wrong, I love tropes, but even I get tired of seeing the same concepts used constantly. Don’t be afraid to do something different. Surprise your reader. Personally, I’m fond of taking tired concepts and putting a new spin on them. It’s not about what ideas you use, it’s how you use them that’s important.

• Description – Description can affect the pacing of your story. How fast or how slow a scene is depends on several things. One of which is where you choose to put your description. A large chunk of description in the middle of a scene will slow it down. Interrupting an action scene with descriptions of a character’s thoughts or surroundings will have the same effect. If you want to maintain a quick pace within a scene, maybe a fight scene, focus on the action and add in little bits of description as the characters move through wherever they’re fighting. Is the scene in a warehouse? Maybe have your character slam into a forklift or some crates? Is it in a restaurant? Maybe have him drop kick his opponent from a table, disturbing the place settings? Even in fast paced scenes you need some description in order for the reader to orient themselves within the narrative. It’s important that they know where the scene is taking place. As for slow scenes, using specific descriptions can set the tone and build tension. Taking a moment to describe how dark and desolate the old mansion is, noting the musty odor, eerie creaks and the resonating whistle of passing wind can be the difference between setting up an effective scene and having one that falls flat.

• Scene Chopping – Sometimes a scene isn’t needed. Sometimes it doesn’t add anything to the story and meanders. If you have a scene that doesn’t advance the plot, character development or world building, then it should be removed. If there’s some detail in that scene you still want to incorporate into your story, then find another way to do it.

• Show Don’t Tell – Anyone who has ever taken a writing class has had this concept drilled into their heads. It’s the most important part of writing effective stories and probably one of the most difficult. If your character likes to drive fast cars, don’t tell the reader that, show the character driving a fast car at some point in the story. If your character sucks at lying, have him try to lie to another character and then get called out for it. If your antagonist is willing to do whatever it takes to win, show him killing someone at a crucial moment. It takes more space to show something, rather than to just tell it so know that’s it’s okay to tell sometimes. I think it’s acceptable to tell the reader about what they would be able to blatantly notice with their senses if they were actually thrown into a scene. You can tell them sounds, smells, things they might see but don’t blatantly tell them things that they should be meant to infer from action. When it comes to dialogue, it’s sometimes okay to tell when you’re trying to get a specific tone across, especially when introducing a character for the first time. If he speaks in a calm, measured tone all of the time, tell me. If he speaks with an accent, let me know. Readers won’t mind those little details.

Characters

On this pass you get to pick apart your characters.

• Over or Under Developed – Sometimes, even if you’ve figured out all of your character’s strengths and flaws, new ones will surface over the course of the story. Sometimes, your side characters may outshine your main characters, or sometimes your main characters may not be strong enough. You need to find these scenes and fix them. If a side character is more interesting than your main character, if her struggle is more compelling, then maybe she should have her own story. In that same vein if your main character is too bland, if she has too many flaws or too many strengths, then your reader may have a hard time believing she’s a real person. The same is true if she’s also too well-suited to deal with the conflict or if she has a solution for every problem. Let your characters struggle. Give them situations that are difficult to overcome. Let them think. Your readers will appreciate that.

• Believable Actions and Reactions – What your characters do should make sense within the context of both the narrative and their characterization. If they’ve been a kind, loving person for most of your story and suddenly they end up killing someone, then that needs to make sense. Perhaps they did it in self-defense? Or to rescue someone? Were they tricked into it? Are their emotions appropriate? If they’re not, then why? Always think of the why.

• Too Much Sitting Around – I ran into this problem drafting once, noticing that when I wanted to exposit it would be in a scene where my characters were sitting around and talking. I ended up changing all of these scenes to ones where the characters did something. It doesn’t have to be something major, they could be walking around a museum, rummaging through the fridge, moving about various rooms inspecting objects; just have them doing something that’s appropriate. You can reveal bits about their character in these kinds of scenes. If your character has OCD, you can have them go around a room and clean or rearrange objects to their liking while having a conversation. Feel free to interrupt the conversation with observations your character makes if it fits. If you want to see how utterly boring it is to have characters sit around and talk or walk around and talk, watch the first three Star Wars movies. There are tons of examples in those. In my experience, the only scenes where sitting around and talking are appropriate are interrogation room scenes, and even those can be done creatively.

• Act Your Age – Don’t you just love child characters who act like adults in stories? No? I didn’t think so. It’s important that your character, whatever their age, is believable as being that age. A child simply isn’t going to have as much knowledge as an adult. They also probably won’t care to much about adult issues. Kids have kid problems. They don’t worry about if they’ll have enough money for rent next month, they worry about getting too many green Skittles in their bag because they like the purple Skittles instead. They tend to look at the world from a more innocent point of view, seeing the magic and wonder of new things because they haven’t been jaded by the harsh realities of life. They also seem to believe the unbelievable without trouble. Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane is written from the point of view of a child and when I’m reading it, I never feel like I’m seeing that world through the eyes of an adult.

• Passive Characters – It’s okay to have side characters who don’t have a major role in your plot. It’s bad when you have a major character, especially your protagonist, written as a passive character. A passive character is one who doesn’t try to move the plot forward on her own. She allows the plot to dictate her actions, not her actions to dictate the plot. She is reactive. She may not have very strong goals or motivations. If you write a passive protagonist, your reader is going to get bored. Make sure she has a point. Give her goals. Give her wants. Give her needs. You want your reader to care about her struggle, to connect with her, so don’t write her as a passive character. Passive doesn’t mean that you can’t have a shy or introverted protagonist. Introverts have goals too!

• Point of View – Check for consistency in point of view. This applies to first person and third person, especially if you’re using multiple characters. You want to make sure that each character has a different voice. You don’t want your readers to get confused as to who is telling the story. When using multiple points of view, you want to make sure that every one of them is necessary. If a character doesn’t add some new insight, doesn’t show the reader a new aspect of the tale, then their point of view should probably be cut out.

Grammar

This pass is to weed out all of the mechanical errors. Structure, word usage and style have all been lumped into this pass.

• Sentence Structure –You want to look through scenes and take note of what kinds of sentences you used. Short, brisk sentences can be used to speed up pacing, while longer, more complex sentences tend to slow it down. Varying the structure of sentences in your writing often makes it more interesting for your readers.

• Repetition – We’ve all done it. There are some words or phrases that we default to when describing certain things and sometimes we use them more than we should. That awesome, unique description you came up with becomes less amazing when you use it every few pages. I noticed this a lot when I read Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. She always used the phrase “his mouth pressed into a hard line”. It was pretty good the first few times but man, after reading it so much I started to get annoyed by it. Your readers will notice when you repeat words and phrases a lot. And they will not like it.

• Dialogue Tags – People are going to argue up and down about dialogue tags and if they’re necessary, so I’m going to chime in on it here. I think that in most cases, the dialogue can and should speak for itself. Let the reader infer how a phrase is being said based on the situation and the physical responses of the character. However, in normal speech there is something called inflection. Inflection is a change in someone’s voice when speaking to convey a certain emotion. Inflection also exists in writing, but sometimes it’s hard to convey from dialogue alone. Sometimes you need a tag to let the reader know how it’s being said. As such, using tags other than ‘said’ should be done only when necessary. Dialogue tags are also important to let the reader know who’s speaking. Should they be used after every piece of dialogue? No. But you should use them the first time when you’re switching to a new speaker and occasionally after that so you don’t confuse your reader. I hate when I’m reading a book and the author has used a lot of naked pieces of dialogue. I tend to lose track of who’s speaking. You never want your reader to have to hunt to find what characters said what in a conversation.

• Passive vs. Active Voice – When you write fiction, you want to do it in an active voice. This is completely different than passive and active characters. Active voice is when the subject of the sentence performs the action. For example: The boy ate the fish. Passive voice is when the subject receives the action. For example: The fish was eaten by the boy. The best way to determine the difference between a sentence written in passive or active voice is to look for the “by” phrase. More examples.

• The Right Words – You can often trim your sentences, and shave tens of thousands of words off your manuscript by modifying the words you use. Sometimes a single word can do the same job that a few can. For instance “taking note of” can be shortened to “noting.” In the same vein, you don’t want to use words that are overcomplicated or have archaic meanings. The thesaurus is good when you’re stuck on a word, but don’t pick something that the average person isn’t going to recognize. Using big words does not make you sound smart, it makes you sound arrogant and illuminates the flaws in your own vocabulary. However, if you’re writing a character who has a high level of intelligence or is very formal, than they may use those kinds of words in their active vocabulary. Also, be sure to check the usage of commonly confused words like affect and effect.

• Simple Mechanics – This covers just about everything else: punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc. Just because other authors have gotten away with breaking certain rules of grammar, doesn’t mean you can. If you intend to submit your work to an agent or publisher, you shouldn’t even think about it. Buy a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk &White, crack open that Chicago Manual of Style (a lot of publishers use this) and buckle down. You have a lot of work to do.

Feedback

You need this. No matter what you’re doing in writing, you need this like you need to breathe. Getting another opinion, or five, on your work is the most important part of the revision process. You can find beta readers or hire a developmental editor. Whatever method you choose, you can never skip this part of the revision process. Feedback from people who know what they’re doing will open your eyes when it comes to your story.

In my case, I ended up changing my protagonist, some character names and points of view for scenes as well as addressing a metric fuck-ton of other issues I never noticed. When you’re so focused on writing a story, when you know everything that’s already happened and what’s going to happen, it’s sometimes hard to realize that you’ve made a mistake. I wrote a few articles about giving and receiving feedback before:

• Constructive Criticism: Part 1
• Constructive Criticism: Part 2

Revision Methods

So there are two main ways to handle revision.

1. On the computer
2. On paper and then transferring it to the computer

I generally draft on the computer and revise on paper. I like to revise on paper because I can draw all over my work. I can underline things, cross things out, draw arrows going every which way and write notes in the margins. There are some programs that let you do this, but I prefer the organic pen to paper feel when I’m giving my draft the axe.

If you want some programs for writing, formatting and editing:

• Scrivener 
• Ommwriter 
• Microsoft Word 
• Open Office
• Darkroom

If you guys have any more programs you’d like to add to the list, let me know.

-Morgan

fixyourwritinghabits:

This is a pretty good post on that. Hopefully it’s what you’re looking for.

houseoffantasists:

Warning: Some Content NSFW

So, your female character is a warrior, yes?

So, she’s alive because she’s bloody good at it, yes?

So, you can get away with armour like this, yes?

No?

Okay, so, what about this?

A few of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, that’s more like it.”

I’m here to tell you that no, that’s not more like it. This stuff isn’t designed to protect anybody, it’s what I call ‘barely concealed porn’. It’s designed to be sexy. If you’re living in my brain, it’s designed to ensure that warrior women maintain some level of femininity, because God forbid a woman does something that doesn’t appeal to men. Ahem.

What’s wrong with this?

It’s not overtly sexy. But she’s probably more likely to be alive at the end of the battle.

So, unless you’re designing your warrior-woman to ‘sexy people to death’, it’s about time we started looking at how armour can be made to fit a woman’s shape.

Let’s start with the obvious; boobs. Some ladies are blessed with very small breasts, and some are blessed with very large breasts. Whatever the case, cleavage is a no-no. Exposing cleavage means exposing access to your heart (the physical, beating heart, let’s not get mushy). That means that anyone can see an all-too-easy way to kill your warrior-woman before she’s even uttered a hentai sigh-come-moan whenever she swings her sword.

The next frequently exposed place is the midriff. Another area you really don’t want somebody to poke with something sharp. The likelihood is that her guts will fall out, or she’ll experience a very slow death by bleeding profusely.

Thighs. Entire legs, in some cases. The femoral artery runs through your thigh. Cut it, and you stand a very good chance of bleeding to death. This artery actually begins its path through your thigh from your pelvis, so guarding the groin and hip are also very important.

In short, there’s nothing different about women that means their armour isn’t required. In fiction, your characters don’t have HP and little life lovehearts. If they get injured, they’re injured. There are going to be consequences. And she’s going to be looking at you, and asking why the Hell you gave her armour that wasn’t much more than a bikini.

Below, there’s a list of different kinds of armour and how it’s made. Once you know how it’s made, you can piece together how it might fit your warrior-woman’s particular figure.

What is important to remember is her style of fighting. Armour typically weighs a great deal. It’s heavy for big men and it’ll be heavy for women of whatever size. When considering what armour you want your lady to be wearing, consider the following:

- Which weapon she primarily uses. Before you answer this, consider her build and the weight of the weapon itself. The reality is that a small woman is not likely to be able to wield a zweihander effectively.

- How she fights. This will be based on weaponry, her physical size and what her advantages and disadvantages are. Manoeuvrability is important when considering armour, as she’s going to need to be able to move in certain ways. A woman relying on being able to be quick on her feet isn’t going to benefit from plate greaves.

- Her strength and stamina. Be realistic. A woman built like Nigella Lawson isn’t going to manage fighting for long periods of time in chain mail. It’s just not feasible. If you want your lady to be wearing plate armour and able to fight for a good while, she’s going to need to be muscular and have the training to manage it. She’s probably not going to have the ideal, sexy body we’d all like.

- Her body shape. One thing that men often forget is that breasts get in the way. Large breasts more so. Try strapping four bean bags to your chest to get an idea of what it’s like to have that weight present and how often it’ll inhibit your movement. Women have learned to move around it, but there are still moments where they’re just plain irritating. Equally, strapping them down makes them tender. Ask any woman whose bra is too small. After a while, they start to feel bruised inside. That’s the meaning of ‘tender’. We really mean ‘bruised’.

Women also walk differently to men, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, which changes where their centre of balance is. Women generally have better balance than men because their centre of gravity is slightly lower. They also carry more weight below the upper hips than men do.

Muscularity is something we think happens differently for men and women. Actually, it doesn’t. Muscle development will happen for women in the same way that it does men, though they may experience different physiological changes. Ever notice that a lot of female body builders tend to have breast enhancement surgery? That’s because this is what happens to the breasts when women become muscular:

This happens because the pectoral muscle has developed and essentially put the fatty tissue of the breasts on a platform. Women get bigger and their breasts either stay the same size or shrink (it depends on the kind of exercise, a lot of women experience their breasts shrinking to the point of being non-existent because fatty tissues are often the first thing to go once you start an intense training regime).

So, consider build. Their natural shape, lifestyle and fighting style will affect this and you need to be realistic about what these things would do to her body.

Once you’ve established these things, you need to figure out what kind of armour is best for your warrior-woman.

Scale Armour

Scale armour, contrary to what MMORPGs will tell you, is not made out of reptile skin. It just looks like reptile skin. It’s actually made out of whatever you can get your hands on; leather, seeds, horn, rawhide, bronze, iron and even paper, in China. The individual scales are stitched onto their backing (typically cloth or leather) by at least one edge and overlap one another much like roof tiles.

This kind of armour is not as flexible as chain mail but, given the backing being fabric, it can be shaped to the wearer and is a strong choice for women who need some mobility but largely, protection from blunt attacks.

Lamellar Armour

Lamellar is made out of rectangular pieces of leather or metal that are laced together in horizontal rows, often over some kind of jacket or padded shirt. Lamellar differs from scale armour in that it does not require cloth or leather backing, it exists as a single piece of armour as it is.

It doesn’t restrict movement as much as scale armour but neither does it provide the same kind of protection. As its usage progressed through time, people began using it as an enhancement to chain mail rather than a standalone cuirass.

The realism of whether a woman would find this comfortable is probably down to her build. A woman with larger breasts would struggle with something like this; it’d probably bunch up around her chest and shoulders and cause her to be unable to move her arms too much.

Laminar Armour

Horizontal, solid pieces of armour make laminar armour. I’m not going to go into the details of this one too much, because the likelihood that a woman could wear this comfortably is extremely slim. Men fit horizontal patterns because their bodies are designed in a Y shape that can be accommodated easily by the banding. The difficulty with women is in their hips, which are frequently much wider than their waists. This would cause both weakness and clumsiness at the waist as the armour has to change its shape too severely. Bending laminar armour too much takes away its strength. A Y shaped woman might be able to pull it off, however, and if she did, she’d most likely be using it to complement a shield and shortsword/spear.

Chainmail

As you can see, chainmail is a very viable option for women. It’s made up of teeny tiny little metal links and research done by Leeds Royal Armouries suggests that it was virtually impenetrable by medieval weaponry. It’s not lightweight, as you can imagine, but it does bend and provides excellent protection. About the only thing that would get through it would be heavy blows, as flexibility doesn’t allow for protection from broken bones. So, avoid impact weapons (maces, hammers, clubs, etc.) and she might just make it through that big battle in this. Might.

Plate Armour

Another one that has evidence enough that it could work for your warrior-woman. Plate armour is exceptionally heavy, more so if your character has decided to wear chainmail underneath to ensure that any weaker areas have their bases covered. It’s heavy and difficult to move in, but she will be kept safe from a whole array of weapons and it can be fitted, if one has the money, to one’s own shape. The only real problems this armour presents are that its weak spots are obvious, because the pieces have a defined shape, and it’s not the most elegant, flexible stuff.

Ladies wearing this type of armour are probably looking at wielding large close-combat weapons such as broadswords, warhammers and war-axes. This woman is going to be one big lady after a while of wearing this stuff, and she’d have to learn to get through the sheer exhaustion of trying to move from inside 65lbs of metal (that’s about 30-35 bags of old-fashioned sugar).

In short, do some research yourself. Figure out how she fights. Figure out why she fights and if she’s going to be mostly naked, give her a damn good reason to survive (I recommend hiding, that’s a great way to avoid being stabbed when you’re in your birthday suit).

It just doesn’t wash any more, guys. It’s not realistic, it’s not cool and frankly, it’s a little bit sexist that women should have to flash their bits whilst trying desperately to live, just so that they look good for that cute boy in the full-plate over there.

Write your warrior-women real. They’d be tough and scarred, strong and bent out of shape (or into shape, depending on your perspective).

Glorified rant over. 

- LSG

fuckyourwritinghabits:

totalrewrite:

What is a pen name?

A pen name is an alias used by an author on their novels. If an author didn’t want their real name to be displayed on their novel, they would make one up and that would go in its place.

Why use a pen name?

There are many possible answers to this question, but here’s a few of the most common reasons to use a pen name.

• They don’t like their name, it’s a common name, or it’s too hard for readers to remember. Names like John Smith or Anuhya Bhogineni can be problems because one is extremely common and the other is incredibly difficult to search for if you don’t have the exact spelling.
• Some authors want to distance themselves from previous work. JK Rowling recently did this when she published The Cuckoo’s Calling under the name Robert Galbraith. She said she wanted honest feedback on the writing without people comparing it to Harry Potter.
• Pen names allow an author’s work to be separated. If one author writes in several different genres, they may use several different pen names to keep readers from being confused when they find children’s lit, sci-fi, horror, mysteries, and a cookbook all under the same author.
• Several different authors can work under one name. If you’re familiar with the Warriors books by Erin Hunter, Erin Hunter is actually one pen name used by four different women. Having one on a book cover is much easier for readers than four.
• It separates the author’s real life and private life. An author can be a high school teacher by day and a famed erotica author by night, and by using a pen name, no one would ever know better.
• The author’s real name could be the name of someone who is already famous. If a writer’s name is Kate Perry and she wants to publish a novel, she has to deal with the fact that her name is almost identical to Katy Perry, and that could bring people in on the false premise that the book was written by the celebrity, which isn’t good for the book’s popularity.

Is a penname necessary?

Not at all. If you don’t want to use a penname, you aren’t under any obligation to use one. There are a lot of good reasons to use a pen name, but don’t feel pressured to use one if you’d rather use your real name instead.

How do I create a good pen name?

• Don’t make it too long. George RR Martin is much easier to remember than George Raymond Richard Martin.
• Make it memorable. Mary Jones is an easy-to-spell, simple name, but it might be too simple. Both of the names are extremely common, thus making it easy to forget.
• Look at your genre. Are you writing fantasy? Many fantasy authors are easy to identify by the use of initials in their name like JRR Tolkein. You might want to follow trends like this.
  
• Make sure it isn’t already in use by someone else. I think this speaks for itself.
• Make sure you like the name. If you’re going to be using this on a novel, a piece of work that you spent months or years on and put a piece of your soul into, make sure you also like everything about it—even the pen name.

Who are some other authors with pen names?

• Joanne Rowling as JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith
• Samuel Clemons as Mark Twain
• Howard Allen O’Brien as Anne Rice as AN Roquelaure
• Eric Arthur Blair as George Orwell
• Stanley Martin Lieber as Stan Lee
• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson as Lewis Carroll
• Francois-Marie Arouet as Voltaire
• Erin Hunter as Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland, and Victoria Holmes

Of course, there are many, many more authors with pen names out there and this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.

(For the anon who asked about pen names!)

slitheringink:

Research is something that every writer should do, but not everyone knows how to do it right. With the advent of the Internet, we have a wealth of information at our fingertips. When we want an answer to a question, we just plug it into Google and pick the best source. But what is the best source? How do you get the best information?

Well, the key is to look for a source that’s reputable. I tend to look for published books, people with relevant experience and academia approved sources.

Unfortunately, a lot of people automatically jump to their usual go-to:

Wikipedia

This site is great, don’t get me wrong. It has a lot of good information and is generally solid for definitions of words and concepts. What people tend to do with Wikipedia is put too much trust in it as a reliable source. Because it’s a wiki, it can be edited by other people, and you have no way of knowing if those people are qualified to give their input on whatever subject they’re writing about.

That being said, it’s still a useful tool; just never use it as the sole basis for novel research. I can’t emphasize that enough. Wikipedia is a great place to give you ideas, leading you all over the place with it’s internal links. It’s even useful to help you find other information sources. At the bottom of articles you’ll find links to sites, showing where Wikipedia compiled the information. Use those to your advantage.

Checking Internet Sources

There are a few things to look at when checking sources for credibility on the Internet.

1. Is the site reputable? – Is the site a joke news site? A blog? A college website? All of this is important. You can generally trust information from government sites, as it’s likely been fact-checked (away with you conspiracy theorists, shoo!). College websites (anything that ends in .edu) are safe bets as most articles on those sites are written by teachers and students with experience in the given field. Blogs will vary. I’d be wary if there’s no about page explanation of prior experience or credentials. I would take news sites with a grain of salt, as a lot of articles are written with bias, even if the authors have credentials. Look for that bias. Look for the article being presented in a manner that’s meant to sway. If you don’t see that, and the article has an author with valid credentials, then it’s probably fine. Treat articles with interviews in the same manner.

2. Is the author reputable? – If you have a doctor giving you a list of possible symptoms for a disease, then you can likely trust that. If you have a 16-year old boy with an interest in cars giving you symptoms, I probably wouldn’t trust him unless he’s had personal experience with the disease, and even in that case I’d check other sources. Authors that are teachers, doctors, students speaking in their field, or other people with necessary experience are good sources. It is, of course, up to you to evaluate their credibility. Ask yourself how much experience they have in a given subject.
   

3. When was the last time the site was updated? – The validity of information is constantly changing as new discoveries are made. If the website you’re looking at hasn’t been updated since the mid-1990’s, then I wouldn’t take the information on it as fact without checking other sources.

4. What does the site look like? –This isn’t always an indicator of the information quality but some sites, especially the ones that look like they were made in the old Angelfire Webshell (props if any of you know what I’m talking about), may not be good sources. Organization when it comes to web design may be a reflection of the author’s ability to present information in a logical way. Information that’s not easy to read or understand is generally not good information to use as a source.

5. Has the source been cited? – Internet articles may not always have cited sources but if they use large chunks of information from another location or quotes, they should. It may or may not be in a format, like MLA or APA, and may be presented instead as a link. That’s perfectly acceptable. Sources that show you they’ve done their research are good to use.

Published Books

Most books that are published by houses, whether big-name or independent, have been edited. Not only have they been edited, but, especially in the case of non-fiction reference books, have been fact-checked for accuracy. As such you can usually trust published books as credible sources.

Be sure to check the publication date of the book so you know that the information is current. Looking at my copy of Coraline, it’s located after the main title with the publisher’s name but before the dedication page. The location may vary slightly depending on the book but it’s almost always going to be within the first few pages. Something written in the last decade is fine unless the field you’re researching is constantly changing or it’s a period source. You’re safe with older publication dates for historical reference books but be careful when you’re looking at a book for the sciences.

I wouldn’t trust self-published books unless the book has a credible author or was actually edited. Since you don’t have access to an in-house editor if you publish on your own, it’s up to you as the author to find an editor, if you bother to. Editors are expensive and people tend to get into the habit of not wanting to pay for things they feel are “extra”. If there are noticeable mistakes in grammar within the first few pages, I’d skip it as a source.

Professionals

Trust people who work in the field of the subject you want to know about to have good information. If you want to know about police procedures, ask a police officer. If you want to know about how cell division works, ask a biologist. If you want to know about war, ask a veteran or an active solider. There are a lot of qualified people on the Internet willing to share their experiences if you ask. Don’t be afraid to try to contact them if they’re not already writing about the subject you need. A kindly worded e-mail sometimes goes a long way, and if you don’t get an answer, then at least you tried. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Academic Journals

Google has an awesome feature called Google Scholar, which allows you to search journals published in the realm of academia. These journals are generally research done by professors and students in their given fields of study. They have been verified for publication and are great to use if you can find something suitable. Beware that they can be lengthy and unless it’s a scientific study, will generally have an opinion.

It’s hidden.

There it is.

Ta da!

My favorite source for journals, JSTOR, recently launched a free to read section of its journals, instead of having to log in through an institution.

Primary and Secondary Sources

While I was going through college, I was taught about different kind of sources. I wanted to present them to you, so you could see all of your options for research and not just the ones I mentioned. This categorization exists for the realm of academia (i.e. a bunch of people with really expensive degrees figured it out).

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event. Some types of primary sources include:

• ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records 
• CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art 
• RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings

Examples of primary sources include:

• Diary of Anne Frank - Experiences of a Jewish family during WWII 
• The Constitution of Canada - Canadian History 
• A journal article reporting NEW research or findings 
• Weavings and pottery - Native American history 
• Plato’s Republic - Women in Ancient Greece 

Acceptable Internet Primary Sources: http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/primary.html

A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of secondary sources include:

• PUBLICATIONS: Textbooks, magazine articles, histories, criticisms, commentaries, encyclopedias 

Examples of secondary sources include:

• A journal/magazine article which interprets or reviews previous findings 
• A history textbook 
• A book about the effects of WWI 

(Source)

Final Notes

It’s up to you to decide if a source is worth using or not. If something about it feel right, then don’t use it. Think to yourself if you’d use this source in a professional or academic setting. If the answer is no, then it’s probably no good for you.

-Morgan