This is a big question,
so I hope my response does the ask some justice. I’ll do my best to cover as
much as I can, but if you have more questions, just let me know.
First, I want to make
sure we’re on the same page when we talk about “character arcs,” because I
think that term gets used a lot of different ways in different areas and I
don’t want to confuse anyone.
When I talk about character arcs what I mean, and I think
what you mean too, is the path a
character takes through the narrative—from Point A all the way to Point Z
in their personal story, which
doesn’t necessarily have to line up with your main plot. Generally character
arcs correspond with major changes in a
character (also known as character growth), but that isn’t always the case.
Probably the easiest way
to approach character arcs is to think about them visually. We call them “arcs”
because that’s how they tend to graph out:
(If you write a lot, you
probably recognize this same arc as the “narrative arc” most stories go
through—that’s because the path stories take and the paths characters take
are often identical.)
Now, just before we start. I’m talking about English speaking kids, I have very limited experience with bi-lingual kids or kids not having English as their first language.
Let’s talk about how kids talk.
Quick, general statements. ~Kids are either dead silent or nonstop talking. It flips so quickly. ~SO MANY QUESTIONS. ~Some kids are shy some arent. Depends on the situation/who’s around/what the kids like. ~As stated in Part 1, kids aren’t inherently dumb but they also don’t understand because of lack of context. Their language reflects that.
Also, development is different for some kids. Developing doesn’t reflect how smart they are, it’s just how it goes (like physical growth). In my experience, firstborns will talk more and earlier than siblings later.
Top Tip: Watch some YouTube videos (if you can stand them) aimed at the age of the children. This kind of language on those should be used in your fics. If they’re young (under 5) find some videos teaching them how to talk on YouTube to see where they should be.
Age 0-6Months
They’re not going to be talking. Okay. Even if they’re hella smart, it’s just not going to happen. Noises are much more likely, tears and whines when sad. Grumbling when angry. Just like adults.
But, they will respond to people. If someone’s angry and shouting they’re going to understand that and react accordingly (upset and scared). Loud noises will make it cry or it’ll look for the source of it’s name being called.
From here on out, kids are really literal and see patterns where an adult wouldn’t. An example is “daddy bye” to mean ‘dad’s leaving’. The baby isn’t saying ‘bye’ because it knows this is what we say to people leaving because it means something. There’s no reasoning behind it. But it’s said whenever someone leaves so that means that the word has something to do with leaving. This kind of thing carries on till about 8.
Age 6Months-2Years
Words! Yay!! Baby’s saying it’s first words, very often mommy/daddy or the name of their favorite toy. (Mine was Turtle). They’re not going to be using any advanced words or anything hard to pronounce.
Around 1 and a half is when they start using sentences. Usually, this means combining two/three words to mean something else. “Daddy bye” would mean ‘dad’s leaving’.
Also, they’re starting to understand words. In New Zealand, one of the first words kids learn is ‘Ta’ which basically means ‘give me that’. If you said to a 1-year-old ‘ta’ when they’re holding a toy they’re going to give it. (They might not want to but not the point)
Age 2Years-3Years
Now they’re talking! They’re going to be asking questions and responding to others. They know about 400 words at this point and can string together stories. (If they want to). This is also the stage where shyness becomes a trait in how they talk.
It’s not called the terrible twos for nothing. This age group knows how to ask for things and what they want. While we’re on the subject, tantrums. Kids don’t have tantrums for nothing. They’re upset and they don’t know how to deal with it or express their emotions. Screaming and crying generally gets this across and the best way to deal with them is staying calm and talking to them.
Questions as well. Just, constant questions. “Why? Why? Why? Why?”
Age 3Years-5Years
Basically just talking like an alien now. They can get their point across but sometimes their words are made up. An example of the ‘made up word’ would be run. A kid might say I ‘runned’ instead of ‘ran’ because that makes sense. It’s what we do to other words (-ed) but sometimes we don’t. The English language is full of little trips that kids get caught on.
Their sentences are 5-10 words at 3 and then continue growing as they get older. Especially if they’re in a school environment.
As they get older they’re going to be able to comprehend them, eg, answering where the dog went and who he saw. It’s basic fact, not a lot of emotion. But, they’re going to forget within a few hours. Also, they’re going to be telling stories like their dream or what happened at school.
NO MORE BABY TALK FROM HERE PEOPLE. I BEG YOU.
Age 5Years-7Years
Unless there’s an actual physical problem (tied tongue, stuff like that), there should no longer be a lisp. The child should be able to talk freely and easily.
Stories are more detailed, sometimes more than needed (like colours of clothes or weather. Doesn’t impact the story) and they’re going to remember more stories.
They’re still may get caught up on some tense changes like before but much less. Also, they will now input their own emotions onto stories and answer the why questions when doing reading compression. Here’s where they should be able to read and write at a very basic level.
This stage of life is boarding on adult level speaking. But they’re still going to be using general words and speak more like a layman than a specialist.
Age 7Years-9Years
They’re basically speaking like little adults.
They can control their pitch and volume well, they can change tenses and they’re using specific terms – especially about stuff they learned at school (so, science or English conventions “that’s a metaphor”). Complex sentences are now used with ease. Stories are told well and they’re going to remember what they said a lot better.
Some quick animation smear guides I put together for a friend! not sure if it works as a tutorial without my in person commentary, also more intended as a guide to show examples of basic/common smear types :O
…might make a tutorial on how to use smears another time…
I’ll update this list as I find new indie pattern makers! Feel free to suggest any additions!
Here’s a bit of an explanation of the terms I used in this Master Post list:
Sewing Patterns = Women’s sewing patterns
Sew-Alongs = Blog or Video tutorials that guide you through every step of creating an item from a pattern
Tutorials = Short tips and tricks about sewing in general
Pattern Add-ons = Instructions on simple modifications or additional detail pattern to a full pattern (Example: Pocket add-on pattern for a blouse or how to modify a wide-leg pattern to skinny leg pattern)
Dolls = Human-shaped stuffed toys
Stuffed Animals = Animal-shaped stuffed toys
Plushie = Video game or Anime inspired stuffed toys
Don’t have time to check every store for a particular pattern? Check out these shops:
http://shop.wesewretro.com/ – They sell vintage and vintage-inspired sewing patterns from over 20 indie and mainstream companies!
http://sewingpatterns.com/ – Sells paper and digital patterns from over 60 international indie and mainstream companies!
http://sewing.patternreview.com/ – Sells paper and digital patterns from over 30 mainstream and indie pattern makers. Also sells eBooks, supplies, and DVDs.
I’m not gonna argue that you have some existential obligation not to schedule things on Jewish holidays but I am gonna say that when you do it, it makes Jews a little less welcome in your space
And this is especially an issue in a space that is already for a marginalized group and is trying to be intersectional, eg. an LGBTQ group
And like, I know there are Jewish people who’d still go, but tbh that’s kind of part of the issue — by scheduling things this way, you’re contributing to the stress of having to choose, the pressure to assimilate, and the tension of being a Jew in the diaspora
Non-Jews can reblog this
If you’re like me, then your first reaction to this was “Okay, but there are a lot of holidays and a lot of religions, how do I schedule around all of them?”
So I went and found an Interfaith Calendar of Holy Days for major religions.
Thank you for this addition! I was actually thinking of linking this exact calendar. And very good point about checking in with someone from the religion — many holidays are minor or at least don’t really get in the way of going to events. Like, scheduling something on Chanukah or Tu Bishvat would be totally fine.
Apparently Catch Me If You Can was going to include this con but they had to cancel the scene because when they tried to film it people kept walking up and trying to give Leo their money.
So a professor of mine used to work at a bank back in the day. She says one day a guy in professional attire and a clipboard shows up in a big moving truck. He says he’s from the home office and they’re changing all the chairs. He’s needs them to just load all their old chairs into his truck and later he’d be back with the replacements.
And that’s how they gave away their office furniture to a conman whose master plan was “Wear a tie and carry a clipboard.”
Looking professional is just a pass to do whatever the hell you want.
Put a suit on and you can get almost anywhere.
there’s more to it, look nice and ACT LIKE YOU BELONG. If you don’t look like you belong there, people will stop you.
this smacks of a chef i heard of that was tired to death that every single person ordered their eggs ‘over easy’, so asked the waitress to say ‘were out of over easy, we have plenty of scrambled’ and nobody questioned it
How low must your self image be to plan to rob a bank and all you take is some second hand chairs?
I 100% believe this was a former employee with a grudge.
Kid you not, this is how a sister store of mine got their entire dog treat bar stolen.
A couple of guys said they were with maintenance and they were there to replace the old bar with a new one and the employees were like “Seems legit” and they wheeled them out. The staff even helped them do it.
This is called a “Bavarian Fire Drill” and the trick to pulling it off is to have absolute confidence that it’s going to work. If you seem even the slightest bit nervous or hesitant, everyone will see right through it.
Case in point:
In 1906, a German con man named Wilhelm Voigt dressed up in a German Army captain’s uniform and entered the town of Köpenick claiming to be an “inspector” (inspector of what, he never specified). He managed to wrangle ten German soldiers and a sergeant into assisting him, ordered the local police to halt all telephone calls to Berlin for an hour, arrested the mayor and treasurer for nonexistent charges of crooked bookkeeping, and confiscated the town’s entire treasury complete with a receipt which he signed with his former jail director’s name. He only got caught (two weeks later) because his former cellmate blabbed, and was later pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II who found the whole thing hilarious.
That Kaiser is a definite bro.
This is why slytherins like to be fancy and professional looking
When you’re a trickster, it pays to be … low key.
I was hired to help test a security system once. I was sent in to a semi-large company and had to go through a list of certain objectives. My favorite one was “take something out of the building that is too big to hide on your body.“ I paired it with “get into a secured facility within the building.”
I walked in in my general business getup. Shirt, tie, jacket, nice pants, not quite “suit” because it was all just a little bit shabby and not exactly matching but not clashing. Nice briefcase. Clipboard.
Getting into the secured part was easy. Learned the name of the supervisor, told the security guard that “Cindy said they’d let me in without a problem on my first day. Something about the badges not being made fast enough.” Sure, no problem, go ahead.
Walked in, unhooked a PC tower, walked to the bathroom where I’d hidden a dolly earlier, went into a stall and changed into the outfit I’d had in the briefcase. It was what I’d consider workman’s clothes but a worker in an office, not like a construction worker.
Blue jeans, t-shirt, worker’s vest (low key), hat, good boots but 2nd hand.
Threw the tower on the mover’s dolly with a couple other things, stacked very slightly precariously but not likely to fall, walked over to the stairs leading down, and started going down to the way out, which I knew had a security guard on it.
As soon as I saw him see me I stumbled and yelled out. He came running over and helped stabilize everything. Helped me down the stairs. Held the door open for me and told me to “have a nice day” as I left. Never asked for my badge or even where I was going with the stuff.
Act like you know what you’re doing. Look like you belong. Be confident.
an educational graphic about critical thinking for tumnblr
The all important journalist questions, and then some.
A missing line from Why:
“If you really want to be
a critical reader, it turns out you have to step back one step
further, and ask not just whether the author is telling the truth,
but why he’s writing about this subject at all.“
That is an excellent addition.
One other one for How: “how could this be exploited by someone acting in bad faith?” Closely coupled with a What: “what are the limits on the ill-effects this could produce?”
And a quick check for double standards: “who, or what, is the speaker not applying this principle to?”
(This is also a great guide for interrogating historical documents such as, say, a constitution, a press release, a speech, a letter, a diary, a bill of rights, political policies, &c)
I need to grab this and adapt this for my little filmmaking courses.
Because these questions are equally indispensible when YOU are the author of the script, the book, the story, the speech.
Some eaiser variations of push ups to help you build the strength to do a traditional one!
I was always frustrated how my P.E. teachers wanted all of us to go “all-or-none” and basically hurt ourselves without letting us build up from square-one like in the first gif. Then they’d fuckin yell at us for not doing it right >:|
Knee-pushups is not square-one.
When I got my first personal trainer, she had me doing push ups almost standing upright in the weight lifting bars so that I could do 15 reps and 3 sets of them. It’s more about the technique of the push up, and if you’re pushing too much weight, you can’t exersize the correct muscles within their tolerances. This post is pretty important to know cause of that.
I’m reblogging this here because as someone who spends almost the entire day on bedrest, it is incredibly difficult to find exercises I can do at my strength level.
Please ignore this if it is not for you. I know that exercise is not for everyone or every illness.
Loads of reps of something gentle can work your muscles pretty hardcore if you do enough of them.
Part of intro to P90X (DEATH TRAINING) is just standing, making a fist with each hand, holding your arms perpendicular to your body (like a kid ‘flying’ around as an airplane) and then moving your arms in tight circles for a minute, then reversing direction of the circles for a minute, then doing BIG, slow circles for a minute, then repeating the reversed version that. Like, full ‘60 seconds’ ‘minute’
At first its like ‘lol just my arms whatever I can do this all day’ and then it turns into ‘omg my arms are going to fall off this is terrible gravity plz no’
Also, water bottles can serve as light dumbells for gentle repetitive lifting (bro do you even lift) if you don’t want to dump cash into exercising. Having a bit of air in the bottle will help your forearm no matter what you do, as you try to keep it steady.
Laying on your back and lifting one leg up – just keeping it hovering over the ground with your toe pointed can work your abs. Hovering both legs at the same time is harder. Hovering both legs while making little ‘swimming kicks’ is stupid and i hate ithard.
Hell, even just tensing your abs and keeping them tensed for periods during the day will work them – no need to flail around a ton, or set aside a bunch of time for it.
At my school, the gym teachers called knee-pushups “girl pushups”. Like that was the “official” name. I didn’t even realize there was a different term for them until I saw this post just now.
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