charm-writes

Latest Posts by charm-writes

Hello, wonderful souls! 🤍🌍

I hope you're doing well. 🌿

Could you help me amplify my family's story and bring awareness to our struggle? 🙏🏻

💬 Please reblog my pinned post or consider donating just $5—your support could truly make a difference in saving lives amidst war and hardship.

Your kindness and voice matter more than you know. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 🤍🌿

🕊️ @mosabsdr | Every share counts. 💫

helP!!

Hey 💌 I’m Saja — a mother trying to hold onto hope through days that feel impossibly heavy.

I know you probably see a lot online, but if you could take just a moment… I’d be so grateful.

💫 A reblog of my pinned post could help our story reach someone who cares.

🌿 And if you’re in a place to give, even a small donation could bring comfort to my daughter and help us feel safe again.

@sajagz, thank you for listening.

Even gentle support creates strength.

From one heart to another — thank you 🤍

pls help

“Vote”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THE FACT THAT I NEVER ACTUALLY DREW THE BEGINNING OF THE AU????

Anyway, here it is XD

One struggle 🫡

“people have endured the worst events in human history and lived to share their experiences,” i say after taking a sharp deep breath through my nose

“people have found small comforts in small ways throughout humanity’s bleakest moments,” I say, resisting the urge the scream

“people have survived the worst atrocities humanity has thrown their way and lived to share what they went through,” I say as my eye twitches

“even though the worst parts of history may end up repeating itself that also leaves the possibility of the best parts of history also repeating itself,” I say, trying to comfort myself

made this in response to not having anything for small joys saturdays

so about three months ago i finally reached a tipping point in being sick of the "omg we're so cooked" "we're living in the hell times" "the world is burning" "we need a class war" narrative and decided i was going to unlearn doomerism. i've truly come to believe doomerism is the most powerful tool of the powers that be (capitalists, the current US govt, etc etc), because it keeps us meddling kids doomscrolling and not spoiling their dastardly plans.

here are some of the things i used/am using to build my emotional resilience and therefore capacity to contribute to change. this is not an ad and i am not being paid (feel free to change this) nor did i pay for any of this because we 🫶 public libraries.

books

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit: we hear a new dogshit headline every five minutes, but we've had some incredible victories. sometimes, a victory can look like nothing because the horrible thing that was supposed to be a thing is no longer a thing. updated foreword/afterword addressed the first round of trump.

Not Too Late by var. authors, ed. Rebecca Solnit & Thelma Young Lutunatabua: while there's a long road ahead, we have already avoided the worst possible outcome of climate change and picked up extraordinary wins along the way. includes voices from the global south and atoll nations most affected by climate change.

From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp: a manual for resistance used in the arab spring and by other freedom fighters in recent decades. includes a list of 198 things you can do that are not doomscrolling. free at the link and on various other sites in a number of languages.

US people might be able to find the first two from public libraries physically or virtually with the libby app, or buy them from an independent bookstore. non-US people, idk but a sample size of one friend from aotearoa NZ found them at the library.

if you have recs for other hope-centric or practical activist books, please send them my way!

blogs

regularly post hopeful news from reputable sources. i don't follow all of these personally, but blogs and sites like these were my guiding light out of the doomer mindset.

Reasons for Hope @reasonsforhope (personal favorite)

Hope for the Planet @hope-for-the-planet

Dandelion News @dandelionsresilience

@crafting-and-tea under #good news

Wachinyeya @wachinyeya

more in the Good News tumblr community, though i haven't checked it out thoroughly

things to do

this list is admittedly shorter as i live with debilitating long covid and also US-centric bc. i live here. i'm actively seeking out more ways to get involved, so please send me suggestions!

distributing free-to-print tarjetas rojas (red cards) about your rights and what to do if approached by an immigration agent

using 5calls.org's scripts and calling tool to contact my representatives

attending community events when possible (idk where you live, you're gonna have to look these up yourself)

i'll try to update this post as i read more/find more resources/do more things!

*grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you* don’t EVER say it’s so over. it’s not over. There’s hope. It’s not over for the flowers that get paved over because they grow through the cracks in the concrete, stronger than ever. It’s not over for the moths on a soot-blackened tree because they will grow black wings and evade predators faster than ever. It’s not over for the tree that gets chopped down because it will survive off nutrients from its root neighbors and keep holding on. It’s not over because it’s hard. There’s hope. There’s hope. There’s hope.

"guys we're so cooked" "it's wraps" "the end is near" shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up. i say that with love because you are probably saying it out of distress and hopelessness, but for your own well-being and for everyone else's, please stop saying this shit.

no we are not "cooked." and by saying that, by the way, you are giving more power to the neo-nazi oligarchy in charge.

they want you to abandon all hope of a better life. they want you to believe "oh well, it's over, we might as well stop trying to fight back and just resign ourselves to despair forever."

every time you get on tiktok and comment "guys we're so cooked haha it's over," you are feeding into the mindset of hopeless compliance. you are, unknowingly, spreading this infectious idea that just because we've lost one battle, we've lost the entire war.

your words matter. i am saying this out of love and concern for our future, but please stop choosing words of defeat.

And since people were doin Soul Jam Light designs I figured I'd do some for Common Beasts.

Duty, Reason, Civility, Productivity and Unity

Idk about everybody else, when I think ANCIENT EMBODYMENT OF AN IDEA my brain does go to Animals and stuff like that. I also attempted to do an alliteration thing (as seen with the Duty Dragon and the Reason Ram) but gave up.

Hello,

I hope you’re all doing well. 🌿

I need your help to share my family's story and raise awareness about our struggle. Every voice counts, and your support means the world. 🙏

💬 Please reblog my pinned post or, if you're able, consider donating just $5—it could be life-changing for those facing unimaginable hardship.

Your kindness and solidarity make a real difference. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 🤍✨

@aboodfmly

Please help!!

Full offense but your writing style is for you and nobody else. Use the words you want to use; play with language, experiment, use said, use adverbs, use “unrealistic” writing patterns, slap words you don’t even know are words on the page. Language is a sandbox and you, as the author, are at liberty to shape it however you wish. Build castles. Build a hovel. Build a mountain on a mountain or make a tiny cottage on a hill. Whatever it is you want to do. Write.

How to show emotions

Part VIII

How to show helplessness

slightly open mouth

downturned mouth

eyes slightly more open

being hesitant in their movements

shrugging shoulders

wringing their hands

crossed arms to protect themself

buckling of the legs, becoming instable

speaking softly and shaky

How to show optimism

openly smiling

relaxed face

bright, attentice eyes

steady and natural eye contact

open and upright posture

energetic and animated movements

speaking in an upbeat and positive tone

walking with a spring in their step

walking confidently

How to show anticipation

bright and open eyes

looking around

sweaty palms

trembling hands

heart racing

fidgeting with their entire body

crossing and uncrossing one's legs

having restless legs, rocking them

drumming with their fingers

bouncing on one's toes

shifting from one foot to the other

pacing around

fussing with clothes

How to show amusement

eyes twinkling with mirth

chuckling

bursting out in laughter

eye contact to share their amusement

being open and relaxed

a genuine smile

raised eyebrows

crinkling around the eyes

tilting of the head

slapping their thigh

playfully nudging other characters

How to show respectfulness

standing tall with good posture

maintain steady, appropriate eye contact

avoiding direct staring to not make them feel uncomfortable

speaking in a calm and measured tone

showing attentiveness by listening actively

using polite language and manners, not interrupting or talking over anyone

no crossing of arms and relaxed hands

More: How to write emotions Masterpost

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

this is so cute waaa qwq

I'm so sorry if i've asked this already (I genuinely can't remember)

But could we get some Mystic Flour and Hollyberry bonding? Since MF hung around Holly's gardens more often

Here’s your break from the angst ;)

I could call what I wrote "commentary on the historical tension between male and female socialists" but sometimes u just gotta slap an "ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS!!" tag on ur book to get people interested 😩

Wouldn’t my writing be worse off if I forced in elements like diversity?

If you are asking this question, you have yet to challenge the “default” of your culture’s media. Consider that the majority of modern Western media fill their casts with white men, and when there are women or POC, they stick out conspicuously. Many people view adding diversity as tweaking some white man characters by toggling race or gender. But this assumes that “white man” is some default, standard character template.

If you feel pressured to include diversity in your writing, distance yourself from this pressure and ask yourself why you feel it. If you feel attacked when seeing campaigns for more diversity or criticism of all-white, uninclusive media, sit with the discomfort and ask yourself why those who are different from you say they need diverse media.

These are people whose voices and faces are rarely visible in entertainment. Despite this, they enjoy an adventure as much as anyone, and have become accustomed to projecting onto white characters. Yet, when the reverse is asked of white audiences to acknowledge protagonists of color, it becomes a difficult ask. These character choices are immediately questioned, discredited, fought against, and accused of being “woke” or “unrelatable.”

This resistance reflects a larger issue: the imbalance between audiences’ empathy towards the majority/“default” and empathy towards those perceived as Other.

By mostly reading about white people, they become easier to relate to. By the same token, if we are not reading media and histories from the perspective of POC, we end up with more people who literally fail to relate to POC. When we talk about hope-deficits, increased alienation and lower self-worth among marginalized populations, underrepresentation in media is a big factor. Imagine for a moment: never the beautiful princess in the tower, never the badass hero riding dragons; always the two-second sidekick.

People of color are people and want to be seen and treated as such. Not as a burden to devote your time to, but people who have a place in the world, fictional or no. Really, writing a world in your story that is all or mostly white is more unrealistic, more forced—after all, there are far more non-white people on Earth. Becoming comfortable with diversity requires unlearning White as the Default and POC as the Other. It takes setting aside feelings of pressure to emphasize, open your heart and listen.

Further Reading:

“Diversity has gone too far!”

Diversity is for everyone.

Children and the Myth of Colorblind Youth

Those who read about aliens learn to emphasize with aliens. Those who read about wizards empathize with wizards.

---

This Q&A is an excerpt from our General FAQ for Newcomers, which can be found in our new Masterpost of rules and FAQs. If you liked this post, we have more recommended reading there!

-Writing With Color

If the call to read diverse books gets you hot under the collar, I need you to lean into that discomfort a little and ask yourself the question: What would happen if I did?

First and foremost, let’s make sure we are on the same page about the diverse books effort. When someone says “Read more diversely,” what they are asking is for you to take the author into consideration when you are choosing your next read. It’s unfortunate that we live in a world where current prejudice and a long history of prejudice impact the day to day lives of minority groups, but the publishing industry is largely white, heteronormative, able bodied, and cis. We can uplift authors of color, disabled authors, and queer authors by purposefully looking for their books, especially when the publishing industry fails them time and time again.

This does not mean that you can’t read books by white, cis, straight authors. A focus is not an exclusion. All that is being asked is that alongside your normal reads, you intentionally branch out into more diverse writers.

Creating space for more diverse authors is important because people deserve to tell their own stories. Have you ever read something in your area of expertise and the author just got it so incredibly wrong? This happens with identity, too. Not only is it cringe worthy when someone outside the community gets the essence wrong, it can also be incredibly harmful by spreading destructive stereotypes. Allowing community members to tell stories about their community empowers them and helps to establish good representation in mainstream media.

Representation matters because every person deserves to see themselves well represented in a book they love. It’s so easy to feel alone, especially if you are part of a minority community. Books open up a window for us to feel more connected and to understand our identities. It’s no wonder that having positive representation has been shown to increase self-esteem.

Even if the representation isn’t your identity, it’s still incredibly important. Diversity is a teacher. We live in an age of echo chambers. It’s so easy to get sequestered into our own personalized bubble on the internet. Putting yourself in a place to listen to the stories of people different from yourself is vital for connecting with others, for understanding their struggles, and for building solidarity in our communities. It will stretch you in the best of ways.

And finally, if that wasn’t enough, we should read diverse because we deserve to read excellent stories. Diverse books are brilliant. They challenge the industry, inject new life blood into publishing, keep thing fresh and exciting. Diverse books are stunning. They are well written, and fun, and capture the imagination. Diverse books keep the humanity in publishing, because humanity is millions of unique facets joined together into a whole. Why would you limit yourself to just one?

Here are some fiction books by Palestinian authors about Palestinian characters that I've read and enjoyed! Whether it's about living under the occupation or teenage diaspora falling in love, it's important to support Palestinian authors and read their stories, especially as attempts at censorship increase Let me know if you have any recs for me to add to my tbr!

Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚

Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚

Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚

Here's some beautiful covers of upcoming books! 📚

Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚

Happy book birthday to this week‘s new releases! 📚

Here's some beautiful covers of upcoming books! 📚

Happy book birthday to this week‘s new releases! 📚

“A Macigian never reveals their secrets. A Witch even less so.”

Well, you had a good run. For the last 70 or so years that you’ve had your little shop in Esmar’s capital, nothing overly exciting happened. Apart from the occasional political changes and economical shifts, you could mostly carry on business as usual. But when the Fae calling herself your “best and only friend” invites you to pull a heist on your rival’s home you didn’t realize what effect that stunt would have on your immortal life. But damn, you really wanted that statue back.

Play Demo

Witch Blood is an upcoming urban fantasy interactive fiction story where you take on the role of one of the last proper witches of Esmar, hoping to resolve a very time-sensitive mystery that might cost you your own life if you don’t get on with the investigation soon.

Does it have to do with random people’s head exploding?

Is this the reason you seem to have more prophetic dreams than usual?

Why are there so many strangers storming into your shop demanding answers you couldn’t possibly know?

And why does your familiar keep eating your receipts? You need those for your taxes!

Create your very own witch. Appearance, personality, gender and sexuality…  All that Jazz

Choose a furry (or non-furry) companion for your immortal life

Become a master of 5 witchy skills that may or may not help you along the road

Keep your business afloat (you got bills to pay, after all)

Solve a mystery, save a bunch of people, and meet the Gods (???)

Find love, friendship, or rivalry (or maybe all three of them at the same time) with 5 different people who will. Not. Leave. You. Alone.

And for the love of the Gods: please stop spitting coins

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

So far it will probably be a 16+ kind of rating for:

Mentions of violence, blood and gore

Strong language, cursing

Suggestive language

but things might change. I’ll keep you updated in any case.

Keep reading

Level Up Your Settings

                When I was a younger writer I always considered my settings last in scene writing. It went action -> Characters -> Maaaaaybe setting if I felt like it. This can work—a lot of stories get by without having very memorable or strong settings—after all we’re there for the story within them. But once I got older and started moving and leaving places behind, I began to recognize how much a setting or place can hold—in memory, symbolism, feeling.

                These aspects of a place are just as important to imbue in fiction—they can convey an emotional impact, reinforce the tone, provide details on background. More than anything else, I find setting is where you can imbue your story with magic.

                (Specifically, I’m talking more about individual settings rather than worldbuilding. Check out my worldbuilding posts here!)

Most important to start with is consider what this place means to the character. For example, “home” is a concept as varied as the people who use it. It can mean safety, love, belonging, alienation, escape, confinement, freedom, etc. etc.

                What memories reinforce that meaning of home? How does the character’s background relate to and lead up to their concept of home?

                Then, once you know this, what decoration or ‘look’ would convey this?  A character who views home as a temporary place to be abandoned at the drop of a hat would have very few personal items in their home. Maybe hardly any furniture—maybe they live out of a suitcase and keep only a carton of milk and a box of crackers in their kitchen.

                A character who has lived in the same childhood home for their entire life may have just as much of their parents’ things as their own—their surroundings reflecting generations of loved ones.

                These objects hold memory as much as their surroundings do. This is where we can really explore background and the emotional ties to a place. How loved is it? What does loving a place look like for that character? Maybe love looks like keeping it perfectly clean and tidy—maybe it looks like filling it to the brim with pretty things.

                What makes two characters’ homes different? We want to avoid stating the obvious. You don’t really need to mention that your character has a bed, a nightstand, and a lamp in their bedroom—unless you’re making a point of how little or how much they have. You may want to mention which items are new and which are old—especially if it’s a room that they’ve been in since childhood, or throughout several periods of their life.

                Just like levelling up description—what makes a place unique? What message are you trying to convey?

Good luck!

People in badly written fantasy stories will usually talk about the major historical events of their world and how magic has affected the lives of everyone, but ask a person in the real world to describe the effects of WWI and the invention of the combustion engine on modern life and they’d probably couldn’t tell you.

Let's talk mobility aids!

Canes

Canes are for when you need to take a little bit of weight off of one side of your body, need a little help with balance, or need a little extra stability when you walk. It's an easy mobility aid to find and get, and it's pretty easy to figure out how to use. Have the cane sized so the handle sits at wrist level, then hold it on the opposite side to the one that hurts. Match your cane strikes to the steps on the hurt side. It will hurt your arm, elbow, and shoulder sometimes, but having a properly sized cane will help.

Rollators

Rollators are kind of the "next step up" in support. They come with more restrictions, you get limited to ramps and stuff, but they're also the least restrictive wheeled mobility aid because they're light and easy to pick up and toss around. They also have a seat a lot of times and a basket so you don't need to carry stuff. They're for when you need a place to rest, something to lean on when you walk, better balance assistance than a cane, and less weight bearing than a cane. I also found that it helped me with fatigue quite a bit. There's two main kinds, euro style like the first, and regular like the second. There are other fancier ones but I'm covering the basics here.

Rollators are my favorite mobility aid and I've used everything from canes to a fancy high grade power chair. They're just the perfect balance of help and freedom. They provide so much support for how far they go.

Crutches

Arm crutches are pretty neat! They're a lot more ergonomic than a cane. In fact, some people use a single arm crutch as a cane. They distribute the weight a little better, so it's not all on your wrists, and they support you better than a rollator can. The major cons I found are that they take two hands to use so you can't carry much and I had a really hard time trying to learn to walk with them. A lot of people who use forearm crutches have other mobility aids and use the forearm crutches when they want to or need to walk.

Manual Wheelchairs

These are for when walking becomes more difficult than pushing a wheelchair. There's no weight being put on your legs and feet and depending on your needs, you can get really specific with your adaptations if you have a custom wheelchair verses a standard wheelchair. My first custom chair looked like a monster truck because i took in the woods and gravel, my second custom chair after I got sicker has a head rest, a backrest that holds me up, and a little electric box that I can attach that helps me push. The difference between getting a standard and custom wheelchair is dependent on how much money the user has, what kind of needs they have, and what kind of medical access they have. (One is not more "real" than the other.) I highly recommend getting a cushion for under your butt if you have a standard chair without a cushion, I used a standard full time for 6 months and a cushion made a huge difference.

Mobility scooters

Mobility scooters are for people who can't walk long distances, but can still walk with the help of a cane or unassisted. If you can walk around your house, but not really much else, a mobility scooter might be the aid for you! There's a lot of different styles and battery life lengths and handling abilities so try a few different scooters out if you can.

Powerchairs

Powerchairs come in a couple different types or "groups" depending on your needs. Group 1 is the kind of chair you're probably most familiar with. It's basically for someone who needs a powerchair to get around their house, the doctors, office, and grocery store. You can't do any custom seat cushions or anything, but it's for people who don't need it. Think of like... someone who can walk pretty okay still, it just hurts to walk or they're off balance or a little weak feeling. A lot of times more elderly people will use these, if you're more active look into group 2

Group two chairs are little more durable, a little more stable, sometimes you can switch the captains seats out for custom seating... They're what a full time powerchair user would use if they don't need specialty functions like tilt or recline. They also often have 6 wheels rather than 4 like the group 1 chairs have.

Group 3 powerchairs are reserved for specific diagnoses like muscular dystrophy, ALS, and other severe neurological and neuromuscular illnesses. These are also called "rehab" chairs because they're for making sure severely disabled people have quality of life. The tilt function is for pressure relief, though you can also get things like elevation so you can raise and lower your chair, and some of them can recline flat. There are other avenues of moving grade 3 power chairs beyond the joystick as well in case someone can't use their hands or doesn't have them. (Head controls, torso controls, and straw controls called sip and puff are alternatives.) They can go on a little worse terrain than group 1 and two chairs and go a little farther, but if they get stuck they weigh 350 lbs and it's awful.

There's a few other types of mobility aid that I don't know enough about, like ankle foot orthotics and gait trainers, but these are the basic "mobility aid" most people will come across.

If you use another type of mobility aid and want to educate people, add it on!!