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How to Be a Better Deviant Despite so many of the complaints some people have against it, DeviantART is a very good social network geared specifically towards artists and people who appreciate art.  DeviantART is, in fact, one of the very first sites of its kind, predating even such social networking giants as Facebook and Myspace. It is a wonderful place to share your work, to look at the work other artists have created, to offer and receive advice on artwork, and many other functions.  You will find that there are lots of fellow Deviants out there who want the best for you and want to see you excel as an artist and as

Please copy and paste this into a Word document or deviation. Then highlight the information after the colons and type over it. Setting Time/Era: Exact year or approximate time Name of Country: For fun, you could alter the name of an old country to amuse more educated readers. For example, I altered the Assyrian Empire's name for a conquering people to evoke images of brutality and Mesopotamia. Geography: Keep track of all the places you mention and their approximate locations. I find it handy to draw a rough map of the area. Landscape: Trees, soil, water, buildings... Imagine you were flying over the place in an airplane. What would you

Basic Statistics Name: Nickname: Meaning of name: Origin of name: Age: Sex: Blood type: Nationality: Ethnicity: Race: Sexual Orientation: Current status: Political Party: Police/Criminal/Legal record: Socioeconomic level as a child: Socioeconomic level as an adult: Birth date: Birth place: Current residence: Occupation: Title/Rank: Hobbies/Pastimes: Talents/Skills/Powers: Past History Hometown: First Memory: Most important childhood event that still affects him/her: Why/How? Other memories/events that still affects him/her and why/how: Past failures s/he would be embarrassed to have people know about and why: Bigg

Update notice as of January 17, 2013: I have given this guide a MAJOR overhaul. It was originally written over a year and a half ago, and since then my own views and understanding of copyrights has changed. I felt that this guide should reflect those changes, so if you read this guide in the past, please take a moment to look through it again as I have added MANY new topics, information, and sources. Unlike my first draft, I have also changed my viewpoint to neutral throughout this writing. Update notice as of July 17th, 2015: Check out DeviantArt's new article on art theft, fanart, copyrights, and other relevant topics! http://protectart.de

You know that you have a Mary Sue when she upsets the monochromatic color scheme of my Writer's Guides. Mouse over blue text to see a note. Internet communities often lash out at writers who create Mary Sues. Declaring the writing to be below their standards, they proceed to punish the creators. They mock the characters, verbally abuse the writers, and write hyperbolically about how much they wish the characters would die. Bullying writers (who may be very young) is only going to make them afraid to write—and therefore improve—or share their work. Not only that, but it discourages other writers from speaking for fear of public

100 Word Challenge List: 1. Introduction 2. Poison 3. Abandoned 4. Crisis 5. Dream 6. Shooting Star(s) 7. Mist 8. Hopeless 9. Obsession 10. Dreamcatcher 11. Rose(s) 12. Clouds 13. Revenge 14. Insanity 15. Disappear 16. Shadow 17. Darkness 18. Illuminate 19. Dusk 20. Dawn 21. Quest 22. Thrilling 23. Pillar 24. Autumn 25. Teddy Bear 26. Snuff 27. Prism 28. Rescue 29. Broken 30. Wall(s) 31. Beautiful 32. Tonight 33. Empty 34. Festive 35. Melody 36. Purple 37. Panic Switch 38. Sanctuary 39. Spell 40. Rejection 41. Sword 42. Love 43. Yellow 44. Boogeyman 45. Downstream 46. Fire Ball 47. Challenge 48.

1. it's okay to fall in love. i mean, they tell you you're never going to marry your high school sweetheart and i'm not going to tell you it's a lie because it's not. you guys will probably break up and it's gonna hurt like hell but you'll be okay. remember, you are not the only one who has felt loneliness like a knife, the only one to know the pain of lungs collapsing because they were your air, and you will never be the only one who whispered "i love you" two lives too soon. you will not be the last one to have tucked hair behind their ear and leaned in for a kiss or the last one to wake up reaching for a hand that's no longer there. b

Part 1: What is Drawing? This is how I've come to understand the act of drawing. It’s best to first set the semantics (the specific meaning of the words) straight, so there are no crossed purposes. By 'drawing' I mean loosely the act of making visually representative marks on a surface. Anyone can draw. Anyone can attempt to recreate what they see in front of them - or a scene they imagine - by making marks on a piece of paper. If you hear someone say "I can't draw", slap them for me. As long as they have a moving part to which a pencil can be taped, they can draw. However, "attempt" is the operative word here... because that's all a

PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION. 7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist Anybody Can Write a Novel   Chapter 3 “Characters” – Section 3 “The Protagonist” With Links to Supplementary Material So I've talked about a couple types of protagonists, and how to create them: Heroes and Antiheroes. As well as what types of Character to Use or to Avoid. But not every Protagonist will be a hero or antihero. Today, I'm going to discuss what universal attributes make a great protagonist, that will drive your

Okay, before anybody starts to think this is some weird idea, let me explain. For anyone who knows how to write (and I mean, REALLY knows how to write), you understand that a good story has everything written out on paper first.  You know, stuff like Outlines, Plot Triangles, Character Profiles.  This might be of a challenge to some of you and tie you down, but unless you are capable of keeping every piece of information in your mind, this is a good resource to fall back on.  If you do not need this, then fine—you aren’t required to use it.  According to Science Fiction Writers of America, do

Character Reference Sheet-ness Basically this reference sheet covers pretty much everything a person would ever need to know about your character.. and then some. -Basics- Let’s face it. If somebody were to just glance over the reference sheet, at least you can feel some reassurance in knowing that they got the bare minimum Name (Nickname): Age: Please if you’re going to give your character some ungodly, few centuries old, age, make sure to include what age they looks like. Otherwise all shall assume they appear to be a rumpled piece of leather, ran over by some sort of moving vehicle, after being regurgitated by a cat. Obvio

21 Tips for Writing Humor Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0  Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 9 “Humor” (Previous Tutorial)             (Next Tutorial) “The secret to humor is surprise.” -Aristotle There are many theories as to the nature, science, and reason for humor. It's an element of human behavior that seems objective in the skill that is required to execute it successfully, and yet just as subjective for how unpredictably it can hit every individual audience member. Today, I'm going to talk about the various forms that humor takes, and give you some tips for making your humorous story a success. T

Hello, folks! The purpose of this exercise is to delve deep into a character's mind and tease out interesting eccentricities about them, the bits and pieces of unique information that make them special. Each question is designed to help think about the character more and understand them. Whether you're responding to one question or all of them, hopefully your character speaks to you all through it! PERSONALITY PROFILE    1. People don't behave the same way all the time. In fact, they generally have a mask for every social group -- friends, family, business. Sometimes they have a different mask for different groups of friends. How does your

~Valuable Character Bio Creation Advice And Information~ • NONO: The BIGGEST nono for bios is putting something like “unknown” or “N/A” in a bio category of a character. First of all, why did you even include that category in your bio just to pass it up? It’s an eyeroll for a serious writer to see these things in bios. Even if the character or other characters don't know their name or even their age or parents, it should ALWAYS be listed in the bio. These are things that everyone has (unless they are a robot). • CATEGORIES: I have included a blank bio form with all the categories I find to be necess

Basics Name (& pronunciation): Date of Birth (& age): Place of Birth: Gender:   Species/Racial Origin: Social Class/Community Status: Language: Family/Friends/Pets/Etc: Physical Description Height: Weight: Hair: Eyes: Limb Dexterity: Detailed Physical Description: Typical Clothing/Equipment: Personality/Attributes Personality/Attitude: Skills/Talents: Favourites/Likes: Most Hated/Dislikes: Goals/Ambitions: Strengths: Weaknesses: Fears: Hobbies/Interests: Regular Routine: Philosophy of Life: Attitude Toward Death:   Religion/Beliefs: Fetishes/Strange Behaviors: Most Instructive/Painful/Mem

Emotional flaws are an integral part of making your character likeable to your readers. Believe me when I say, the more perfect your character is, the more your readers are going to be turned off by him or her and the more likely they will be to drop the book and never read it or another one by you again. The reason is: they won't be able to identify with the character. No one in this world is perfect. If you make a perfect character, your readers are going to feel inferior to that character and hate him/her. They're not going to like the fact that s/he is always right, always wins, always knows everything, always says the right thing, etc.,

Don't be offended at the title. "Teenagers" is just my way of saying "people who write unprofessional/shallow stories." Not all teenagers write shallow stories, it just sounds catchier.... Anyway. The first thing I want to make clear is: I'm not talking about anything mechanical in this deviation. Grammar/spelling is important (obviously), but that point has been beaten to death by people on the internet already. My purpose, as always, is to talk about the stories themselves, regardless of the way they are communicated. Whether it be through written word or on-the-spot narration, I believe there are certain tricks to telling good stories. No

On making characters lovable, in your story and online Brought to you by Super Editor Disclaimer: This is a troubleshooting guide, and it doesn't necessarily cover every possible solution. It's based on my own experience, and not every idea may fit every character or work. Please use your common sense and personal taste when applying this information. Thanks for reading! It's every writer's nightmare: your characters, after all the things you've put them through and all the months or years they've inhabited your head, have been eagerly displayed to the public and received an unenthusiastic response. Your audience has not been enchanted. The

A father picks up his newspaper the morning after he buried his son, a Marine Corps Corporal. He found the front page dominated by a story about protesters thanking God for killing another soldier. The protester's justification? Their message is supported by scripture: God is punishing America for being tolerant of homosexuals and the death of soldiers is a welcome sign of God’s wrath. How is a parent supposed to feel when their beloved child, who happened to be different, dies fighting to protect a people who's only response is “You’re going to hell!” and “God hates you!” ? The claim in question today is "Hom

We're all job creators… I recently saw a clip of Peter Schiff interviewing an Occupy Wall Street protester.  Schiff asked him how many jobs he creates, and unfortunately, the protester wasn't prepared for this question.  (Although it was being filmed by Drew Carey's libertarian group called Reason TV, so if anybody did raise good points against him, we'd never see it anyway.) Contrary to Schiff's shortsighted view of the economy, common people do create jobs.  We hire orthodontists, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, exterminators, and many other professionals.  Their careers directly depend on enoug

Once I happened upon a callow young lass, Who apparently thought that it was cool to be crass. And she turned her tongue upon the profession of writing; Apparently she felt that it was in need of a smiting. Though her raving and ranting made very little sense, She seemed to be taking a rather harsh stance. Apparently her pain was too great to be understood, Far beyond the comprehension of this man from the hood. So I stood there in swagger, clad in my bling. While she behaved like 'Moon-Moon', in search of a thing. She spouted some nonsense, some far fetched line, About never idolizing the keen writer's mind... ...Aaaaaalrighty then, If t

Depression isn’t true, my dear Depression isn’t real. It’s just a silly tragedy You’ve forced yourself to feel. Anxiety is fake, my friend You wonder why it’s there. But others have it worse than you! Stop forming false despair. Cutting is dramatic, love, It’s ugly, and it’s dumb. Why not just get over it? Is the attention fun? Suicide is stupid, dear, And selfish, if I may. Get over yourself, darling, Can you hear these things I say? Why aren’t you replying, love? Oh, where could you have gone? I never meant to hurt you, love, Did I say something wrong? Why aren’t you replying, dear

Basic Statistics Name: Country: Species: Political Party: Socioeconomic level as a child: Socioeconomic level as an adult: Birth date: Birth place: Current residence: Describe their dwelling/house: Describe their bedroom: Occupation: Title/Rank: Hobbies/Pastimes: Talents/Skills/Powers: Birth order: Family: Past History Hometown: First Memory: Childhood: Most important childhood event that still affects him/her: Why/How?: Other memories/events that still affects him and why/how: Past failures he would be embarrassed to have people know about and why: Favorite parent: Why?: Biggest role model: Why?: Physical Character