ID: The Title Is "the Holy Trinity Of Writer Struggles:" And Rests At The Top Of The Image. Below Is

me, sternly, to a blank google doc: i have written hundreds of thousands of words over the course of my life. you won’t defeat me.

the cursor, blinking: |

an incomplete collection of tweets i consider to be short poems

how did this silly little post get 1,000 notes?? thank you guys so much! now i can say i’m officially tumblr viral /j

“feminine urge” this and “masculine urge” that, what about the urge to stop procrastinating writing your wips?

evermore - taylor swift

plot feeling a little empty in the middle? here’s some food for thought.

actions have consequences. things that your characters do inevitably can affect other people around them. what might they have done in the past that could come back and serve as an obstacle? or, maybe, what could they do now that could possibly raise the stakes just a little bit more?

subplots! be mindful of the subplots you’re adding - but sometimes it might be a good idea to include one if your plot is feeling a little bit empty. not only can it tie back into the overarching struggle, but it could also serve as a way to explore one of your characters or points further.

character exploration. get to know your characters a little bit better! let your readers find out something new. connecting and understanding the people within your story is important if you want your readers to grow attached to them.

world exploration. similar to the previous point, with the addition of creating a greater sense of familiarity of the circumstances that your story is taking place in. remember that nobody else knows the world of your wip as well as you do - illustrate it even further so everyone else can grasp it even better.

let your characters bond! maybe there’s a lull in the plot. if your characters have the chance to take a breather and get to know the people around them, let them! it might help flesh out or even realistically advance their relationships with each other.

i know we writers complain about writing a lot as a joke, and that's completely fine, but it's also important to remember why we love it and what we find in it!

we keep coming back to the blank page because we believe we can fill it. we build something from nothing more than our own imaginations. we transfer thoughts to words to paper to people. writing really is one of the most beautiful things we can do, and that's one of my favorite things about it.

Making Your Content Accessible

Introduction

On social media, being able to read and understand posts is essential. However, some sacrifice comprehension and efficiency for their aesthetic, which only hurts their audience. Content accessibility benefits people with disabilities most, but everyone and anyone can make use of it!

This is a noncomprehensive list of things you can do to make your account accessible. Feel free to add on in the comments!

Backgrounds

When you’re making a post, the text and the background must be 1.) different colors, 2.) contrasting, and 3.) not too bright or dark.

That should be pretty self-explanatory, but I’m going to elaborate on number 3. Don’t use pure white or too-bright colors in general for your backgrounds because it creates eye strain.

Maybe you have images as your backgrounds, which gives you a bit more to consider. One way to lessen eye strain is to put a layer between the background and the text. Another thing you can do is choose images that are not crowded or busy.

Text

Some people use fancy, cursive script for their post titles, which looks cool, but it can be hard to read. This doesn’t mean you have to remove it, though. Instead, use alternative text, which describes something that is inaccessible or difficult to read/see. In this case, you duplicate the post title in a more readable font on the cover slide. Good fonts for dyslexia include Open Dyslexic, Comic Sans, and most sans serif fonts.

Alt text should also be present if the original text has been manipulated in some way or has had effects added. For example, the titles of my posts are curved, so I add alt text.

Save cursive fonts for your post titles and headings. Cursive body fonts may sound great in theory, but in reality they are highly inefficient and make people people less likely to read through the entire post.

Also, if you type long paragraphs, you may want to separate it into smaller bulletpoints. People are more likely to skim (or just skip over) long sections of text. Make sure there’s enough space between the lines as well--reading crowded text can give some people headaches.

Alignment is also a factor in readable text. Align body text to the left, rather than centering or justifying it, because it lets people follow the lines of the text more easily. You can align your titles however you want because anything goes for them.

Screen Readers

Visually impaired people, dyslexic people, or people who get migraines may use screen readers, which read the text of a post to them.

One of the first things you’ll have to sacrifice here is aesthetic font. I know, I know, it looks cool, but screen readers don’t pick up on it, not to mention the more stylistic it is, the harder it is to read.

Hashtags are also difficult for screen readers to understand, because it might read the entire hashtag as one word. Instead, capitalize letters where a new word starts. For example: #WritersOfInstagram.

Another thing you can do is provide alt text for your entire post. Instagram lets you do this in the post but they only allow 100 characters, so if your posts run long you should just type them in the comments.

Descriptions

If you’re posting an image, for example, a meme, add an image description, or ID. When you’re writing an ID, include all details, even ones that might seem obvious. Consider color, position, shape, expression, etc. 

For example: “ID: A blonde, curly-haired girl dressed in an orange T-shirt and denim shorts sits on a mossy log surrounded by pine trees. Her head is bent in concentration as she cleans a bronze knife with a gray rag.”

Closed Captioning

As a hard-of-hearing person, I really appreciate closed captioning on videos that require me to understand what someone is saying.

When typing out your captions, abbreviate closed captioning to “CC:” and then write your text after it. For example: “CC: These are my favorite tropes.” 

Another thing to remember is not to censor swear words or leave out anything. Besides being annoying to people with hearing loss, it can also be patronizing.

In a video, keep closed captioning away from anything that might block it. Also, make sure the text is large enough to easily read. If you don’t want to type out what you’re saying, automatic captioning is available on Instagram, although like any automatic closed captioning, it can be unreliable.

“sorry i can’t talk right now i’m doing hot girl shit” (admiring the colors in autumn so bright just before they lose it all, leaving my scarf at your sister’s house, reminiscing the other day while having coffee all alone)

Okay so a production of Hamlet that ends with “Goodnight, sweet prince,” etc. and then Horatio looks up and sees the audience for the first time and is both shocked and furious, because his world is falling apart and you sat there and watched.