One Thing White Collar Gets Absolutely Right And Very Few Other Shows Do, Is That People React To Guns.

one of my worst writing sins is abusing my power to create compound words. i cannot write the sentence "The sun shone as bright as honey that afternoon." no. that's boring. "The sun was honey-bright that afternoon" however? yes. that sentence is dope as fuck. i do not care if "honey-bright" is a word in the english dictionary. i do not care if the sentence is grammatically correct. i will not change. i will not correct my erred ways. the laws of the english language are mine.

Tension vs. Conflict: What’s the Difference?

Good morning everyone! It’s my birthday today and because it’s my birthday I thought I’d post today (that’s kind of an obscure reference to Star Wars Guy and his girlfriend lol)!

Conflict and tension in literature help build drama and keep readers engaged through the end of the book. Learning the distinctions between conflict and tension will help elevate your writing and make your storylines more engaging.

What Is Tension in Writing?

Tension in a literary context is the sense that something ominous is right around the corner. Building a large amount of tension as a writer keeps your readers engaged up until the end of the story. Mystery novels are full of tension and foreboding, and they generally feature tense scenes from beginning to end. Working within the genre of mystery writing is a great way to learn how to layer tension into your narrative arc. Good use of tension makes a story worth reading and keeps readers guessing.

3 Tips for Using Tension in Your Writing

Learning to build tension is no easy task. Even the most seasoned professional writers have trouble maintaining tension from beginning to end. Here are a few tips for using tension successfully in your writing:

Foreshadowing: An important part of building tension is using foreshadowing to build dramatic tension and keep readers on the edges of their seats. In Harry Potter, author J.K. Rowling uses flashbacks and backstory to foreshadow the eventual major conflict that will unfold between Harry Potter and the villainous Voldemort.

Inner conflict: Sometimes inner conflict and self-doubt can be layered in through character development and used to build levels of tension. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main character wants to avenge his father’s death but is beset by self-doubt, paralyzing indecision, and mental strain. As an audience, there is a sense of tension in every scene as we wait to see if Hamlet will act on his inner desire for retribution or remain stuck in a place of indecision.

A time limit: One great way to build tension in your story is to place a time limit on an action your character has to undertake. By adding the element of a ticking clock, you build tension and increase stakes. This is a common technique used in thriller novels and films as well as action and adventure stories.

What Are the Differences Between Conflict and Tension?

While tension simmers under the surface, conflict is generally out in the open—it's tension realized. Tension might be present an unspoken rivalry between the protagonist and antagonist or in the audience’s awareness of an impending disaster.

Conflict, on the other hand, involves an active clash; maybe the protagonist and the antagonist engage in a firefight or a heated debate, or maybe a character fights off a pack of animals or works to prevent climate catastrophe. Even if the conflict is interior—a character battling low self-worth, perhaps—it still involves opposing forces struggling for supremacy.

What Is Conflict in Writing?

Conflict can come in many forms. Conflict in a story can be a physical fistfight or a passive-aggressive war of words. All that is required for conflict is a manifestation of disagreement or incompatibility between a character and something else. Characters can be in conflict with other characters, with natural forces, or with society at large.

Another type of conflict is internal conflict. Conflict is one of the fundamental principles of narrative and creative writing. In order to write a story worth reading, you need characters whose point of view is in some way challenged and to whom bad things happen. Without conflict, you won’t have a narrative or any meaningful character arc.

4 Types of Conflict and Tips for Using Them in Your Writing

The kind of conflict you use depends on what your plot and subplots are centered around and what your main character wants and needs. New plot points generally introduce conflict or advance existing conflict. Here are some types of conflict to employ in your writing and a few tips about when and how you migh

Person vs. self: An internal conflict is a kind of conflict that only manifests within a character’s head. Though we may see this conflict dramatized through narration or dialogue, or play out in the protagonist’s actions, it is an internal struggle within a character.

Person vs. person: The simplest and most common form of external conflict is when two characters are in conflict with each other. The first stories we are told as kids generally have a clear good guy and bad guy. These stories are early introductions to person vs. person conflict. Person vs. person conflicts are very common, and it’s rare to find a narrative without an interpersonal conflict present at some point in the story.

Person vs. nature: Conflict between a person and forces of nature is a good example of external struggle that can raise the stakes in a story. Some notable stories that included conflict between a person and a natural force include The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Consider using person vs. nature conflict if you’re interested in writing a story with one main character and few, if any, supporting characters.

Person vs. society: Conflict between a person and society at large is a type of conflict often found in science fiction. Some notable examples of this type of conflict are found in The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games series. In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen finds herself contending with a dystopian and oppressive United States government that pits citizen against citizen in order to keep dissent down and quell rebellion. If you’re interested in science fiction or narratives about social justice, you might want to consider exploring conflicts that pit an individual character against society at large.

when you know exactly how you want a scene to go but as soon as you sit down to write it you are suddenly staring at some of the worst sentences mankind has ever strung together.

Celtiberian Roots

I thought for my first personal post, going back my ancient historical roots would be apropriate, so hereby I present you:

Celtiberian deities

The Celtiberian were one of the many barbarian people and cultures that lived in the Iberian peninsula (aka. Spain and Portugal today) before the Romans conquered them.

As the name may suggest, they were a mix between the Celts that inhabited the North-West and the Iberians, on the Eastern part of the peninsula. They lived in the middle area, and had their own settlements, culture, societies and religion.

Today I did a little bit of research on their known deities, since, being from that area, I thought it would interesting to explore the ancient gods of my land, get to know them and… who knows? Maybe bring them back to memory from the depths of Roman erasure, and give them live again.

Here are the more detailed ones:

• Ariconā - goddess of tribal protection and dogs

• Banda (Bandis) - goddess of the entrance to the Otherworld, water protection

• Besenclā (Besenclae) - a community and house protector

• Cernunnos - horned God or God of fertility, life, animals, wealth and the underworld

• Corvā - war and defense goddess

• Dēvās Nemucelaecās - celestial goddesses

• Epona - godess of horses and passing/ride through the afterlife

• Erbina - a goddess of wild animals, hunting, and domestic security

• Harācos - agricultural and prosperity god

• Icconā - healing and medicine goddess

• Laneana (Laneanis) - a goddess of springs and floods

• Lidā - land and fertility goddess

• Limia - goddess of the Lima river

• Matres Termegiste - a triad of mother goddesses

• Moricilos - a god of winds, sky, and battle

• Nabia (Navia) - versatile goddess

• Neton - a war god

• Nimedos - a military protection god

• Reva (Reua) - personification of water flows

• Senaecos - a primordial god

• Sūliās - goddesses associated with medicine and springs

• Tarbucelis - war god

• Togotis - a god of community protection, war, and oaths

• Turculā - a boar goddess

• Vaelicos - a god of wolves and wild animals

Here I leave some useful links to some websites (some in English, some in Spanish) with the little information that is available about Celts, Celtiberians and their cultures and deities

https://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/iberian.html

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-religin-cltica-en-la-pennsula-ibrica-0/html/001186c0-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celtic_deities

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celta

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celt%C3%ADberos

~ Enthrelle 🧙🏻‍♀️

How to avoid White Room Syndrome

by Writerthreads on Instagram

A common problem writers face is "white room syndrome"—when scenes feel like they’re happening in an empty white room. To avoid this, it's important to describe settings in a way that makes them feel real and alive, without overloading readers with too much detail. Here are a few tips below to help!

Focus on a few key details

You don’t need to describe everything in the scene—just pick a couple of specific, memorable details to bring the setting to life. Maybe it’s the creaky floorboards in an old house, the musty smell of a forgotten attic, or the soft hum of a refrigerator in a small kitchen. These little details help anchor the scene and give readers something to picture, without dragging the action with heaps of descriptions.

Engage the senses

Instead of just focusing on what characters can see, try to incorporate all five senses—what do they hear, smell, feel, or even taste? Describe the smell of fresh bread from a nearby bakery, or the damp chill of a foggy morning. This adds a lot of depth and make the location feel more real and imaginable.

Mix descriptions with actions

Have characters interact with the environment. How do your characters move through the space? Are they brushing their hands over a dusty bookshelf, shuffling through fallen leaves, or squeezing through a crowded subway car? Instead of dumping a paragraph of description, mix it in with the action or dialogue.

Use the setting to reflect a mood or theme

Sometimes, the setting can do more than just provide a backdrop—it can reinforce the mood of a scene or even reflect a theme in the story. A stormy night might enhance tension, while a warm, sunny day might highlight a moment of peace. The environment can add an extra layer to what’s happening symbolically.

Here's an example of writing a description that hopefully feels alive and realistic, without dragging the action:

The bookstore was tucked between two brick buildings, its faded sign creaking with every gust of wind. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of worn paper and dust, mingling with the faint aroma of freshly brewed coffee from a corner café down the street. The wooden floorboards groaned as Ella wandered between the shelves, her fingertips brushing the spines of forgotten novels. Somewhere in the back, the soft sound of jazz crackled from an ancient radio.

Hope these tips help in your writing!

One thing White Collar gets absolutely right and very few other shows do, is that people React to guns.

The reaction varies, depending on their level of training/comfort with firearms, but there's no cool guy bravado* when someone pulls a gun, especially not from Neal. When he sees a gun he always always always reacts like things just got very serious, this is no longer fun and games.

And you know what? Yes please. It also ups the stakes for us when a character reacts to someone pulling a gun on them, and it's also highly realistic. I just really appreciate it that guns aren't a prop to signify "antagonist" but a weapon that should and does elicit fear.

* except for when Kate pulled a gun on Peter, and even then his reaction was warranted.

Neal Caffrey: ✨ arts & crafts ✨

105 “The Portrait”

211 “Forging Bonds”

301 “On Guard”

310 “Countdown”

415 “The Original”

501 “At What Price”

BONUS:

EXTRA BONUS:

Can You Scan The Backside Of A DA:I tarot card? I haven't seen what it looks like :3

Why certainly!

I’ve been seeing people wanting larger scans of all the individual cards… the only reason I didn’t do that before is there are a lot of them, haha, but I could do it if there are some people really want to see. I understand, because there’s a lot of detail in the cards and it’s hard to see in the big sets. I was thinking maybe putting up some bigger versions of some of the lesser seen character cards — and some of the ones people don’t immediately recognize as character cards, like Hawke’s. But if people have any particular requests, I can go with that!

(Also I gained 30 followers overnight, so uh… hello?? /nervous wave!!)

I think in the same way there's a 90/10 rule with horror and comedy (horror works best when it's 90% horror and 10% comedy and vice versa) there's a 90/10 rule for some relationships in fiction that's like. Wholesome and fucked up. A good friendship is at its most compelling when it's also 10% a bit fucked up. Fucked up relationship is at its most compelling when there's at least 10% of something actually sweet and substantive within. Do you get me