A Book of Creatures | A Complete Guide to Entities of Myth, Legend, and Folklore Polygon Map Generation demo The simplest way to explore the maps is to click Random repeatedly. Try the various Island Shape, Point Selection, and View options. Feel free to use these maps for any purpose, including commercial use. This is a map generator I wrote in 2010 for a game[4]; I’m not working on it anymore, but all the code is available so that you can download and modify it for your own needs. I also have an HTML5 version of mapgen2[5] that has slightly different features. In a shape number like 85882-8, 85882 chooses the overall island shape and 8 is the random number seed for the details (random points, noisy edges, rivers). I wrote an article describing the algorithms, and how you can use all or some of the parts in your own projects. Radial, Perlin, Square, Blob are about the island shape.Random, Relaxed, Square, Hex are about how the map is divided up into polygons.Using 4000 or 8000 points can be slow. The code is open source, using the MIT license (allows commercial use).
15 words to eliminate from your vocabulary to sound smarter Newsprint is on life support, emojis are multiplying faster than hungry Gremlins, and 300 million people worldwide strive to make their point in 140 or fewer characters. People don’t have the time or the attention span to read any more words than necessary. You want your readers to hear you out, understand your message, and perhaps be entertained, right? Here’s a list of words to eliminate to help you write more succinctly. 1. It’s superfluous most of the time. 2. I went to school. 3. People use honestly to add emphasis. 4. Adding this word to most sentences is redundant. 5. Accurate adjectives don’t need qualifiers. 6. Unless you’re a Valley Girl, visiting from 1985, there’s no need to use really to modify an adjective. If you are visiting from 1985? 7. The word means “causing great surprise or sudden wonder.” Newsflash: If everything is amazing, nothing is. 8. 9. See: Always. 10. Literally means literal. 11. It’s a filler word and it makes your sentence weaker, not stronger. 12. 13. 14.
Essential checklist of 140 words you could be getting wrong and that spellcheck might miss Are you making subtle but perceptible mistakes in your writing? Suffering from stuff spell check won’t pick up? Are you looking naïve in your pitches and emails? It’s a complex beast, the English language. In part one of Creative Boom’s Pragmatists’ Guide to Grammar and Punctuation, we’ll take a look at the 140 most commonly confused words in the English language… Mistakes you've probably made – or are making right now 1. Adverse: not goodAverse: not liking, keen to avoid 2. Accept: to get, or take on boardExcept: does not include 3. Affect: make a change, or differenceEffect: a result, creating a result 4. All together: everything in one placeAltogether: completely, overall 5. Amoral: does not give a damn about right or wrongImmoral: not in line with moral standards 6. Canvas: tent materialCanvass: drum up votes 7. Climactic: building up to a climaxClimatic: about the climate 8. Complement: add to and improveCompliment: show admiration 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Hoard: store Horde: big crowd
7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful There are some bloggers who seem to have a natural gift when it comes to writing. Some bloggers seem to be naturally gifted writers. They manage to get their ideas across clearly and economically, which means that readers can easily follow what they write. Readers devour their clear, economical prose. Not only is there a lot of respect for what they have to say, but also the way that they say it. People respect what they say – and love how they say it. Whenever they publish a new post on their blog, it always gets dozens of comments and hundreds of shares. It would be great to be as successful as they are, but you don’t know what you need to do to make your writing better. The good news is that there’s a secret you can easily learn which will improve everything you write from now on. The Unfair Advantage Popular Writers Try to Hide You know your writing heroes? Think of your draft as a rough diamond. Somewhat unfair, right? No wonder their writing seems so much better than yours. 1. 2. 3.
Author Tips: 10 Steps to Describe Your Character | Crownless Publications Tips for first time writers and self-publishers on how to write engaging character description. Having half formed characters roaming around your head can be a tireless exercise. Try as you might, sometimes it’s difficult to get them down on paper unscathed. Each word you select forms an aspect of that character in your reader’s mind and every choice should be deliberate. For example, your female character, is she a girl, a woman, a lady, a matron, a widow, a wife? All these things can describe a female character but each one will define her slightly differently. Your characters are your story’s ambassadors. Even the space they occupy can define them. You have the power to decide and mostly we like to make our characters miserable. But how do we start? Let’s get physical Well it’s tempting, when you see this character strolling around your head to focus on their physical attributes. This often leads to the common foible of listing clothes and features like a strange shopping list. Timing
uk.businessinsider About Jim | Jim Butcher Photo by Karen Hacker with The Portrait Gallery, located in Independence, MO Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. All the same, he refuses to change his nickname. Questions for Jim Jim occasionally shows up over on our forum JimButcherOnline.com; you can also find him on twitter. How’d Jim Get Published? Taken straight from Jim’s mouth: The story of Harry going to print isn’t a terribly complicated one. It was horrible. I wrote another. And they were still terrible. I wrote my fourth novel (or fifth, depending on how you look at it), breaking away from standard fantasy to write this paranormy X-files like thing. A real stinker. I wrote the first Dresden book for a writing class. That took about two years. “Well yeah,” says Jennifer.
24 Things That Only Writers Know (From Writers) There are some things that only writers know. Because there is no other way to learn them than by living the life, no way to guess what it is like until you are staring down the face of a deadline or days in a row of blank pages. Most people don’t know what it feels like to have vague ideas and messages deep inside that you feel like you’ll die if you don’t get out. Those are the painful parts of writing that many cannot even conceive of. There are so many things that only writers know. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Writing isn’t easy.
untitled Steph Post: Steph Post's New Author Survival Guide! Today marks the one year anniversary of the release of A Tree Born Crooked. The past year has been a roller coaster of a ride, with fortunately more highs and lows, and the learning curve has been steep. In honor of my first book's first birthday, I'm offering a gift of sorts: Steph Post's New Author Survival Guide! (Also known as a list of things that have kept me off the ledge during this crazy, hectic, exciting, tumultuous and altogether amazing experience). Steph's Survival Guide! -Make friends and allies with fellow debut authors. -Keep your friends close who are NOT authors or writers of any kind. -Don't become overwhelmed by everything happening in the literary world that you will be bombarded by on social media. -Promote and support other authors as much or more than you do yourself and your own work. -Don't be selfish. -Remember that you are not fighting against your fellow authors for sales, attention or what have you. -Keep in mind that unless you are J.D. -Read. -Work hard.
proselint Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories Writing isn’t easy, and writing a good story is even harder.10 I used to wonder how Pixar came out with such great movies, year after year. Then, I found out a normal Pixar film takes six years to develop, and most of that time is spent on the story.9 In this article, you’ll learn ten secrets about how to write a story, and more importantly, how to write a story that’s good. Free Guide: Want to become a writer? Everything I Know About How to Write a Story Since I started The Write Practice a few years ago, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this question, how to write a good story. The following ten steps are a distillation of everything I’ve learned about writing a good story. Wait! 1. Write the first draft of your story in as short a time as possible. Don’t worry too much about plotting or outlining beforehand. All that’s to say, get digging! 2. Stories are about protagonists, and if you don’t have a good protagonist, you won’t have a good story. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Good luck!
Elitist Book Reviews