Sometimes Making Tea Is Less About Drinking It And More About It Keeping You Company

im sorry but this timing is way too funny do you understand how fucking insane it is to be a jujutsu kaisen AND a bungou stray dogs fan in this day september 20th 2023. it feels like bones did this on purpose oh my god im pissing myself

Music typewriter from 1936.

one of my fav bits of canon dialogue from book 1

We need to speak against the problems

hi, a lot of you need a perspective reset

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!

there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big

autumn in art [winter]

vincent van gogh / natasha tarasova / arthur rackham / john william waterhouse / carl friedrich deiker / jasper francis cropsey / john atkinson grimshaw / loré pemberton

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

What's your advice on writing a strong, solid chapter one? Something that will grab the reader's attention and make them beg on their knees for more?

Tips for Writing a Strong First Chapter

Note: in the examples, I’m using the second chapter as Harry Potter rather than the first, which was really more of a prologue.

1. Create a “snapshot” of your character’s normal life…

One of the most important things you can do in the first chapter is give your reader a sort of “snapshot” of your character’s life before the the inciting incident turns everything upside down. Otherwise, if we don’t know what their life is like before everything changes, the inciting incident won’t be a change. It’ll just be something that happens.

In Twilight, we saw Bella being the run-of-the-mill daughter of divorced parents. In Harry Potter, we saw Harry being the unwanted and much-maligned ward of muggle relatives, while struggling with emerging wizard powers. In Star Wars, we saw Luke being the bored farm boy, longing for heroism and adventure. In The Hunger Games, we saw Katniss taking care of her mom and sister by hunting for extra food for them with Gale.

2. Show us who they are–show us their strengths and their flaws…

Most stories feature a protagonist who changes in someway throughout the course of the story. This is the character arc, and it can either be positive (the most common) or negative. Positive story arcs stem from the character’s flaws that are established at the beginning of the story. While they have strengths, too, it’s the flaws that dominate and make their lives such a mess that the reader is anxious to see how their lives will change. The character will overcome those flaws through the events of the story, so in the end the reader can marvel at how far they’ve come and how much better their lives are as a result of this change. In a negative arc, it works in the exact opposite way. Sometimes there are static arcs, where the character doesn’t change but changes someone around them or their environment, and sometimes you get a little hybrid of both.

In Twilight, we see a girl who’s a little selfish, a little closed off, and very codependent. In The Hunger Games, we see a girl who feels helpless against the oppressive government making her life, and the lives of everyone she cares about, a living hell. In Star Wars, we see a boy who’s cocky and idealistic.

3. Show us who and what matters in their world…

Another important element that should be introduced in the first chapter is who and what matters to the main character. These are the initial stakes–the thing that motivates them into action when the world turns upside down. In some cases, the world turns upside down because something happened to them.

In Twilight, we meet Bella’s mom and dad, but in many ways, the absence of anyone else here is part of what serves as motivation for Bella to want her life to change and to want to belong to something bigger than herself. It’s much the same in Harry Potter, where the only people who really matter to him are people who died when he was a baby. In The Hunger Games, we meet Katniss’s mom and sister, her best friend Gale, and we learn about Katniss’s father and Gale’s family, and the boy with the bread. In Star Wars, we meet Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

4. Show us their world…

Part of the point of the inciting incident is that it’s going to change the known world for the main character. This really dovetails with #1, because their normal life happens within this world. In some stories, a character’s “world” might be their work and home life or their home and school life. In other stories, their “world” might be the small village they live in and the plagued-by-evil-king kingdom the village is a part of. 

In Twilight, Bella’s world was uprooted right at the beginning and exchanged for the tiny, perpetually overcast town of Forks, Washington. In The Hunger Games, Katniss’s world was District Twelve and the oppressive Capitol beyond. In Star Wars, Luke’s world was a moisture farm on the desert planet of Tatooine, part of a larger Civil War-wracked galaxy.

5. Start the story when something interesting is happening…

We often hear the advice “start in the middle of the action” or “begin the story with action” and this is often misinterpreted, either to mean you should start with the inciting incident or start with a big car chase or heart-pounding battle. Neither of which is true. Beginning the story with action just means you should start the story with something interesting happening rather than with a big info dump. That doesn’t mean you can’t include exposition in your opening, but weave the exposition into something interesting happening.

In Twilight, the story opens with Bella being dropped off at the airport by her mom so that she can move to Washington to live with her dad. In The Hunger Games, the story opens with Katniss getting ready to go hunting with Gale, then walking through her district on her way to meet him. In Harry Potter, we see Harry and the Dursleys getting ready for Dudley’s birthday party.

If you hit all five of these points in your first chapter, not only can you be sure to create a strong first chapter from which to launch the rest of your story, you can be sure your reader will have everything they need to start getting invested in your main character and the world around them. :)

book recs masterpost

an ever-updating masterpost of books i've recommended. please check these before you ask for recommendations in case they've been covered —

fiction

"the tragedy still happened, but it was important that the love was there"

japanese literature

korean literature [1], [2]

gothic writing

spooky adult horror gothic

some favourites

marathi books

some ruskin bond

indian fiction [1], [2], historical fiction, stories, [3], [4]

non-fiction

general assorted ones i like

some favourites

about people living through crises

on geopolitics, foreign policy, international affairs

on political philsophy

vaguely sociology

biographies

on economic history

on the silk route

on prisons, convict labour

on afghanistan, soviet invasion, terror

capitalism

on language and linguistics

on the ancient and prehistoric world

just a bunch on india

the indus valley

indian aestheticism, art

gupta empire

sangam literature

on the northeast

india and southeast asia

nur jahan, mughal women | more

islamic conquest and state-making

on kashmir

assorted nonfiction

colonisation and aftereffects

on nationalism

on cities

on mumbai

on bollywood in bombay

on cities

on delhi

on kolkata

essays

history, migration, labour

art, reading, travel, gender, sports

nature, climate, some history

political economy, environmental and urban history, cartography and space

my comfort books

light reading

books that have got me out of my slumps

on art, photography, aesthetics, design [1], [2], [3]

on the environment

just some story and essay collections

Consejos para Selectividad/PAU

For my non-Spanish speakers: This post is about the exam Spanish students have to sit if they want to go to uni, that’s why it’s in Spanish only. But you can read and practice your Spanish if you’re studying it!

Primero de todo: calma. El estrés es lo peor. Si has llegado hasta aquí la PAU es solo un paseo (a no ser que quieras entrar en Medicina)

DESCANSA. A ver, hay mucha gente que se tira desde las 8 de la mañana hasta las 2 de la madrugada estudiando, parando solo para comer. Y no es plan. Yo me despertaba a las 8.30 y me ponía a las 9. De 2.30 a 4 o así hacía siesta y a las 8 me duchaba. Y luego de cenar no estudiaba, leía un libro y me iba a dormir. Si a ti te sirve estudiar por la noche, adelante, pero no te fuerces: HAY TIEMPO.

ORGANÍZATE. Yo el día que terminé las clases me dediqué a sacar todo el material y contar las unidades que tenía, para dividir todo por días. HAZTE UN HORARIO A ORDENADOR E IMPRÍMELO. Pon lo que quieras hacer cada día y cuando lo hayas hecho lo tachas. Si no puedes más tal día, pasa parte del temario al día siguiente. Yo normalmente intercalaba días más intensos con días más “light”. Estudia primero una asignatura que te guste, luego una que no, y luego otra que sí.

HAZ PARONES. Yo paraba cuando ya me había estudiado una de las cosas que debía estudiarme cada día. Por ejemplo, me estudiaba un tema de historia y paraba. Puedes hacer lo que quieras. Yo hacía siestas de 15 minutos en cada parón.

DISEÑA UN PLAN. Tienes 1h y 30 min, así que planea antes de empezar los días de selectividad cómo vas a contestar. El orden da igual, así que empieza primero por las que valen más puntos y son más cortas, dejando las que valen menos para el final. Ya la harás luego si tienes tiempo. (En castellano, por ejemplo, empieza por la literatura y te la quitas de encima. Luego sigue con las que son más cortas. Déjate la pregunta que valga un punto para el final).

EL SORTEO. Si ves que no te da tiempo a estudiarte tantas cosas de una asignatura, se puede hacer sorteo y jugártela. Yo lo hice con castellano. No me daba tiempo a estudiarme tantos temas de literatura, así que busqué en internet qué preguntas salen más y no me estudié los otros temas. Con Literatura Universal, como son 6 libros, me estudié 5, quitándome encima el que más teoría tenía. Como tenía dos opciones, sabía que si me dejaba 1 siempre habría una opción en la que saldría uno de los 5 libros.

COME Y BEBE AGUA. Desayuna, almuerza, come, merienda y cena. Acuérdate de beber agua mientras estudias.

MUÉVETE. Vas a estar muchas horas en la silla. Cuando lleves unas horas te va a doler el culo y la espalda (yo llegué a perder peso de estar sentado). Te recomiendo que te levantes y muevas un poco el cuerpo. Yo bajaba a la panadería a comprarme el almuerzo, y así me obligaba a vestirme y a que me diera un poco el aire.

VÍSTETE. No estés todo el día en pijama, ponte ropa limpia.

DÚCHATE. Lo puedes hacer tanto por la mañana o al terminar de estudiar. Yo prefería hacerlo luego porque me despejaba.

ESCONDE TODOS LOS APARATOS ELECTRÓNICOS. Tienta mucho usar el móvil, la tablet o el ordenador. Guárdalos todos en otra habitación. Yo solo miraba WhatsApp dos o tres veces al día, para ver si algún amigo tenía alguna duda o por si el grupo de clásico estaban todos histéricos.

LLEGA A TIEMPO A LOS EXÁMENES. Recuerda salir de casa con tiempo de sobra, y estar en la facultad a la que tienes que ir también con tiempo.

MIRA LAS DOS OPCIONES. En PAU cada examen tiene dos opciones. Lee ambas atentamente antes de empezar y elige bien. Tal vez no te sepas la literatura de la opción que has escogido en castellano, pero tal vez sí sabes hacer sintaxis bien. Puedes cambiar de opción a mitad del examen, no pasa nada.

NO REPASES DURANTE LOS 5 MINUTOS PREVIOS AL EXAMEN. Tal vez tengas 1 hora o 2 horas de descanso para comer cada día. Puedes repasar, pero hacerlo mientras estás haciendo cola para entrar al examen no es bueno. Os podéis preguntar entre tus amigos y tú, pero no te agobies si sabes menos que tu amigo.

NO COMPARES CUANDO SALGAS DE LOS EXÁMENES. Esto tienta mucho, pero en las asignaturas de ciencias (las de letras pueden ser más subjetivas) no es bueno comparar los resultados con los demás, pues si no tienes lo mismo puede desanimarte.

SI UN EXAMEN TE HA SALIDO MAL, OLVÍDATE. El primer examen siempre suele salir peor (de hecho, yo en ese saqué la nota más baja de todos mis exámenes), pero tú olvídate de eso: lo hecho hecho está. Cada asignatura es distinta, y pensar que te va a salir mal no va a ayudar. HAY QUE SER POSITIVO.

LLEVA TODA LA DOCUMENTACIÓN OFICIAL. Sin DNI y todo el papeleo que se pide, olvídate de hacer los exámenes.

YOUTUBE. En YouTube hay miles de vídeos de gente dando consejos, contando su experiencia, diciendo qué hacer y qué no hay que hacer.

¡Suerte!