Drawerfic, or Writing for YourselfI had a conversation with a very dear friend today on the merits of drawerfic and writing for yourself. Drawerfic, as a term, is most popular in fandom but it's not exclusive to it. Basically, it's the story you write for yourself without ever having the intent to publish it. If anyone ever sees it, it's because you've shown it to them. It's the story that, if it were hand-written, would be kept in the drawer of your desk where no-one could see it.
Especially today, when everything is so easily accessible on the internet, there seems to be an expectation to publish everything you write. And in fandom, where the whole point is sharing yo Drawerfic, or Writing for Yourself
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An Apathetic Atheist...An Apathetic Atheist with Pantheist Tendencies
I was raised with religion -- my family is Lutheran, to be exact, only most of my family is Lutheran in the sort of way where if you really look, you might find a bible in the house, and church was something that was reserved for weddings and funerals.
Though, for reasons I can't quite fathom, my brothers and I were sent to church for most of our youths. We'd go to youth group (read: church for kids), Sunday School, and during the summers, we were sent off to Vacation Bible School. As a kid, it never occurred to me to ask why no one else in the family went to church, and yet we were sent off ev An Apathetic Atheist...in Essays
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Punchlines and Pay-Offs
Set-Up and Punchline: Using Narrative to Tell a Joke
"Three blokes go into a pub. Something happens, and the outcome's hilarious!"
-- Bill Bailey
That's the basic recipe for any joke, isn't it? Set the scene, add a verb or two, and everyone laughs. But there's a problem with jokes, and it goes something rather like this:
"Three blokes go into a pub, and the whole scene unfolds into a tedious inevitability." -- Bill Bailey (again)
The formula to telling a joke is a bit more complex than just the basic recipe. The recipe is what you need to tell the joke; milk, eggs, flour, shortening, baking powder, saffron. But if you just look at the r Punchlines and Pay-Offsin Guides and Lessons
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Hitchhiking - 2 of 7Nicholas wanted to be sick. In fact, he was quite certain he was going to be, upon regaining consciousness to Saxon lapping at his face. Groaning, he rolled out from under the dog, finding himself looking at what could only be described as a rather phallic rubbish bin.
"Welcome," it said, its voice sounding like it had been looped through an asthmatic amplifier that had seen too many Peter Frampton concerts.
A second talking rubbish bin glided across the smooth floor to the group of Earth travellers, who apparently mostly weren't even from Earth, holding a small bowl in what seemed to serve as awkward, unbending arms, a plunger-like sucti Hitchhiking - 2 of 7in Full Stories
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Writing Tips - Dialogue
If you’re writing fiction, the dialogue is arguably one of the most important parts. And it’s the bit that’s the easiest to mess up, if we’re strictly honest. And why not? There’s so much going on in that single sentence that any number of them can go wrong; voice, character, tone, point of view, punctuation. We’ll start with punctuation, because I’ve already written that bit.
Punctuating Dialogue
Go here. I was originally going to copy and paste that part of the lesson into this lesson, but then the thing wound up being ten pages long. So, read that, and then come back to this if you feel you might need h Writing Tips - Dialoguein Guides and Lessons
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Writing Tips - Language
Accents, Foreign Languages, and Regional Dialects
There are times when your story may have one or more character speaking a different language, or with a different accent than the rest. There are many different ways a writer can go about presenting this to the reader, and before we go any further, I will concede that some of it is a matter of personal taste, and on this particular matter, you won’t be able to please everybody. So, consider this bit not so much a lesson, but rather a series of guidelines.
Accents
Everyone has one. Even if you think that you don’t, there’s someone, somewhere in the world who would disagree wit Writing Tips - Languagein Guides and Lessons
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Writing Tips - Grammar, pt 3
Part three: Cases and Grammar Nazi Nit-Picks
Cases
Cases are, in a sort, ways of conjugating a noun – that is, defining its role in a sentence. Kind of. Not really. Well, sort of. It’s a bit swimmy, because we don’t really have them in the English language. Well, that’s a lie. We do, but they’re not very prominent. Despite this, we’re going over them anyway. Why? Because they’re big in some foreign languages and extinct languages. Why do we care? Because there will be a lesson on foreign and extinct languages in the future. But don’t worry; we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Those who could Writing Tips - Grammar, pt 3in Guides and Lessons
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Writing Tips - Grammar, pt 2
Part two: Tense of the Narrative, and Plural and Singular Nouns
Tenses: No, we’re not talking about a hard day at work, but rather verb tenses. What, basically, is the time-direction of your narrative? Is the chronicler telling about something that has already happening, is happening, or will eventually happen?
In most works of fiction, the narrative is in “past tense.” It’s already happened. Occasionally, you’ll find a book in “present tense” – it’s happening now, as you’re reading it – and these are usually of the “pick your own adventure” sort. The ones where you don’t Writing Tips - Grammar, pt 2in Guides and Lessons
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Sta.sh
