Katherine Frances's Blog, page 36
July 24, 2018
gracebabcockwrites:
In my childhood dreams, the fairies stole me away from my own death,time and...
In my childhood dreams, the fairies
stole me away from my own death,
time and time again.
Their forest became a haven
from the flames the mob
created for me, the traditional
penalty for magic.
I can’t remember when I started
to shy away from fairy rings,
when I started to adorn myself
in iron and play with matches,
when I embraced the crowd
with open arms.
The forest was made by
more ancient hands than theirs,
kinder hands, and
I have no magic,
only broken words
that take to the air.
k-frances:
concerningwolves:
“Real life doesn’t have trigger warnings”
Well maybe it should. Or at...
“Real life doesn’t have trigger warnings”Well maybe it should. Or at least, our fiction and media should. We’ve already got general age brackets - YA, Mature, 18, 15, 12, PG, U, Adult, Teen Fiction etc - but are they enough? I’ve been debating this with myself in circles so it’s probably time I put the question to more people.
Should the media we consume have trigger and/or content warnings?On the one hand I’d be thrilled. If a book said it had a panic attack in, I could mentally prepare myself for it. But then again, I feel for some people this may count as a spoiler or be a “turn off” from continuing and I can see why. Yet others seem to think that age ratings alone are enough, to which I’d reply “But you can find common triggers such as depictions of extreme anxiety all the way from Teen to Adult and beyond.”
It’s a tough line to walk and I’m struggling to figure out whether I should say “fuck it” and just add trigger warnings to When Dealing With Wolves anyway or not. And if I do, how? Chapter by chapter? In the blurb? A special page that goes in after the dedications?
I’d really like to see some wider opinions and open discussion about this! Feel free to reblog or tell me what you think in the ask box.
Thank you x
Okay so I’m going to tackle this one because it’s not something I’ve never talked about on this blog, but it is something I’ve thought a lot about, and as a student in graduate school for psychology, I consider it an issue I should give a lot of thought.
Disclaimer, @concerningwolves I’m answering this question because I think it’s a legitimately good question, and one writers should be talking about, and if I ever say ‘You’ or ‘They’ in this post, I’m not talking about you personally, I’m just talking about people in general. I’m in no way attacking you or posting this because I think you did something wrong, I just think you asked a really good question that I’ve wanted to talk about for some time.
The first question is, do trigger warnings help people with triggers? And that is a very complicated question. The first thing I will say is, no they won’t help everyone, and you could make a solid argument that they wouldn’t help even most people with triggers. The reason for this is, while there are some common triggers that many people share, there are just as many people with seemingly random and unpredictable triggers. For a vet., a bag blowing across the street could be a trigger. For a child who was physically abused, the feeling of dish soap on their hands could be a trigger (that is a real life example from my work with kids with PTSD).
So the summation of that: In my opinion, trigger warnings can be helpful to some people, but they are by no means all encompassing and could just as easily be useless spoilers to half the population that have anxiety/PTSD with very specific triggers.
That being said, should we still have trigger warnings for those with anxiety/PTSD and triggers that are ‘common’? This is where the argument “real life doesn’t have trigger warnings” comes in, and as much as that is a very insensitive way of saying it, I can’t deny the truth in that statement. However, there are some individuals that are so affected by their triggers that they do need to be sheltered from them/ be able to mentally prepare for them. It’s never meant to be a lifetime thing, but when it comes to learning to cope with anxiety/PTSD/literally any mental or physical disorder, everyone is at a different stage in their treatment. It’s not fair to assume that a person with PTSD intends to shelter themselves from certain stimuli for the rest of their life just because they are sheltering themselves from it right now. They might be working on it, they might be at the very beginning of their journey, they might just be having a really shit week and can’t deal with it right now.
The solution???
Here’s what I think: if an author wants to provide warnings for their work, or if we even want to take it farther and say TV shows and other media should start doing it too, there should be a place to put it that people without triggers won’t need to see it unless they go looking for it. Maybe don’t put THERES A MURDER TODAY FOLKS, #TRIGGERWARNING as the heading of your work, unless you want to I guess. Rather, have it somewhere were people who are worried about their triggers can look, but people who aren’t worried about triggers won’t read it on accident.
Is it fair for consumers (readers/viewers) to get mad for a lack of trigger warning on the content they consume?
Frankly, no. LET ME EXPLAIN. I already covered this, but frankly trigger warnings can only be effective to people who have *heavy quotations* “normal” triggers. But it’s not “normal” to have triggers in the first place, so to suggest theirs a laundry list of triggers that people can have makes no sense and isn’t true. A trigger can be something completely innocuous and seemingly random. In other words, not something you could predict and label your work as. #dishsoaptriggerwarning
I’m going to say this, and I might get hate for it, but here we go: there are a lot of people with legitimate triggers, and I would never suggest that this isn’t a serious thing. It is very serious. I have seen a kid get triggered by a seat belt sliding across her wrist because it reminded her of shooting up. That being said; Feeling uncomfortable or nervous about a topic because of past experiences is not a trigger. Maybe it’s a sensitive spot. Maybe you don’t like reading/viewing about it. But we need to stop throwing the word trigger around when things make us uncomfortable. Again, I’m not saying that the majority of people requesting trigger warnings are phonies, or even that most people who are ‘phonies’ realize what they’re doing. But I think it’s important they do start to realize it, because all they’re doing is belittling a real, serious issue by crying wolf about things that they don’t like or make them feel uncomfortable
For people who legitimately do not know (and no, I am not shaming you, if you aren’t familiar with psychology or haven’t been diagnosed specifically, it’s not surprising that you wouldn’t know) a trigger is defined as: a stimuli that ‘triggers’ a flashback or memory of trauma. Flashbacks can be full blown I-think-I’m-somewhere-I-once-was, or they can be partial; having feelings, memories or images flood the scenes unexpectedly.
Your discomfort is valid and you have a complete 100% right to talk about why something is not okay to you, but
let’s stop saying ‘I feel triggered’ when what you mean is ‘I feel uncomfortable’. It’s not fair to people with PTSD.
Since about a week ago when I posted my last update, I’ve edited 4460 words of the third book in my...
Since about a week ago when I posted my last update, I’ve edited 4460 words of the third book in my WIP series found under the tag #TIGER
“The lava on the floor and dripping from her hands started to lift into the
air. She watched as the magma rose and hovered in beads, suspended midair. She
willed the floating liquid to form an orb before her, not letting her concentration
break as all the droplets conjoined. The orb spun, a sun of her own creation.”
Convo Question for my followers:
What is the most important thing to remember when editing?
July 23, 2018
Kim Shimmers and the Veil of Death
A Harry Potter fanfic by me (and the 4th instalment in the Kim Shimmers series)
How could we ever hope to flicker on against a
darkness so complete, against an evil so prevailing?
This Harry Potter fan fiction (as long as all goes according to plan) will be posted at the beginning of every week. The pictures above are not mine, though I edited some.
Chapter 13
What She Carried
The next morning Kim woke up on the couch in the common room from the sounds of student’s moving all around her. She groaned and rolled into the couch more, her stomach shifting uneasily and her head pounding, like a sledgehammer was bouncing methodically against the inside of her skull.
“Kim, what’re you doing?” came Clemon’s familiarly sharp voice. “Did you sleep down here?”
Kim merely moaned in response, frowning at the light of morning and wishing everyone would be quiet.
“Are you drunk?”
“I was,” Kim muttered, rolling again and regretting the motion.
“Kim! On a school night?”
Kim shrugged.
“Well… I’m not sure whether to pity you or be impressed,” she said, smiling like it was amusing. Kim glared at her, but a smile snuck onto her face.
“You better get up. You’ll miss breakfast, which is probably exactly what you need right now.”
Kim moaned again as she sat up, head whirling a bit, though not nearly as bad as the night before. She recalled for the first time all that had happened and realized firstly that she owed Harry both an apology and a thank you, and secondly that she wanted to know what had happened after he went to Dumbledore’s office.
“All right, I’m getting up… Ugh,” she drew out a long groan. “I need water.”
“I’ll get you some… but then I’ve got to go to breakfast!” she said hastily as she pulled out her wand and conjured a glass of water. Kim gulped down all of it, though it did nothing for her headache and her wobbling stomach.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
“You’re welcome. Hurry up and clean yourself up. I’ll see you later.” She hurried from Ravenclaw tower. Kim rinsed out her mouth and splashed her face with water. Pulling her unruly waves of dark reddish auburn hair into a pony tail, she hurried down for breakfast, stomach gurgling for food.
“You made it,” Harry remarked as Kim sat down beside him.
“Somehow. Well, thanks to you, really. Sorry about last night.”
“What happened last night?” Ron asked incredulously.
Harry smiled impishly. “I got Slughorn’s memory—”
“Oh Harry, that’s great,” interjected Hermione.
“And Kim got completely pissed!” he finished, lighting up Ron’s features.
“Really?” he asked, leaning in to Kim.
“Yes, yes,” Kim said batting them away as she stuffed a biscuit into her mouth.
“Why?” Hermione asked.
“Well… I don’t know, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time. Regretted it after, though.”
“Well, I don’t know if it was strictly necessary, but it helped me get the memory.”
July 21, 2018
just-shower-thoughts:
The fact that there’s a highway to Hell but only a stairway to Heaven says a...
The fact that there’s a highway to Hell but only a stairway to Heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic volume.
palevirgin:
“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something...
“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.”— Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena (via existential-celestial)
July 20, 2018
concerningwolves:
“Real life doesn’t have trigger warnings”
Well maybe it should. Or at least, our...
“Real life doesn’t have trigger warnings”Well maybe it should. Or at least, our fiction and media should. We’ve already got general age brackets - YA, Mature, 18, 15, 12, PG, U, Adult, Teen Fiction etc - but are they enough? I’ve been debating this with myself in circles so it’s probably time I put the question to more people.
Should the media we consume have trigger and/or content warnings?On the one hand I’d be thrilled. If a book said it had a panic attack in, I could mentally prepare myself for it. But then again, I feel for some people this may count as a spoiler or be a “turn off” from continuing and I can see why. Yet others seem to think that age ratings alone are enough, to which I’d reply “But you can find common triggers such as depictions of extreme anxiety all the way from Teen to Adult and beyond.”
It’s a tough line to walk and I’m struggling to figure out whether I should say “fuck it” and just add trigger warnings to When Dealing With Wolves anyway or not. And if I do, how? Chapter by chapter? In the blurb? A special page that goes in after the dedications?
I’d really like to see some wider opinions and open discussion about this! Feel free to reblog or tell me what you think in the ask box.
Thank you x
Okay so I’m going to tackle this one because it’s not something I’ve never talked about on this blog, but it is something I’ve thought a lot about, and as a student in graduate school for psychology, I consider it an issue I should give a lot of thought.
Disclaimer, @concerningwolves I’m answering this question because I think it’s a legitimately good question, and one writers should be talking about, and if I ever say ‘You’ or ‘They’ in this post, I’m not talking about you personally, I’m just talking about people in general. I’m in no way attacking you or posting this because I think you did something wrong, I just think you asked a really good question that I’ve wanted to talk about for some time.
The first question is, do trigger warnings help people with triggers? And that is a very complicated question. The first thing I will say is, no they won’t help everyone, and you could make a solid argument that they wouldn’t help even most people with triggers. The reason for this is, while there are some common triggers that many people share, there are just as many people with seemingly random and unpredictable triggers. For a vet., a bag blowing across the street could be a trigger. For a child who was physically abused, the feeling of dish soap on their hands could be a trigger (that is a real life example from my work with kids with PTSD).
So the summation of that: In my opinion, trigger warnings can be helpful to some people, but they are by no means all encompassing and could just as easily be useless spoilers to half the population that have anxiety/PTSD with very specific triggers.
That being said, should we still have trigger warnings for those with anxiety/PTSD and triggers that are ‘common’? This is where the argument “real life doesn’t have trigger warnings” comes in, and as much as that is a very insensitive way of saying it, I can’t deny the truth in that statement. However, there are some individuals that are so affected by their triggers that they do need to be sheltered from them/ be able to mentally prepare for them. It’s never meant to be a lifetime thing, but when it comes to learning to cope with anxiety/PTSD/literally any mental or physical disorder, everyone is at a different stage in their treatment. It’s not fair to assume that a person with PTSD intends to shelter themselves from certain stimuli for the rest of their life just because they are sheltering themselves from it right now. They might be working on it, they might be at the very beginning of their journey, they might just be having a really shit week and can’t deal with it right now.
The solution???
Here’s what I think: if an author wants to provide warnings for their work, or if we even want to take it farther and say TV shows and other media should start doing it too, there should be a place to put it that people without triggers won’t need to see it unless they go looking for it. Maybe don’t put THERES A MURDER TODAY FOLKS, #TRIGGERWARNING as the heading of your work, unless you want to I guess. Rather, have it somewhere were people who are worried about their triggers can look, but people who aren’t worried about triggers won’t read it on accident.
Is it fair for consumers (readers/viewers) to get mad for a lack of trigger warning on the content they consume?
Frankly, no. LET ME EXPLAIN. I already covered this, but frankly trigger warnings can only be effective to people who have *heavy quotations* “normal” triggers. But it’s not “normal” to have triggers in the first place, so to suggest theirs a laundry list of triggers that people can have makes no sense and isn’t true. A trigger can be something completely innocuous and seemingly random. In other words, not something you could predict and label your work as. #dishsoaptriggerwarning
I’m going to say this, and I might get hate for it, but here we go: there are a lot of people with legitimate triggers, and I would never suggest that this isn’t a serious thing. It is very serious. I have seen a kid get triggered by a seat belt sliding across her wrist because it reminded her of shooting up. That being said; Feeling uncomfortable or nervous about a topic because of past experiences is not a trigger. Maybe it’s a sensitive spot. Maybe you don’t like reading/viewing about it. But we need to stop throwing the word trigger around when things make us uncomfortable. Again, I’m not saying that the majority of people requesting trigger warnings are phonies, or even that most people who are ‘phonies’ realize what they’re doing. But I think it’s important they do start to realize it, because all they’re doing is belittling a real, serious issue by crying wolf about things that they don’t like or make them feel uncomfortable
For people who legitimately do not know (and no, I am not shaming you, if you aren’t familiar with psychology or haven’t been diagnosed specifically, it’s not surprising that you wouldn’t know) a trigger is defined as: a stimuli that ‘triggers’ a flashback or memory of trauma. Flashbacks can be full blown I-think-I’m-somewhere-I-once-was, or they can be partial; having feelings, memories or images flood the scenes unexpectedly.
Your discomfort is valid and you have a complete 100% right to talk about why something is not okay to you, but
let’s stop saying ‘I feel triggered’ when what you mean is ‘I feel uncomfortable’. It’s not fair to people with PTSD.
How to Write Dialogue
Basic Structure
There are a few ways to structure dialogue. These are the most common ways to structure a line, although I haven’t seen 7 in a very long time.
“The dog’s outside. He’s finally stopped barking,” Anne said.
“The dog’s outside. He’s finally stopped barking,” said Anne.
“The dog’s outside,” Anne said. “He’s finally stopped barking.”
“The dog’s outside,” said Anne. “He’s finally stopped barking.”
Anne said, “The dog’s outside. He’s finally stopped barking.”
“The dog’s outside.” Anne sighed with relief. “He’s finally stopped barking.”
Said Anne, “The dog’s outside. He’s finally stopped barking.”It’s a good idea to avoid using the same method twice. Two or three or four (!) straight lines of 1’s “X said” or 6’s sentences broken up by a dialogue will sound strange.
Notice how the dialogue tag (“Anna said” and variations thereof) only goes in an area that does not impede the flow of dialogue. In the case of 3, 4, and 6, the dialogue tag or action actually enhances the period’s long pause. Only place dialogue tags at the beginning or end of a phrase, or where there would normally be a period, semicolon, colon, comma, or other punctuation indicating rest.
Dialogue Tags
A dialogue tag is a word + the person saying it. “He said”, “she said”, “they said”, etc. are all dialogue tags. The most common verb in a dialogue tag is “to say” (said, says, say, etc.) A lot of authors like it for its simplicity and unobtrusiveness. For those who insist “said is dead” (implying “said” is so bland it shouldn’t be used anymore), there are a bajillion other dialogue tags to play with.
Some verbs should not be used as dialogue tags.
“I’m really grateful,” Kiandra smiled
“This is ridiculous,” Aelwen sighed.
A dialogue tag is there to tell the reader how the character says something. You cannot say something smilingly or sighingly. You might say it happily or regretfully.
“I’m really grateful,” Kiandra said with a smile // “I’m really grateful,” Kiandra said happily
“This is ridiculous,” Aelwen said. He sighed sadly // “This is ridiculous.” Aelwen sighed.
Actions are not dialogue tags.
Adverbs
Adverbs are the little “-ly” words you add at the end of dialogue tag to show how a character is saying something.
“I don’t know,” Vanhi said uncertainly.
“I can’t wait!” Quetzel said excitedly.
Excitedly and uncertainly are the adverbs in this case. There is a list of adverbs here and here. Don’t get too hooked on adverbs. They’re great for helping when the meaning of a line is unclear.
Take this sentence:
“I love you,” Mirage said.
By itself this sentence isn’t much. You have no idea how Mirage is saying it, and it could be hundreds of different ways. Now modify that.
“I love you,” Mirage said desperately.
“I love you,” Mirage said sarcastically.
“I love you,” Mirage said joyfully.
“I love you,” Mirage said defiantly.
Now you know exactly how Mirage is saying it.
Recently, there’s been a movement to do away with adverbs or to use adverbs sparingly. Most adverbs are unnecessary. You can guess how a character is saying something by context. For example,
Myrtle kissed Mirage’s cheek and pressed a chocolate into her hand.
“I love you,” Mirage said.
You can assume that Mirage is saying this in loving or affectionate voice without the adverb being there. You can also use different dialogue tags to express the same emotion.
“I love you,” Mirage yelled
Vs.
“I love you,” Mirage said loudly.
Finally, adverbs sound funny if you use them one after another.
“I despise you,” Makai said sharply.
“I don’t think you’re much to look at, either,” Hagan said fiercely.
“I can’t believe Falk put us on this stupid date,” Makai said crossly.
If you’re addicted to adverbs, restrict them to every ten dialogue tags. If you aren’t addicted to adverbs, then just use them whenever you feel you need them. You can always delete them later if you think they’re unnecessary.
Abandoning Your Dialogue Tags
There are some cases where you can forgo using dialogue tags altogether. When two people are speaking with each other in a natural give-and-take pattern, the audience knows that they are the ones speaking, and in what order they are speaking. See below.
“The dog’s outside,” Anne said. “He’s finally stopped barking.”
“I don’t understand why he’s so frightened of the vacuum,” said Brenda.
“If you were the size of a Chihuahua, I think a lot of things would frighten you,” Anne said.
“Was that a crack about my height?”
“Shorty!”
You can tell Brenda said, “Was that a crack about my height?” because Anne spoke before her, and you can tell Anne said, “Shorty!” because Brenda spoke before her. Do not use this trick if more than two people are speaking at a time. You could introduce a third person like this:
“Was that a crack about my height?”
“Shorty!”
“Cut it out,” Dan said crossly.
“Can’t we have a little fun?” Anne asked.
“You’re so annoying.”
Since we specified it’s Anne and Dan speaking in turn, it can only be Dan who says, “You’re so annoying.”
This is very all incompassing and helpful. Only thing I’d say is, dialogue tags can describe the quality of soneones voice or way of speaking as well. So I would disagree that you can’t or shouldn’t say ’“I know, ” Sara sighed.’ Because it means she is literally sighing the words. To say ’“I know,” Sara said with a sigh’ implies she sighed after saying the statment rather than sighing the statment.
This is apposed to saying “I know,” she smiled. Because you can’t smile out words, that’s not a thing. But you can sigh words, just like you can yell or whisper them, as in: “I know,” Sara yelled.
