Writing Reference - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.

Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.

PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.

Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.

Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.

Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.

PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.

Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.

One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.

Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.

Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.

The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.

Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.

Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University can help.

Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.

WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.

Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.

OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.

Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.

All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.

LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.

Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.

Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.

Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.

AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.

Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.

References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.

Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.

Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.

Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.

Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.

Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.

GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.

Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.

Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.

TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.

Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.

Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.

Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.

Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.

InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.

SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.

AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.

BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.

ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.

Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.

Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.

Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.

Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.

OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.

IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.

PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

ps alternatives.

the arguement that one must be incredibly talented to use photoshop is pathetic. graphics, in a better sense are a visual way to see into the world of ones creation and mind. you don’t need the most over-the-top visuals to get your message across. simplicity can do just the trick. for those of you who don’t have photoshop or money to afford the progam should have a look at these websites! 

gimp - a bit rough around the edges, but gimp has a wonderful toolbar and various adjustment levels. one can also edit gifs on this free software.

pixlr - a free online photo editor with various effects and filters to use. 

sumopaint - a free online Flash-based image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop.

lunapic - is a free and easy to use online photo editor. 

photoshop express ( find in play store )-  is a free image editing and collage making mobile application from adobe. 

Tips for developing mythologies in your stories:

Find something that naturally occurs in your story. Every myth has a basis in nature. Some cultures create myths to explain the occurrence of something that happen in everyday life. 

Not all myths are religious based. They can be as simple as a Just-So Story in which something is created just by someone doing an everyday thing and it becomes a sensation.

It becomes more relatable if told by word of mouth. Many cultures have a colorful oral history. Most cultures even have a professional storytellers, many of which sing and perform the myths of the cultures they represent.

Many myths involve strange creatures. These creatures almost always have different symbolic meanings in every culture. Usually these creature are based on the fauna of the culture.

Myths have a grain of truth somewhere inside them. However ridiculous they may seem, they are almost always rooted in history.

As annoying as it may seem, myths can be political. Kings, queens, and political leaders are sometimes seen as avatars of gods and goddesses. The more powerful, divine, and immortal they look the better.

Myths have a lesson to teach. They often are cautious tales told to protect people from themselves or from thing they would not understand. That is why many locals avoid haunted places. They know the myths by heart.

Myths can be a way to control. Mythologies have a way of convincing humans to do things based on their emotions, most notably fear, death, pain, love and sex.

Some mythologies represent the everyday person. There almost always has to be a comparison between extremes to show the weakness of mankind.

Myths do overlap with religions and legends. A diverse culture should have a healthy mix of all three to keep it interesting.

Don’t forget the rituals involved in the myths. Myths are tricky and can be as superstitious as throwing salt over your shoulder. Even the little details are important.

Things to Consider When Creating a Fictional Mythology

How many gods and goddesses are there?

How are the gods and goddesses related to each other? How similar are these relationships similar to human ones?

Is there a ‘chief’ god? What makes them the strongest one? Have they always been the strongest?

How much do the gods meddle with human affairs? What motivates them to get involved?

Can humans have kids with gods? What special abilities to these kids have? How are they viewed by society?

Do humans pray, make offerings, or do other things to try to appease the gods?

Do people and/or societies tend to worship one god or goddess at a time, a handful that reflect their interests and priorities, or the whole pantheon? How does this vary between people and cultures? How do people who worship different gods or worship them to different degrees interact?

Which gods are the most widely revered? 

What is the mythology’s creation myth? How does that reflect society’s values?

What traits does the mythology tend to idolize? What does it demonize? Have people’s interpretations of these things changed over time?

Who are the main, famous heroes of this mythology? What makes them so well regarded?

Do gods have different names, personalities, or physical portrayals in different cultures?

Have details about some gods been lost over time?

Do gods and goddesses look like humans? Animals? Something else entirely?

How have various myths been sanitized over time to make them more tame or child friendly? How many different versions of each myth are there?

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Kissclipart and kissPNG - more vectors and clipart (often transparent!)

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

Archery information for writers that no one asked for but probably some of you need and I like talking about archery, so here it is.

when you put an arrow on the string, the verb is called “nocking” i.e. eyes glued on the target, he nocked the arrow

also the part of the arrow that gets put onto the string is called the nock. depending on the type of arrow this can be a piece of plastic glued into the arrow, or with wood or bamboo arrows it can be carved into the shaft of the arrow itself

you do not close an eye when aiming or shooting; you see better with both eyes open.

everyone has a dominant eye that more naturally your brain focuses with. that determines whether you are right or left handed when shooting, and doesn’t necessarily correlate to whether the person is right or left handed in anything else

so if you’re writing a character who has difficulty seeing out of one eye, take that into account when they are shooting

if they are right eye dominant, they hold the bow with their left hand and draw the string with their right. if they are left eye dominant, they hold the bow with their right hand and draw the string with their left

if they shoot left, the quiver sits on their left side/hip/thigh. shoot right - right side quiver.

there are several different ways to draw, if you are writing something historical or in a specific region, then do research on that style of archery. but for a generic place to start that is a more universal way of drawing a bow, here are some things to include

the chin stays down. raising your chin will fuck up your aim

the pointer finger on your draw hand rests on the side of your chin/jaw, and the string of the bow will touch the tip of the archer’s nose

weight is on the balls of your feet, leaning slightly forward off your heels

if it is an older bow/barebow, there is not usually a place for the arrow to rest on the bow. this means the arrow rests on the archer’s hand. if they are not wearing a glove on that hand, the fletchings (that’s the feathers on the arrow) will more than likely slice their hand when firing. this scars.

so if you’re wanting to describe someone observing and archer’s hands (hands are hot, don’t @ me) they would see a silver scar about halfway between the pointer finger knuckle and palm of the person’s hand. (turn your hand vertical and trace down the length of your pointer toward your thumb and stop next to the knuckle. that spot there.)

most archers wear something to protect their fingers on the hand that draws the bow. even with that, they have callouses. without it, a lot of callouses, scars, and blisters.

most common draw uses three fingers on the string: pointer, middle, ring. the arrow sits between the pointer and middle. just like where the draw point is, this is not universal and do research if you’re doing something culturally important.

barebow means that the bow is bare of any instruments. no sight, no weights, etc. the most basic/traditional form of bow

a recurve bow is anything where the tips of the bow curve back around forward, away from the archer

a compound is what you think of as a modern hunting bow, and is recognisable by having wheels at the ends and three strings

arrows have three fletchings that form a triangle, the point faces the archer so that the flat of the arrow will pass the flat of the bow on release. the arrow sits on the side of the bow facing the archer

archers with a larger/raised chest will sometimes where a chest protect so that the string does not catch when firing (this is regardless of gender, i know several cis-men who need it as well)

string can also catch on the forearm that is holding the bow and creates bruises and welts if you don’t wear a protector. modern ones are small plastic and cover just the spot, with elastic holding it in place. traditional ones are leather and wrap all the way around, lacing up on the back of your arm like a corset.

there is literally so much more, but i feel like this is plenty to get you started, and as always, feel free to drop an ask in my box if you need something more!

How to Write a Synopsis

Back when I was doing my MA program, I typed up a guide to writing query letters. It’s the post from this blog that I’m most proud of: a thorough step-by-step guide that combines days and weeks of research, and dozens of sources, into a neatly packaged 1,800-word post.

And I have to admit, I didn’t write it for tumblr. I needed to write a query letter myself for a publishing class, and my post was little more than compiled homework notes, saved as a Tumblr post for posterity. 

I’ve actually had pieces of this in my drafts for years, but now I actually have to write a synopsis and I’m piling up the research, so I thought it was finally time for the sister to my query post to be published here.

But first…

What is a synopsis?

A synopsis is a 1-2 page summary of the events that transpire in a book, either proposed or already written. It’s used to give people who haven’t read your book a quick overview, so they know the story that’s being told in the book without having to read it.

When is a synopsis necessary?

Some literary agents request synopses along with query letters. More often, they’re used slightly later on in a writer’s career, when they have an agent or an editor and they need to submit a proposal for a new idea or project. A synopsis can also be used later on, in situations that don’t involve the author. For instance, when an editor pitches the book to the marketing and publicity team, who may not have time to read every book they’re working on. Unlike a query letter, the book doesn’t necessarily have to be written when you’re submitting its synopsis.

Basic Style

The job of a synopsis is to lay out the story with little fuss and no frills. They let the person you’re pitching know what they’re going to find in that giant stack of pages on their desk or in that obscenely long Word document (or else in the Word doc they’ll eventually receive).  

Most professional synopses follow these rules:

They’re told in third person

They’re told in present tense

Characters’ names are CAPSLOCKED at first mention.

They are double spaced.

They tend to avoid descriptions longer than this sentence.

They focus on the central conflict and the protagonist’s emotional journey

They spoil the ending

They should be 500 words or less. (That is 1 page single-spaced, 2 pages double-spaced.)

HOW TO WRITE YOUR SYNOPSIS

The plot

Writing your synopsis, you have one goal: to tell a 50,000-100,000 word story in 500 words. It can be a little difficult to do this right. A great way to do this is to identify the key turning points in your protagonist’s story.

Do you remember those little plot roller coasters you’d make in elementary school? They’d usually be pointy witch’s-hat shaped things labeled with the terms: “beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.” 

Those turning points are the events you should be including in your synopsis.This is the structure you want to emphasize to your reader. You want to make abundantly clear that your story works like a story, that the events of your book have a beginning, a middle, and an end, that there’s an intriguing beginning, an exciting climax, a satisfying conclusion. You don’t want to just list out the events of your novel, but highlight the function of those events. X moment is important because it’s the inciting incident, the moment that takes the protagonist from their normal life and throws them into the story.

There are tons of great story roadmaps out there, that go into more specific story elements. The Hero’s Journey is the most famous example of a detailed, and mostly universal, story structure. There’s also the three-act structure that’s famous among screenwriters.

Find a structure that fits your story the best and use that to identify the events of your story that need to make it into your synopsis. I’ll link to different sources at the bottom of this post that will give you variations of story structure.

If you can correlate key scenes in your novel to the descriptions of these plot points, you’ll find an easy roadmap to navigating the many events of outlining your novel.

Your protagonist’s journey

Your protagonist is the heart of your story, and should be the heart of the synopsis, too. The protagonist’s emotional journey may not string all of these plot points together, but it’s going to be what makes them matter to the reader. The human element of your story has to be represented in your synopsis.  

There’s no room for long descriptions, so you’ll have to be smart about finding a few terms that not only tell your reader who the character is, but what their story will be. For instance, if your story is about someone trying to get their critically-panned paintings in the Museum of Modern Art by breaking into the museum and installing the pieces themselves, you may want to introduce them with a sentence that begins like so: “When IGNATIUS, an ambitious and untalented struggling artist, discovers his work is rejected from yet another gallery…”

In addition to these descriptive terms, you should spell out what your protagonist wants (or wants desperately to avoid) and their stake in the events of the story. 

Along the way, tell us how these key aspects of their persons change due to the events of the story, or else how they influence the events of the story. Tell us about how after raving reviews for his DIY MoMA exhibit came in, Iggy realized that though he still liked painting, his talents actually lay in performance art. Untalented to talented, struggling to successful, all because his ambition pushed him to try new and daring things.

Tips:

As in query letters, you only name the most important characters and locations outright. If you’re writing a synopsis for Harry Potter, you’ll want to use Harry’s name in the query, but most other people and places can be referred to by their function in the novel. Ex: Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon can be “his cruel relatives.” Hermione and Ron can be “his friends.” Even Hogwarts can be a “school for people with magical abilities.” This makes it easier for a reader to understand what’s going on in your story. Too many names in such a small amount of space can be overwhelming.

All telling, no showing. This is one piece of writing where you’ll want to tell, instead of show. You need to get to your point as quickly, as clearly, and concisely as possible; this isn’t the place for creative storytelling.

Oftentimes, synopses are given along with other materials, such as pitch letters and sample pages. While a synopsis should be captivating in-so-far that it’s well told, and it should maybe be a little stylish, being captivating and stylish aren’t its main goals. Additional materials like sample pages and pitches have more room for creative flourishes and can do a better job of selling the story, while the synopsis focuses on telling it.

Your synopsis should show that you know how to tell a story. While a synopsis doesn’t sell a story like a query, it should still illustrate the fact that you have an interesting, unique and well-structured plot. When finished, your reader should be able to think to themselves “that’s a good story. I want to read that.”

Your first draft will be too long. Your first draft of a synopsis will always be at least a page or two longer than it should be. Identify the sentences and paragraphs where you explain why a thing happens and ax them. Identify sentences where you repeat yourself and ax them. Identify descriptors that aren’t vital to understanding of the story and ax them. Once you make your first painful cuts and see that the story still makes sense without those things, you’ll start to get a better understanding of what can and cannot be taken out of your synopsis.

Bibliography:

6 Steps for Writing a Book Synopsis

How to Write a 1 Page Synopsis

The Hero’s Journey

Learn How to Write a Synopsis Like a Pro

How to Write a Novel Synopsis

The Secrets of Story Structure

Three Awesome Plot Structures for Building Bestsellers

7 Ways Write Plot Outline

Synopsis for “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”

How to Plan Your Novel Using a 3 Act Structure - ex. “The Hunger Games”

Story Structure by Plot Point for “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

Writing Pain: Pt 1- What it is and How it Works

After slogging through all my Whump Challenge posts, I thought you all deserved something nice. So here is the first of a 2-part series on pain. Enjoy!

Basics:

Pain is an unpleasant physical and emotional sensation caused by actual or perceived tissue damage. Under normal circumstances, pain indicates some kind of tissue damage. This damage can be from an injury, an infection, or a disease like arthritis. Very simply, when tissue is damaged, cells release certain chemicals. When the concentrations of these chemicals get high enough, nerve endings send a signal to the brain, which is interpreted as pain. Painkillers work by either blocking the formation of the chemicals, blocking how they interact with the nerve endings, or by blocking the transmission of the nerve impulses to the brain.

Pain Scale (intensity):

In healthcare settings, pain can be measured on a scale of 0-10. On this scale, 0 means no pain, and 10 means either the worst pain the patient has ever felt, or the worst pain the patient can imagine. Quantifying this for fiction purposes isn’t always easy, but think about it like this:

Pain score of 1: “Pain Threshold.” Where pain first begins to be felt. Barely noticeable and very easily ignored. Character likely would not express discomfort and may change positions, but not much more.

Pain score of 2: Character may voice discomfort, but may still not do anything about it.

Pain score of 3: “Pain Tolerance.” Pain becomes difficult to ignore and character finally begins to seek some form of relief.

Pain score of 4-5: Pain becomes nearly impossible to ignore completely, pain symptoms of tense muscles and a change in respiratory pattern develops. Irritability, nausea, and a change in vitals likely.

Pain score of 6-7: Pain is debilitating. Difficulty concentrating occurs, fine movements like writing are significantly impaired. Muscles are tense and hands are balled into fists.

Pain score of 8-9: Sleep is impossible, and pain is completely debilitating. Very difficult to read, think, speak or focus on anything that isn’t the pain. Change in vitals very pronounced.

Pain score of 10: Unconsciousness immanent. Worst pain character has ever felt. Incapable of thought, movement, or speech.

Pain is a very subjective, individual experience. One person’s 2 might be another person’s 6. Notice up there where it says “pain threshold” and “pain tolerance”? Pain threshold is basically how bad the pain needs to be to be felt at all. It’s the “1” on the pain scale. Pain tolerance is where the pain needs to be for the person to want to do something about it. It’s usually about a “3” on the pain scale.

Pain tolerance is different for everyone, and changes based on life experience (are they used to dealing with pain?), fatigue (being tired or chronically sleep-deprived may make pain feel worse), and emotional situation (being scared or sad may make pain feel worse). People’s perception of, and need of treatment for, the same pain may change day-to-day, or as they gather more experience.

Pain on this scale is also self-reported. People may exaggerate or minimize pain when reporting it depending on life experience (some people may be used to only getting treatment if they rate their pain at 10/10, and so routinely exaggerate in order to be taken seriously), culture (some cultures highly value stoicism, and may under-report pain so as not to appear weak), or religion (some religious groups view pain as penance, and so may under-report pain to avoid treatment). This is something to think about when building a character.

Describing Pain (quality):

Pain, while a universal concept, is not a universal feeling. Pain quality is what the patient reports the pain as “feeling like.” Different manifestations of pain can mean different things (see the list below for examples). Depending on the location or the reason for the pain, it can feel different. Here are some ways pain can be described/experienced (examples of related injury/illness in parentheses):

Achy (body aches from illness)

Crampy (gastrointestinal illness, menstrual cramps, heat cramps)

Crushing (heart attack, sometimes asthma attack)

Dull (injury to internal organs, bruises)

Piercing (pain from a surgical incision, some pain from loss of blood flow (ischemia))

Pounding (headache)

Sharp (pain from a surgical incision)

Sore (overuse, muscle injury)

Tender (bruises, soft tissue injury, musculoskeletal injury)

Tight (swelling (skin feels tight), asthma (air passages feel tight))

Throbbing (localized infection, soft tissue injury, swelling)

Any one of these and many others can manifest at any intensity.

Non-Verbal Signs of Pain and Pain Signature (newly added to post):

Writing for a character who doesn’t like to admit to being in pain? Rest assured, you still have something to write about. Non-verbal signs of pain obviously become very difficult to hide as pain increases, but even small amounts of pain may result in non-verbal expression of pain. Non-verbal signs of pain could be great for tipping other characters or audience off to pain.

Non-verbal signs of pain include:

Facial grimacing (especially the little crinkle between the eyebrows)

Increase in respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure

Decrease in blood oxygen saturation (from breath holding)

Guarding of painful area

Decrease in physical activity and energy level

Loss of interest in surroundings

Difficulty keeping attention on task, may miss information

Restlessness

Constant shifting in position

Change in appetite

Repetitive movements, such as crinkling paper, wrapping fabric around hands, rubbing feet against bed

A “pain signature” is a person’s unique but consistent combination of the above signs. Even people who try to hide their pain often display a pain signature, though they may attempt to write it off (decrease in energy can sometimes be compensated for and change in appetite and restlessness can be caused by a lot of different things). If you know your character will be in pain, it might be a good idea to include their pain signature as part of character planning. 

R E F E R E N C E S

Craven, R. F., & Hirnle, C. J. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing: Human health and function. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Lippincott, W. &. (2013). Brunner and suddarth’s textbook of medical -surgical nursing 12th ed. nursing diagnosis, .. Place of publication not identified: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Stay Tuned for Pt 2: How to Get Rid of It

Writing Notes: The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Culture is transmitted to people through language, as well as through social norms which establish acceptable and unacceptable behaviors which are then rewarded or punished (Henrich, 2016; Triandis & Suh, 2002).

With an increased understanding of cultural learning, psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality.

The 5 Personality Traits According to this Model

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

Refers to a person's imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

LOW score: More likely to be practical, conventional, prefer routine

HIGH score: More likely to be curious, have a wide range of interests, be independent

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

Competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

LOW: Impulsive, careless, disorganized

HIGH: Hardworking, dependable, organized

EXTROVERSION

Sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

LOW: Quiet, reserved, withdrawn

HIGH: Outgoing, warm, seeks adventure

AGREEABLENESS

Cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

LOW: Critical, uncooperative, suspicious

HIGH: Helpful, trusting, empathetic

NEUROTICISM

Tendency toward unstable emotions

LOW: Calm, even-tempered, secure

HIGH: Anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions

Applicability

The idea that personality can be described and explained by five traits (OCEAN) has important implications, as does the fact that most personality tests were constructed and initially tested in Western countries.

Western ideas about personality may not apply to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008).

2 Main Cultural Approaches for Researching Personality

Etic traits - considered universal constructs that are evident across cultures and represent a biological bases of human personality. If the Big Five are universal then they should appear across all cultures (McCrae and Allik, 2002).

Emic traits - constructs unique to each culture and are determined by local customs, thoughts, beliefs, and characteristics. If personality traits are unique to individual cultures then different traits should appear in different cultures.

Using an Etic Framework

Cross cultural research of personality uses an etic framework and researchers must ensure equivalence of the personality test through validation testing.

The instrument must include equivalence in meaning, as well as demonstrate validity and reliability (Matsumoto & Luang, 2013).

Example: The phrase feeling blue is used to describe sadness in Westernized cultures but does not translate to other languages.

Differences in personality across cultures could be due to real cultural differences, but they could also be consequences of poor translations, biased sampling, or differences in response styles across cultures (Schmitt, Allik, McCrae, & Benet-Martínez, 2007).

Personality Test/Measure Used: The NEO-PI

Most of the cross-cultural research on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and Big Five (OCEAN) has been done using the NEO-PI (and its subsequent revisions; i.e., it is an assessment tool developed to measure the 5 dimensions of personality according to the FFM) which has demonstrated equivalence, reliability and validity across several cross-cultural studies (Costa & McCrae, 1987; McCrae, Costa & Martin, 2005).

Research using the NEO-PI found support for the entire Five-Factor Model in Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, German, Australian, South African, Canadian, Finnish, Polish, Portuguese, Israeli, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino samples, in addition to other samples (McCrae, Costa, Del Pilar, Rolland, & Parker, 1998).

NOTE

Personality tests rely on self-report which is susceptible to response bias like socially desirability responding.

To evaluate this possibility, McCrae and colleagues (2005) recruited students from 50 cultural groups and modified the NEO-PI to be in the third person (i.e., he, she, his, her):

The research participants were asked to complete the form on someone else that they knew very well (McCrae et al., 2005).

The same 5 factors emerged in this study.

These results provided empirical support for the FFM and for the use of self-report instruments when conducting cross-cultural personality research.

There was no reason for the students to respond in a desirable way because they were answering questions about someone else.

Sources: 1 2

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here.