Nitpicking Is What I Do - Tumblr Posts

My only complaint about this map is the labeling of the Western Approach as “Hot Arid.” It’s actually a cold desert, like the Atacama and Gobi deserts (there are other cold deserts in our world too, and they even look sandy, arid, and warm in color tone). The color palette in the game can be confusing, as it’s warm oranges and browns, but there are clues within the lore and even in the game itself.

The novel Asunder describes the Western Approach as cold:

The Approach had a strange sort of beauty to it even so. It was a desert, but not a warm desert with glowing yellow sand. It was a cold desert, mottled purple like an unhealed bruise. Rocky pillars jutted out of the sand like brittle, twisted bones; there was a sense that the howling winds had long covered everything else. Even so, it didn't seem forbidding and horrible . . . just stark, and perhaps even a little sad. It was as if the world mourned a mortal injury inflicted long ago.

It’s important to note that the Approach’s desertification is due to a Blight.

Within the game itself, you actually can hear area banter from Dorian that confirms that the Approach is meant to be cold. Credit to DAIHell for finding the voice clip here: "I thought deserts were supposed to be hot.” Similarly, he complains in the Hissing Wastes that it’s freezing, and “Why is a desert freezing?” The Iron Bull also comments on the climate of the Wastes, referring to it as a “dry cold.”

When in doubt, remember that Thedas is actually in the southern hemisphere of its planet, and thus temperatures increase the further north you go, not south. The Arbor Wilds may be an exception due to the amount of magic there, as it’s much more difficult to explain why there are jungle creatures in a very southerly zone. As for the Frostback Basin...I got nothin’. Something something god of winter imprisoned something?

The Climates of Thedas

Weiterlesen

Writing Tips - Masterpost

From someone with a degree in this sort of thing (the writing and editing, that is).

I've had a list of tips kicking around for the longest time, from way back in my earliest days of hanging out on Fanfiction.net and reading fanfiction day in and day out. I've also read a lot (and I mean a lot) of published fiction in my time, as well as studying at college how to write better fiction and then edit it, for myself and others. So I can't help but notice things crop up in fiction I read online.

And, as usual, what is a Tumblr for if not throwing my opinion on the internet?

So I present to you my list of Writing Tips. Some will be geared predominantly toward fanfiction, but I will try to apply most, if not all, of the entries toward general fiction where I can.

And as with anything an editor tells a writer, ultimately it's up to you whether or not you take my advice. You do you.

The entries are now linked below, and this list will continue to be updated each time I add another writing tip in the future.

1. The Dictionary

2. The Thesaurus

3. Common Word Mix-Ups

4. Beta Readers

5. Google Can Help (checking foreign words)

6. Punctuation

7. Dialogue Tags

8. Show Don't Tell

9. Accents

10. Tense (past, present, future)

11. Points of View (first, second, third, limited vs. omniscient)

12. Purple Prose

13. Research

14. Keep Notes and Reread

15. Constructive Criticism

16. Breaking the Rules

Writing Tips Pt. 3 - Common Word Mix-Ups

People mix up words all the time. It happens. Even when you're checking with a dictionary, even when you're sure the thesaurus hasn't led you astray. Sometimes it happens that you just don't know how to spell a thing, but you're just so sure you spelled it right, so you ignore the spellchecker. Sometimes the spellchecker can't help you because the word you wrote instead is still a valid word.

I know, it's the worst.

There are, of course, the most obvious ones. The ones everyone points out. To/too/two, their/there/they're, your/you're, etc. Here are some others that have come up in things I've read. (This is long, I'm sorry.)

breath/breathe, loath/loathe, wreath/wreathe, bath/bathe, etc.

These ones are unfortunately extremely common, so here's a tip for you: if you add an 'e' to the end, it becomes a verb. That's all you need to remember to get these right every time. Loath is an adjective, breath, wreath, and bath are all nouns, but if you add an 'e' to them, that final 'th' becomes a softer sound, and the word becomes a verb.

You don't "take a breathe of fresh air" or "breath heavily after exercise," friends. (And ouch, that was painful to write.)

would have vs. would of, and related

This one really grinds my gears. I keep seeing "would of," "could of," and "should of" in writing that's meant to be taken seriously (fiction, articles, what have you), and it annoys me because it's just wrong. It's people not knowing what contractions are, or that those specific phrases are contractions, at the very least.

What you want is would've, could've, and should've. They're pronounced just like the typo, but are grammatically correct.

peeked/peaked/piqued

He peeked around the corner.

His physical prowess peaked at twenty, and only went downhill from there. (or) The meter peaked at fifteen, far too close to the red for his liking.

His interest was piqued.

Peeked relates to looking. It's a tiny look. Just a peek.

Peaked relates to something spiking, like a mountain peak. The topmost point.

Piqued relates to irritation or excitement.

In the case of interest, which is where I keep seeing the wrong word ("his interest was peaked"), you're exciting someone's interest, not causing it to reach its topmost point, though I can at least understand the mix-up.

pore/pour

Pore means to read or study with steady attention, to ponder intently.

Pour is what you do when you dump stuff out of containers.

I would much rather see you pore over your documents than pour over them. That just sounds sticky.

wreak/wreck

Wreak means to execute (as in to carry out).

Wreck means to smash and break things.

You wreak havoc when you wreck my stuff.

elude/allude

Elude means to escape, evade.

Allude means to refer casually or indirectly.

He didn't come out and say it, exactly, but he alluded to the method that allowed him to elude the authorities for years.

phased/fazed

Phased refers to stages or states of being.

Fazed on the other hand means "disconcerted, worried, or disturbed."

The change of venue didn't faze her in the slightest. The change of phase did, though.

If someone is unflappable in the face of unusual happenings, they remain unfazed.

weary/wary

Weary means you're tired. Exhausted. Just DONE.

Wary means you're apprehensive, nervous, untrusting.

Picture yourself on a bus, standing next to a guy who just won't stop talking. If you're weary of him, you're tired of his yammering and wish he would shut up. If you're wary of him, you're afraid his constant chatter is hiding something ulterior, such as a distraction from pickpocketing or angling to get your phone number so he can try to talk you into a date.

due time/do time

Due time means eventually.

Do time, on the other hand, means going to prison.

You will do time all in due time, my criminal friend.

wander/wonder

Wander means to roam aimlessly.

Wonder means to think or speculate curiously, or be in awe of something.

If you wander too long, you might wonder where you are.

lightning/lightening

Lightning is electrical discharge from the sky.

Lightening means to grow lighter.

It's a one-letter difference that the spellcheck won't catch, so I'm not surprised this happens so much. Still jarring, though.

Like lightning.

couldn't care less/could care less

Here's the short of it: if you could care less, that means you do care a bit.

affect/effect

This one could really be its own entire post, but I'll give it the short treatment here.

Affect is a verb.

Effect is a noun.

(Except when they're not; that's why it could use a whole post.)

Affect is causing change, while effect is what happens when change is caused, to put it simplistically. To remember the most common uses, just remember that Affect is an Action. (They both begin with A.)

loose/lose

Loose means not secure, not tight.

Lose means to misplace or get rid of something.

If your laces are too loose, you might lose your shoes.

canon/cannon

Canon is what is standard or fundamental within a body of work (such as the canon works of a religion).

Cannon is a very big gun.

Another one-letter difference, and I see this a lot in fanfiction when people refer to what is canon (meaning what is considered standard or fundamental in the original work) and what is not.

Let's just say that if you have a headcannon, we're not talking about what you believe about that work.

And I'll just drop this link here.

awe/aww/awh

Awe is an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc.

Aww is what you say when you see something cute.

Awh is an odd variant for aww I've only ever seen in fanfiction.

discreet/discrete

Discreet means not obvious, being circumspect, respecting privacy. It's where the word "discretion" comes from.

Discrete means separate and distinct.

If you aren't discreet in your dealings around cannibals, you might end up in discrete parts.

defuse/diffuse

Defuse means to remove the fuse (de-fuse) as of a bomb. To disarm something, like a bomb or a tense situation.

Diffuse means to spread out evenly.

If you aren't careful when you try to defuse a bomb, you may end up diffusing it instead.

shudder/shutter

Shudder means a convulsive movement, such as from cold or dread.

Shutter is the opaque, solid covering for a window or, sometimes, a door. It can also mean "to close up," as in those same solid coverings.

I shuddered when I closed the shutters over the window in preparation for the storm.

past/passed

This one's a tad trickier, because they're actually similar.

Passed is only ever used as the past tense form of the verb "to pass." I pass you now. I passed you a while ago.

Past, on the other hand, can mean a few things. It can reference time (before the present). It can also reference something spatial (run past something), and this is where it sounds very much like passed, unfortunately.

If you run past someone, you have passed them.

definitely/defiantly/definately

Definitely means certainly.

Defiantly means daringly or boldly in resistance.

Definately is just a typo. Your spellcheck will catch this if you haven't gummed it up with typos.

She definitely stood defiantly against typos like "definately."

bare/bear

Bare means exposed. Like naked.

Bear means to lift, hold up, or stand firm. It's also a furry woodland creature.

He couldn't bear to bare his soul to the shaved bruin. It was a bare bear, after all.

grisly/gristly/grizzly

Grisly means horrible, gruesome, grim.

Gristly means resembling or containing gristle, which is cartilage.

Grizzly means somewhat gray, or gray-haired (usually in the form of grizzled). It's also a furry woodland creature.

The grizzly bear came upon a grisly scene of carnage, thanks to his mate trying to cut up meat that was too gristly.

for all intents and/intensive

For all intents and purposes means, basically, "the same effect or result as something else."

For all intensive purposes just means that the purposes are intense.

free rein/free reign

Free rein means to let a horse have more control, to not pull back on the reins in order to direct them. This is the correct version.

Free reign sounds like it should be correct, given it relates to rulers, but it isn't. Kings don't have to ask if they're allowed to set the rules.

I know that was long, but hopefully it helped to demonstrate some of the word mix-ups in a way that will help anyone who struggles with them.