Jujutsu Kaisen Audiodrama

Descriptions: Because “The Sunset was Nice” is Clearly Pulitzer-Worthy

Hey, my cute little Muses!

Let's talk about something that's as essential to writing as coffee is to my life: description. Yep, those juicy, detailed snippets that paint a picture in your reader’s mind. Buckle up, because we're diving deep into the wonderful world of words!

The Beauty of Description

First things first, let's get this out of the way: dialogue is awesome. It’s the sassy sibling of description that gets all the attention at family gatherings. But description? Description is the unsung hero, the one who quietly makes everything beautiful and meaningful.

Example Time!

Imagine a scene where two characters meet after years apart. You could write:

Dialogue Version:

“Hey, long time no see.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

Description Version:

The air hung heavy with unspoken words as Jane stepped into the dimly lit café. Her heart raced, a drumbeat echoing the years of separation. Across the room, a familiar figure turned, his eyes widening in surprise. The years had etched lines into his face, but his smile – that same old smile – was unmistakable.

See the difference? One is a quick text exchange, the other pulls you into the moment, making you feel every heartbeat.

My Personal (Hilarious) Struggles with Description

Let’s get real. My early attempts at description were… let’s say, less than stellar. Picture this: me, hunched over my laptop at 2 AM, trying to describe a sunset. I wrote, “The sunset was nice.” Genius, right? Shakespeare would be proud.

But over time, I learned to appreciate the beauty of weaving in details. Descriptions don't just tell you what something looks like; they tell you how it feels, smells, sounds, and tastes. They make your world vivid and real.

Another Example!

Consider a spooky old house:

Dialogue Version:

“Look, it’s an old house.”

Description Version:

The house loomed ahead, its windows like dark, empty eyes. The wind whispered through the broken shutters, carrying with it the faint scent of decay. Each step on the creaking porch felt like an invitation to the unknown, a call to uncover the secrets hidden within its ancient walls.

You feel that shiver? That’s the magic of description.

The Great “Show, Don’t Tell” Myth

Here’s the kicker: “show, don’t tell” doesn’t mean you have to ditch description for action-packed dialogue. Description is a vital part of showing. It’s about making your readers experience the story, not just read it.

Show, Don’t Tell Example!

Tell Version:

John was scared.

Show Version:

John’s hands trembled as he gripped the flashlight. His breath came in short, sharp bursts, and his eyes darted around the dark room, searching for the source of the eerie noise.

In the “show” version, you’re right there with John, feeling his fear. Description brings out the emotions without simply stating them.

Why Description Over Dialogue?

1. Depth and Atmosphere: Dialogue can be snappy and fun, but description sets the scene. It creates the mood and builds the world your characters inhabit.

2. Character Insight: Through description, you can reveal a character’s thoughts and emotions in a way that dialogue alone can’t.

3. Pacing and Tension: Good description can slow down a moment to build suspense or quicken the pace to heighten excitement.

Remember, balance is key. Too much description can bog down your story, while too little can leave readers feeling disconnected. It's all about finding that sweet spot.

Final Thoughts

So, next time you’re writing, give a little extra love to your descriptions. Think of them as the cozy blanket that wraps around your story, keeping it warm and inviting. And if you ever find yourself writing “the sunset was nice,” just know you’re not alone – we’ve all been there.

Keep writing, keep describing, and remember: every detail counts!

Until next time,

Museadvicecorner (a.k.a. the person who has way too many notebooks)

P.S. If you need me, I'll be here, trying to describe the indescribable and failing gloriously.

Your feedback on my blog would mean the world to me! If my posts make you smile, why not fuel my caffeine addiction? Any support is super appreciated, even a comment too. Got any topics you want me to dive into? Just holler. Need some custom writing prompts? Hit me up anytime! :⁠-⁠) Also I'm thinking of starting a writing community do tell me what you think about it (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

The thing about Mu Qing is that a lot of the time we see him, he doesn't have much but he offers all he has and beyond.

All he had were the few cherries he picked at the cost of being beaten and humiliated and called a thief (as the only poor disciple among many rich kids who could have bought those cherries any time they wanted) to give to his mother and yet when the poor children surrounded him he gave those cherries to them.

He had a cursed shackle and yet he was the only one who offered to accompany Xie Lian, Hua Cheng & and Mei Nianqing to Mt. Tonglu. (even though Jun Wu had told him that his friends would assume that he was a traitor and leave him to die and MNQ & Hua Cheng obviously hated him and he thought that XL & FX hated him, too.) He not only had a cursed shackle but burnt hands and feet and injured legs and yet he threw himself in the lava to fight and buy time for XL. He could barely walk but attacked Jun Wu head-on with his Zhanmaodo. The shackle tightened around his hand and it was draining his blood and his spiritual powers were sealed and his injuries and burns weren't healing and he was dangling from a freaking cliff and his hair had nearly touched the lava and yet! Right when MNQ wanted to help him up he asked him to send him further down so he could retrieve XL's sword for him!!

When XL had just saved Mu Qing and Bai Wuxiang dragged him down Ruoye, which earlier was explained wouldn't do pointless things (and when asked by XL to grab onto something firm and reliable grabbed onto FX & MQ after HC) made a lunge for Mu Qing, because it knew that Mu Qing would grab it and maybe could do something to save Xie Lian. And Mu Qing, having just been saved, balancing on a sword on burnt legs in the middle of running lava grabbed onto Ruoye with burnt hands and didn't let go even when he was overpowered and dragged along with Xie Lian.

And for all of these, he never expects anything in return! No gratitude, no credit, no friendship, and no affection. He just does these things because that's the kind of person he is.

He's the kind of person who refuses to recruit child soldiers, he's the kind of person who sees a random lady going through forced abortion and tries to save her and the baby, he's the kind of person who even when he's chased out of the house by a broom by his friends, leaves the rice he brought with them, he's the kind of person who even if he assumes XL threw the clock on him & pretended not to know him on purpose disguises himself and goes to XL's help, he's the kind of person who tries to save FX even when he has a cursed shackle, he's the kind of person who not only doesn't abandon his friends under Jun Wu's threats but goes after them knowing that at every step Jun Wu will try to frame him and as far as he knows, his friends don't trust him or like him and he doesn't even think they're friends. he's the kind of person who couldn't bring himself to steal one golden leaf from the prince who had hundreds of them in the depths of his poverty to help his mother yet doesn't blame XL for trying to steal that one time because he understands, he's the kind of person who claims that "truly, there's no point in being a good person" but still helps every time everywhere he can. He's the one who when he can't do anything, when he's lost his attacking powers after going for Jun Wu all he can think about is XL who is grabbed by Jun Wu and calls out for XL to run even as he throws up blood. He's the god who when he ascends what we hear of his followers are: "General Xuan Zhen is generous and kind!"

Just...Mu Qing and his unfailing kindness!

The only person I know who can play with me on equal footing is Pei Wenxuan. Our matches are thrilling. Others aren't as skillful as him, and Su Rongqing always let me win on purpose. But Pei Wenxuan, that rascal, is bold and fierce.

THE PRINCESS ROYAL (2024) | Ep 2

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.

“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.

“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.

“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”

“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”

“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

I have a question how can I pick Chinese names for my original characters there not real people and I see people in Chinese vocals use them I was wondering if there are any tips on choosing Chinese names

Hello! Chinese naming IRL is super complicated and takes into account a huge number of factors. This is why there are professional naming services, to help you calculate the most favorable name. A great twitter thread summarizing it for the casual audience is here:

https://twitter.com/yurouchng/status/1211935445619073024?s=20

If it’s only OCs, Jia Pu and Ba Zi are way too much to consider (and you likely won’t have them anyway), so I’d focus on meaning and how the name sounds, if possible.

I also have an additional suggestion regarding surnames: the top 100 most common surnames covers almost 85% of China’s population, and I’d guess the top 400 list should cover at least 99%. Hence there isn’t much room to be creative with them, unlike in English. I recommend just checking out the top 400 list on Wikipedia and picking your favorite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames

do you have any tips on how to write for a quiet character living a comfortable life abruptly being forced to adapt to a rowdy and somewhat violent environment?

Writing Ideas: Quiet Characters

common literary & character tropes

Beware the Quiet Ones: When the character who is hardly ever upset about something, suddenly raises their voice, the world turns upside down and seems to come to an end. There is an unleashed raging or cold speech of epic proportions that not even the most demented character in the story would want to sit through. This rage is almost always expressed verbally, though violence can also be included. Another version could be when the heroes' team is in low spirits, and The Quiet One, fed up with all the sulking, throws the table (or something else) to the side and gives a Rousing Speech to their comrades.

Elective Mute: It turns out that a character assumed to be unable to talk actually can speak, they just choose to be silent most of the time.

Emotionless Girl: An enigmatic female character who appears to be entirely emotionless. Whether she actually is emotionless depends on the story and often on her level of characterization.

Heroic Mime: A hero who never speaks.

Silent Scapegoat: Somebody who willingly takes the blame for everyone else's wrongdoings.

Suddenly Speaking: A character who was initially silent eventually reveals that they can speak after all.

The Quiet One: A character who does speak, but not as much as the other characters.

The Stoic: Quiet demeanor tends towards the brusque or outright rudeness, though there are a few polite Stoics. Some stoics may try to give the impression of a lot going on inside, cultivate an air of mystery and confuse other characters with cryptic one-liners. The Stoic sometimes displays emotion when under extreme stress or in other highly emotional situations, but their usual repertoire consists of mild boredom, detached interest, Dull Surprise or dignified disdain. The Stoics in ancient Greece were philosophers who believed that self-control is the highest virtue, and detachment from strong emotions and passion would give them greater insight in their quest for truth. They also thought that emotional reactions to the inevitable were silly; given that We All Die Someday, what is grieving over death but a judgment that the inevitable was somehow wrong? Stoics would later be criticized for fatalism and apathy.

The Voiceless: A character isn't shown speaking, but might still be capable of speech.

Tranquil Fury: This character can range from happy or stoic, but their anger is more quiet (but still dangerous). What defines this trope is the tendency to become deadly serious when it gets deadly serious.

Examples

In the story "The Six Swans", collected by the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen among others, a Fallen Princess must make six shirts out of nettles and can't make a sound for seven years or the spell that transformed her six brothers into swans will never be broken. She manages to keep all of these conditions and gets to break the spell. This is an example of the Elective Mute trope.

Peter in Jumanji, who talks to no one but his older sister Judy ever since their parents' death by car accident. Once Alan gets out of the game and finds his parents are also dead, Peter starts talking to him as well.

Charles Wallace was an Elective Mute trope a child in A Wrinkle in Time. By the time of the later books, he has grown out of it.

Irish Mythology: The battle trance Nuada enters before the first battle of Maige Tuired is sometimes described as a battle fury. However, unlike The Riastrad, the famous "Warp Spasm" of the hero Cu Chulainn, Nuada does not become a berserker, but instead becomes exceptionally calm. This is an example of the Tranquil Fury trope.

Older Than Steam. Shakespeare's Henry V has the eponymous character's Tranquil Fury reaction to the tennis balls.

Dead Poets Society: The shy and insecure Todd Anderson spends most of the film struggling to get out two full sentences and is overlooked by the school and his parents. After his best friend kills himself, the school tries to bully him (and the other boys) into pinning the blame on their favorite teacher — and he leads half the class in an outright rebellion against the headmaster.

Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather is famously very soft-spoken, even hoarse, but an extremely menacing screen presence.

In the original novel The Godfather, both Vito and Michael Corleone were noted as young men for being soft-spoken, understated, and reasonable, especially in contrast to many of their Sicilian immigrant and first-generation compatriots. They go on to become in turn the most feared "Family" heads of their generations, while still rarely raising their voices above a normal speaking tone.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

This is already quite a specific character, and it seems you have a rough idea of your storyline. I don't want to intrude too much on your story, so I compiled tropes and examples in literature as well as other media that are somewhat related to what you described, and you could perhaps incorporate these (& edit as needed/desired) to further flesh out your specific character and plot. Consider which direction you want your story to go; what reactions you want your own character to show once they're thrust into that new environment (Will they continue to be quiet? Will they go the other end of the spectrum? Perhaps somewhere in between? Will they succeed in "adapting" in this new environment?). Do go through the sources for more information and examples. Plus these previous posts that may be useful as well:

On Shyness ⚜ On Mutism ⚜ On Introverts

Word Alternatives: Quiet ⚜ Five-Factor Model of Personality

Note - We’ve updated this post with more tools and clarifications!

Every day, there seem to be more reasons to break up with Google.

So we’ve rounded up a bunch of privacy-centric alternatives for all your deGoogling needs.

Check out the full list over on the blog!

- The Ellipsus Team xo

230812 | Li Lianhua & Huli Jing | Cheng Yi Studio Weibo

Fortunately, you came back to save me. Otherwise, I would have been skinned alive by Li Zilong.                                                                       Thank you.

Some Gemology Vocabulary

for your next poem/story (pt. 2)

Gemology—the scientific study of gemstones

Clarity - The grading of a gemstone is based on the presence or absence of inclusions. The fewer inclusions, the better a gemstone’s clarity grade.

Crown - Located above the girdle or at the top of a cut stone, the crown faces up and is in plain view when the gem is arranged in a setting.

Culet - The bottom quadrant or point on a stone with a pavilion that ends in a single point; a bottom facet cut parallel to the girdle on a stone with an otherwise pointed bottom, initially intended to prevent chipping.

Diaphaneity - The general term to describe the transmittance of light through an object. The 3 typical classifications are transparency, translucency, and opacity.

Diffusion treatment - A treatment used to alter the color of a gemstone (mostly sapphires).

Dispersion - The separation of white light into the component colors of the visible spectrum.

Facet - A flat surface on a stone or other media.

Girdle - The line created where the crown and pavilion facets meet, or the series of facets that separate the crown and pavilion facets.

Pavilion - The part of the stone below the girdle, otherwise the bottom portion of the stone.

Sectile - Capable of being cut as into slices or shavings.

Table - A facet on the crown, usually parallel to the girdle. In cases when the girdle isn't a straight line, the table is typically at 90° to the stone's center axis.

Tavernier rule - A method of gemvalue calculation. Price increases by the square of weight of stones. Now obsolete.

Veinstone - Any mineral other than metal which occurs in a vein (i.e., a crack, crevice, or fissure, filled, or practically filled, with mineral matter).

Wisps - Whitish wisp-like fractures resembling thin wind-blown clouds. Occur in some synthetic emerald but never in the genuine.

Youstone - An old English term for jade.

Sources: 1 2 3

More: On Gemology ⚜ Word Lists