What Happens If My Family Already Is Cursed?

what’s it called when you’re so disconnected from reality that cold water doesn’t feel like anything and you can barely taste food anymore

Different sentence structures and the vibes they can achieve

1. Short, choppy sentences

Excellent for creating tension, urgency, or drama because they speed up the pacing and convey intense emotion.

She said no. I didn’t listen. I should have.

2. Long, flowing sentences

These are great for descriptions, adding detail, and explanations. They can create an intellectual or reflective vibe—or even a dreamy one. You can also use them to evoke a sense of being overwhelmed. They slow the pacing, add complexity, and help build tension. But once you're in the thick of a tense moment, it's often better to switch back to short sentences to keep the energy up.

As the sun dipped behind the horizon, casting a golden sheen across the cracked pavement, she stood there, unsure of what she was waiting for—only that something, anything, had to change.

3. Fragmented sentences

These give off a casual, stylized, and emotional tone. They're perfect for internal monologue and mimicking the way we actually think or speak.

Not the way I planned. Not even close. But here we are.

4. Repetitive structure

They add drama, rhythm, and emotional intensity. It's a powerful stylistic tool that can drive a point home.

She wanted peace. She wanted quiet. She wanted to forget.

5. Inverted or unusual word order

If you're aiming for a formal, archaic, or poetic tone, this structure will get you there.

Gone was the light from his eyes.

6. Interruptions (em dashes or parentheses)

If you're going for a conversational, conflicted, or stream-of-consciousness vibe—even something humorous if used right—interruptions are your friend. They mimic how we speak and think in real time.

I was going to tell her—God, I really was—but I couldn’t.

7. Questions

Questions are fantastic for showing uncertainty, anxiety, or inner conflict. They can also give off a philosophical tone and invite reflection from both the character and the reader.

What if I never make it out? What if this is it?

a writing competition i was going to participate in again this year has announced that they now allow AI generated content to be submitted

their reasoning being that "we couldn't ban it even if we wanted to, every writer already uses it anyway"

"Every writer"?

come on

90% of the time it's the 2nd 😭😭

Going back to old writing is either just like:

1. “Who wrote this masterpiece?! It was ME?!”

2. “Who wrote this absolute shit? Oh fuck my life, that was me, wasn’t it?”

I didn't realise this was poetry and thought someone posted this to relate to other people because I heavily relate to this with someone important to me.

This is beautiful- truly, I have no words- gorgeous.

#150

Disgustingly, I crave. Even when I know I should not, even when every instinct screams at me to leave, to get away, to run, to hide, I cannot. I am entranced and enraptured by the very thought of you, your presence something otherworldly and ethereal. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to break myself free of the trance you hold me in. I do not think I want to. It is far more peaceful here, in our own world, where all of my problems cease to exist.

Selfishly, I want you all to myself, and I never want to let you go. I want to hold you in my embrace forever and create a sanctuary only for the both of us, where nothing and no one will be significant enough to cause us harm, where we will live in our own little world free from all that plagues us.

The longer I spend in your presence, the more I am assured that this meeting, this getting to know each other is not mere coincidence, but rather fate’s doing. I do not know how I survived for so long without a presence such as yourself to light the way, to guide me, to be my solace and sanctuary when I most needed it.

masterlist

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

Why would I write when I could imagine my characters going through the story and then get upset when a copy of the work doesn’t magically appear in front of me

Fanfiction is great because you can see so clearly how people learn to write.

Some people, it's clear, learned almost entirely through absorbing the world around them. Grammar and punctuation will be all over the place, spellings are approximate, but the voice of the narration will come through so clearly. You can hear the dialect of the people around them as of they're telling the story. It's not a written story, it's a transcription of how they talk in their day to day life.

Some people learned through reading a gazillion books as a kid. Grammer and spelling will be rock solid, formatting occasionally based on the single tab of physical books rather than the double tab of online scrolling, but dialogue is often stilted and overly formal. You might notice a lack of contractions and very rigid rules they made for consistency that actually have a lot more flexibility than they think. They tend to have a fantastic grasp of sentence flow, though.

And other people formally learned how to write. This could be anywhere from taking school classes seriously because they enjoyed writing stories as a kid to literal certifications and jobs in the field. Grammer is flawless. Punctuation is triple checked. Foreign words are in italics. Characters have distinct voices. But their self indulgence is tempered by perfectionism. They know precisely what they want from a fic. Authors notes often feature mutterings about their happiness with the chapter. Kaomojis often appear! They seek a style to their writing, and it makes for some wonderfully clever plots! These are the ones most likely to get fun with formatting!

And some people.... Some people examined it all. They dissect dialogue, people watch, cross reference behaviours and compare characters to people irl. You can tell almost immediately who had formative experiences with Terry pratchett and/or ghibli, because it's these people. While others see writing as fun, expression, craft, they see it as art. Plain and simple. Sure, the grammar is occasionally sacrificed on the altar of creative freedom, and the occasional sentence might miss a full stop, but these people seem to self reflect on themselves as part of the art making process. On occasion, these people have the most masterful grasp of dialogue and invocation and hand sewn characterisations. Formatting is pretty standard because all the focus is on the actual words. These fics can be edited to the moon and back!

All of these can vary wildly in forethought and quality, and betas can often catch individual problems before they hit post, but just. Isn't it so cool? What's that one Oscar Wilde quote about every mask just being another fragment of yourself?

Did you recognise yourself?

I really need to actually start routinely writing again at some point, but I’m now in the headspace where, now that I’ve put the routine down, I can no longer pick it back up

'One wip at a time' is great advice. I love it. I'm very good at it. I have, in fact, mastered it to a degree that I have turned it into a means of procrastination.